Customer Reviews

Weavers of War: Book Five of Winds of the Forelands

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In the Forelands, the Eandi have subjugated the Qirsi, a race of incredible magical powers though they are small in numbers. Their white skins and yellow eyes set them apart from the rest of humanity and though they hold positions in the courts and stations of the various realms they are answerable to the Eandi who are their overlords. Sick of the status quo, a movement has built up over the years in which the Qirsi led by Dusaan foment rebellion, unrest among various realms houses and clans.

Dusaan is a Weaver a powerful mage who not only has every Qirsi power but can use the powers of the various other Qirsi, weaving them into weapons that could be used against the Eandi in the seven realms. Only one man can stop him the Weaver known as Grinsa but first he must find a way to prevent the various Eandi factions from fighting each other and join against the common enemy. Even then he doesn't know, even with the Qirsi who are loyal to the Eandi and willing to back him, if he has strength to defeat Dusaan.

This is the fifth and final book in the Winds of the Forelands saga and it ties up all the loose ends, as enemies are revealed and allies come out in the open in a final confrontation. Grinsa is a complex character who makes difficult choices and stands by them, allying himself with Eandi and those Qirsi loyal to them because that he believes is the only way his race will gain equality. David B. Coe is a powerful storyteller and an excellent worldbuilder.

Harriet Klausner

I found this book hard to put down! The storylines are deceptively simple, and most of the book takes place on the "battle plain", but you just want to keep reading to hear how each subplot will end (even though you know deep-down that good will prevail over evil, you keep reading just to find out HOW it will prevail).

I read the first four books of this story and couldn't wait for this one to come out, and I was not disappointed! In comparison to George R.R. Martin's latest series, this book (and the whole series, for that matter) was so much easier to read and follow, and it really grabbed my attention; whereas I sometimes struggle to follow Martin and I get frustrated and just want Martin's stories to MOVE! That's not a problem with Coe's final installment to this remarkable series!

I can't wait to see what Coe does next!

Having read all of David's work, I feel that the Weavers of War the final book in his Winds of the Forelands series is his best yet.

The description of the characters and their thoughts and trials of the conspiracy and war make you sometimes wonder on whom do you trust and and who is the enemy.And it is that way to the very end.

He wraps up the main story arcs and leaves a bit open so he can come back to the Forelands in the future. Not eveyone has a happy ending to this story. And knowing that the kingdoms have a lot of changes after the war could be interesting in the future, if the author ever decides to return to this land.

I can't wait to see what David B. Coe has in store for us his next novel coming out in December.

This was a pretty good fantasy trilogy. Unfortunately, the author took five books to write it. Needless to say, if the author had tightened it up a bit and not gone for publishing glory, he could have written a far superior work. As with the other books, the plot drags on and on and while there are interesting characters and an interesting story, it sometimes get lost in the "filler" or the unnecessary plot contrivances and subplots needed to push this story into the fifth book. Once again, the character who started this story, Travis, is pretty much ignored throughout the story once again, as the different peoples from different lands all attempt to meet on one battlefield to finally put an end to the story. I won't ruin the ending, you can pretty much guess it for yourself about 50 pages into the story (actually, you can pretty much guess it from 50 pages into the fourth book, but let's not go there) and it's a shame the ending was not more original and pretty much a let down after slogging through four other books. I hope Coe's future works are better, but I'm not sure I am going to read them.

I was a skeptic when I picked up Rules of Ascension (Winds of the Forelands, Book 1), but soon became a fan. Now at long last the series has reached its conclusion with Weavers of War.

In this final volume, all of the political maneuvering of the first four novels has come to full blown war between the Kingdoms of the Forelands and the Empire of Braedon. At the same time Dusaan, the Qirsi Weaver whose behind the scenes machinations started the war finally reveals himself and launches a Qirsi war on both Eandi armies, using their magic to annihilate anyone in their path. On the opposition side, rival Weaver Grinsa al Jarrett brings together a small band of loyal Qirsi to aid the Eandi armies in their fight against Dusaan. The result is an all-out melee that pits magic against magic, steel against steel, and will against will.

As much as I've enjoyed this series, I wasn't completely satisfied with its conclusion. The political intrigue and conspiracies were what drew me to this series, and they're all but eliminated in this final volume. I also had a hard time coming to terms with the numbers used in the various battles. I understand that 200 Qirsi can wreak unimaginable havoc on their enemies, but it seems like the armies of the various Eandi nobles were unrealistically small. Maybe I've read too many David Gemmell (RIP) books (scratch that, there's no such thing as too many Gemmell books), but I tend to think of these wars as involving thousands and thousands of soldiers, not hundreds. I also thought the ending - and I'll try not to give too much away here - was just too optimistic. There's just no way for things to go back to normal after such a fundamental change in the Eandi/Qirsi dynamic, and the fate of the surviving Weaver is just not realistic.

Still, the development and final actions of several key characters was quite well done, and just tragic enough to be realistic. The way Coe carried out the final fates of characters like Tavis and Xaver, Fetnalla and Evanthya, and Aindreas and Javan helped offset some of the deficiencies I mentioned earlier. It's not a perfect conclusion to the series, but it works on several levels, and was moving enough to convince me to check out Coe's new Blood of the Southlands series.

I have two suggestions for you. If you haven't read any of this great series order all five books because the last thing you want to have happen is to be looking for a 24 hour book store when you finish one of the first four books. Second if you have not read any David Coe use the look inside Amazon feature to read a sample chapter. Coe has muliple plots, twists, turns, deceptions, and surprises around every corner. I wish he would of had someone else do his covers because they are not the best but once inside you will be impressed. It is a great feeling to discover a well written series and you would be cheating yourself if you pass on this one.

This was a good ending for the fifth book in this series. It (the series) did get long winded at times and i wish it had not drawn out so long, but this was a good tale.
I loved the rich characters and the descriptions of villians. So many were kind of hard to keep up with, but it was still real great.
Grinsa and Tavis' relationship was amazing through the whole book and it was a sad and bittersweet conclusion.
I look foward to more books by my fellow Tennesseean.

Series finale "Weavers of War" completes the "Winds of the Forelands" tale as Dusaan and his Qirsi army combats Grinsa and the hated Eandi. Clever battle tactics scattered through the continuous action surprises both Weaver opponents along with the reader. There are many shocking events, particularly for the House of Curgh at the end. Pretty much all of the individual plotlines are completed.

The author ignores addressing the travel hardships of a military force such as equipment maintenance and shelter especially when the Qirsi army isn't trained for the lifestyle. Dusaan behaves as the idealistic antagonist, which generates a less unpleasant ending since his arrogance becomes quite unreal by discounting Grinsa.

The list of characters at the beginning separated by the respective House should better reflect the characters and their standing. It appears a new series "Blood of the Southlands" will continue in the same world with several of the same characters.

I recommend this series to any fan of the fantasy genre.

Thank you.

I hate to be the only one posting a negative review. Actually, on second though, maybe I don't. Anyway, "Weavers of War" is a chore to read. The reason for this is not hard to find. The Winds of the Forelands series started out as a four-book series. Somewhere along the way it got transformed into a five-book series. This happens to authors at Tor quite frequently. Extra books are constantly getting squeezed in to increase the companies profits. The results is that any series they publish necessarily contains more material than the author originally wanted to put in. In this particular case that material showed up heavily in the third book but also in this one.

Dusaan, Chancellor of Braedon (the uninspired names are typical) is finally ready to set put his master plan into action. After imprisoning the Emperor and wiping out a band of soldiers with powerful magic, he sets sail for Aneira where the various armies of the Forelands are all converging. All of this happens in the first hundred pages. The problem is that the book has to be 550 pages long, so there's a lot of space to fill. It gets filled with lots of talking, plotting, counter-plotting, speculating, and occasional fighting. Other reviews promise that all of the storylines and subplots will get tied up in this volume. Indeed they do, and that's part of the problem. There are so many characters that it's hard to keep track of which one is working for the king, which one is working for the conspiracy, which one is pretending to work for the king while really working for the conspiracy, which one is pretending to work for the conspiracy while really working for the king, which one is torn between loyalty to the king and to her lesbian lover, etc... etc... Coe doesn't make the various characters, countries, and locations distinctive enough and everything starts to blend together after a while.

A very satisfying conclusion to the end of the series. I loved Coe's characters, and the world they inhabit. Highly recommended.