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Loading... Dawnspell: The Bristling Wood (Deverry) (original 1989; edition 1993)by Katharine Kerr
Work InformationThe Bristling Wood by Katharine Kerr (1989)
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. Read it while still a teen and remembered it very fondly. Tried reading it again recently but the writing seemed a bit too puerile. Still, I would recommend it if you wanted to ease young readers into the fantasy genre. Katharine Kerr spins an engrossing tale of love gone wrong, jealously, betrayal and revenge, all rendered with poignancy. ( ) Dawnspell is a bridge book: the flashback (which begins one of my favourite sequences within sequences) is all set-up, the modern day is all set-up and nothing gets resolved before the cliffhanger at the end. The narrative is a bit flabby, and hilariously the bad guys literally have a conversation over the fire about how the plot is absurdly convoluted. This killed me when it first came out, but rereading with Dragonspell safely on my shelf I can just sit back and appreciate the good bits - because there are plenty of them. Dawnspell is where we first glimpse the full sweep of the history of Annwn and a whole lot more insight into the unpleasant and self-interested web of politics that holds Deverry together. It's also the start of the multi-book flashback sequence detailing the end of the Time of Troubles, which gives us one of Rhodry's most interesting incarnations and eventually (although not in Dawnspell) explains why Jill is so scared of dweomer. Last but not least, we get to hang out with Salamander ap Devaberiel, who is the extravagantly iced cinnamon roll of the Deverry saga (I'm sure his elaborate way of speaking and fecklessness irritate some readers, but I adore him). On the flip side, this is the least feminist of the novels to date: there's a heap of Nevyn having horrors at women who sleep around and/or have sex for money, and Jill is stripped of her agency for Plot Reasons. Knowing how relevant almost everything will become in the future, I can appreciate Dawnspell more. But it was my least favourite of the first four (six?) for a reason on first reading, and I can see why. That's not a huge criticism, though - it's still an engaging read, and left me (leaves me) desperate to get on to the final volume of this first sequence within the saga. no reviews | add a review
Fantasy.
Fiction.
Mythology.
HTML:??A sure winner.???Booklist Against the passionate sweep of Deverrian history, the powerful wizard Nevyn has lived for centuries, atoning for the sins he committed in his youth. Now, with so much of his work at stake, Nevyn discovers that the Dark Council has been quietly interfering with the already tangled politics of war-torn Eldidd. Their evil webs are nearly spun before Nevyn, with all the power at his command, even realizes there??s a war of magic destroying his world. Katharine Kerr??s enthralling tales Daggerspell and Darkspell introduced readers to the kingdom of Deverry, a world where ancient gods gamble with the fates of nations, and where the souls of men and women persist beyond death. Now the dazzling fantasy saga continues with The Bristling Wood, a vast and intricate tapestry of conflict, intrigue, and high magic that transcends the bounds of No library descriptions found. |
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