Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Almost as good as The Arm of the Stone, 21 Jul 2000
First, let me say that Strauss is a very good writer. And the cover art is brilliant.I gave it four stars because I finished the book with a vague sense of disatisfaction, and I think it stems from the division in point of view between Cariad and Konstant. It's a minor point, but it still bugs me, and I think the book would have been better served from Cariad's pov alone. Nitpicking aside, this is an enjoyable book.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Beautifully complex and superbly crafted, 6 April 2008
This is the sequel to The Arm of the Stone, which must be read first for The Garden to make any sense.
Cariad waits for the return of the father she has never met. It is prophesied that he will return from beyond the world, and restore the Stone to its rightful place, and overthrow the Guardians, the order of absolute rulers who have held the Stone and the world in thrall for centuries.
Just as Bron's return seems to be heralded by a weakening in the Guardians' power, and for the first time the existence of an organised resistance to them, comes the rise to great power of Jolyon, Bron's sworn enemy, who desires only his own supremacy. Cariad swears to overthrow Jolyon as her part towards restoring the balance of the world, yet while Jolyon has always been a master of intrigue, it seems now that he also found a way to greatly increase his power, which may yet prove to be the undoing of Cariad and all her dreams.
As ever, Strauss's world is stunning in the detail of its evocation; from the Gormenghast-like depths of the Fortress, to our own world, seen through the eyes of one who has no knowledge of technology, her sense of place is confident and accurate. The writing here is more mature than in her previous work, bolder both in terms of plot itself and the scale of the book. The human emotion, too, seems to be both deeper and more acutely portrayed than before; I didn't think that I would ever say this after I had read The Arm, but I found Cariad to be even more a real person than her mother. This bigger picture might occasionally spill over into too much exegesis, particularly in terms of the politics and interrelation of the various resistance groups, but if you have created a world as complex as Strauss has, I think you are entitled to revel in it a little.
Special praise must go to the ending of this book. Too many otherwise excellent writers cannot write endings, either just stopping the story like pressing a switch, or obviously feeling bereft by the potential loss of their own characters and continuing for fifty pages too many. This, by contrast, is a smooth and beautifully crafted glide to a halt, that left me feeling very satisfied indeed.
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