- Paperback: 512 pages
- Publisher: Orbit; New edition edition (6 July 2000)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1857239717
- ISBN-13: 978-1857239713
- Product Dimensions: 17.4 x 11 x 3.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 65,715 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
This fast-moving adventure opens Maggie Furey's second fantasy sequence, "The Shadowleague"; her first was the "Artefacts of Power" tetralogy, published 1994-7. The Heart of Myrial is set in a particularly artificial-seeming fantasyland which proves to be not a world but a technomagical construct, divided into isolated regions by sorcerous barriers of force. Thanks to the machinations of a bad guy who may have good motives, these "curtain walls" are now failing--the first symptoms being clashes between the enclaves' different environments, leading to prolonged descriptions of truly lousy weather. In theory the barriers are guarded by and can be penetrated only by Loremasters of the Shadowleague, a secret inner circle of representatives from this patchwork world's various species: humans, dragons, centaurs, wind-sprites, insectile aliens and more. In practice the Shadowleague is almost impotent.
Against this complex background, various characters struggle across the landscape through terrible weather. A woman Loremaster and her irrepressibly feisty firedrake companion play leading parts in the large cast (many of whom suffer death or worse). After tortuous regroupings and plot twists centred on a particular city that houses a key magical shrine, book 1 concludes with a gory invasion of nasties through the holed curtain wall. It reads well enough, and of course there's more to come. -- David Langford --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
'This fast-moving adventure opens Maggie Furey's second fantasy sequence, "The Shadowleague"; her first was the "Artefacts of Power" tetralogy, published 1994-7. The Heart of Myrial is set in a particularly artificial-seeming fantasyland which proves to be not a world but a technomagical construct, divided into isolated regions by sorcerous barriers of force. Thanks to the machinations of a bad guy who may have good motives, these "curtain walls" are now failing--the first symptoms being clashes between the enclaves' different environments, leading to prolonged descriptions of truly lousy weather. In theory the barriers are guarded by and can be penetrated only by Loremasters of the Shadowleague, a secret inner circle of representatives from this patchwork world's various species: humans, dragons, centaurs, wind-sprites, insectile aliens and more. In practice the Shadowleague is almost impotent. Against this complex background, various characters struggle across the landscape through terrible weather. A woman Loremaster and her irrepressibly feisty firedrake companion play leading parts in the large cast (many of whom suffer death or worse). After tortuous regroupings and plot twists centred on a particular city that houses a key magical shrine, book 1 concludes with a gory invasion of nasties through the holed curtain wall. It reads well enough, and of course there's more to come.' - David Langford, AMAZON.CO.UK Review 'Her twisting plot keeps the pages turning rapidly ... an enjoyable romp full of adventure, magic and courage' - STARBURST
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book is terrible.
While the plot is not the worst I have read, the characters and their interactions make it almost unreadable. They are completely underdeveloped which just leads to annoyance at their fickle nature rather than gaining interest into their plights.
This is purely down to bad writing style, the author clearly unable to create any kind of meaningful rapport between them, instead relying on the completely shoddy and cringe worthy method of directly telling you their relationship statuses with each other very early on, instead of letting them build naturally.
This in turn leads to further annoyance when she does have them talk with each other as it feels very contrived, and makes their decisions and dialogue seem to verge on the ridiculous as you feel absolutely no compassion towards their poor decisions and flawed character traits.
In the two weeks it took me to read I had had to put the book down and stop reading on 6 or 7 occasions because it got so cringe worthily bad, and ended up having to throw it away as I felt embarrassed to even have it in my house, and was not feeling cruel enough to pass it on to a charity shop.
While the plot is not the worst I have read, the characters and their interactions make it almost unreadable. They are completely underdeveloped which just leads to annoyance at their fickle nature rather than gaining interest into their plights.
This is purely down to bad writing style, the author clearly unable to create any kind of meaningful rapport between them, instead relying on the completely shoddy and cringe worthy method of directly telling you their relationship statuses with each other very early on, instead of letting them build naturally.
This in turn leads to further annoyance when she does have them talk with each other as it feels very contrived, and makes their decisions and dialogue seem to verge on the ridiculous as you feel absolutely no compassion towards their poor decisions and flawed character traits.
In the two weeks it took me to read I had had to put the book down and stop reading on 6 or 7 occasions because it got so cringe worthily bad, and ended up having to throw it away as I felt embarrassed to even have it in my house, and was not feeling cruel enough to pass it on to a charity shop.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book was the first book I have read by Maggie Furey.Like it is when you start a book by an author for the first time it took some getting into.The story also took a while to get started but when it did it became a truly gripping book.When reading this book you just get deeper and deeper into the plot then the book runs out of pages ,make sure you have spirit of the stone to start straight away and lose yourself in Maggie furey`s amazing fantasy world.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I was introduced to the books of Maggie Furey with Aurian, which I thought was a very good debut for a new author. Whilst THOM is not in the same league as her first effort, I would still heartily recommend it to other readers. The plot is enjoyable and the characters are well developed, with occasional flashbacks to previous adventures to set the scene. The way that these flashbacks are dealt with are particularly good and explain the current actions and moods of the characters well. There is also a nice amount of humour and banter among the characters. Perhaps parts of the storyline could have been dealt with in greater detail, but all in all a good book and certainly an improvement on the disappointing Dhiammara. Let's hope the next book is just as good.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Absolutely dire.
Honestly, avoid this book at all costs. It lacks any of the imagination or finesse that a true fantasy writer can convey through their novels. Read more
Published 10 months ago by J.Jones
can't wait for the follow-on
I loved The Heart of Myrial' and have just finished it! I feel empty now that I cannot continue the story, however, I am just about to order the next in sequence 'The Spirit of the... Read more
Published on 13 Jun 2006 by P. Hunt
Average
I can see what Maggie Furey was trying to do with this book, and for the most part, it was a success. Read more
Published on 20 Dec 2005 by Mr. L. Parker
Amazing!!!!!!!!!
Why other reviewers have only given this four stars I don't know. This book is wonderfully constructed and has a complex plot with different characters stories intertwining. Read more
Published on 26 Oct 2002 by "lluthientinuviel"
Worth a read
A very good story. The 'good guys' are not always pure, which makes it more realistic. The heroine has some psychological problems which she has to overcome to become the heroine. Read more
Published on 5 Oct 2002 by S. G. Price
Brilliant! Maggie Furey's best book ever!
This book is an amazing start to a promising new series. It has a beginning which really gets the reader engaged, and while the introductions to characters and situations get a... Read more
Published on 30 Aug 2000
Brilliant! Go out and buy anything from Maggie Furey.
I now buy everything that Maggie Furey writes, and this was no exception. As with all her other books, the book pulls you into the story and doesn't let go until the end. Read more
Published on 2 May 2000
A good start to The Shadowleague series.
This book draws upon a large cast of characters' view points to fill out its four hundred plus pages, making me wonder if some of them serve any greater purpose. Read more
Published on 7 Dec 1999
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