Rating: 
Summary: Bravo - - again
Review: Anna Lee Waldo has done it again. She involves you from the first line to last. She has only written 4 books, all based on true accounts. Each one I read I think is the best until the next comes along. This is a very consuming subject that could entangle you in innumerous ways and side tracks. I think Ms. Waldo did a superb job in staying focused with the main story and continuing on with the last. (This is second in a trilogy)It has filled gaps from the first book, Circle of Stones, and leaves you hungry for the following book. Am anxious for it to come out!!!
Rating:
Summary: This one is almost as good as Sacajewa.
Review: Anna Lee Waldo writes very long books, and this one is no exception. There is a lot of repetitiveness for the first third of the book from Circle of Stones, but it was done from a different viewpoint. Circle of Stones was from Brenda's viewpoint, and this one is from her son Madoc's viewpoint. This book is wonderfully researched and the little introductory paragraphs at the beginning of each chapter reinforce that research has been done. Ms. Waldo builds very real fictional characters around legendary ones and actual historical facts so the book is like a very interesting history lesson. The primitive sea voyage taken by Madoc and his fellow druids is written with such description that it's easy to picture the tiny boats heading out on the vast Atlantic ocean. What an awesome and couragous feat it was for these Welshmen to undertake. The book is quite graphic as well, so potential readers should be aware of that. If you are a fan of sweeping historical fiction, you will love this book. If you like a good story masterfully told, you also will love this book. I know I did.
Rating:
Summary: This one is almost as good as Sacajewa.
Review: Anna Lee Waldo writes very long books, and this one is no exception. There is a lot of repetitiveness for the first third of the book from Circle of Stones, but it was done from a different viewpoint. Circle of Stones was from Brenda's viewpoint, and this one is from her son Madoc's viewpoint. This book is wonderfully researched and the little introductory paragraphs at the beginning of each chapter reinforce that research has been done. Ms. Waldo builds very real fictional characters around legendary ones and actual historical facts so the book is like a very interesting history lesson. The primitive sea voyage taken by Madoc and his fellow druids is written with such description that it's easy to picture the tiny boats heading out on the vast Atlantic ocean. What an awesome and couragous feat it was for these Welshmen to undertake. The book is quite graphic as well, so potential readers should be aware of that. If you are a fan of sweeping historical fiction, you will love this book. If you like a good story masterfully told, you also will love this book. I know I did.
Rating:
Summary: Fantatic epic saga
Review: He was born to be a leader of the Druids, destined to save them and their way of life from the New Religionists by finding a new land were they could live and prosper. Madoc ap Owen Gwyneth does not know that his destiny was foretold before his birth because he was raised as the child of crofters who found him as a baby floating in the river. When he was seven they sent him to the Druid Colony in Ireland because his thirst for knowledge was great. Eventually, he traveled to Wales for further teaching. There he learned that his birth father was the Prince of Wales and that his mother was his mistress. When his half-brother poisoned his father and took up the mantle of leadership, the Druids were hunted down and killed. The Archdruid gave Madoc a fortune in jewels to build a floatilla so that he could find a place for them to call home. Eventually, ten ships with twenty men on each sail for what will be later called the new world, enduring hardship and trouble nearly every mile of the journey. CIRCLE OF STARS continues the story that began in CIRCLE OF STONES and is every bit as fascinating and enthralling as its prequel. Readers will be amazed to see the early influence of Henry II of England on the political and religious situation in Wales and Ireland and they will see a side of Thomas Beckett rarely seen in history books. Anne Lee Waldo has written an epic yet this reviewer believes there is more to the story to tell. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: Fantatic epic saga
Review: He was born to be a leader of the Druids, destined to save them and their way of life from the New Religionists by finding a new land were they could live and prosper. Madoc ap Owen Gwyneth does not know that his destiny was foretold before his birth because he was raised as the child of crofters who found him as a baby floating in the river. When he was seven they sent him to the Druid Colony in Ireland because his thirst for knowledge was great. Eventually, he traveled to Wales for further teaching. There he learned that his birth father was the Prince of Wales and that his mother was his mistress. When his half-brother poisoned his father and took up the mantle of leadership, the Druids were hunted down and killed. The Archdruid gave Madoc a fortune in jewels to build a floatilla so that he could find a place for them to call home. Eventually, ten ships with twenty men on each sail for what will be later called the new world, enduring hardship and trouble nearly every mile of the journey. CIRCLE OF STARS continues the story that began in CIRCLE OF STONES and is every bit as fascinating and enthralling as its prequel. Readers will be amazed to see the early influence of Henry II of England on the political and religious situation in Wales and Ireland and they will see a side of Thomas Beckett rarely seen in history books. Anne Lee Waldo has written an epic yet this reviewer believes there is more to the story to tell. Harriet Klausner
Rating: 
Summary: Confusing, hard to follow...
Review: I purchased this book mainly because I knew I owned the prequel. Five pages into it I remembered why I never re-read circle of stones-Waldo's books tend to be horrible long winded. This book does not deliver what the synopsis would have you believe. What could be an incredibly exciting story is instead killed with excessive detail about the number of sheep on each ship, or how many different varieties of birds there are to eat in florida. I have to give her credit for the excessive amount of research that went into this book, (see the bibliography at the end for an idea) but madoc doesn't even make it out of ireland until after page 250, and doesn't meet "Cougar" until after page 400. So after sitting through page after confusing page that manages to cover leprosy, french-english-wales politics, shipbuilding, who fathered who, superstitions, and occasional persecution, the plot takes you exactly where you knew it was going when you bought the book-from wales to america. No surprises, just enough detail to bore me out of finishing this book in under a week (I can read Jane M. Auel in one sitting!) The long, out-of-context quotes at the beginning of each chapter stop the flow of the story completely, and made me think she would have been better of writing a non-fiction account of the different versions written. The lengthy description of the stages of scurvy (told third-person, in what could have been the climactic part of the book) during the voyage to america made me wonder why I should finish the book, but hope that the two narrators would meet kept me going. I won't give away the "ending", but I wouldn't pay full price for this book unless you like your pleasure reading to take as much effort as the research for a college thesis.
Rating:
Summary: Frustrating-not a pleasure read
Review: I purchased this book mainly because I knew I owned the prequel. Five pages into it I remembered why I never re-read circle of stones-Waldo's books tend to be horrible long winded. This book does not deliver what the synopsis would have you believe. What could be an incredibly exciting story is instead killed with excessive detail about the number of sheep on each ship, or how many different varieties of birds there are to eat in florida. I have to give her credit for the excessive amount of research that went into this book, (see the bibliography at the end for an idea) but madoc doesn't even make it out of ireland until after page 250, and doesn't meet "Cougar" until after page 400. So after sitting through page after confusing page that manages to cover leprosy, french-english-wales politics, shipbuilding, who fathered who, superstitions, and occasional persecution, the plot takes you exactly where you knew it was going when you bought the book-from wales to america. No surprises, just enough detail to bore me out of finishing this book in under a week (I can read Jane M. Auel in one sitting!) The long, out-of-context quotes at the beginning of each chapter stop the flow of the story completely, and made me think she would have been better of writing a non-fiction account of the different versions written. The lengthy description of the stages of scurvy (told third-person, in what could have been the climactic part of the book) during the voyage to america made me wonder why I should finish the book, but hope that the two narrators would meet kept me going. I won't give away the "ending", but I wouldn't pay full price for this book unless you like your pleasure reading to take as much effort as the research for a college thesis.
Rating: 
Summary: a circle of stars...
Review: I read Sacajawea, and savored every word. but this book started
off on the wrong foot with me. They go net fishing for
Oysters, and FIND THEM! (Oysters live on the sea bottom and never
move for their entire adult life)
This book might be well-researched, but the author takes liberties where she shouldn't. IF attention to detail
is important to you, this book will frustrate.
Sometimes the story line is a bit confusing, the author blasts
forth with information that she assumes (?) you know, and eventually, through details, you figure it out.
Rating:
Summary: Confusing, hard to follow...
Review: The blurb as well as the front drawing caught my attention so I borrowed this book from our local library. For the most part, it is entertaining but as I get deeper into the story, suspending disbelief is becoming harder and you get the sense the book is written haphazardly. For example: Madoc, the hero, lectured the Calusa men the bad things their Chief had done to them. How could Madoc know the village's history when he just arrived that day? And Cougar, the Native American heroine, and the Welsh sailors understanding each other well after less than half a day of meeting for the very first time? There are paragraphs after paragraphs when I asked myself, "What happened to this, to that? I still want to know the ending of this story but I do not usually take more than two weeks to read a book of fiction.
Rating:
Summary: Bravo - - again
Review: This is an interesting book that fills in the legend of Madoc. As a Welsh American,it fills in historical nuances that are not covered in our education system. It is a good, readable fictional story of how it might have happened. I was pleased at how each of the chapters included a quote from a recognized expert who covered the accuracy of the historical facts used in that chapter. This made the story both interesting and enlightning. I have also read the precurser or this book 'Circle of Stones and all of the above would pertain to that also.
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