Customer Reviews

A Man Rides Through

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The Mirror of Her Dreams captivated me but this sequel takes to long to move the story along. Individual chapters/ pages are beautifullly written. The worlds are expertly created and described but the story is methodical in places.

"A Man Rides Through" needs something, anything to save the reader from the horrid drudgery of its here-and-now. Next to no running themes from "A Mirror of Her Dreams" survived the transition into this volume: the viewpoint shifts out of the castle, the narrative loses its air of eldritch mystery, all villains are made known, all plans are revealed, and Terisa abandons the last remnants of her passivity.

The level of characterisation, the engagingly sophisticated conversations of the previous volume are gone. The relationship between Terisa and Geraden is now clearly marked as love, and their touching conversations slur into monotonous sarcasm and an excess of sex ("She would have killed for a pillow under her hips..."). Similarly, by now the readers already know what King Joyse is doing, what Eremis' plans are, who is in league with whom and what they're planning to do. Lebbick emerges as the most interesting character, but he serves no purpose in the plot save for his novelty.

For the first three hundred pages, Geraden and Terisa are riding around Mordant for no reason but to make the book longer. Donaldson flirts with some elements of horror - his ghouls are definitely chilling - but that is hardly enough to capture the reader long-term. The entire second half of the book is a protracted showdown between two armies. Almost every character from both books makes a return on one of the sides, making the battle seem like a reunion of sorts. The climax itself is considerably shorter, lasting some fifty pages. It seems contrived and depends largely on a string of coincidences.

Worst of all, the book ends without tackling its most interesting aspect - Imagery. Indeed, Donaldson doesn't give the reader a glimpse of more than ten or so mirrors. The characters don't get to visit alternate worlds - save for a short bit in Terisa's apartment. Furthermore, there is no hint of explanation of either Geraden's or Terisa's wild talents, which make most of the plot possible.

This finale of a long fantasy novel is sadly lacking.

Needless to say, if you read "A Mirror of Her Dreams", you need to read "A Man Rides Through" as well, because this will be the conclusion to the fantastic Mordant series. Its as well written as the first one, with the plots mentioned in the first book developping further till the final and well-developed resolution of all mysteries of Mordant!

I read this book about ten years ago when it first came out...and loved it. These are characters you care about...you find yourself invested in their problems. I just re-read them again...and they were as good as I remembered. I actually came to this web-site to see if Mr. Donaldson had written a sequel to this series.

Donaldson is a master - both the Covenant and Gap series show this. The Mordant series is only fair compared to them. It simply does not have the depth or scope to compare with the longer series , and it seems that towards the end Donaldson himself grew tired of the characters. It is a fantastic story, well written with a moving plot. It's simply that after finishing both the Covenant and Gap series, for days, even weeks later I was still blown away, whereas after the Mordant series all I could think was "That was good." Anyway, Donaldson fans won't be disappointed, but don't expect the same caliber of his longer works.

As a two book series this was just about OK. I will not read them again; unlike the Thomas Covenant novels. These books chart the continuation of Mr Donaldson's downward spiral into misogyny which so far has reached is high point with Morn in the Gap novels. I'm of course, sliding right by all the uses of 'celerity' and 'exigency', but his obsession with Terisa's "aching nipples" on just about every page is a little disconcerting.

The theme of 'Using the Reason' is consistent throughout this series. Donaldson practices what he preaches, so he delivers on fiendishly complex and logical plot. However, the series did not MOVE me like the Covenant series did. Further, the most interesting heroic character was Darsint, who despite his brief appearance ends up stealing the show. The same relevation gets explained time and again by different characters, and after a while, you WISH for the appearance of some terrifying translated monster, so that it can SHUT UP the endlessly verbose characters. The curious increase of profanities toward the end of book may indicate that Donaldson himself was anxious to finish the overwrought plot that lacks the chills and thrills.

i read this book so quickly i wished it was a thousand pages. this was an awesome novel and a great sequal to mirror of her dreams. not only is this novel as well paced and packed with well defined characters i was unable to put it down.

I found the two books just as I was leaving the library. I finished the first book in one day! They are filled with suspense and keep you guessing about what is going to happen next. They are both really well written.

This book and its companion, "Mirror of Her Dreams," are among my favorites. I love the characters more than anything; Terisa and Geraden are so realistic that I cried through most of the story. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves romantic fantasies.