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3.0 out of 5 stars
From Fire to Embers, Sep 29 2003
I ordered this book when it first came out, then sat it on the shelf for three years while I delved into other books in my to-be-read pile. So when I did finally haul this down and began reading, I found I had great difficulty remembering all that had gone before in the prior three volumes. Elliott does not help very much in this regard, as the opening section of the book begins with a totally new situation in a much earlier time-frame (about 13,000 years earlier), and takes one of the major characters of the first three books and transports him into this era. When she does return to the time and place of King Henry and Wendar, she still does not provide any summary of earlier actions but picks up the action from where she left off in The Burning Stone. So for a quite some time, I found myself very confused and lost. But as I read a little further, I found my memory of her characters, Sanglant, Liath, Hanna, Anne, Hugh, Stronghand, Alain and several others, coming back to me, which says quite a bit about these character's vividness and uniqueness. It is in fact just such strong characterization that is Elliot's strong suit in this saga, which she continues to display with the new character of Adica, vibrant and personable, in this volume, along with continued development of all her former people. What is not so good is the seemingly interminable plot line of the war for succession of the Wendar realm, with King Henry out to solidify his claim to the title of Emperor, Sanglant off fighting the latest invaders of the realm, and Hugh and Anne busily scheming to prevent any possible reconciliation with the Aoi. Liath is off on her own personal journey of self-discovery, with very little interaction with the other plot threads, though there are some revelations about her history near the end that promise some fireworks in later books of this set. It seems to take forever for Elliott to present the origins of the war between the Aoi and humans and how the current situation developed, although these points once presented finally start to give her world a logical, consistent framework. At the same time, some of the mystery and magic of these works is lost with this explanation. The story arc with Adica and Alain is the best thread in this work, fresh, original, and with its details of daily living and technological level well thought out, but once again I felt this story was stretched out too long, with too many incidents that have little relevance to main story. Also missing is the cross-cultural viewpoints on religion and the reasons for living that added so much depth to the earlier works, these items seeming to now be taken for granted and with nothing new added by this volume. At over 900 pages, and with so little real action, this book was in obvious need of some severe pruning. As it is, it is an overlong bridge book in which the fire and excitement of the first three has died down to embers, which hopefully can be re-ignited in the next book. --- Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)
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