Harp Of Winds: Amazon.ca: Books

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Customer Reviews

14 Reviews

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
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Average Customer Review

4.0 out of 5 stars (14 customer reviews)

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5.0 out of 5 stars Well thought, well wrought., Oct 25 2002

By	Stephanie Noverraz "crooty" (Lausanne, Switzerland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Harp Of Winds (Paperback)

This the second book in The Aterfacts of Power series (following Aurian, and followed by The Sword of Flame and Dhiammara).

After their harrowing ordeal in the blinding desert of glittering gem shards where they recreated the Staff of Earth, one of the lost Artefacts of Power, the Mages Aurian and Anvar find themselves victims of yet another treachery.

Aurian, now several months pregnant and so bereft of her powers, ends up in the stronghold of the Tower of Incondor, prisoner of Harihn, Prince of the Khazalim, whereas Anvar is taken hostage by Blacktalon, High Priest of the Sky Folk, in the high-peaked city of Aerillia. Both are in league with Miathan, who covets Aurian's child, on which he's put a terrible curse.

Shia the great cat might be their only hope.

In this second volume, Maggie Furey takes the opportunity of Aurian and Anvar's confinement not only to develop background characters such as Vannor and his daughter Zanna, Parric, Forral's former horsemaster, or the Nightrunners, but also to introduce the reader with a whole cast of new characters, among which the winsome shapeshifting Xandim Chiamh and Shiannath, therefore letting the story unravel gently, without slowing the pace of action.

And all the while, the mountain is watching...

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2.0 out of 5 stars Readable, but confused, Feb 13 2002

By	Liloo (Paris, France) - See all my reviews

Really, the title of my review says it all. I bought the book (actually, the books, since I bought books three and four as well) while browsing in a secondhand bookshop, and mainly because I liked the jacket illustration (I am referring to the English version, which personally I like better than the American one), so I had no preconception, and added to that had not read book one (and couldn't obtain it in France) so I was not in the best of minds to pick up in the middle of the story. Well. I did like the characters-most of them, at any rate.
But two things really account for the score. First, the story. It's not that it's particularly bad, but there's too much in it, too many subplots that get you confused, don't get you very far-when you think about it very little of import actually happens because the story is spread out between so many characters (add to that an annoying tendency of the author-but then it's almost inevitable when you deal with several strands of plots- to cut off at the most interesting moment. that's fine by me, keeps me reading, but the thought of having to wait for fifty to seventy pages before Mrs Furey gets back to them was almost more than I could bear).
Point two, the stereotypes. It's not enough that the plot is somewhat redolent of a typical quest fantasy, and that the main characters on the good side-particularly Aurian and Anvar-are so much the clich�d heroes that they become bland at times- but the villains are really too much of a caricature to be believable. And some scenes are so naive (like the one between Anvar and the Cailleach) that they make you shake your head.
I'd like to add that despite that, I'm in the middle of book three, and I must admit that so far Mrs Furey seems to have made an effort on the clich� side, at least as far as the villains are concerned, but this, coming after the second book, I am afraid, sounds even less believable than the Dark-Lord-villain.
The subplots problem has remained the same. I think it's a good light read, and she does have talent for creating memorable characters-but the ones you keep in mind are, I think, more the secondary characters than the main ones.

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3.0 out of 5 stars Plot heavy, Jan 18 2002

By	"sunnykissed" (Rolling Hills Estates, CA United States) - See all my reviews

Too many plots and sub plots in this second of the series. Getting hard to keep everything and everyone straight. Would have been better keeping all the subplots in a separate book and just getting on with it. It's too much like reading more than one book at the same time.

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Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Harp of Winds
I loved this book! It reminds me in alot of ways of the Sword Of Truth series by Terry Goodkind. I love all the chac. Read more

Published on Oct 15 2001 by Keli Locker

4.0 out of 5 stars Not as good as Aurian but still gripping.
Maggie Furey has created a world that is so vivid the reader has no trouble being swept along with the characters and feel their emotions right along side them. Read more

Published on Jul 24 2000 by Ann Elizabeth Nelson

1.0 out of 5 stars Average fantasy
I found this book nice enough, but certainly not above average. It follows the usual fantasy clichees and the writer makes a decent job of it, with good and colorful descriptions... Read more

Published on Jun 4 2000 by Diana

4.0 out of 5 stars Skarlet's opinion
I thought it was great by it-self. It shows how the characters feel and how they think. Although it was only part of a really big picture. Read more

Published on May 13 2000 by Skarlet