Sara Douglass - Threshold
Overview:
Genre: Fantasy
Stars: 3 out of 5
Author's Website: Sara Douglass
Published: 1997
My thoughts: This is a wonderful book, which I really enjoyed. It is an easy read, (I read it when I was 17) and there's nothing in it that requires too much thinking ;) I really liked the ending in particular. Worth reading, if you want something you don't have to think hard about :)
The Book:
"Threshold"
Tirzah, a female glass worker, is forced into slavery and transported to the southern area of Ashdod, an area dominated by the magicians called the Magi. The Magi have discovered the formula to propel them into Infinity through a device called Threshold. However, the Magi unleash a dark power that threatens Ashdod, and somehow Tirzah must learn how to save them all.
Sara Douglass - Beyond the Hanging Wall
Overview:
Genre: Fantasy/Horror
Stars: 3 out of 5
Author's Website: Sara Douglass
Published: 1997
My thoughts: Another wonderful easy-to-read no-need-to-think book :) It was originally marketed as a "young adult" book, which gives you an idea of the amount of thinking you'll need to engage in :) But I enjoyed it (again, I read it at about 17) and I think it's worth a read :)
The Book:
"Beyond the Hanging Wall"
Joseph Baxtor and his son Garth are gifted physicians in the Kingdom of Escator and have the ability to assist healing through the ‘Touch’. Joseph has been called to do his annual duty in the gloam mines, to heal the wounds of those who will never see the light of day again.
Garth is sickened by the mines, and horrified by what he finds on the arm of a prisoner. Scar tissue cannot hide from Garth the fact that this man had had the blue Manteceros, the symbol of the Royal House of Escator, tattooed on his arm. The same one that Garth had seen and felt with his Touch only days before on the arm of the King of Escator. Garth knows then that this prisoner must be Maximilian, the young Crown Prince who disappeared while hunting some 17 years ago. Garth seeks help from the priests of the Order of Persimius, and from Ravenna, she who guards the border of the lands between dream and reality.
The mysteries only increase for Garth as he is led deeper and deeper into the inexplicable worlds, just as Maximilian was taken deep into the earth to mine beneath the Hanging Wall. But Maximilian remembers nothing...
Sara Douglass - Axis Trilogy
Overview:
Genre: Fantasy
Stars: 3 out of 5
Contains: moderate sex and violence, includes rape and torture
Author's Website: Sara Douglass
My thoughts: I loved the Axis Trilogy. It all started because KatE was reading "Battleaxe" at school in year 11 (1998), and then when I was telling Mum about it, she went to her bookshelf and handed it to me! They're great books, and well worth reading :)
Please Note: In the US and some European countries, all six books were published under "The Wayfarer Redemption". I've kept them split into The Axis Trilogy, and the original Wayfarer Redemption, as that's how I have them.
The Books:
"BattleAxe" - Published 1995
Terror grips the country of Achar when it is beset by terrifying wraith-like creatures from its northern wastes. Is it Achar's traditional foe, the Forbidden, returned to wreak vengeance, or has the prophecy of the Destroyer finally come to pass with a more destructive enemy altogether?
Fierce storms and climactic havoc confirm the worst fears of the Acharites. A terrible being with supernatural powers seems intent on laying waste not only Achar but all of the people of Tencendor.
And only one person can overcome the Destroyer - the 'Son of Love and Song' who, according to the Prophecy, must unite all of Tencendor. But who is this Son of Love and Song? Is he amongst them?
Time is running out.
"Enchanter" - Published 1996
"Welcome Axis, into the House of SunSoar and into my heart... Sing well and fly high and may nothing and no-one tear your feet from the path of the Star Dance again."
Axis has fled to Talon Spike, the home of the Icarii, where he must learn to wield his Enchanter powers to fulfil the Prophecy. Somehow he must lead the Icarii and the Avar back into Achar, defeat his half-brother Borneheld and reunite the former kingdom of Tencendor under his rule. Meanwhile, Gorgrael waits impatiently for winter, to continue his destructive drive into the heart of Achar.
"Starman" - Published 1996
The conclusion to "The Axis Trilogy". As Axis prepares to unite Tencendor, Gorgrael launches a devastating invasion, freezing the realm under a crippling layer of ice. Axis' only hope is Azhure, who lies on the Island of Mist and Memory, struggling to accept WolfStar's inheritance.
Sara Douglass - The Wayfarer Redemption
Overview:
Genre: Fantasy
Stars: 2 out of 5
Contains: Unremembered
Author's Website: Sara Douglass
My thoughts: I didn't like the Wayfarer Redemption as much as the Axis trilogy - I think I didn't identify with the characters as much, and Caelum's brother annoyed me! Still, they're worth giving a go - you might like them more than I did!
Please Note: In the US and some European countries, all six books were published under "The Wayfarer Redemption". I've kept them split into The Axis Trilogy, and the original Wayfarer Redemption, as that's how I have them.
The Books:
"Sinner" - Published 1998
Caelum SunSoar has succeeded Axis as supreme ruler of Tencendor, but simmering tensions threaten to tear his country apart.
Acharites are deeply unhappy with their place in the new order and want Zared, son of Rivhak and Magariz, to reclaim their realm. Caelum strongly opposes any resurrection of the troublesome Achar throne and is preparing to fight it when a brutal murder occurs, unleashing mayhem among his family.
Chief suspect is Drago SunSoar. Divested of his Icarii powers as a babe, Drago has harboured a life-long resentment of Caelum and yearns to dispossess his brother of his birthright.
Caelum's troubles seem overwhelming. Then they are completely eclipsed by news of abominable forces from beyond the Star Gate that threaten to wreak destruction on a divided Tencendor.
"Pilgrim" - Published 1999
The Timekeeper Demons burst through the Star Gate to invade Tencendor, destroying the Gate and the magic of the StarDance in the process. Terrifying and cruel, they have come with only one purpose - to see Qeteb destroy the StarSon and Tencendor forever. Enchanters and gods alike are helpless as the Demons lay waste to the land. Zared and Askam must put aside their differences and unite to save their people, as the need to find a Sanctuary for them all becomes ever more urgent. The StarSon must eventually become the hunted in the maze - only he who has the courage to endure death can learn the secrets of the ancient Enemy - but who will it be?
"Crusader" - Published 1999
Star Gate and the magic of the StarDance have been destroyed by the Timekeeper Demons. They have resurrected Qeteb and will destroy the StarSon and Tencendor forever. But without the StarDance can the Enchanters and gods do anything, or must they stand aside in the face of the Demons power.
Sara Douglass - The Troy Game
Overview:
Genre: Fantasy
Stars: 3 out of 5
Contains: moderate sex and violence, includes rape
Author's Website: Sara Douglass
My thoughts: I have only read the first of this trilogy so far. I found it to be quite hard work, despite being very interesting, the whole thing took a lot of reading and information processing - and it annoyed me when as soon as things started looking up, something bad would happen and they'd all be angsty again. Still, I will probably read the others at some point, and they are very interesting books - I just wasn't in the mood for thinking, I think! :)
The Books:
"Hades' Daughter" - Published 2003
After the Trojan wars, Brutus and his people wandered homeless for many years. So when the goddess Artemis offers him a future, he does not hesitate to take it. Brutus is the last of the Kingmen, one of the few who, with the Mistress of the Labyrinth, can play the Troy Game. His arrival with his fellow Trojans in Llangarlia (south-east Britain) is part of a larger plan that Genvissa, the Llangarlian High Priestess, and Asterion the Minotaur (though barely alive) are manipulating - and all of them have their own agenda. As a new city is founded, the Troy Game comes into its own.
Evil is locked in the heart of the labyrinth, and once the Game is restarted, it will be hard to control... the future will be a battleground born of legend and myth, and the dark heart of the labyrinth may be more than anyone, even Brutus, has bargained for.
"Gods Concubine" - Published 2004
It has been 2000 years since Cornelia, wife of Brutus, brought the Troy Game to a wrenching halt by murdering Genvissa, the Mistress of the Labyrinth. In those 2000 years the city of Troia Nova, now known as London, was razed and rebuilt a dozen times as the Minotaur Asterion unsuccessfully tried to discover where Brutus hid the six golden kingship bands of Troy.
But now everyone is back, reborn into 11th-century Europe so they can play out their part in the Game. Asterion lurks within the court of Edward the Confessor, plotting with malevolence. Cornelia lives, older and wiser, but trapped in another loveless and desperate marriage. Genvissa returns, driven by spite and ambition. And in his stronghold on the coast of Normandy waits Brutus, reborn as one of the mightiest warrior-kings of all time.
"Darkwitch Rising" - Published 2005
It is the seventeenth century, and once more the players of the Troy Game are drawn into its intricate dance.
Restoration London becomes the field of the most desperate battle yet. The Troy Game is determined that in this life nothing should go wrong, and so it plots and manipulates. But it cannot outmanoeuvre Asterion, who has constructed in a back alleyway a nightmarish lair which rises from the rear wall of the bone house of St Dunstan's-in-the-East. It is here that he manages the ultimate trickery in order to obtain the kingship bands, the Game and Cornelia-reborn, Noah Banks; nothing, in this life, shall stop him.
Except Ariadne. The ancient Darkwitch has risen from the dead, and she brings with her a terrible secret that will not merely tear both the Game and land apart, but devastate any chance for Noah and her lover, Brutus, to be together.
In a city devastated by both plague and fire, an even greater disaster is enacted as the most powerful Darkwitch in history rises to destroy the hopes of all who would defeat the minotaur. In the glittering glory of the restoration court of Charles II, nothing and no-one is as they seem.
"Druids' Sword" - Published 2005
The final book of The Troy Game is set during World War II, specifically during the Blitz in London.
Jack Skelton (once Brutus, once William, once Louis) has arrived back in London after a three hundred year absence. He has come home to end it once and for all - to complete the Troy Game and to win Noah away from Weyland.
Of course, nothing ever goes to plan for Brutus-reborn, does it?
Jack arrives home on the eve of war. He takes up residence in the mysterious Copt Hall (or Copped Hall) in Epping Forest - slightly put out by the presence within the hall of an even more mysterious, and thoroughly irritating, valet called Malcolm. He is even more perplexed by the reclusive Grace - Noah and Weyland's daughter - in whom Malcolm seems peculiarly interested.
But most of all Jack is disturbed by the sense of something 'wrong' with London. Something 'different'. Something shadowy and labyrinthine hanging over the ciy that has nothing at all to do with the Troy Game itself.
And Grace is the only other person who can perceive it.
Sara Douglass - The Crucible
Overview:
Genre: Fantasy
Stars: 3 out of 5
Contains: Unread
Author's Website: Sara Douglass
My thoughts: I have only read the first of this trilogy so far. I found it to be quite hard work, despite being very interesting, the whole thing took a lot of reading and information processing - and it annoyed me when as soon as things started looking up, something bad would happen and they'd all be angsty again. Still, I will probably read the others at some point, and they are very interesting books - I just wasn't in the mood for thinking, I think! :)
The Books:
"The Nameless Day" - Published 2004
The Black Plague. The Pestilence. Disease and death haunt every town and village across fourteenth century Europe and none are immune from these evils. Some see the devastation of their world as a sign from God. But Brother Thomas Neville sees this swath of death as something much more. Neville is a man beset by demons. Or is it angels? He has had a visitation from none other than the Archangel Michael, who commands him to a mission. Neville will cross the length and breath of the continent in a desperate bid to find the means to stop the minions of Satan who have found a doorway out of Hell and are preparing to try and seize this world in preparation for an assault on Heaven itself. As Thomas Neville encounters angels and demons, saints and witches, he comes to realize that the armies of God and Satan are arraying themselves for the final battle... and that his soul is to be the battleground. The question is, has Neville truly picked the good side?
"The Wounded Hawk" - Published 2005
The Middle Ages. Finally, the Black Plague has passed and for a while it seems evil has been defeated. Europe recovers; prosperity returns, trade resumes, and people slowly recover from the effects of the plague. Then, just as the Church relaxes its guard, war spreads across Europe. Widespread heresies challenge the authority of the Church. Revolts and rebellions threaten to topple the established monarchies and overturn the social order of Europe. And then the plague returns, worse than ever. Thomas Neville, a neurotic warrior-priest, eventually discovers the cause. The minions of the Devil have been scattered throughout European society during the confusion of the Black Death. His task is to discover the identities of these shapeshifters so that the Church can move against them, but it is a dangerous task. These are master shapeshifters, perfect at their craft, and Neville can never be certain of who he should trust.
"The Crippled Angel" - Published 2006
The world that Thomas Neville knows is crumbling about him. The Holy Mother Church of Rome is losing its power and men are coming to question the nature of religion and the role of those who rule them by sword and cross. Thomas knows this is not merely the dawning of a new time when men try to think and judge for themselves but a direct result of the rift in the fabric of the world. Demons have escaped their prison and are trying to breach the very gates of heaven. The great archangel Michael gave Thomas the task of finding the demons who now dwell in human form, and exposing their evil natures. To accomplish this, Thomas had to turn his back on Holy orders and return to his once lofty noble connections. Doing so, he discovered old friends, a new love, and temptations that will try his conscienceand his very soul. Thomas is beginning to think that all that he knows may not be true. Faced with a mortal love that he desperately wants and fears, he knows that time is growing short. And the choice that he makes will reshape the world.
Sara Douglass - Darkglass Mountain
Overview:
Genre: Fantasy
Stars: Unread
Author's Website: Sara Douglass
My thoughts: Not my thoughts, but what Sara Douglass has said about her new series...
Tencendor is no more. The land is gone.
But not everyone is dead.
StarDrifter SunSoar, father to Axis, somehow survived the catastrophe and lives in Coroleas. But he is not the only Tencendorian to survive. Caelum SunSoar, in the days before the Timekeeper Demons decimated the land, maintained extensive diplomatic contacts both with the Corolean court and with the court of King Maximilian in Escator across the Widowmaker Sea. Now more than five thousand Icarii, as well Acharites (the human race of Tencendor), the remnants of these diplomatic corps and their families, live scattered about Coroleas and Escator.
Among them are many Enchanters, but none with the same degree of potential as StarDrifter SunSoar.
The destruction of Tencendor was an event that attracted attention all about the edges of the Widowmaker Sea. The Coroleans were amused (they had always envied the Icarii), and the Escatorians were saddened (they had admired the Icarii’s ability and learning), but further afield, in the land of Ashdod far to the south of Escator, news of the downfall of Tencendor promoted intense speculation.
The Books:
"The Serpent Bride" - Published 2007
It is about five years since the conclusion of the Wayfarer Redemption, about eight years since the conclusion of Beyond the Hanging Wall, and some two thousand years after Boaz and Tirzah nipped Nzame's hopes in the bud in Threshold. StarDrifter has been moping about in Coroleas, Axis has been drifting through the Otherworld with Azhure, and Maximilian of Escator has been... well, looking for a wife.
Not very successfully. Maximilian (or Maxel to those closest to him) is a strange man, clearly marked by his seventeen years trapped in the Veins. He has odd habits - strange shadowy habits. He has a lover, an Icarii woman called StarWeb, but he just can't seem to find a decent woman to marry. Everyone has declined his proposals. Then, out of the blue, comes an offer apparently too good to be true. Ishbel Lagarde, an Outlander noblewoman, is looking for a husband. Her guardians are prepared to offer her to Maximilian, together with her massive inheritances and dowries.
Ishbel owns half the eastern Kingdoms. Maximilian is a lucky man. Or is he?
The problem is that Ishbel's guardians are the strange Order of the Coil, who live in Serpent's Nest in the far north of the Outlands. Another character, Isaiah, Tyrant of Isembaard, refers to them as obnoxious psychic murderers, which is a fairly accurate summation of who and what the Coil are.
Maximilian is tempted by the promise of Ishbel's riches, but cautious of her association with the Coil. Just how closely associated with them is she?
While Maximilian sets off to meet Ishbel and discover for himself what kind of woman she is, StarDrifter falls in with the rather vile Salome of Sidon, the most powerful woman in Coroleas. Meanwhile, in Isembaard, Isaiah plans an invasion of the north. He has allied with a most unlikely man called Julian, who calls himself the Lord of the Skraelings. While Isaiah invades from the south, Julian plans a simultaneous invasion from the north, catching the northern kingdoms in a pincer movement.
Julian controls the mass of Skraelings who inhabit the frozen wastes to the north. But he is no Gorgrael. Of everyone in this book he is hiding the most secrets, and one of the more powerful of these secrets is the strange race who aid him in his invasion plans - the Langareal.
Isaiah certainly doesn't trust Julian. As insurance against what he believes to be Julian's almost certain betrayal, Isaiah manages to call back from the Otherworld the one man most sure to aid him against the Skraelings: Axis SunSoar.
Meanwhile, Darkglass Mountain - previously known as Threshold - sits brooding in the sun. Well may Boaz and Tirzah thought to have destroyed it, but they did not count upon Threshold's will to live.
And to take revenge.
"The Twisted Citadel" - Published 2009
Can treachery and murder offer the only path to salvation?
Glass turns to flesh as DarkGlass Mountain rouses from its restless sleep to walk the land and plot the downfall of the Lord of Elcho Falling. Ishbel and Maximilianâ now utterly estrangedâ ride for Serpent's Nestâ not realising that at their backs a cadre of traitors plot their death.
Axis once more takes command of the Strike Forceâ but it is not enough to save him from the gallows of Isaiah's generalsâ nor from the lover who betrays him.
In Isembaard the Skraelings run amokâ but they will not touch the sole survivor from the slaughter of Aqhatâ who walks north with a mysterious relic of Ashdod's past.
Over all hover the Lealfastâ ancient creatures who hide many secrets and possess a sorcery so ancient and malignant that it threatens to curse Elcho Falling as soon as the twisted citadel rises.
"The River Angels" - Working Title; Forthcoming
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