Ronlyn Domingue

Amazing, wonderful, timelehttp://www.librarything.com/pics/s-g3.gif
http://www.librarything.com/pics/s-g3.gifss, powerful, and breathtaking are just a small handful of words I might ascribe to Ronlyn's wonderful work if I were forced to use as few as possible, but they would be a pale tribute. She writes so well, the raw power, emotion, and beauty fairly leaps from the page and whirls through one's being much like someone "between" would through the rooms of a house. She manages to confine show more such power, feeling, and substance like someone long accustomed to the inherent limitations of being "between."

In the acknowledgments Ronlyn talks about physics and religion, her views, the research and love she poured into the project, a piece of her heart and soul. Her conscious mind knows of limitations, of doubt. Her unconscious mind, her soul, the bit of her that remembers other places, other times, and of time "between" guided her heart in the telling of Razi's tale. I have been "between" myself, and more than once, and I remember. Life, this life, this bit of flesh, of touch is a precious gift, Razi's tale should remind each of us of this.

Ronlyn's portrayal of women of the 20's and beyond, the struggles we each face in our own way, our own time at once does amazing justice to the wonderful creatures we all are, here, or between, and shows how much, and how little times have changed. We still fight an uphill battle against the amassed ignorance and arrogance of the male dominated society we live in, but there is always hope, and slow, gentle growth.
Her book in a single breath, shows each of us how far we've come, and how far we have yet to go. Through it all, our strength, beauty and spirit shines through.

Ronlyn has a real gift, a precious rare ability to transfer feelings, whole, real and powerful to the rigid, unforgiving medium of ink on paper, without losing any of the beauty. I was left crying real tears of relief, of happiness, sadness and so much more at the end of the book. "Chick lit" at it's finest this book will draw anyone of either gender into the ebb and flow of a broad array of characters, time and space and keep any reader intrigued to the very last sentence bringing each thread to a gripping conclusion that will bring tears to all but the coldest of hearts!

I consider Ronlyn's book a master piece of story telling and well worth the read at twice the price. The fact that this is also Ronlyn's first book makes it so much more precious! I eagerly await her next masterpiece!!! show less

Just finished.... I am crying... It was so beautiful... So heartbreaking .... So deep....

It has been a while I have liked a book as much as I have liked this one... While trying to decide if I want to read Fifty Shades Of Gray (I will most likely not) and trying to make up my mind if I even like love stories at all after reading this book I have realized my problems are not with love stories, but with cheap and trashy love stories. There are so many of them that sometimes I feel like they show more even want to trick the readers and appear to have some literary value while they do not. Constantly researching good books to read I almost feel like I have to watch out not to be sucked in Twilights and Fifty Shades.

I was reading the review of another book, which I don't even remember what it was, but I know that book was also written from the point of view of a character who is dead, the reviewer compared the two and was talking in superlatives about The Mercy Of Thin Air.... how correct he was!

I don't mind any topics really, though I don't rush to the bookstore to buy the latest vampire story or time travel story, but I will read them if I think they will be worth it other than the subject matter. So I was with reading a book from the point of view of a dead girl. It was poetic, it was sexy (yes, there were some sex scenes, not many, very tasteful), and it was smart. It was about women, especially women's movement in the 20's, but it was also about men, men with souls and real feelings. And yes there was even a twist in it a little mystery. I was impressed how it was all pulled together with thoughts and ideas that I didn't think earlier in the book to be important nicely linked back to the end or the beginning... All through the book I was thinking, beautiful, I can't have enough, but she is going to screw it up at the end...or soon... definitely at the end.... and she didn't...

It also helped that I loved the characters... I would love to be like Razi, maybe I am a little bit and oh yes I would like to find a guy like Andrew even though I am a happy single girl... I loved their strength, the way they communicated.... original, funny, smart, tolerant and radical at the same time. and the rest of the characters are the same way.

It was an added plus that I live in the area where the story takes place... it is not important, it just made it more interesting to me.

But what I loved the most was the language... the dreamlike beautifully weaved sentences... in a way it was like a painting with lots of colors and details... a time travel ..... a melody that will definitely stay in my ears for a long long time. show less

This book is the sequel to The Mapmaker's War but unlike most sequels it takes place 1,000 years in the future from the end of the first book of the trilogy. Our heroine, Secret Riven is born to a social climbing father who feels he belongs to a higher class and lost this prestige through time and a mother with very unique talents who lives in fear of some great unknown. Secret is silent for the first seven years of her life but she is by no means dumb. She also seems to have an affinity for show more understanding what animals and plants have to say.

This is another book that pulls me out of my reading comfort zone but I so adored The Mapmaker's War and Ms. Domingue's writing that I knew I wanted to continue along with her fantasy tale. She has a way of creating a world and mythology in which you find yourself fully immersed and completely believing in all that is occurring. When a squirrel talks to Secret it doesn't seem odd at all. I fell in love with this little girl and wanted so much for her even when I knew that there was something in her future that might not be good.

The whole book had a sense of foreboding that somehow managed to almost be a character. It would hide in the background or come to the forefront at different points and yet never full reveal what was waiting for Secret. I am now anxiously awaiting the third book in the series so I can find out what the future holds for this young woman. There is magic in this book - dark magic at times, but magic nonetheless. I will note that I did prefer The Mapmaker's War but the story is not over yet. Who knows what is yet to come and the middle of any tale is often the part that leaves us wanting. And I am definitely wanting more of this fantasy world. I rarely enjoy the fantasy genre - I am very, very picky in my reading of these types of books but I find that I love the world that has been created by Ronlyn Domingue. show less

Ronlyn Domingue's latest novel, The Mapmaker's War: A Legend is an ambitious literary novel that more easily slides into the canon of magic realism than it does commercial fantasy. Generally an epic tale of a woman who defies convention and national obligation, the story explores issues of equality not only of the sexes, but of cultures, of governments founded on imperialism at the expense of all integrity, versus the cost of pacifism.

Brilliantly told from second person, present tense, show more Domingue's handling of this difficult voice is immediate, brilliant and compelling. At no point is dialogue written, rather it's told, and again demonstrates the author's skill in being able to take what could have been an extremely narrator-intrusive, action-stopping technique, and instead has rendered a story of imperatives.

The story itself is, as all timeless stories, driven by relationships and the characters behind those relationships, and in this case both are three dimensional and believable.

In tone I was very much minded of some of Ursula K. LeGuin and Candas Jane Dorsey's works, in particular Always Coming Home and Black Wine respectively.

Both an emotional and contemplative read, I highly recommend The Mapmaker's War to any lover of novels with depth and insight. show less