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Debra Doyle (1952–2020)

Author of The Price of the Stars

60+ Works 4,259 Members 52 Reviews 10 Favorited

About the Author

Includes the names: Debra Doyle, Debra Doyle

Disambiguation Notice:

With James D. Macdonald has written as Nicholas Adams, Martin Delrio and Robin Tallis. They have also written under the House Name Victor Appleton. However, they are not the same person, so please do NOT combine Macdonald and Doyle. Thank you for helping keep our bibliographic data accurate.

Image credit: Photo By Kym Lambert

Series

Works by Debra Doyle

The Price of the Stars (1992) — Author — 594 copies
Starpilot's Grave (1993) — Author — 445 copies
By Honor Betray'd (1994) — Author — 415 copies
The Gathering Flame (1995) — Author — 340 copies
The Long Hunt (1996) — Author — 295 copies
The Stars Asunder (1999) — Author — 285 copies
School of Wizardry (1990) — Author — 262 copies
Secret Of The Tower (1990) 208 copies
A Working of Stars (2002) — Author — 191 copies
The Wizard's Statue (1990) 181 copies
Danger In The Palace (1990) 164 copies
Land of Mist and Snow (2006) 149 copies
The High King's Daughter (1990) 148 copies
Knight's Wyrd (1992) — Author — 147 copies
The Wizard's Castle (1990) 125 copies
Requiem For Boone (2000) 45 copies
Monster Machine (1991) — ghostwriter — 34 copies
Lincoln's Sword (2010) 33 copies
Aquatech Warriors (1991) — ghostwriter — 22 copies
Mystery at Wizardry School (2003) 18 copies
Two from the Mageworlds (2011) — Author — 17 copies
Bad Blood (1993) — Author — 16 copies
Hunters' Moon (1994) 15 copies
Groogleman (1996) 13 copies
Voice of the Ice (2003) 11 copies
Timecrime, Inc. (1991) 10 copies
Judgment Night (1995) 7 copies
The Devil in the Details (2014) 4 copies
Bad Blood [short story] (2011) 2 copies
On Suivi Point (2005) 2 copies
A Death In The Working (2004) 2 copies
Holly and Ivy (2011) 2 copies
Striden i palatset (2002) 1 copy
Den gyllene kronan (2003) 1 copy
Trollkarlskappan (2004) 1 copy
Tornets hemlighet (2001) 1 copy
Varázskör (2001) 1 copy
Crossover (2011) 1 copy
Jenny Nettles (2011) — Author — 1 copy
Remailer 1 copy

Associated Works

Tales of the Knights Templar (1995) — Contributor — 252 copies
My Favorite Fantasy Story (2000) — Contributor — 166 copies
A Wizard's Dozen: Stories of the Fantastic (1993) — Contributor — 159 copies
Alternate Kennedys (1992) — Contributor — 140 copies
Witch Fantastic (1995) — Contributor — 124 copies
Not of Woman Born (1999) — Contributor — 121 copies
On Crusade: More Tales of the Knights Templar (1998) — Contributor — 105 copies
Vampires: A Collection of Original Stories (1991) — Contributor — 96 copies
New Magics (2004) — Contributor — 91 copies
Camelot: A Collection of Original Arthurian Stories (1995) — Contributor — 89 copies
Crusade of Fire: Mystical Tales of the Knights Templar (2002) — Contributor — 89 copies
New Skies: An Anthology of Today's Science Fiction (2003) — Contributor — 85 copies
The First Heroes: New Tales of the Bronze Age (2004) — Contributor — 80 copies
Newer York (1991) — Contributor — 63 copies
OtherWere: Stories of Transformation (1996) — Contributor — 61 copies
A Nightmare's Dozen: Stories from the Dark (1996) — Contributor — 49 copies
The Book of Kings (1995) — Contributor — 49 copies
Cosmic Tales: Adventures in Far Futures (2005) — Contributor — 37 copies
Year's Best Fantasy 9 (2009) — Contributor — 33 copies
Werewolves: A Collection of Original Stories (1988) — Contributor — 31 copies
Sense of Wonder: A Century of Science Fiction (2011) — Contributor — 30 copies
A Starfarer's Dozen: Stories of Things to Come (1995) — Contributor — 24 copies
Stars of Darkover (2014) — Contributor — 23 copies
Swashbuckling Editor Stories (1993) — Contributor — 10 copies
Jaelle Her Book (2013) — Contributor — 7 copies
Deco Punk: The Spirit of the Age (2015) — Contributor — 6 copies
Impossible Futures (2013) — Contributor — 5 copies
Conspiracy! (2016) — Contributor — 4 copies
The Westerfilk Collection, Second Edition (1980) — Contributor — 4 copies

Tagged

alternate history (63) anthology (417) book (21) children (21) children's (50) Circle of Magic (54) collection (24) ebook (99) fantasy (747) fiction (498) goodreads (21) historical fiction (25) horror (51) Kindle (46) Knights Templar (56) Mageworlds (194) mageworlds series (21) magic (82) mystery (46) novel (25) own (39) owned (28) paperback (67) PB (35) read (86) science fiction (826) Science Fiction/Fantasy (58) series (62) sf (248) sff (104) short fiction (23) short stories (216) signed (21) space opera (204) speculative fiction (34) to-read (224) unread (68) wizards (34) YA (44) young adult (59)

Common Knowledge

Birthdate
1952-11-30
Date of death
2020-10-31
Gender
female
Nationality
USA
Birthplace
Florida, USA
Cause of death
cardiac arrest
Places of residence
Colebrook, New Hampshire, USA
Education
University of Pennsylvania (Ph.D.|English Literature)
Relationships
Macdonald, James D. (husband)
Crighton, Katherine (daughter)
Organizations
Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America
Disambiguation notice
With James D. Macdonald has written as Nicholas Adams, Martin Delrio and Robin Tallis. They have also written under the House Name Victor Appleton.

However, they are not the same person, so please do NOT combine Macdonald and Doyle. Thank you for helping keep our bibliographic data accurate.

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Discussions

Reviews

The sequel to The Price of the Stars continues the pulpy thrills of a galaxy one stop removed from Star Wars. Decades after being broken and humiliated, the Mageworlds are planning a conquering comeback -- but they reckoned without the Rosselin-Metadi clan. Adept Owen discovers the reawakening remnants of Mage power; Medic Ari stumbles into mutiny and betrayal within the Space Force; Captain Beka goes undercover to find evidence of the Mages' new military power. Yet all that information may come to nothing if the three siblings -- obstructed by friends, foes, and fate -- are unable to alert the rest of the universe.… (more)
 
Flagged
proustbot | 5 other reviews | Jun 19, 2023 |
This is Star Wars fanfiction, and I mean that in the best possible sense: the copyrighted details have been changed, but the same heart beats here.
 
Flagged
proustbot | 11 other reviews | Jun 19, 2023 |
This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot, & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: The Gathering Flame
Series: Mageworlds #4
Authors: Debra Doyle & James Macdonald
Rating: 1 of 5 Stars
Genre: SFF
Pages: 371
Words: 136K

Synopsis:

From the Publisher

The Mageworlds are plundering the civilized galaxy. One planet at a time. First, their scoutships appeared above the outplanets. Raiding parties followed, then whole armadas bent on loot and conquest. The Mages break the warfleets that oppose them. They take entire planets. Who can stop them?

Not Perada Rosselin, Domina of Entibor. She's the absolute ruler of a rich world and all its colonies, but Entibor's space fleet is too small to mount a defense. And Perada herself, just back from school on distant Galcen, is almost an outworlder in her own court.

Not Jod Metadi, the most famous - or notorious - of the privateers of Innish-Kyl. Jos can fight the Mages and he can best them one on one, but his preferred targets are cargo vessels, not the dangerous and unprofitable ships of war. Metadi stays clear of the Mageworlds' battle fleet - when he can.

Not Errec Ransome. He understands the Magelords better than anyone. But there are some things he'll never tell - and some things he's sworn to himself that he'll never do again.

Now, the Mages have attacked Entibor. That was their first mistake...

My Thoughts:

Overall, I enjoyed this prequel about the parents of the characters in the previous three books. Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy it as much and in some ways I was very disappointed.

Perada's two sons aren't Joss Metadi's. They were conceived for political reasons. In fact, one of them is Eric Ransome's and Metadi just shrugs it off. I REAAAAALLLLY disliked both parts of that.

By the end of the book Entibor is a slag heap and the mages did it by using hundreds of mage circles on Entibor to move the tectonic plates and thus destroy the surface of the planet. It was pretty cool if you think about it.

Then there were the 2 women who I thought were just friends. So that line got crossed and put the authors on my to avoid list. Honestly, I'm almost glad that happened so I didn't have to muster up some fake enthusiasm to continue on with the rest of the series.

While this series started really strong for me, it has gone downhill with each successive book and with this one stepped right off the cliff face. Well, time to go find another series to try.

★☆☆☆☆
… (more)
 
Flagged
BookstoogeLT | 4 other reviews | May 28, 2022 |
This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot, & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: By Honor Betray'd
Series: Mageworlds #3
Authors: Debra Doyle & James Macdonald
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: SFF
Pages: 359
Words: 123.5K

Synopsis:

From Isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?6211

The war is over. The Magelords have won.

Galcen has fallen. The Space Force is broken and scattered. The planets of the former Republic are rushing to make peace with the victorious Mages.

All that remains is mopping up. Minor details. A privateer or two, a few Adepts who remain alive and on the run, and the hereditary ruler of a lifeless planet.

Beka Rosselin-Metadi, the last Domina of Lost Entibor, possesses little more than a famous name and a famous ship. With them she must salvage what she can from the wreckage of the Republic. Her enemies are too many to count, her friends too few to make a difference. She can trust no one except herself, her crew - and the family she ran away from years before.

Beka has resources few suspect: a hidden base, a long-forgotten oath, and a dead man's legacy. But she has problems as well; for in a universe gone mad neither friends nor enemies are all that they may seem.

A play that began in treachery and blood five hundred years before has reached its final act. A broken galaxy will be sundered forever, or else made whole.

My Thoughts:

So, while there are 7 books in this series, these first 3 books comprise the whole of the Second Mage Wars. And it's not really much of a war either. Both sides have highly placed individuals secretly working towards peace with the other side.

This paragraph will contain spoilers. Not that I care about such things, but on the 1000 to 1 chance that somebody who follows me would ever read these, I wouldn't want to spoil it for them. Because the Grandmaster of the Adepts turns out to be the badguy who had Beka's mother killed. Only she wasn't really, but was placed in stasis by a Magelord and it was up to Beka to revive her and up to her Adept brother and Mage sister-in-law to bring her mind back.

It was a whirlwind of revelations and counter-twists and everything gets wrapped up in a bow. I'm usually not one to complain about that but this time it felt kind of deus ex machina than if it had organically happened. Now I'm wondering what the next 4 books will be about?

A good bit of my enthusiasm waned, dramatically, when it was revealed who the badguy all along had been. It was too cliched. Makes me wonder if the final Star Wars trilogy stole their Grumpy Dispeptic Luke idea from this.

There was still a lot of action. Beka almost gets killed on public tv, Ari gets married, Owen takes over the Adept Order and gets his own apprentice and the Mage Worlder General is revealed to be a peacemongerer. Shocking!

I enjoyed this overall but I won't be beating the drum the same way unless the next books are super fantastic. Good space opera but not excellent space opera.

★★★✬☆
… (more)
½
 
Flagged
BookstoogeLT | 6 other reviews | Apr 15, 2022 |

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Works
60
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Members
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Popularity
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Rating
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Reviews
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ISBNs
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Favorited
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