Reviews by Crooty

Destiny is the third and final book in the Rhapsody Trilogy (after Rhapsody and Prophecy).

With her consent, Ashe has just emprisoned Rhapsody's memories of their last night together, and therefore of their wedding, inside a pearl, in order to allow his father Llauron the Invoker to shift from his mortal human form to his other, mightier, dragon form. When she wakes up the following morning, Rhapsody can only believe that she and her lover are now forever apart, and that Ashe, heir apparent to the title of Lord Cymrian, the man who will reunite the nations of the continent, has already chosen another one to be the Lady Cymrian.

It's in this frame of mind that Rhapsody sets out on a quest around the world with her companion Achmed the Firbolg king, seeking the progeny of the Rakshas. They're hoping that the blood of the F'dor, which is running in the veins of the children, will help them identify the demon's host and lead them to him. To Achmed, it would be all the simpler to just get rid of them all, but Rhapsody's compassion for the tainted but innocent souls won't allow it to happen.

In the meantime, Grunthor stays in the Cauldron, the Bolg fortress hidden in the deep caves under the mountains of Ylorc, training the Bolg army and manufacturing deadly weapons in view of the war that is threatening to break out.

Throughout this book, her heart torn apart by utter sadness and loneliness, her beliefs shattered by deceptions and lies, realizing she's hardly more than a pawn in other people's game, Rhapsody still finds the strength to go on, risking her life daily to save a world that wasn't her own. As a whole, the Rhapsody Trilogy is a fascinating and extremely romantic epic fantasy. Achmed's personality and Grunthor's life remain rather mysterious till the end, and maybe I would have liked to learn a little bit more about their motives. Rhapsody's stubbornness sometimes made me want to shake her out of it too, but I literally fell in love with Ashe's complex character right from the start.

This is the second book in the Rhapsody Trilogy (after Rhapsody and before Destiny).

Rhapsody the Singer-Namer, along with her adopted sister Jo and her old friends Achmed the Snake and Grunthor, now respectively king of the Bolg and leader of the Bolg army, have finally settled in Ylorc, in a place they call the Cauldron, a gigantic underground network devised by Gwylliam, the late Cymrian king.

Recently, upon exploring the tunnels of their stronghold, the companions have come across a dragon's claw. To Rhapsody it's all very clear, they should return it to the ancient beast. They are all arguing about who should go when Ashe, the enigmatic, hooded stranger the girls have met in Bethe Corbair, whom Jo has secretly taken to but whom Achmed doesn't like nor trust, declares he knows where the dragon hides. Reluctantly, Achmed agrees to let Rhapsody and Ashe leave together. On the way, they'll start to learn about each other and slowly become friends.

In the meantime, Grunthor and Achmed continue to parley with the rulers of the neighbouring provinces to establish peace treaties and trade agreements, as well as to roam the mountain and its the caves in search of their ancient, hidden enemy: the fiery F'dor.

Prophecy truly is one of the most captivating middle volumes I have ever read. Not only is it packed with action and romance, joy and sorrow, but it is also brimming with mysteries and secrets the heroes have only started to uncover. And as answers are found to some of the story's questions, others remain unsolved, other gates open, leaving hardly any clue as to what will happen in Destiny, the final volume.

This is the first book of the Rhapsody Trilogy (followed by Prophecy and
Destiny).

After a beautiful, enchantingly romantic opening chapter telling the love story of Emily and Gwydion, the focus brutally shifts to a different setting. In the streets of Easton on the Island of Serendair, we meet Rhapsody, a small, blonde, green-eyed and strong-headed Lirin Singer, who earns her daily bread as a prostitute. When she learns that Michael, her most tyrannic client also known as The Wind of Death, is back and is looking for her, she runs away. It won't be long until Michael sets his men after her.

And soon she runs into Achmed and Grunthor, a strange man in a black hood and a giant Bolg soldier, whom she begs to protect her. Together they leave the city, and Rhapsody finds herself caught up in events. For fear of being forever hunted by her former lover and his horde, she reluctantly follows Achmed and Grunthor in a quest she knows nothing about, in a neverending journey through the bottomless roots of Sagia the legendary tree. When they finally emerge a hundred pages later and after what seemed like ages, they discover they're on the other side of the world, and of time.

After such an exciting introduction, I found it a little bit hard to get into Rhapsody's story, probably because I wanted to hear more about Emily and Gwydion, or maybe because I found the journey through the root a tad long, even though it was nice to witness the birth of Grunthor and Rhapsody's friendship. However, my disappointment didn't last long, and after a few more pages I was definitely hooked again, my heart racing each time I felt I would find a clue, that there might be a connection with the overture after all. I just couldn't put it down.

Theo Vilmos is a 30-year-old rock singer from San Francisco. When we meet him, his world is slowly deteriorating around him: he doesn't get along with most of his younger band mates, his girlfriend dumps him after a miscarriage and his mother dies, leaving him only a diary who'd belonged to her uncle Eamonn Dowd.

So Theo acquires a forest lodge and retires there, trying to create a vacuum around him and take time to think about where his life is going. Having nothing better to do, at nights he starts reading his great uncle's diary, which turns out to be only a badly-written first person fairy tale novel.

Or so it seems, until the day Applecore arrives in his kitchen. The half-foot-tall, red-haired fairy explains she has been sent to watch over him and fetch him. But they soon discover that she's been followed by a hideous and deadly creature, and they have no choice but to escape by crossing to Faerie right away.

The rest of the book tells us of Theo's journey in this unknown world, discovering many different creatures and a much different society, sometimes making friends along the way. The fact that he finds himself in the middle of a war between the Flower lords -where he apparently has a role to play, telling from the number of people who are trying to get at him- and and that he's always on the run doesn't help, but he never seems to get used to this world, never understands how it works and seems completely lost throughout the whole novel. And us with him. It was nice but definitely too long, and I think I'm definitely not a fan of crossover fantasy.

This is the story of a young ginger tomcat named Fritti Tailchaser. When Hushpad his fiancée mysteriously disappears, he goes to see the Elders. Many strange things have indeed happened lately and a group of valiant cats are elected to leave and seek help at the Court of Harar. But Fritti's too young, and he's left behind. Restless, he sets out on a quest of his own to rescue his friend.

As he makes his way in the Old Woods, encountering all sorts of animals, helping a fox and sealing a pact with squirrels, he hears more and more rumours of tyrannic cat-shaped, red-clawed beasts devastating the land. Luckily he'll also join up with Pouncequick, a small kitten from home who had lost his way in the forest, and meet the senile Eatbugs and a pack of cats who set out to help him. What he doesn't know yet is that at the end of the road lies the nightmarish mound of Vastnir, source of all evil.

Even though it is a nice story, halfway between a fantasy and a fable, I am sad to admit that Tailchaser's Song failed to hold my attention, and I often found my thoughts wandering while I was reading.

This is the fourth and final volume in Tad Williams's Memory, Sorrow and Thorn series (started with The Dragonbone Chair, The Stone of Farewell and To Green Agel Tower: Siege).

Drawn by the will to finally reunite the three magical swords, the various heroes all slowly converge back to the Hayholt for the final and terrible battle against the Storm King, and his allies the High King Elias and his councellor, the red alchemist and priest Pryrates.

Using the legendary knight Sir Camaris as a rallying emblem, Josua conquers Nabban. Enrolling new troups on the way, his army grows steadily bigger and stronger.

Miriamele, accompanied by Simon, has fled from Josua's camp, convinced she can talk her father, the High King, out of his evil deeds. Even though complicity and trust settles, Miriamele is torn between her attraction to Simon and the shame she feels at having let Aspitis touch her.

Compared to the first three books, this final volume is much faster paced. With many reverses in the seemingly helpless situations, unexpected turns as well as treasons and, finally, romance, it is truly "unputdownable"!

And if, like me, you can't get enough of Osten Ard, do not miss Tad Williams's novella, The Burning Man, that you'll find in Robert Silverberg Legends anthology (pb isbn/asin: 0812566645).

And just remember this: Beware of the false messenger...

To Green Angel Tower: Siege is the third volume in Memory, Sorrow and Thorn (started with The Dragonbone Chair and The Stone of Farewell, and ending with To Green Angel Tower: Storm).

After meeting with Josua's party and exiles from the plains on Sesuad'ra, the Stone of Farewell, Simon is knighted by the prince for having recovered the legendary sword Thorn. But soon they learn that Josua's brother, the High-King Elias, has sent an army led by Duke Fengbald.

They have to prepare for a desperate war. With a makeshift army of exiles, and even with the unexpected help from the trolls, they know they'll be greatlty outnumbered.

To the south, Princess Miriamele, pretending she's daughter of a minor nobleman, has unwillingly given in to Lord Apsitis. He soon tells her he knows her true identity and plans to marry her, for political purposes. She'll have to escape.

In this book, Tad Williams manages to keep us reading avidly without revealing too much of the final plot, digging deeper into each character's personality, making them seem so real. I just can't wait to read the next and last one!

This is the second volume in the Memory, Sorrow and Thorn Tetralogy (starting with The Dragonbone Chair, ending with To Green Angel Tower: Siege and To Green Angel Tower: Storm).

As the great Storm is building up in the North and a terrible winter is spreading all over Osten Ard, Simon and his friends escape from Yiqanuc and start their long and perilous journey down the mountain and across the frozen plains to the Stone of Farewell, where they have to meet Prince Josua's party of exiles and deliver the sword Thorn.

In the meantime Princess Miriamele, accompanied by the enigmatic Brother Cadrach, travels southwards to seek help from her family, Maegwin and her folk hide in the Grianspog caves, where she discovers what seems like an ancient Sithi city, and King Elias and his advisor, the red priest and alchemist Pryrates, conspire with the evil Norns.

A great epic, full of unexpected new turns as the plot unfolds, varied characters you get immediately attached to, and marvelously detailed descriptions, like those of the beautiful legendary cities of the Elf-like Sithi folk. Definitely a great read. Can't wait to read To Green Angel Tower.

Yes, it took me twice as much time to read the first 200 pages as to read the 700 others (certainly because I needed time getting used to his style after reading Pratchett's Discworld), but I'm so glad I didn't put the book down... what a fantastic fantasy!

The Fellowship of the Ring tells the story of the Hobbit Frodo Baggins and of how he discovers that the invisibility ring handed down to him by his uncle Bilbo is in fact the One Ring of Power, the most dangerous of artifacts, forged by the evil lord Sauron to ensnare all the peoples of Middle-Earth and bent them to his will. It has to be destroyed! Following Gandalf the old Wizard's advice, Frodo leaves his quiet Hobbit hole in the Shire and with three of his friends, makes for Rivendell to seek the Elves' counsel. There he volunteers to be the Ring-Bearer, the one who must destroy the Ring by casting into the very fire in which it was forged, in the furnaces of Mount Doom. With eight companions, he sets off on a most perilous quest, over mountains and under them, on rivers and through forests beautiful beyond words, to the heart of Mordor.

The adventure goes on in The Two Towers. The Fellowship has just been broken, and as the Hobbits Merry and Pippin are captured by Orcs to be brought to the traitor wizard Saruman, now the ally of Sauron, Frodo and his friend Sam are slowly making their way through desolate plains and treacherous bogs, to Mordor. Soon they realize that Gollum, a nasty creature who once possessed the Ring, is following them. Captured, and still under the irresistible lure of the Ring, the twisted wretch agrees to become their guide to the forsaken land. Meanwhile Aragorn the Heir of Kings, Legolas the Elf and Gimli the Dwarf are running across the grassy plains of Rohan, the domain of the Rohirrim horse masters, to rescue Merry and Pippin and later help Théoden, King of Rohan, defend his people against Saruman's army in the battle of Helm's Deep.

In The Return of the King, as Frodo and Sam are ineluctably treading closer to the heart of danger, putting the goal of their quest in jeopardy every day a little bit more as Frodo's mind threatens to give in to the power of the Ring, Aragorn and his companions must defend the beautiful white city of Minas Tirith, capital of Gondor, in a hopeless struggle against Sauron's reckless army of berserkers.

How does one go about writing a review of such a masterpiece, now that The Lord of the Rings is not only the second most read book of the twentieth century (after the Bible), but also a blockbuster movie trilogy? How does one do it justice? One just can't. That's it, I admit defeat. I simply lack superlatives to describe the tidal waves of emotions that overwhelm me each time I read this book. So I'll just say this: read it. And re-read it. And again.

The Lord of the Rings is timeless, atemporal. Even though Tolkien himself was notoriously not fond of allegories, I can't help seeing that, in these dark and sad days of our time, it stands as a beacon, a bright message of peace, telling us that even when evil and fear threatens to drown us all, there's still hope... May it be tomorrow's Bible.