The Ruins of Ambrai

When a couple chooses opposite sides in a coup, their three children are torn apart and raised separately. All are female; all are mageborn. The eldest pursues power at any cost; the middle child pursues justice through politics, and the youngest joins the resistance. I was impressed that even the "evil" characters like Glennis have believable rationales for their actions; I was even rooting for her! Sarra, the middle child, is my favorite character. I liked the youngest sister the least, simply because she is so young, so unquestioning and has so much power.

I’ve often seen Melanie Rawn’s novels whilst browsing the fantasy section, but somehow I’ve just never given any of them a try. So, when I spied The Ruins of Ambrai in a second-hand bookshop, I knew the time had finally come. What are the odds of finding the first novel of a trilogy in English in a Norwegian second-hand book shop? If that’s not fate…

Rawn writes well, does a nice job on both plot and characterisations, and I found the unusual social structure of Lenfell interesting. All in all, it was a rather pleasant experience, and I’ll probably pick up The Mageborn Traitor at some point, though I’m not in a rush.

Enjoyable fantasy novel. This is my standard read for incredibly long international flights, generally because the plot is a delightful ramble, you can escape the snoring man next to you and the horrid airline food, and it will last you till you land. The characters are rather well developed as is the world the novel is set in. Perhaps this is more of a woman's read as here we are the one's in power.

I originally read this book about 10 years ago. I loved it then.

When I picked this book up to thumb through it to remind me of it's content and help me write this review, I found myself getting hooked for a second time and ended up reading whole chapters, even getting a cup of tea then sitting down to read more.

I love it still. I relate to this book, in as much as you can relate to a fantasy based story, I have two sisters of my own we are so different some of our battles are ongoing and very highly charged (I'm thankful we didn't magic to throw at each other when wrestling for the remote!). The characters are mostly deep and admirable, they all have their quirks and dark sides which make them seem more human. I changed alliances with show more the characters so many times while reading the first time it was kinda funny. Lots of 'oh my god! What a bitch!' comments ran through my head as I was reading it.

Despite all the doom and gloom I didn't ever want to put the book down because it was too sad to continue or everything seemed so bad for the characters I couldn't go on [so how could they?].

Melanie Rawn's writing style is amazing. It is engaging, eloquent and vivid. I felt like I was watching the events unfold.

There are many reasons why this book receives 4.5/5 stars from me. I could go on forever but instead I'm going to go make another cuppa and continue reading it, again. show less

A good fantacy novel with all the correct ingreedients. the strangeness was added to with the concept that this was a truly matriarchal society where men were not allowed to own propert in thier own right, much as was the case for women in our own history. this was an idea that I loved and one that more could be made of - I look forward to reading more of this author

This was a good book for about the first 90%. It would have been great if it would have ended right there, but there was another part that seemed like a 50 page epilogue. The writing seemed to worse, and little of it made sense. It was tying up loose ends (there really weren't any), and it didn't seem to add a lot of preview for a next book.
The story is really about three sisters on different sides of a Mage war. Except for the youngest sister (who seems lacking in some way), the characters seems well developed, and the writing is well done - fast moving and engaging.

A re-read of one of my favorite books, part 1 of the Exiles series. It's a fantasy book but it has a wonderful detailed political thread as well. The characters are fascinating and well-rounded, the pace is high and the setting interesting. 5 stars.