Rating: 
Summary: Child of Flame
Review: I am one of those who really enjoy the Crown of Stars series and I think Child of Flame (although not my favorite) was really good.
I have read some complaints of how the story separates into about 6 stories instead of one, but personally I think it adds to the story. It adds because it lets each character go their separate ways. Some events of the book you actually read twice, but it's a good thing because you see things through another characters eyes.
In this book almost all the main characters go through a "Hero's Journey" and change or discover new things about themselves or other people.
Although all of the characters are very interesting and well developed, one of the most interesting of them are Rosvita and Liath. Rosvita is a top cleric and personal advisor of King Henry. Trying to unravel the mystery of the past of the new skopos, Anne, who claims to be the decedant of the famous Emperor Taillefer. Liath,a young woman who also has a very mysterious past (being the daughter of the skopos) comes to the strange land of the Aoi, whom Anne works against, there she is taught to wield her power by Eldest Uncle. Then she goes on a journey to discover her true self, her past, and get back to her husband and daughter.
I think this is a great book, but if you are going to read it you need to read the three other preceding books King's Dragon, Prince of Dogs, and The Burning Stone, otherwise you would be extremely confused and wouldn't understand the extensiveness of the characters or the complexity of the story line.
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Summary: Liath
Review: I anxiously await the final chapters in this story of magic, love and treachery! But Elliot's series is more than that -- one is pulled into the story by the magic of her words. What will happen to the King's Dragon and the king's son? Will his love be returned? If you liked Rawn's Sunrunner series then Crown of Stars is for you!
Rating:
Summary: I love this book!
Review: I can't wait until the next and last book comes out. in my opinion, this book was the best of the series yet. Then again, perhaps I should re-read the first two...The best part would have to be the depth of the characters and the plotline, not to mention the setting. Kate Elliott does a lot a research into the medieval era. Pick up this book and read it now!
Rating: 
Summary: Very Good, but alot of character development
Review: I found 'Child of Flame' to be very good. I enjoyed the first 3 books in the series, and was not dissapointed on this one. I did find that the 'character development', (basically chapters where nothing of substance happens, but you get to know the character better) was a little excessive. If you are willing to read these type of chapters, you will be well rewarded for your patience. I found I appreciated the book more when I took the time to understand the characters.
The cast of characters is pretty big, with many plots and subplots. I like to read this type of book, as it makes me think more.
Throughout the whole book, especially with Laith, I sensed a building of tension and drama that was on the brink of explosion right as the book ended. I am eager for the next book, and am sure it will be just as good.
Rating: 
Summary: This series has grown increasingly uneven...
Review: I must say that if I had put this book down halfway through (as I was seriously tempted to do) I would have missed a lot. Everything important happens in the last 150 to 200 pages. This coincides strangely with the burning stone, in which everything happens within the first 100 pages!! basically there has been way too much lost time in this series, which started out so fantastically with the first two books!! Still, the book ended well, so I have great hopes for the next one. One criticism of Elliott, and it is one that I direct at several female authors of fantasy (like Melanie Rawn or Katharine Kurtz). I understand that you're upset that throughout medieval history women were forced into subservient roles. You look plain ridiculous, however, when you write of women being powerful warriors, or of a church system that resembles our own but is dominated by women. Or, even more ludicrously, that nobles inherit through the female line. Women, by and large, don't make powerful warriors. Except for a few small pacific islands no church or aristocratic system has ever been a matriarchy. I simply laugh off these part of Elliott's world, and instead focus on the characters, but especially in this book I have to laugh when male characters speak of women as being "mighty warriors".
Rating:
Summary: From Fire to Embers
Review: I ordered this book when it first came out, then sat it on the shelf for three years while I delved into other books in my to-be-read pile. So when I did finally haul this down and began reading, I found I had great difficulty remembering all that had gone before in the prior three volumes. Elliott does not help very much in this regard, as the opening section of the book begins with a totally new situation in a much earlier time-frame (about 13,000 years earlier), and takes one of the major characters of the first three books and transports him into this era. When she does return to the time and place of King Henry and Wendar, she still does not provide any summary of earlier actions but picks up the action from where she left off in The Burning Stone. So for a quite some time, I found myself very confused and lost. But as I read a little further, I found my memory of her characters, Sanglant, Liath, Hanna, Anne, Hugh, Stronghand, Alain and several others, coming back to me, which says quite a bit about these character's vividness and uniqueness. It is in fact just such strong characterization that is Elliot's strong suit in this saga, which she continues to display with the new character of Adica, vibrant and personable, in this volume, along with continued development of all her former people. What is not so good is the seemingly interminable plot line of the war for succession of the Wendar realm, with King Henry out to solidify his claim to the title of Emperor, Sanglant off fighting the latest invaders of the realm, and Hugh and Anne busily scheming to prevent any possible reconciliation with the Aoi. Liath is off on her own personal journey of self-discovery, with very little interaction with the other plot threads, though there are some revelations about her history near the end that promise some fireworks in later books of this set. It seems to take forever for Elliott to present the origins of the war between the Aoi and humans and how the current situation developed, although these points once presented finally start to give her world a logical, consistent framework. At the same time, some of the mystery and magic of these works is lost with this explanation. The story arc with Adica and Alain is the best thread in this work, fresh, original, and with its details of daily living and technological level well thought out, but once again I felt this story was stretched out too long, with too many incidents that have little relevance to main story. Also missing is the cross-cultural viewpoints on religion and the reasons for living that added so much depth to the earlier works, these items seeming to now be taken for granted and with nothing new added by this volume. At over 900 pages, and with so little real action, this book was in obvious need of some severe pruning. As it is, it is an overlong bridge book in which the fire and excitement of the first three has died down to embers, which hopefully can be re-ignited in the next book. --- Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)
Rating: 
Summary: Child of Flame: A Mixed Bag
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed "King's Dragon" and "Prince of Dogs" and was reasonably entertained by "The Burning Stone." I found reading "Child of Flame" a chore. Why? As in previous books, in "Child of Flame" Kate Elliott follows the adventures of at least six major characters: Alain, Liath, Prince Sanglant, Rosvita (and through her, the court of King Henry), Stronghand, and the Eagle, Hanna. In this volume, their paths diverge and we find ourselves reading six different stories, with little or no interaction between these major characters. Two of them, in fact (Alain and Liath) are not even in the same space-time continuum as the other four, with a resulting drop in my interest in their adventures. This is a serious problem because Alain's experiences account for 31% of the text and Liath's even less interesting journey takes up another 14%. That's almost half of the book that I found mildly interesting, at best. Stronghand is one of Elliott's most original and intriguing characters, but his adventures are so sparsely documented that they barely qualify as a separate strand in the novel. However, although they only amount to 3% of the story, they do occur completely independently of the other five strands, qualifying them for independent status. Independent and fascinating: I wanted to read more about Stronghand and his evolving culture. The other three stories, firmly grounded in the world Kate Elliott established in the first three books, were more engaging than Liath's and Alain's, interesting enough to keep me slogging through their detours away from the main story. However, every single story (except Stronghand's) involves a lengthy journey. No one stays put. One journey, or perhaps two, might be interesting, but five get tiresome. Furthermore, much of the suspense George R.R. Martin generates is missing from Ms. Elliott's work; it is clear that, unlike Mr. Martin, Ms. Elliott is not going to increase the tension by sacrificing a major character. Will I read Books #5 and #6? Only if I feel reasonably sure the major characters will interact and that the text will consist of more than a series of loosely-strung-together episodes.
Rating:
Summary: Crown of Stars: A Good Read and One of My Favorites!
Review: I'm writing this in response to Brian Walker's review and in defense of the Crown of Stars series: Even though most people said that the world Kate Elliot created was matriarchal it seems to me as if its pretty much even. I mean, their ruler is I guy isn't he? I think that about evens it out. The world in the Crown of Stars is very well thought out complete with terrain and economy. Thats more than a lot of people can say. This could be a real world - excluding all the magical phenomena. There are no loose ends or empty spaces. In the review I responding you say that women couldn't rule because they were physically smaller. Then you go on to use Joan of Arc as an example by saying that she was a weak warrior. But I say that you're contradicting yourself. Despite her lack of raw physical strength she was still able to effectively carry out a campaign and be a leader. That shows how women could in theory succeed in a medieval world despite that they were weaker. Sucess is 10% talent and 90% determination. With a little inspiration anything is possible! And the cooler head of a woman is a preferable when it comes to administation. A very satifying book. Impossible to put down. There, that's my review.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome
Review: If you like Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series you love this. Elliot's prose style is the most similar to Jordan's I have come across and matches his concept of a matriarchal dominated society though perhaps not to quite the same degree. It also touches on Sara Douglass' use of the 'we originated from the stars' concept but it blends both elements perfectly into a well written and utterly captivating series. I suspect it'll turn into one of those series you just don't want to ever end.
Rating:
Summary: So good it could be dangerous
Review: It is just not possible to say enough good things about this series. Child of Flame is incredible, and it deprived me of sleep because I could NOT put it down before 3:00 a.m. for three nights in a row! Actually all the books in the Crown of Stars series should come with warning labels, something like: The Surgeon General has determined that this book will cause you to forget to eat and sleep and may prove hazardous to your health. Seriously, Child of Flame brings forth staggering new revelations about the Aoi and about Liath's parentage. Alain finds himself thrown back in time to when the Aoi were still present on earth, Liath finally comes into her power and gets over her tendency to react to danger by running away, and my favorite character, Sanglant, shines very bright as he fights the Quman barbarians for the heartlands of Wendar, with no support from the absent king Henry who has fallen, alas, into bad company. Several subplots from previous novels that I feared might be going nowhere tie back into the main plot in surprising ways, and there are unpredictable plot twists galore. At the end I had to go back and reread the beginning, because my take on what was happening had changed so completely! My only reservation about this series is that I may perish from the suspense by the time the last (sixth) book comes out.
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