The Burning Stone

Rating:
Summary: The Plot Thickens!!
Review: Ever since the first book, King's Dragon, I have been hooked on this series. I have waited anxiously for this novel for months. We get deeper into the plot as more characters are introduced and the secrets of others are revealed. The characters are amazing, their personalities are so defined, I can almost imagine being there. I don't know what I can say to make you want to read this story, but I will say that Miss Elliot is a master with the written word. She tells the tale masterfully and I cannot wait for the next two books to come out. I urge everyone to read this novel, and it's two predecessors, because this is one of the best written and most complex series I have ever read and it is just beyond words. Everyone go out and buy it!!

Rating:
Summary: It just keeps getting better
Review: Each of the books in this series just keeps getting better and better! The twists and turns keep coming and the characters just grow more vivid. I highly recommend this series to everyone, but don't start in the middle. Reading these in order is a must!

Rating:
Summary: A Stunning Series
Review: Kate Elliot wrote a masterpiece when she wrote The Crown of Swords Trilogy. You instantly get swept away in the magic and power of the story, and when you finish the series, wish that it was never over. You fall in love with the characters and they become like best friends. well worth the read.

Rating:
Summary: um...it was ok...I guess
Review: I read a bit of if at a local bookstore...the parts I read was pretty good, but the book itself is loosing the essence of magicality that Kate Elliott seemed to express within the first two books in the series. With the rape of Tallia and Liath and Sanglant being separated again at the end, it just seemed to "real life" here on earth rather than that magical "taste" of Wendar.

Rating:
Summary: True quality of this book will show when series is complete
Review: Thinking that this was the last book in a trilogy, I panicked whilst reading the last hundred pages, frantically flipping to the end wondering how the hell Elliott was going to tie it up. Realising there must be at least one more book in this series provoked conflicting emotions in me. Relief that it was not over was certainly one of them, but frustration and irritation were also right up there. I think the major problem with this book is that the Crown of Stars series appears to have been conceived of as a trilogy. I feel this for two reason: Firstly, this volume is substantially longer than the first two, which were of uniform length, and Secondly, the ending of this novel makes the reader feel like Elliot simply had to cut it off due to the burgeoning length of the novel, and go onto a fourth book. The truncated feel of the last couple of chapters somewhat diminishes the novel as a whole. The first two novels ended on wicked cliffhangers but at least I did not feel confused by them or irritated at being left so high and dry. Nevertheless, this novel is as beautifully written as the first two in the series; the sense of countless threads running warp and weft together into a fantastic tapestried revelation is intriguing and skillfully maintained. As usual, Elliot's attention to historical and religious detail is superb. Her character development is curious in this novel: in the first novel, the protagonists were all lost, trying to find themselves; in the second, they all find themselves an identity (Liath and Hanna as Eagles, Alain as the Count's Heir, Sanglant by fixating on Liath, Ivar and Tallia their heresy, Fifth Brother as a leader), in this third installment, each character essentially loses themself. They must each begin to let go of that which they clung to as an anchor, and redefine their very selves. A conventional fantasy third book would be the 'find themselves heroes' bit; but this is exceptional fantasy not conventional. All in all, the faults that are rife in this novel (mainly to do with the abrupt, confusing ending and some plot difficulties, e.g. the inexplicable Quman invasion - Zacharias seems a poor pretext) will probably seem trivial when the whole series can be read as a seamless whole. Hang in there with this series, 'cause it's only going to get better.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderfully written
Review: This story just gets better. The forshadowing leaves the reader thinking. During this book I found myself writing out a cronology and a geneology. The revelation of "Sister Ann's" birth brought a whole new dimention to the story. My favorite portion is the lesson that no matter what the parents think,their children will grow to be themselves.

Rating:
Summary: Hard wait for the fourth in the series
Review: ...This is a great series but I advise waiting til the lastbook comes out before getting hooked; the cliffhanger endings canleave you grinding your teeth in frustration....Elliott leaves her characters chained up with homicidal dogs, stranded in other dimensions, and so forth. Even so, this is a MUCH better series than Jordan's or Goodkind's, equal with George R.R. Martin if not quite the equal of Tolkien...

Rating:
Summary: It's becoming interesting!
Review: Kate Elliott's third volume in the Crown of Stars series is the best installment so far. Ironically, it is also certain to confuse - and disappoint - quite few readers. Elliott is not afraid to shift her attention from one (sub)plot to the next; neither does she balk at peculiar (and quite non-linear) character development. In this third volume, for example, both Alain and Sanglant (two of the main "heroes" of the first volumes) fall from grace, becoming, as a result, much less "heroic" than they were at first presented. More generally, a lot happens in this book, and quite a bit of it is surprising. That alone is a good thing, but, more importantly, it shows that this is a writer who is willing to take some chances at least. Having said this, there is enough to criticise as well. Elliott places, for example, to much emphasis on her rather contrived version of Christianity. For starters, just about every day in the year seems to be the day another saint is remembered, and Elliott hardly ever fails to tell us all about it. And the very thing I just I just applauded above - the way the story shifts and turns - can very easily be overdone, which would simply ruin the series as a whole. All in all though, this series is still developing well. Elliott is a proficient, though not an excellent writer. To place this book in some sort of pecking order: it is better than Robert Jordan's Path of Daggers, but not nearly as accomplished as George Martin's A Clash of Kings.

Rating:
Summary: Realism and Fantasy
Review: Having just finished Kate's three books in the Crown of Stars series, I felt compelled to come here to look for the next releases. Kate weaves a magical and intensely captivating story based strongly around fact and history. Using a lot of historical accounts, and drawing deeply on imagination and creativity, she weaves a story around a multitude of main characters, demanding that the reader use his/her own mind to follow the intricate storylines, and constantly elluding any guess-taking on behalf of the reader. I gave this four stars only because I'm impatient for the next in the series.

Rating:
Summary: Gay Fiction that almost passes as mainstream Fantasy.
Review: Kate Elliot again has woven myriad plots into a complex but easily understood whole. But in "Burning Stone" she often spends too much time giving very detailed descriptions of the insignificant. This slows the story too much in too many places. She is not and has never been a master of characterization. She gives just enough about each character that we can understand them and see them as unique, but not quite enough that we can care about them. She does make us care, but she does it through the actions of her antagonists, each of them truly detestable. She makes it easy to hate these characters, therefore making it easy to care for those they plot against. In all of her novels she obsessively works in some aspect of homosexuality. In most it's only hinted at, in "Burning Stone" it is told almost graphically. Yet she continues to only hint at the physical expression of all heterosexual relationships. Every male in "Burning Stone" is either homosexual or bisexual, while all the women are straight. The homosexuality is not in any way important to even a single plot, but is purely gratuitous. Her efforts at Political Correctness are wonderful, but they destroy her credibility.