Most helpful customer reviews
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Stunning: heads and shoulders above the first two books, May 3 2002
I'm the guy who wrote reviews more or less trashing the first two books of the series, largely because of the repetitive quality of the narrative. The first book does set up the characters and plot, but still dwelled on campires and cold food and finding shelter all too much. The second book continued that trend, but in some ways was worse: e.g. it spent the first few chapters on a character whom the writer just gives up on soon thereafter, and it was repetitious thematically in addition to narratively. The little bit of action suffered from Cherryh's penchant for being cryptic at the crucial moments of confrontation. "Fires of Azeroth" stands in sharp contrast to both, and it rewards the reader who decides to keep reading. The book flies by with fascinating, unique creatures, deep, complex, and fleshed-out characters of all kinds, towns (instead of just wilderness hacking), confrontations, plausible character development and transformation, a very delicate authorial touch on the subtle romantic tension between the two main characters, and action more gripping than I've read in ages. Cherryh still suffers from a tendency to write a bit cryptically during the action scenes, but these make sense (compared to "Wells" the action of which I thought was pretty close to incomprehensible to the reader) here, and are engaging. That's to be preferred, perhaps, to writers who merely dictate the action, or, like Tolkein, keep deferring it (in my opinion). A huge surprise, this is one of the best fantasy books I have ever read. I'd read the first book at a good pace, really blow through the second book, and then savor this one, the third.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
One Of The Best Fantasy Books I've Ever Read, Sep 27 2001
By A Customer
This is One Of The Best Fantasy Books I've Ever Read.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
The apex of the Morgaine series., Jul 1 1998
By A Customer
If you can only read one of the Morgaine trilogy, let it be this one. As with "Well Of Shiuan", this book presents important moral questions to Nhi Vanye and to the reader. But unlike "Well..." this one is far less dark, and not all the characters Vanye and Morgaine encounter are quite as ruthless and self-serving as most of the characters in the previous novel in the series. The dealings of Morgaine and Vanye with the peace-loving humans and qhal of the forest adds a Tolkien-esque air to this particular installment. All this coupled with the development of Roh's character, and Vanye's developing relationship with him, makes for superb reading.
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