Rating: 
Summary: wow!
Review: An absolutely spellbinding novel. In the fantasy genre, I often find the second volume of a trilogy to fall flat, but Stone of Farewell fairly crackles off of the pages. I just ordered the third volume and can't wait 'till it comes in. Highly recommended to anybody who enjoys epic fantasy.
Rating:
Summary: Great epic, just like I love them!
Review: This is the second volume in the Memory, Sorrow and Thorn Tetralogy (starting with The Dragonbone Chair, ending with To Green Angel Tower: Siege and To Green Angel Tower: Storm).As the great Storm is building up in the North and a terrible winter is spreading all over Osten Ard, Simon and his friends escape from Yiqanuc and start their long and perilous journey down the mountain and across the frozen plains to the Stone of Farewell, where they have to meet Prince Josua's party of exiles and deliver the sword Thorn. In the meantime Princess Miriamele, accompanied by the enigmatic Brother Cadrach, travels southwards to seek help from her family, Maegwin and her folk hide in the Grianspog caves, where she discovers what seems like an ancient Sithi city, and King Elias and his advisor, the red priest and alchemist Pryrates, conspire with the evil Norns. A great epic, full of unexpected new turns as the plot unfolds, varied characters you get immediately attached to, and marvelously detailed descriptions, like those of the beautiful legendary cities of the Elf-like Sithi folk. Definitely a great read. Can't wait to read To Green Angel Tower.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: The second part of one of the most outstanding epic fantasies I have ever read. I noticed there's been some comparison between Ender's Game and this book. This is apple's and oranges folks. Science Fiction and Fantasy are TWO COMPLETELY SEPARATE GENRE'S. I LOVED Ender's Game. Outstanding story, I loved it's companion novel Ender's Shadow as well but I can't compare Card to Williams. Impossible. Two different styles, two different genre's. I agree that Tad does like to talk, the Otherland series is a prime example of this, but it is SO worth the effort. Trust me. You will not be disappointed. A fine author and fine book, but let's keep this real. Thanks for your time.
Rating: 
Summary: Detailed and Comfortable
Review: Perusing the bookshelves at a local bookstore, I once overheard a conversation between two women about the novels of Tad Williams. Hefting the first part of TO GREEN ANGEL TOWER, one of the women mused, "He writes such nice long books, if only he wrote better." Sadly, this is a very accurate description of Williams's fantasy series MEMORY, SORROW AND THORN. The second book in his New York Times best-selling series, STONE OF FAREWELL, continues Williams's tale of the scullion Simon and his adventures in the land of Osten Ard. The darkness is spreading, Ineluki the Storm King and his Norn minions move across the land, and the forces of good must retreat to the Stone of Farewell, their only sanctuary in these perilous times. The charismatic Prince Josua Lackhand hatches plans to reclaim his kingdom from his brother, the mad King Elias and the evil sorcerer Pyrates, while Simon and the dwindling number of the League of the Scroll seek to fight their battle on a different front. STONE OF FAREWELL can be easily summed up as being "more of the same" of THE DRAGONBONE CHAIR. Williams admirably moves the reader through what is a commonly tedious section of the fantasy novel, the development to the climax. Fast-paced action interspersed with moments of introspection, Williams's characters are well-rounded and identifiable. The plot is somewhat predictable, but readers will enjoy it nonetheless. Reading MEMORY, SORROW AND THORN is almost like hearing a more detailed retelling of a story everyone knows. Political intrigue and the courage of man are delved into during the calmer parts of the story. Morality is a constant theme in the series, what is right and what is wrong, what is good and what is evil. For readers who worked their way through THE DRAGONBONE CHAIR, it is highly recommended that they read STONE OF FAREWELL. If the first novel in the series left you feeling empty, you might not be as well served working through the rest of this series. However, for avid readers of fantasy, with the amount of detail in Williams's epic, it should be enough to keep them coming back for more.
Rating:
Summary: a reader
Review: This was by far the best book I ever read and positivly the most far reached detail book I ever read. Tad Willams makes the most vived worlds. It almost brung me to tears to see it end (but theres always the Green Tower!) so I recommend this book to any reader, because it's simply the best.
Rating: 
Summary: All you people are nuts
Review: The only reason I gave it one star is because it finally ended. Everything I hated about the first book in this series has magnified in the second. Nothing happens. All the characters just sit around and complain about how bad everything is. Simon just cries all the time. Frustrating. One thing I personally hate in a book is when the protaganists get captured. Frustrating. Binabik wouldn't speak b/c he broke his oath! Ahh, poor baby. Why don't you cry me a river. Did you also know the world is ending? Quit crying and do something about it. They spend the whole book walking to a rock. Wow. Real excitement. Can I have another 1500 pages of nothing? Oh, wait, that's about the length of To Green Angel Tower. Boy, I can't wait to fall asleep. I've literally read hundreds of Fantasy Adventure (I guess this is just Fantasy, since there isn't much of an Adventure) books. Everything from Tolkien-and comparing this to that is blasphemy- and 1930's Conan to Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance and Warhammer. Most of them may not have the "character developement" or the "plot mechanics" all of the other reviewers seem to place on Memory, Sorrow and Thorn but every single one has been more fun to read. Even the ones I didn't like. The fighting scenes are just more frustration. They are not seen from a direct view. It's all seen from a skewed angle. Deornoth hurts his head and can't see what is going on around him when they get ambushed in the woods. Haeston is killed but we don't see the actually blow, he simply lands at Simon's feet. This literary device of using subtle violence can be great when used from time to time, but not ALL the time. "Oh, but the descriptiveness is sooo good," yeah, well, when you use three pages to describe a mountainside it just becomes tiresome. I could describe taking a dump in either three pages or one sentence. Which do you prefer? If I want over-descriptiveness, I'll read a Romance novel. I'd rather read details about vaginas and breasts then mountains and woods. Tad Williams, thanks for draining two weeks out of my life. I'll never get them back.
Rating:
Summary: Simply Fantastic
Review: Stone of Farewell, the second volume of Tad Williams' trilogy Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, is amazingly good, easily surpassing in almost every way (except length) the first book in the saga. It starts with the technical details. The pretty frequent typos and grammatical errors found Dragonbone Chair are virtually eliminated here. And the story itself has become much more unique and self-defined, drifting out of the standard Tolkien rut the first book was in. The characterisations continued to advance believably, enjoyably, and sympathetically, and some of the characters not focused on from the first book enjoy a much more prominent role here. The action and interactions are superb, the pacing excellent, and the author wisely chooses not to show the POV of the characters with twisted minds or royal blood. The Sithi society is interesting, not too human but not so inhuman that we can't relate, either. This is one of the best fantasy works that I have seen in years, and I'm very much looking forward to reading the third book in the cycle.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: Very talented author, read this series!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent, again
Review: This book is a fitting successor to the Dragonbone Chair. Tad Williams continues with his fine work in the previous book. Again, this is a story of epic proportion, with numerous subplots and lots of character development. Osten Ard again is a vibrant,believable world in the process of being overwhelmed by a seemingly unstoppable ancient evil. The heroes are a scattered, ragtag bunch running for their lives, having a vague notion of how the evil should be stopped, but having very few options at their disposal. It just seems that there is no way in the world that good will prevail here, although here and there there are hints as to how it might occur. The despair of the main characters in the story is almost palpable. I found myself identifying many times with characters, many of which are memorable. Characters grow and develop in the book and in the reader's mind. This book is more fast-paced and has more action than the previous title, but character development and interaction are not sacrificed. Magic is referred to more than in the previous title, and is of the sort that implies that much effort and power(fueled by hatred and vengeance) were expended in its implementation. The enemy strikes with magic in places the reader would never expect. This book again contains much in the way of kingdom politics, intrigue, betrayal, loyalty, dark scheming, and much, much more. This book kept me up very late some nights so I could learn what happened next. Again, much of what will probably be important is not revealed early in this epic tale. I felt like my understanding of the Sithi was very inadequate and grew very slowly, just as Simon's did. Like the mortals in the books, it is difficult so far for me to truly understand the culture of the Sithi and its timeless ways. I'm looking forward to finding out more.
Rating: 
Summary: Better than the first but still not great...
Review: This book I would also give 3 and a half stars. Despite giving it the same rating as the first book, this one is better. It is more engaging and I like the beginning part about the trolls. This is very original. Keep reading the series, if not because it is entertaining, then to reach the last book which is a whopper.
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