The House of Gaian

Rating:
Summary: A decent end to a decent series.
Review: I think Bishop got a little carried away by the end of this series. Adolfo did not have enough motivation for the horrible things he did, the witches were way too powerful and way to perfect and all of the most intriguing characters died. Well, that's not entirley true. Murtagh,the Lord of the Selkies lived, but he barely appeared.

In the second book I was impressed by the power of the witches, and the obstinancy of the Fae annoyed me, but by House of Gaian, I was so sick of those supremely perfect witches that I wanted to kill them myself. The whole premise of the story was that witches are all-powerful, the fae should be humbled and anyone who opposes the witches is wrong and ignorant. And yet these incredibly powerful women did nothing to spread their knowledge or to help thier fellows in the previous books. I got tired of the constant lectures on witch power and fae ignorance. If the witches refused to tell their story how can they blame others for not knowing it? That bothered me a great deal.

I can't say I was pleased, either, that Bishop turned Lucian into such a horrible villian. In my mind he was one of the most intriging characters in the first book. He had a great deal of potential to develop, but Bishop took the easy way out and he remained exactly as he was. A great pity in my mind.

I fell in love with the characters of Breanna and Liam in the second book- they are quite perfect but utterly charming none the less, and I enjoyed their presence in this book. I cannot say the same for Selena however. She was too all-powerful and holier than thou. It was rather alienating. Also, I was a little curious as to why Ashk was so powerful. As far as I could tell, all she could do was turn into a Shadow Hound and shoot a bow well. So why exactly did Aiden keep getting chills whenever she said something ominous?

Compared to the previous books, House of Gaian is considerably darker, but it didn't bother me too much. It gets a little gory near the end, and some of the character die, but it only alleivates the sense of loss that one gets when reading about the witch-hunts and the battle. Overall I think the book rounded off the series quite well, and though it had its flaws, I enjoyed it a great deal. I shall certainly continue reading Ann Bishop's books.

Rating:
Summary: A decent end to a decent series.
Review: I think Bishop got a little carried away by the end of this series. Adolfo did not have enough motivation for the horrible things he did, the witches were way too powerful and way to perfect and all of the most intriguing characters died. Well, that's not entirley true. Murtagh,the Lord of the Selkies lived, but he barely appeared.

In the second book I was impressed by the power of the witches, and the obstinancy of the Fae annoyed me, but by House of Gaian, I was so sick of those supremely perfect witches that I wanted to kill them myself. The whole premise of the story was that witches are all-powerful, the fae should be humbled and anyone who opposes the witches is wrong and ignorant. And yet these incredibly powerful women did nothing to spread their knowledge or to help thier fellows in the previous books. I got tired of the constant lectures on witch power and fae ignorance. If the witches refused to tell their story how can they blame others for not knowing it? That bothered me a great deal.

I can't say I was pleased, either, that Bishop turned Lucian into such a horrible villian. In my mind he was one of the most intriging characters in the first book. He had a great deal of potential to develop, but Bishop took the easy way out and he remained exactly as he was. A great pity in my mind.

I fell in love with the characters of Breanna and Liam in the second book- they are quite perfect but utterly charming none the less, and I enjoyed their presence in this book. I cannot say the same for Selena however. She was too all-powerful and holier than thou. It was rather alienating. Also, I was a little curious as to why Ashk was so powerful. As far as I could tell, all she could do was turn into a Shadow Hound and shoot a bow well. So why exactly did Aiden keep getting chills whenever she said something ominous?

Compared to the previous books, House of Gaian is considerably darker, but it didn't bother me too much. It gets a little gory near the end, and some of the character die, but it only alleivates the sense of loss that one gets when reading about the witch-hunts and the battle. Overall I think the book rounded off the series quite well, and though it had its flaws, I enjoyed it a great deal. I shall certainly continue reading Ann Bishop's books.

Rating:
Summary: Good ending for a great story
Review: I think this book was a good story, not as good as some of her other books, but still a good read. This book definately had it's tear jerker moments, but it was sweet. Anne Bishop has this special ability to tie her story together and form a masterpiece. She is really a gifted writer, and deserves to let her stories be heard. I don't want to give away the story line, but I'll write some brief imformation. It sort of reminds me of a fantasy version of the Salem Witch Trials. Basically all the magical creature's in her story all join together to battle the "black coats" a.K.a, the witch hunters who are destroying the magic in the world. The witches manage to find themselves in the process. That's all I'm going to say though, I don't want to ruin any of the story, but I recommend it. If you really want to get her at her best, than read the Black Jewel Trilogys. If you can handle feminism at it's most dramatic and real life scenarios than you should read it. It's definitly a dark story with a beautiful ending. (sorry about the spelling:))

Rating:
Summary: To Ella - My Favorite Uninformed Reader of the Day
Review: I'm glad that you plowed head first into the last book of a trilogy, really I am. That gives you every right to smash someone's work to pieces, because you didn't bother to read the back of the book, or the author's work list in the first pages. Where it would be noted it was the third book. Every nasty review of a basically decent book on here is always filled with college literary english class terms, yet few of you even have the courage to use your full actual name in these reviews, because if we ran an author search for it, we'd find nothing.

So, maybe when you can convince a publisher that you're a wonderful writer and he publishes your book and you hit the bestseller list, you'll be qualified to hand out scathing dissections of a book that are more suited for English Literature 205, rather than a simple yet honest review of a book written for everyone, not just the educated. And thanks for the tip for a new book to read, oh, wait. Nevermind, you gave me the first book in the series. According to you I should be able to start at the end and be fine.

Rating:
Summary: Hang on for the Ending!!
Review: I've read both the Black Jewels Trilogy and now the Tir Ailain trilogy. I will say that the Black Jewels is my favorite of the two but this trilogy has its highlights as well. This concluding installment tries valiantly to tie up the loose ends that were produced in the preceding 2 volumes and almost succeeds. This book has such a frantic pace in the last half that before you know it the war has come and gone and you really haven't realized it ever started. Bishop appears to have let the story grow in the telling and got too many storylines going to be able to adequately (in her fashion) bring them all to a justifiable conclusion within the confines of a 3 novel arc. This is still a highly entertaining read and will keep your interest especially when you reach the last half of each novel.
Enjoy. Definitely worth checking out.

Rating:
Summary: Hang on for the Ending!!
Review: I've read both the Black Jewels Trilogy and now the Tir Ailain trilogy. I will say that the Black Jewels is my favorite of the two but this trilogy has its highlights as well. This concluding installment tries valiantly to tie up the loose ends that were produced in the preceding 2 volumes and almost succeeds. This book has such a frantic pace in the last half that before you know it the war has come and gone and you really haven't realized it ever started. Bishop appears to have let the story grow in the telling and got too many storylines going to be able to adequately (in her fashion) bring them all to a justifiable conclusion within the confines of a 3 novel arc. This is still a highly entertaining read and will keep your interest especially when you reach the last half of each novel.
Enjoy. Definitely worth checking out.

Rating:
Summary: Anne Bishop is a rising star
Review: Once again Anne Bishop is proving that she is one of the top authors of fantasy fiction. She concludes the "Tir Alainn" trilogy with a super exciting almost imposible to put down final chapter. She is able to create wonderful caracters that the reader is forced to care about. Her plots are fast moving and she is able to mix a sence of comedy and romance within a scary almost dark adventure. In the end she ties up all loose ends leaving the reader satisfied but wishing for more of the characters they now feel are friends. Only the best authors can create such feelings after three books covering more that 1000 pages. I can't wait to see what Anne has in store for us in her third series.
My HIGHEST recomendation

Rating:
Summary: An action filled ending
Review: This book starts right where "Shadow and Light" ends.
The Hunter is making ready to leave the west to gather an army that can fight against the Master Inquisitor. She has the power to force the fae into the fight, but there is a new Lady of the Moon, who might use her power to oppose this. And what about the Daughters and Sons of the Mother, will they leand their aid to the course ? Because the Master Inquisitor has found a new way to twist the magic he steals.
The story includes all the characters we already know (and love) and introduces a few new important ones. The pace of the story is stunning, and it can at times be hard to follow because it jumps between people and places. So it thakes some concentration.
But I like the story and you get the answers you have been waiting for: The story about the beginning of the fae and the witches.

Rating:
Summary: Great book
Review: This was a great addition to the series. I love the way Anne Bishop writes I could read her books over and over. The book had a great blend of humor and suspense. I wanted more storyline on some of the characters but the book seemed to drop them. Ari was not in this book much which was too bad, I like her character. The book left an opening for another book or a spinoff. If there is no plan to write another book I will be disappointed because there are some characters I would like to follow up on.

Rating:
Summary: NOT QUITE THE SAME
Review: When a new book comes out in a series I have particularly enjoyed I await it with feelings of both joyful anticipation and dread. Why dread? In the past I have found far to often that it is difficult for sequels to match the excellence of initial volumes and this has a tendency to taint the entire series for me. Unfortunately in the case of THE HOUSE OF GAIAN this dread was well founded.

Not that HOG is a particularly bad book, it is in fact a genuinely average piece of fiction given the profession standards of today, but it pales in comparison to the first two volumes in this series, PILLARS OF THE WORLD and SHADOWS AND LIGHT. Touted as the final volume in the Tir Alainn trilogy you would expect it to bind all the treads of the first two books into one grand finale of the story. Close but not quite. It does indeed end the saga of the Blackcoats in a final battle that unites the Fae, Barons and witches but the story line is so disjointed as to make it difficult to follow. If fact there are as many unanswered questions at the end as there were at the beginning. In stead of coming to a tightly woven conclusion it seams to unravel like a pair of frayed jeans.

Problems it has in spades. Numerous new characters are introduced adding story line threads that seem to just petter out leaving you wondering just what was their purpose. They add nothing to the original story line, which didn't need help by the way, and made the reading disjointed, jumpy and a little difficult to follow.

Character development, one of the strong points of the first two volumes, is sadly lacking. Not that this is necessarily bad in a final volume but with the numbers of new characters introduces too many become mere hollow shells with little apparent purpose. Also a good number of you old favorite characters seem to fade away or are brought in for cameos again with little or no relevance to the overall plot.

If you enjoyed the romance infused throughout the first tow, forget it, there is almost none here. There is a little bit between Breanne and Falco and a weak attempt to associate Liam with one of the new characters but in all it falls fairly flat. Romance was one of the strong points of the first two volumes but here the rambling, disjointed nature of the storyline precludes actually developing any real connections between the characters

Let's leave it at this, HOG is good, but nowhere near the same quality as the first two volumes. Maybe it was written too fast, maybe she just ran out of ideas. Whatever, fans of PILLARS OF THE WORLD and SHADOWS AND LIGHT will want to read it, but be prepared for disappointment.

I RECOMMEND it, with reservations.