Rating: 
Summary: The end is coming
Review: The fifth volume in the `Crown of Stars' saga, The Gathering storm, has been a long time coming (duly noted by the apologetic author) but the delay has been worth it. We find ourselves trailing two Eagles, Hanna and Hathui, the former riding to join Sanglant and Sapientia who have gone to Jinn trailing Bulkezu as their prisoner, the latter heading towards King Henry who has been possessed, the Skopos and the insidious Hugh. Amongst this the small fervent band of `heretics', numbering Sigfrid, Ivar and the beautiful Baldwin amongst them end up at the monastry where Alain is desperately attempting to forget who he is and seek peaceful obscurity.
It is 733, Prince Bayan and Margrave Judith are dead, Prince Ekkhard has now married the new margrave and all of Novaria is under constant siege and assailment from all sides. King Henry steps ever closer towards becoming emperor, attempting to achieve the glory of Taillafer, but is becoming increasingly controlled, suspicious and removed frm his subjects as he seeks to unite Varre and Wendar. We focus on events are Ivar and company struggle to understand where they lost three years, watch as Hanna rescues Ivar's half-sister, Rosvita, and flees with Sister Obligatia away from Hugh.
The bulk of the novel is given over to Sanglant's `taming' of the griffin, Bulkezu's death (surprisingly casually handled given the import ascribed to him early on), Liath's return and their subsequent use of the Crowns to race west to confront Anne who is using Henry's army to conquer all lands that possess what are in fact, henges in order to recreate the cataclysm and allow the Cursed Ones back into the world. Several sub-plots weave their separate paths: Alain and the Skrolin, Brother Zaccharias and his dicspla as a mathematica, Hanna and Sister Rosvita, the love triangle of Anna, Thiemo and Matto and many more besides, all the time shadowed by the revolutionary Eika, Stronghand who has conquered Alba and Presbyter Hugh whose insidious perfidy threatens far more than initially thought...
The early focus leans much towards the reconiliation of preceived `heresy', Elliott choosing to introduce the age old dilemma that widespread use of science can only reduce the spiritual power of the church and this latest installment moving more and more towards a religious commentary where inevitable parallels are intimated. Making heavy use of `portals' to get around with inconsistent time serves to speed up the action considerably as we track the momentous events that lead us towards the final volume. Elliot's series is, perhaps, not quite on a technical par with Jordan, or even Goodkind, but the depth of imagination rivals Donaldson. The unfortunate point is that the complexity of character and plot and the length of time it has taken Elliott to produce this fifth novel means that, to get the very best out of it, you need to reread the preceding novel, otherwise names and places and plots become faintly vague and difficult to recollect. Nevertheless, this is another excellent installment and a must for any fan of the genre
Rating: 
Summary: Again, The Cataclysm
Review: The Gathering Storm is the fifth novel in the Crown of Stars series, following Child of Flame. In the previous volume, Prince Bayan has been killed by Quman sorcery, but Prince Sanglant has defeated the Quman hosts, capturing Bulkezu, and now has taken his army to the east. King Henri has been possessed by a daimone and Sister Rosvita has been imprisoned in a dungeon, but Hathui escapes the plotters. Liathano walks the spheres, learning the truth of her mother and meeting Sanglant's grandfather and mother. Alain has met Adica and witnessed her death in the great weaving, but has been swallowed by the white fires of the crowns. Ivar dreams of Alain as he and his friends escape through the tunnels to elsewhere.In this novel, two Eagles, and a young aspirant, meet in an old Dariyan waystation and exchange information. Hanna and Ernst have come from Osterburg and Hathui from Darre. When they leave, Ernst travels back to Princess Theophanu in Osterburg, Hanna goes to Henri's court in Darre, and Hathui travels to Sanglant in Ungria. In Wendar, Theophanu holds Osterburg as regent while Henri is pursuing imperial ambitions in Aosta, but has few forces available to her and is beset with uprisings in Varre and civil war in Salia. In Aosta, Henri and his new queen, Adelheid, have overcome the rebels in the north, but still struggle against riots, Arethousan invaders and Jinna bandits in the south. Hanna has been sequestered by Hugh, but is able to make contact with Rosvita's clerics. When a severe earthquake occurs, they use the distraction to rescue Rosvita and then flee to the Convent of St. Ekatarina, but with Hugh in pursuit. In Ungria, Sanglant, together with Sapientia and Blessing, is moving east to the great grasslands hunting griffen feathers and sorcerers, with Bulkezu as his guide. While only three years old, Blessing is growing very rapidly in physical maturity, but not emotionally. In the north, Stronghand is invading Alba and thinking Empire. Alain returns through the crowns from his sojourn in the past, grieving for Adica. Stronghand and Alain begin to perceive each other's thoughts once more. Soon Anne and the other sleepers will begin the great weaving to forever sunder the Ashioi from the world. Can none stop them? This volume was a long time coming, but well worth the wait. According to Elliott, the story just refused to stay small. Like the previous volume, this novel is almost 900 pages long. Hopefully, the next, and last, volume in the series will not take quite as long. Just remember, Tolkien worked on the Lord of Rings trilogy for decades; does anyone want to complain about that? Recommended for all those Elliott fans who have waited patiently and for anyone who likes large-scale fantasy tales of war and intrigue.
Rating:
Summary: The End Is Near
Review: The land of the elf-like Aoi was cast out from the earth into the aether with powerful spells in the distant past. Now the time for its return is fast approaching, and a cabal of sorcerers is determined to do anything necessary to ensure that the spell is renewed to keep the Aoi away, including controlling King Henry via possession. Prince Sanglant has led his army to the far lands of the griffins and centaurs to find allies with the necessary magic to free his father and confront the cabal led by Skopos Anne. After a long absence (that seemed quite short to her), Sanglant's wife Liath returns from the aether with new knowledge about her magical heritage and a grim determination to stop Anne's disastrous plan. But time grows short, and the political chaos that has descended on Henry's kingdoms makes everything more difficult. Wendar and Varre are falling apart under bickering rivals as he is off pursuing conquests in other lands. This leaves a door open for the lizard-like Eika invasion led by Stronghand - who plans not to raid and plunder, but to rule. Stronghand has a secondary mission as well, one that just might hold the key to surviving the coming cataclysm: to find the much-persecuted Alain now that their strange psychic bond has returned.
THE GATHERING STORM is the fifth volume of the Elliott's wrist-bending Crown of Stars fantasy series. It is not a stand-alone read; new readers will definitely want to start at the beginning with the first book, KING'S DRAGON. Fans of the series might want to skim through previous books before diving into this one, because there's not much in the way of a recap provided. I'm not a novice at reading long fantasy series, but it had been a year or so since I read the fourth book, CHILD OF FLAME, and I was feeling a little lost among the multitude of story lines.
This is a fascinatingly complex world, complete with religions, magic systems, and several different races of beings. Elliott could easily write other books set in this world without exhausting its possibilities. In fact, there is so much detail and such a large cast that at times it gets a little overwhelming to keep track of, especially without a character guide. It's also hard to see the significance of some of the minor plot threads and while they might make more sense in the sixth and final book, I found myself getting a little bored with some of them. Elliott has generally done very well in developing complex main characters in this series - both heroes and villains have mixed character traits and motivations. But while a couple of the characters develop and grow in this book, several of the other main characters seem to regress into shallowness.
Long series tend to get a bit bloated as they progress, and at almost a thousand pages, this is no exception. However, for the most part the plot advances steadily along without bogging down. But after such a long, patient build-up, the climax feels rushed. Still, all in all, I would recommend this imaginative and complex series to fantasy readers who aren't daunted by hefty, multi-volume series.
Rating:
Summary: The Gathering Storm
Review: This is the fifth in the Crown of Stars series and by far the best so far. I found the first two books rather hard to follow but as they have gone on the characters have become clearer and the series is building to an excellent finale in Crown of Stars - I hope the last book will be published very soon.
Rating:
Summary: It was well worth the wait ...
Review: This series just gets better and better. This 900 page book is riveting, giving us lots of drama, suspense, surprises and action, while retaining the considered and elegant style of its predecessors. I don't suggest reading this book if you haven't read the rest of the series. In fact, I recommend a reread of the entire series before starting on this one. Such complex and satisfying fantasy can only be understood, and, more importantly, enjoyed in context. This penultimate book ends dramatically, spectacularly, and movingly, but leaves just enough loose ends for the final book to satisfy. What is Alain's destiny? How will the races sharing earth come to live in harmony? Did Antonia and Hugh survive the cataclysm (I'll bet they did) and what damage will they do? What has happened to Wolfhere, whose side is he on, anyway, and what secrets does he have to reveal? How will Sanglant restore peace and order to Wendar and its neighboring kingdoms? What of Blessing and her attendants? What roles do Ivar and Hanna have to play? And what about Rosvita? And more. I can't wait to find out.
Rating: 
Summary: OK, mid-level fantasy
Review: This was not worth the wait. I say that even though I enjoyed most of the other books in the Crown of Stars series, but this one is harder to like for some reason. I think Ms. Elliot is a fine author, but a weak and inconsistent one, not up with the likes of the big name female fantasists like Melanie Rawn, Elizabeth Hayden and Robin Hobb. Having said that, however, it was nice to see something in the series out again, especially since Melanie Rawn seems to have disappeared from the face of the earth. And this book has already been spammed by the Robert Stanek [or as my friends and I refer to him, Robert Stank] e-publicity machine, which means they think it is a good enough book to ride the coattails of. It's not that bad, respectable for middle of the road stuff. I am still waiting for the Golden Key books.
Rating: 
Summary: Help I'm drowning
Review: Well, here goes. Kates previous books were interesting and I could see this being a series as big as Jordans "Wheel of Time" But it seems that she has decided to try (unsuccesfully) to gather all the loose ends in this story so that she can have a finale in the next book. There is so much information in this book it was very hard to keep afloat. Sorry but this was a sad and lackluster book, hard to read and digest.
Rating: 
Summary: Good series, long book, story loses momentum.
Review: While I loved the first books in this series, as it continues and gets longer and more complex, the story loses me. Normally I follow and enjoy fantasies with a complex and rich history, like George RR Martin's song of ice and fire series, or Melanie Rawn's sunrunner series(I forget what it is called), but I find myself putting down 'The gathering storm' again and again, and forcing myself to read it. I do follow it, but I don't seem to want to. Hopefully as the story reaches it's climax in the last book, the story will gain steam and be interesting again.
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