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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
This book is about nothing more than KK indulging her fascination with 10th century Europe by showing off how much historical accuracy she can shoe-horn into the narrative. I get the distinct impression that this book was written to satisfy an American readership who would possibly be fascinated by so much period detail, but, as someone who had to endure endless history lessons about the excruciatingly boring history of Britain, Wales, Scotland and France in the Middle Ages, I have to say that I am not impressed at having it re-hashed back at me disguised as escapism. If I had wanted a treatise on mediaeval politics I would have bought one, but I bought this twaddle instead, and spent 3 hours desperately trying to find something interesting in it. Come on, KK, you can do better than this, where's all the magic, glamour, intrigue, spell-casting and swashbuckling from the earlier novels? There's very little mileage in being so punctilious about minor historical accuracies, because, after all, it's an imaginary landscape, so why didn't you let your imagination run free instead of bogging down in tedium - after all, that's what first attracted me to your books all those years ago? I was hoping for a little magic here, what I got was large helpings of lumpen, uninteresting droning. Could do better, 3/10
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Much as I like the Deryni novels this is, without doubt, the weakest one I have read yet. Indeed, it's the only weak one which makes it even more of a disappointment.
All it does is fill in a bit of back story and say why some characters died. It borders on the mawkish in places and certainly does not show much of the character of Alaric Morgan or his development.
For completists only.
All it does is fill in a bit of back story and say why some characters died. It borders on the mawkish in places and certainly does not show much of the character of Alaric Morgan or his development.
For completists only.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
As a huge fan of the earlier Deryni books, I was extremely underwhelmed by the first book in this trilogy and so I started this with some trepidation.
Luckily this book does flow better than the first one did, but it still lacks a main thrust to the plot and so it still comes over as an exercise in filling in the bits of history laid down in the books set in a later period. The novel again covers a considerable passage of time and tells the story of many different people, but they don't unify into any sort of coherent whole.
Concentrating on the plight of just one of the characters from here and giving them something to achieve would have greatly improved things. Instead we are introduced to someone, they have woe after woe heaped upon them and then just when you think they might fight back, they die, usually in a way that has nothing to do with any foes they may have, or problems they're trying to solve. This may be realistic, as people in these times did die in a multitude of tragic ways, but when main characters keel over and die from consumption in a story, it's curiously flat.
Then, as with the first book, we have to sit around while the news of the death is passed from person to person, letting us see everyone's reactions, which are always the same that it's sad. We get a forlorn funeral. Then the narrative move on to someone else who has heaps of woe dumped on them and just when things get interesting they die in a sad and lonely way...
What stops this getting thoroughly tedious is that the author can still write a good scene and that as she cuts down the characters there are still a few we know must live and that gradually increases the interest. Best of all in the final stages a plot arrives out of nowhere. That plot may be corny with low-grade action and adventure thrust upon the situation, but it reads so much better than everything that comes before it and is a return to the fun style from earlier in the series.
I'll therefore read on when the next book arrives, and I hope it continues in the style of the final section of this book.
Luckily this book does flow better than the first one did, but it still lacks a main thrust to the plot and so it still comes over as an exercise in filling in the bits of history laid down in the books set in a later period. The novel again covers a considerable passage of time and tells the story of many different people, but they don't unify into any sort of coherent whole.
Concentrating on the plight of just one of the characters from here and giving them something to achieve would have greatly improved things. Instead we are introduced to someone, they have woe after woe heaped upon them and then just when you think they might fight back, they die, usually in a way that has nothing to do with any foes they may have, or problems they're trying to solve. This may be realistic, as people in these times did die in a multitude of tragic ways, but when main characters keel over and die from consumption in a story, it's curiously flat.
Then, as with the first book, we have to sit around while the news of the death is passed from person to person, letting us see everyone's reactions, which are always the same that it's sad. We get a forlorn funeral. Then the narrative move on to someone else who has heaps of woe dumped on them and just when things get interesting they die in a sad and lonely way...
What stops this getting thoroughly tedious is that the author can still write a good scene and that as she cuts down the characters there are still a few we know must live and that gradually increases the interest. Best of all in the final stages a plot arrives out of nowhere. That plot may be corny with low-grade action and adventure thrust upon the situation, but it reads so much better than everything that comes before it and is a return to the fun style from earlier in the series.
I'll therefore read on when the next book arrives, and I hope it continues in the style of the final section of this book.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Another good Deryni novel!
A fan of the series for over two decades, it's always with great pleasure that I return to the Deryni universe. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Patrick St-Denis
Childe Morgan - what a waste
Most awful book written - not just is there almost no plot, no live, no character, it also raises more questions than it answers. Read more
Published on 23 Jun 2009 by Anna Maxwell
childe morgan
Have bought all Katherine Kurtz Deryni books from Amazon and there is'nt one I would'nt reccommend .
Published on 6 Jun 2009 by aura 21
Childe Morgan
I've read the earlier Deryni novels - Camber, Morgan, Kelson series. And I remember hearing years ago that Katherine Kurtz was writing the Childe Morgan trilogy. Read more
Published on 6 Feb 2009 by S. Teoh
Disappointing
I love the early Deryni novels, and would recommend them to all fantasy readers as well worth the time to seek out and enjoy. Read more
Published on 20 Feb 2008 by Robert Horton
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