| ||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
There is nothing more tragic than legitimate ambition comprehensively thwarted and Kate Elliott's fantasy sequence has a bleak sadness even in its moments of triumph, simply because her heroes and heroines seem as if they are never going to get the chance to be all they could be. Alan, suddenly adopted heir to the local noble, is obliged to marry an anorexic princess whose hobby of heresy extends to fake stigmata; royal courier Liath and more than slightly deranged royal bastard Sanglant find that their love stands in the way of the King's dynastic plans; the prattish monk Ivar runs away from heresy proceedings and hides among a young prince's boon companions and catamites. And while the nobility juggle marriages and churchmen bicker about doctrine, invaders mass on the borders and the world seems booked for cataclysms political and metaphysical. Elliott has not yet become as popular as she probably deserves--she has a real sense of what even an imaginary mediaeval world should be like, in its pompous scholarship and simple piety, and her characters are interestingly fluid; place Ivar in a cavalry charge and he does quite well. This third volume sustains the pace and grim tone of its predecessors in the Crown of Stars sequence. --RozKaveney
Review
There is nothing more tragic than legitimate ambition comprehensively thwarted and Kate Elliott's fantasy sequence has a bleak sadness even in its moments of triumph, simply because her heroes and heroines seem as if they are never going to get the chance to be all they could be. Alan, suddenly adopted heir to the local noble, is obliged to marry an anorexic princess whose hobby of heresy extends to fake stigmata; royal courier Liath and more than slightly deranged royal bastard Sanglant find that their love stands in the way of the King's dynastic plans; the prattish monk Ivar runs away from heresy proceedings and hides among a young prince's boon companions and catamites. And while the nobility juggle marriages and churchmen bicker about doctrine, invaders mass on the borders and the world seems booked for cataclysms political and metaphysical. Elliott has not yet become as popular as she probably deserves--she has a real sense of what even an imaginary mediaeval world should be like, in its pompous scholarship and simple piety, and her characters are interestingly fluid; place Ivar in a cavalry charge and he does quite well. This third volume sustains the pace and grim tone of its predecessors in the Crown of Stars sequence. (Roz Kaveney, AMAZON.CO.UK )
A gripping and enthralling fantasy epic (The TIMES )
A grand and powerful piece of writing (Katharine Kerr )
A gripping and enthralling fantasy epic (The TIMES )
A grand and powerful piece of writing (Katharine Kerr )
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
An uncertain and uneasy peace has fallen on the kingdom of Wendar, but at the court of King Henry the various factions still jockey relentlessly and ruthlessly for position. It seems that the king's favor has fallen upon Prince Sanglant, his bastard son, and that he is to be the chosen heir. But Sanglant is too troubled by the recent past to seek that crown. He needs time to recover and, most of all, he needs Liath, the woman who saved him from his terrible captivity - even though such a liaison must incur his father's implacable wrath.
Liath, born with a dangerous power beyond her understanding or ability to control, is torn between her longing for Sanglant and the child they are about to have and the call of sorcery, which can open the way into the land of the Aoi, the Lost Ones. She has also learned that her mother, a powerful practitioner of the banned sorcerous arts, is not dead, as she always thought, and is seeking her to school her in the same arts.
And Alain, their friend and ally, although happily restored to the bosom of his family and married to the saintly Tallia, is in mortal danger from the curse of Bloodheart, who is reaching out from the grave.
As the fates of kingdoms shift with the changing fortunes of those caught up in the dangers of both civil war and continuing attacks by the nonhuman Eika and the Quman invaders, time is running out for Liath, Sanglant, King Henry, and the people of Wendar and Varre.
Like the reviews before my, this story mainly focuses on the Plot, and gets the story moving. though at the end of it you have even more questions than you did have at the beginning. You also have more of an understanding of what the 'Crown of Stars' is, and the endind is extremely good and Sad.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I think that there was a good story underlying this series, but I can't say that I enjoyed reading it. Call me a Philistine but I think books should be a pleasure to read - not just a challenge. For a seven book series to be a pleasure and not a challenge, the author needs to make it easy to read. And that's where old Katie falls down.
First, there was the arcane Shakesperian dialogue. At first this was a neat touch. By the end it was looking like a howling blunder. What it did was it made the book a struggle to read. Contrast this with (say) David Gemmell, Geroge Martin or (outside fantasy) Paul Auster. They're authors whose work glides down like honey. I can get through pages and pages of their work without getting tired. without finding my mind drifting onto other things.
Second, I don't have a brain the size of a planet. My paranoia is where the Marvin resemblance ends. With a series as big as this, I expect to have a cast list at the back of every volume (not just volume 6!) and I expect a recap at the start of volumes 2-7. Even if I'm reading the novels in succession, because of the way my mind's drifting, it's comforting just to have the author confirm to you that you took in the whole story and didn't miss something important.
Third, with multiple story lines, it's good to make it more clear to the reader who we're talking about. George Marin had the great idea of having the name of the viewpoint character in big letters at the start of each chapter and it would have been great if Kate could have copied this. That's a WIBNI - "wouldn't it be nice if". Not a big issue. What I found unforgivable was when the first couple of pages of a chapter didn't mention the names of the people involved. He did this, she did that, etc. I found myself having to look ahead to find who we were talking about before I could read any further.
As for individual books,
Volume 1 was quite good - 4 stars
Volume 2 was still OK - 3 stars
Volumes 3 and 4 really dragged - 2 stars
Volume 5 actually had things happening in it - 3 stars
Volume 6 was back to normal - 2 stars
Volume 7 had to have things happening really but was dull - 3 stars
First, there was the arcane Shakesperian dialogue. At first this was a neat touch. By the end it was looking like a howling blunder. What it did was it made the book a struggle to read. Contrast this with (say) David Gemmell, Geroge Martin or (outside fantasy) Paul Auster. They're authors whose work glides down like honey. I can get through pages and pages of their work without getting tired. without finding my mind drifting onto other things.
Second, I don't have a brain the size of a planet. My paranoia is where the Marvin resemblance ends. With a series as big as this, I expect to have a cast list at the back of every volume (not just volume 6!) and I expect a recap at the start of volumes 2-7. Even if I'm reading the novels in succession, because of the way my mind's drifting, it's comforting just to have the author confirm to you that you took in the whole story and didn't miss something important.
Third, with multiple story lines, it's good to make it more clear to the reader who we're talking about. George Marin had the great idea of having the name of the viewpoint character in big letters at the start of each chapter and it would have been great if Kate could have copied this. That's a WIBNI - "wouldn't it be nice if". Not a big issue. What I found unforgivable was when the first couple of pages of a chapter didn't mention the names of the people involved. He did this, she did that, etc. I found myself having to look ahead to find who we were talking about before I could read any further.
As for individual books,
Volume 1 was quite good - 4 stars
Volume 2 was still OK - 3 stars
Volumes 3 and 4 really dragged - 2 stars
Volume 5 actually had things happening in it - 3 stars
Volume 6 was back to normal - 2 stars
Volume 7 had to have things happening really but was dull - 3 stars
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The Burning Stone (1999) is the third volume in the series and picks up the storyline after the events at the Battle of Gent. The quasi-self-contained storylines of the first two novels are abandoned here in favour of a more serialised approach as Elliott kicks in the central story arc of the whole series. The reader gains an understanding of the stakes and the true nature of the threat to Novaria, but Elliott presents us with several different viewpoints of the same events and it's unclear which is the true explanation. As I mentioned earlier, enjoyment of the first two novels is marred by the weakness of the character of Liath, but in this third volume she becomes more interesting as she is confronted by the apparent truth of her upbringing and birth. Elsewhere, political intrigue gathers pace and the Eika gain a new chieftain. The Eika plotline is extremely well-handled in this series and it's a shame it isn't given more airtime, but at a thousand pages in paperback this is already a long novel that doesn't really need to be any longer.
The Burning Stone (***½) is an important step forward in the series, delineating the main threats and clarifying what the central plot arc of the series actually is. However, the lack of a rigorous central narrative and the increasingly sprawling cast of characters and secondary plotlines does undermine some of the benefits of the stronger storytelling in this volume.
The Burning Stone (***½) is an important step forward in the series, delineating the main threats and clarifying what the central plot arc of the series actually is. However, the lack of a rigorous central narrative and the increasingly sprawling cast of characters and secondary plotlines does undermine some of the benefits of the stronger storytelling in this volume.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Another good book in the saga
This is the third installment of the Crown of Stars series but this isn't as good as the previous two. Read more
Published on 3 Dec 2008 by Simon Wells
middle chapter syndrome
This isn't a bad book, but it has less direction than previous installments. It lacks focus, but this is due to it being the mddlw of the saga. Read more
Published on 9 Mar 2006 by genejoke
EXCELLENT!
Kate Elliott is a superb writer!she deserves much more recognition than she currently recieves, her crown of stars series is a work of art. Read more
Published on 13 July 2003 by jo skipp
Excellent Storyline and plots
The Burning Stone really speeds up the Storyline and plots. You now have a much better idea to where the story is going, as well as finding out tons of stuff about each characters... Read more
Published on 28 Mar 2001
Brilliant, complex and great characters.
One of the best series I have ever read. The world is marvellously thought out and the little hints as to future events are intriguing (and can be pretty annoying as well!). Read more
Published on 4 Oct 2000
Four and half stars, really...
This is the third book in the Crown of Stars seris and I think it is very good. Although not the best of the three so far, the characters are good and the story continues with... Read more
Published on 1 Oct 2000
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
