A Time of Exile

Half-elf King Rhodry of Aberwyn plots to fake his death to escape kingship, but his path intertwines with powerful wizard Jill, who urges him to embrace his elven heritage and destiny, uncovering ancient secrets and deeper magical plots involving the elves and the land of the Westlands.

I picked this book up in a charity shop, and I'm very glad I did. I've not read any of the previous books but that didn't matter. The story was beautifully written and easy to understand. Can't wait to find the next in the series.

The first book in the second Deverry quartet. Disappointing in comparison to the first four books.

This book opens a number of years after the events in Daggerspell. Rhodry is getting older, but his Westfolk genes have given him long life and people are starting to mutter dweomer when they look at him. He stages his own death so that he is able to slip away gracefully from his life in Aberwyn. He meets Jill again when he heads into the lands of the Westfolk, the first time he has seen her since she left him for the dweomer. She is now a master, and refuses to consider the idea of a relationship between them.

Apart from those slim pickings in modern times, the rest of the novel takes place in the past. In this book the Westfolk and Aderyn show more take centre stage. I love Aderyn as a character - he is so calm and wise, and yet so very human. His doomed relationship with Dallandra was heart aching.

My average star rating for this book came from the fact that two of the subplots I found less than interesting. The Guardians are extremely fey, and I didn't particularly like either Elassario or Evandar. The periods of time that Dallandra spent with them was of necessity very dreamlike, but it affected the pacing of the story a great deal.

I also found the blue sprite that has hounded Rhodry through all of his many lives extremely tiresome. Jill's jealousy about his relationship with the sprite gave me hope that they could find a reconciliation, but it seems it is not to be, which saddens me. I liked Jill a great deal more when she was a lively, merry silver dagger following her love. As she has grown in dweomer, she has become hard and lacking in forgiveness and compassion. This is a shame - one of my favourite characters is now someone I don't really care for.

The final paragraph of the book was extremely intriguing and will guarantee that I read further!

Kerr's writing is still very competent, and her characters interesting to read about. I like the way that in each of the books you never know how much time you will spend in the present or in the past.

All in all, the poorer elements of this book would not be enough to discourage me from the rest of the series and I look forward to the next one. show less

This book is the fifth in the Deverry series, but focusses on a different set of characters than the other books. However, the new plot line is tied in nicely with the previous stories, so there is a nice combination of furthering the overall plot without bogging down in territory which has been covered by the previous books. I liked this book, especially the way it starts out like a sequel to the third book, and then something which feels like an aside becomes the major plot line for the book. Its a great way of introducing a new sub plot without the reader realizing until its well under way, and I enjoyed it a lot. This is a a great book, and probably the best in the series after Daggerspell.

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Iniziato quando ero ancora poco più che adolescente il Ciclo di Deverry mi ha appassionato tantissimo, ampliando e modificando le mie idee del fantasy all'epoca ancorate ad un classico (ed amatissimo) Tolkeniano.
In Italiano non si vede ancora la fine del ciclo con gli ultimi tre libri ancora non tradotti, ma il tutto, malgrado la lunghezza infinita di 14 libri (dei quali appunto solo 11 per adesso tradotti) è di una tale epicità che la lettura ne è altamente consigliata agli amanti del genere.

9/10
A Time of Exile begins a new arc in the Deverry Cylce while carrying forward the main story of Rhodry and Jill. Most of the book is devoted to the story of Aderyn, apprentice to Nevyn and dweomermaster or a Wise One to the elves. It takes place with earlier incarnations of some familiar characters, filling in some of the history of Deverry, Eldidd, and the Westlands..

Primo volume della seconda tetralogia di Deverry, il romanzo soffre di un po’ di stanchezza, dovuta soprattutto al lungo flashback che sebbene chiarifichi alcuni punti oscuri della saga e getti sicuramente le basi per sviluppi futuri, risulta pesante e noioso.