- Paperback: 640 pages
- Publisher: Orbit (18 Jan 2007)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1841495999
- ISBN-13: 978-1841495996
- Product Dimensions: 23.1 x 15.2 x 4.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 998,402 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Spirit Gate: Book One of Crossroads (Crossroads 1)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
Praise for the Crown of Stars series: 'A gripping and enthralling fantasy epic' THE TIMES 'A grand and powerful piece of writing' Katharine Kerr
Book Description
The launch of a spectacular new fantasy epic - a violent struggle for land and power in a world of fabled cities, terrible dangers and mysterious gods.
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A gripping and mysterious storyline,
This review is from: Spirit Gate (Crossroads) (Paperback)
Kate Elliott has started a new series after finishing the "Crown of Stars" (7 volumes!). She tells the story of a world that is slowly coming apart. The reeves flying on great eagles try to uphold the law, but they are failing. For most of the book it is not at all clear if there is a driving force behind this descent into destruction and war. And it is only towards the end of Vol. 1 that one starts to get inkling what this mysterious cause might be.
Despite the fact that she introduces a number of main characters, she manages to maintain the momentum and the tension. You keep wanting to know what will happen next and keep getting surprised too. I sincerely hope that Ms Elliott will not revert to her rambling style of the final volumes of "Crown of stars" and keep introducing new main characters each with their own story, completely loosing her focus on the central plot. She's got off to an excellant start. But then so was the "The King's Dragon", the first vol. of "Crown of stars".
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
These Eagles Can't Quite Take Wing,
By
This review is from: Spirit Gate: Book One of Crossroads (Hardcover)
Ms. Elliott has established a fair reputation with her Jaran series and the Crown of Stars set. This book looks like it might be the start of another incredibly long series. In and of itself, long stories are not a problem, as they allow the author to properly set the scene, build up all the little details of the world, and explore the characters in depth, and there's a lot of that set-up work done in this novel. Much of this is quite good, as she gives us a look at not one but multiple different societies, each with their own culture, habits, gods, and idiosyncrasies, along with a fairly nice reworking of the old trope of giant flying creatures capable of hauling people around with her eagles that are at least a little less unbelievable than the fire-breathing dragons that inhabit too many fantasies.
However, there becomes just too much of this background and scene setting. Every time someone walks down the street, every detail of that street needs to remarked upon, every peddler, beggar, fruit stand, scent, and building. The world mythology is detailed multiple times, frequently with the exact same words. After a while, this continuous descriptive work becomes overwhelming and smothers the story. In a planned series of books, I don't expect the first book to have a great amount of story/plot development, but here I found only enough to really occupy about a 200 hundred page book. As it actually runs to over 400 pages, that's a lot of filler. Her character development is good, with enough depth given to several characters to make me care about what happens to them, and I found these people to be generally likable even with their obvious character flaws. The problems her characters face grow naturally from the environment and the starting premise of the book. Her world seems to somewhat standard for a fantasy novel, with no high-tech wonders and a generally feudal type structure, but she has added the province of the Hundred, which seems to be much closer to a people's democracy with guaranteed rights for individuals, aided by benevolent, and, at least the beginning of this work, respected judges. As such, it makes an interesting contrast to the rest of her world. An interesting story line and world populated by real people, but in severe need of pruning some of the excess descriptive work. ---Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A fine piece of fantasy,
By
This review is from: Spirit Gate: Book One of Crossroads (Crossroads S.) (Paperback)
I havent been a great fan of Kate Elliott's previous work, but I loved this book. The several storylines, the nature of which can be gleaned from the publisher's blurb, intersect some way into this lengthy read, but the writing is intelligent and the story refreshingly different, though drawing on actual historical cultures for inspiration. The main characters are complex, rather than instantly likeable or stereotypical, and are gradually revealed such that not too much is predictably anticipated. It is the introductory volume in what promises to be an intriguing and satisfying series. If you've enjoyed The Empire Trilogy by Raymond Feist and Janny Wurtz, Melanie Rawn's first books or Elizabeth Lynn's works, try this. You won't be disappointed.
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