6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not a bad series, but not an outstanding one either., April 23, 2003
This is the fourth and final volume of The View from the Mirror tetralogy (after A Shadow on the Glass, The Tower on the Rift and Dark Is the Moon).
It's hythe, mid-winter's day, in Carcharon Tower, and a dark moon is rising. In exchange for Llian's life and freedom, Rulke has convinced Karan to betray her people and help him open the Way between the Worlds.
In the process, a horde of monsters is unleashed from the void, and while Rulke the Great Betrayer is off exploring, with Karan's mind accompanying him in a trance, her defenseless body is suddenly attacked by deadly Lorrsk and Thranx. But taking advantage of the confusion, she barely manages to escape, to find herself in the cold, snowy mountains again, reminding her of her ordeal of the year before.
In this volume, Rulke wants to save his people, the last hundred or so remaining Charon, from extinction, Faelamor wants to lead her people the Faellem back to Tallallame, Mendark wants to become the most famous magister on Santhenar. And all are ready to sacrifice everything to achieve their goal. Karan just wants to go home and rest.
On the one hand, I was a bit disappointed by the sudden appearance of grotesque monsters which, in my opinion, serve no real purpose and weaken the plot. On the other hand, Mendark, Yggur, Rulke, Faelamor and Shand finally start to show the various facets of their personalities, to become multidimentional, but to such an extent that in the end it's all quite complicated and it's hard to make up one's mind as to whom you want to see win the battle. Hopefully, to glue it all together, there's a whole cast of endearing characters such as Pender, Thallia, Lilis and Jevi, Maigraith Karan and Llian. They're the ones that make you read on.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Conclusion, July 4, 2003
The Way Between Worlds provides an outstanding conclusion to this very long but very entertaining series. With the now standard lack of a good or evil side it's up to the reader to pick a hero to cheer on towards the final showdown. All of the questions asked but not answered in the earlier books will be resolved.
Karen is probably the only character with no ambitions or secret motives or plans to rule the world, though she is now widely suspected of being Rulke's pawn. Most of the other characters spend the book fighting for personal or racial gain, and their motives can't really be critised. Other fantasy novels have played up the 'no true good or evil' but this one is the first to pull it off without any exception. The usual story of pulling a super villain out of nowhere and banding the former enemies together to save the day doesn't make an appearance here.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
truly inspiring stuff, December 8, 2003
I love this series. Why? Because it is a truly thoughtful and thought provoking epic. Wonderfully absent are the hollow minor characters and largely irrelevant plot twists that so plague the masses of fantasy tales available. From page 1, through 4 volumes to the paragraph, a masterful story is being told. Unlike so many authors, Irvine uses subplots to enrich and enhance the events and characters of the main story, rather than simply as a diversion from it, poorly tied together. And, refreshingly, these worlds explored are lovingly crafted in immense detail, and the history, evolution and cultures of these worlds are as interesting as the story itself, rather than functioning simply as an arena for the action. To lovers of fantasy, i strongly recommend this series. If you don't yet love the fantasy genre, put these books first on your list.
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