Customer Reviews

Fortress In The Eye Of Time

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have read all of Cherryh's books, but apart from her sci-fi (Chanur books) and The Paladin, her stories about Tristan are by far the best. The Fortress in the Eye of Time is a book that you will enjoy reading the tenth time as much as you did the very first.

Excellent story telling.

Mark E. Cooper
Author of The Warrior Within (ISBN: 0954512200)

I'm sorry, I usually agree with the critics, but they were just dead wrong about this book! The only thing "wrong" with it was that Tristen's scenes could get a little bit tedious, but other than that I found I was unable to put it down for a moment and read the whole thing in one day :o)

Many fantasy books today seem to follow the same story. This book from the beginning grabbed my attention and wouldn't let go. The detail is sometimes bogging-down, but waiting to see each Unfolding that Tristen experiences, and seeing how they all come together in the end-- that is this book, this experience. This book may not be a roller coaster, but instead it is a journey down the Road. If you haven't yet, start your journey today. I look forward to reading the rest of the series.

Once again, Cherryh has set the stage for an interesting series, this time one of her rare fantasies. Our awareness of the world comes through the eyes of Tristen, a Shaping by an dying wizard who knows he's about to lose his battle against the Shadows, the evils of this world. But Tristen is not quite what Mauryl conjured, and is severed too soon from his creator, when he is less than a season "old." Tristen flees the evil that defeated Mauryl, into the arms (as it were) of the heir to the kingdom, fighting his own battles against recalcitrant and treacherous people in a troublesome province on the western edge of the kingdom. Prince Cefwyn at first keeps Tristen with him because of the advice of a priest-wizard, but at time goes by, discovers a trustworthy friend in Tristen, a rare opportunity for a prince.

Tristen is an odd duck, an almost-child in an adult body. He "knows" things, but doesn't know how or why, and fled Mauryl's residence with only the Book he cannot read but is compelled to keep trying. As events unfold, his Shaping urges him to do things that scare Cefwyn and all around him, but always seem to be the right thing to do. As Tristen assimilates more of the world around him, and the magical abilities inate to him, we too see more of the world and its enemies.

It's a surprisingly slow-feeling book, considering all that takes place: Cefwyn becomes King, ancient enemies attack, alliances are forged, including the engagement of Cefwyn to the Regent of the lands to the West, and Tristen finally reads his Book. All the threads weave into a battle in the last pages, where the King's forces triumph over the Western traitors after Tristen steps into the Shadows and defeats the enemy there. But not for all time.

There's lots of room for developments: Cefwyn and Ninevrise still need to get married and her lands liberated from rebels; but she and Tristen share a magical ability that Cefwyn does not, and is jealous of. Tristen, apparently freed from the Shaping goals of Mauryl, still needs to find his own destiny. The embodiment of the magical predecessors to the current rulers, he is by his mere existence a possible challenge to Cefwyn, whom he loves like a brother.

While not as compelling as the Foreigner series (perhaps an unfair comparison to Cherryh's probable masterpiece), I certainly didn't wait to pick up book two to see what happens next. Highly recommended.

I read a few of the other reviews before deciding to write my own. I am currently re-reading the series for the second time and find that I am blown away again by the quality of writing, the attention to details, the character development, the dialogue: Cherryh's craft is writing.

Sure, I love her sci-fi, it's great fun, Downbelow Station, Cyteen, the Faded Sun trilogy, Paladin, and the Morgaine series being my favorites: but being a history buff and a high-fantasy addict, I have to say I've never read better. A lot of people criticized the book's first 200 pages for being slow paced, i.e. the development of Tristen and Mauryl: someone mocked him for running around calling for owl and the pigeons and I can't believe it! Cherryh painstakingly devloped a character rivalled only by Shelly's Frankenstein in otherworldly innocence and boundless, exciting potential.

From the moment I began to read of this old wizard, Mauryl's shaping and his apparent disappointment in the seemingly failed "shaping", I was interested. I wondered why Mauryl was disappointed, what he had created Tristen for, why they were so isolated, what dark spirits/shadows they warded against that eventually defeated Mauryl and set Tristen no more informed than the reader into a new and strange world. That Cherryh could craft such a story in itself: an old powerful recluse wizard whose magic is based in star charts and mason's boundaries and weather and scrolls and words, a creature called presumably to take over the sorcerous fight against the shadowlord, and the apparent resultant failure an innocent, naive, non-magical babe in a young man's body is enough. All hope is gone. Tristen can't read Mauryl's magic book, can't be what Mauryl wants and all-too-soon is alone to figure things out for himself--whose passtimes have been chopping wood, cooking meals and feeding mice and pigeons.

Then bring Tristen to the castle of a dissolute Prince (called from the dead of night during a romp with noble twin ladies, no less) who is touched by Tristen's innocence (we later wonder with the Prince if it is of his own volition or simply Tristen's nature...)and a whole world of court intrigue, battle, chess-like politics, magic, religious orders and superstition, and endless details from the court ladies stitching circles to the training of local peasants in warfare. It doesn't get any better!

Characters like Idrys, Cefwyn's High Commander/"black crow" who are terse, sarcastic, wily and dangerous, Emuin "master grayfrock" a somewhat questionable wizard turned clergy who avoids Tristen as much as possible, yet is drawn irresistably, Uwen, the simple peasant soldier assigned to Tristen who teaches him of things like seasons and everyday rituals and reminds him when he is just plain freaking everyone out, and Efanor, Cefwyn's religious younger brother who was favored very much by their father and who is apalled by Cefwyn's friendship with the "shaping" Tristen...I could go on, even the stable master and cook are good characters and new ones keep getting introduced as you get to know others.

The layers of this book are amazing, in the magic, politics, historical detail, character development and conflict: Prince Cefwyn loves Tristen, but he could be the prophetic "Sihhe King", a threat to his own kingdom, he isn't a wizard but simply IS magic and seems to be a long-dead warrior with fearsome qualities, mercy not being one of them. There is sarcasm, subtlety, and humor woven into scenes that are of calm, simple everyday things and of murder, warfare, and frantic mobs.

I have read fantasy for twenty years, voraciously, and this book is well written on top of being well crafted and simply superb. I can appreciate that everyone has different tastes, but I certainly believe this is one of the best fantasy books/series ever written.

Before I even start, let me tell you this: I love to read, and I especially love fantasy books. But this was the first book I've read that I not only had to force myself to keep on reading, but also, I'm not sure that I liked it now that I'm done. I made myself read it because it sounded interesting & the sequels looked great. Unfortunately, there's little action and Tristen is a childlike main character who spends about 40 pages near the beginning following a bird around and yelling "Owl? Where are you, Owl?" This is exceedingly boring. I've read some of the sequels, and they're a lot better, but reading this book was like wading through molassess in winter. Worth the effort? I'm not really sure. I can't say I recommend it.

This series has to be one of my favorites, almost beating the Wheel of Time for the best fantasy series. There is great character development in the book as well as the rest of the series and it is very hard to put the book down once you get into it. The ending of the last book, Fortress of Dragons, to me left too much open even though it was supposed to be the conclusion of the series so PLEASE C. J. Cherryh CONTINUE THE SERIES WHEN YOU GET A CHANCE.

I really have nothing wrong with this book, but to me it seems as if most of the focus is on how this prince should conduct a war. I think it's way too much of a politically focused viewpoint. The whole story and mystery behind Tristen is very interesting, and going into his mind is quite fun, but when it switches back to Cefwyn and his problems, I just groan because it doesn't seem important at all. There is not enough action in this story, and when I sparely come across it, it is written vaguely. And another thing that just screams vague is when Tristen enters his special "gray place." It is nearly impossible to visualize anything.

I ask myself: is it worth it to read the sequels?

I will admit right up front that I did not finish this book. I've gone back and forth on whether or not I should even write a review because of that. Even as short a time ago as this morning, I wasn't going to do it. However, after further review and a little bit of encouragement, I've decided to put my feelings out there and let you be the judge on whether or not it's appropriate.

Fortress in the Eye of Time is the story of Tristen, a man (actually he's a creation of a wizard, called a "Shaping") who is displaced from his home and must fend for himself after his guardian and mentor (the wizard) disappears. He journeys along the road he believes the wizard intended him to take, and winds up in the middle of a lot of court intrigue. Once he gets involved in this, the viewpoint switches back and forth between Tristen and Cefwyn, heir to the throne.

I made it half-way through the book before I had to put it down. Tristen is innocent, a man to be shaped by the events surrounding him, a template to be impressed upon. He also apparently is something else, as memories and skills keep returning to his head unbidden. Ultimately, though, he is a bore. I didn't find him interesting in the slightest. The wide-eyed innocent routine can be done well, but here it bored me to tears. He kept going on about the pigeons and the Owl and the wizard...on and on and on. It got really tiresome.

The first 200 pages of the book are just about Tristen, his creation, and his life with Mauryl, the wizard in question. There are hints of a dark history that Mauryl is part of, and trying to protect Tristen from until he can be groomed to handle things. But mostly it's about Tristen and his life "growing up." It became very tedious. It wouldn't have been so bad if Tristen had been interesting. Instead, though, he whines a lot, he makes mistakes and gets yelled at by Mauryl, worries about what's going to happen if Mauryl goes away, worries about why he keeps making mistakes, etc. Then, when something finally happens and Tristen is forced to go on the road, it gets a little better. There are actually other characters for Tristen to interact with. Unfortunately, this doesn't help much. He's still not interesting.

The first scene with Cefwyn has him dallying with two women before he's interrupted with the news of Tristen's arrival. This scene really jars with the rest of the scenes in the book that I have read, because after it's over, he shows almost no trace of being the type of person who would do this. The scene almost makes him look like a buffoon; a spoiled, royal brat who has nothing better to do then have fun with women and who would rather be doing that than preparing to run the kingdom when his father dies. This doesn't fit the character I know from the rest of the scenes that contain him.

Once Tristen meets Cefwyn, the viewpoint switches between the two characters. It takes another 50-75 pages for anything further to really happen. Instead, a lot of history is imparted, a lot of intrigue among the nobles is hinted at or discussed, and Tristen misses his pigeons some more.

As this goes on it gets more and more tedious to get through the writing. I have no trouble with authors who use language well. Cherryh is one of those authors. The text is very dense, but very well-utilized. However, I do mind having to work through the text when I don't feel like I'm being rewarded for it with an interesting story. Unfortunately, in this book, that's how I felt.

I reached page 372 before I gave up. Something was finally starting to happen, but 1) I don't think I should have to read almost half of a book before something interesting happens; and 2) I found that, even with what happens at this point, I was caring less and less. I had no vested interest in either of the two main characters, and this event where I stopped introduces a few new characters who I also didn't have any interest in. I decided I had books to read that I was more looking forward to.

I give the book one star. However, I fully realize that this is a personal taste, even more so than a review usually is. I have tried to read five of Cherryh's books, and I've made it through three of them. Of those three, I only really liked one of them. She's a three-time Hugo award winner, and she has a very big following among SF fans. I just don't think her style fits with what I enjoy reading. I've noticed, reading the SF newsgroup, that she does tend to attract strong opinions either way, with few "well, it's not bad" reactions.

My suggestion is to pick up this one up at the library and test it out (or a bookstore that lets you read a bit of a book before you buy). You may very well think this is a 5-star book. Or, you may be like me and find it completely uninteresting.

Fortress in the Eye of Time is the most endearing and original of all fantasy stories - at a time when we thought we'd had enough of wizards, kings and castles. With only a ghost of Arthurian legend, this tale builds to a final and stunning finish, a flash of brilliance that pulls the entire story into crystal clarity. Tristen will be remembered.