Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An excellent beginning to a new Il-Rien story, June 18, 2003
I've been hooked on Martha Wells since I stumbled across The Element of Fire. She's managed to make it to a very elite list of mine - the buy on sight list. Wells has an ability to draw excellent characters without sacrificing any attention to plot or setting. In fact, throughout her books (The two stand-alones and the Il-Rien books), she's managed to explore new and interesting worlds and people them with characters you want to spend time with. This new book, the beginning to a trilogy set in Il-Rien (at least initially) doesn't disapoint. Tremaine is one of her most engaging heroines, especially as that's probably the last way she would think of herself. As is usual for Wells, secondary characters aren't stinted; there aren't any two-dimensional people wandering around in the background while your attention is supposed to be focused on the leads. I keep reccomending Martha Wells to friends, and at this rate, I will be able to keep on doing so.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
This is not for everyone, April 24, 2008
Some qualifications. I am more a fan of heroic/sword & sorcery style fantasy. Robert E. Howard, Fritz Leiber, Michael Moorcock, C. L. Moore, JRR Tolkien, etc. Next, I did not realize until I finshed the book there is a prequel (Death of a Necromancer).
Ile-Rien is a land populated by wizards which is under attack by the Gardier, a mysterious enemy in dirigible like ships who use technology and magic together. Ile-Rien is slowly succumbing to the attacks, until the wizards realize they have a weapon to try against the Gardier. This mission to try the weapon against the Gardier is told from the viewpoint of a woman named Tremaine.
At 454 pages, this story plods along. There are a lot of descriptive passages throughout; while this can be seen as evidence that Wells has tried to create a convincing fantasy world, it gets in the way of telling the story and moving the plot along. I would argue, that Wells trips up in the creation of her fantasy world though when she mentions things like automobiles, coffee, and telephones.
The epsiodic nature of the book is vaguely reminiscent of the old pulps at times, with Tremaine and her friends going from "Burroughs-esque" adventure to adventure. The interspersed, detailed descriptions are what slow the story down though. (Yes, I don't need every single detail described--I have an imagination...)
The book also suffers from the plot being somewhat predictable. The only real surprise comes towards the end when the source of the Gardier's power is revealed--whether Wells develops this in the rest of the series remains to be seen.
From looking at the Amazon reviews, its clear this book will appear to some people. And that's great. If you like some of the writers I mentioned above though, I think you will find this book disappointing.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
First of an exceptionally promising trilogy, June 24, 2003
The first sentence of this book should grab just about anyone. Right off hand, you know this is a suicidal heroine, but you don't know why. You also get the idea that one of the characters might be an unidentified wizard, but you don't know that for sure. And it is very much to the author's credit that both questions are resolved by the end of the book in such a way that's true to the characters involved, rather than carrying them over to the next book. Obviously, THE FALL OF ILE-RIEN trilogy will be concerned with revolution and social change in this land of magic and of wizards. The beginning book deals with the attack and conquest of this land by the Gardier, a mysterious enemy helped by their evil wizards. Tremaine Vallarde who lacks magical skills but possesses a sphere which has within it power to defeat the Gardier finds herself along with a female student wizard, a former guardian with wizardly powers, and a young security agent who's apparantly enamored of her transported to a strange world. The Gardier are using a base on this world as a gateway to Ile-Rien. The wizard hunters referred to in the book's titled belong to a race which knows only of the evil wizards who misuse their magic. This alternate world's distrust of those who work magic along with the initial inability of the two races to speak a common language causes an uneasy alliance, and so the story and adventures go from there. One of the good points of this story is the lack of romantic entanglements in spite of the fact that two of the five younger characters are comely women. The strong characterization of these characters makes it obvious that there'll be no fast blooming infatuations or love here, although I expect that will change in the middle book of the trilogy. And so vivid characterization, deft plotting, underlying logic and unanswered questions make this a most enjoyable read with a quite satisfying ending, and yet a yearning to read more about Ile-rien. Highly recommended fantasy adventure.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
|
