Rating: 
Summary: A complex book full of wonderful characters!!
Review: Melanie Rawn is one of the most gifted fantasy wrtiers around becasue she can blend a complex plot with amazing characterization (of major and minor) characters without letting the plot slow down or get confusing. All her characters are human and have flaws, which makes you love them more. this series is on level with Lord of the Rings.
"Exiles: The Ruins of Ambrari" is an amazing journey into another world and political structure. In this world women are dominant in society and men are the background. It is a world of magic and power struggles.
It is the story of Sarra, Cailet, and Glenin, three sisters who are on opposite sides of a war between two different factions of Mageborn people.
Glenin is for the people who want to take over Lenfell
Sarra is working to stop her older sister Glenin
and Cailet is the most powrful mage but she is still a child
Sarra and the other Mageborn must protect her at all costs.
Melanie rawn blends politics, characters, action, mystery, and romance perfectly in this epic novel about survival and good v. evil.
Rawn also has a lot of humor especially in the romance between Sarra and Collan.
Melanie Rawn has created her best series in "Exiles" because her talent has fully awakened. Rawn has amazing skill and subtlety that immediatly captures the reader's attention!
I read "The Ruins of Ambrari" and "The Mageborn Traitor" in two days!
Melanie PLEASE finish the Third book soon!
Rating: 
Summary: Worth reading more than once!
Review: I personally loved this book. I read it the first time about four years ago and it took me a while to understand the complicated plot and numerous characters with very similiar names. Now I'm re-reading the book and I love it even more! Rawn has constructed a very vivid world with magic and a government that can stand on its own. The characters really make you care for them and there's enough possible romance and humor to keep you reading. I'd recommend this book to anyone who has time to read it more than once, because you understand things better the second time around!
Rating:
Summary: Flipped Views
Review: An interesting, though not exactly original plot runs through this story, holding the characters together in a way other books fail to do. The characters are individual and well developed, each having a background. The four main characters are displayed at the beginning, and their backgrounds are explored and explained before the main story of the book really begins, though this isn't just a boring run-through as many other authours would write.
This book, aside from being a wonderful book for any fantasy reader, is also an interesting mirror through which to view this world. It takes the traditional roles played by men and women and flips them, creating a sometimes ridiculous seeming world where women are in charge and men are subordinated and sold off as husbands. While this seems strange and sometimes barbaric it throws into contrast that this is just the way the world really works, though it is usually the men who are in charge.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent!
Review: This is huge novel which follows the lives of sisters: Glennin, Sarra and Cailet, and their struggles for power in the barbaric and ruthless Matriarchal world of Lanfell.Lanfell is a world founded by humans long ago, and which has become Matriarchal over time. Men are treated as Chattel, and women hold all the power. When trouble forces the sisters apart, they are raised by different factions causing conflict and hardship. I really enjoyed Exiles, (even if there are literally hundreds of characters to keep track of). My favorite character was Sarra, and her romance with Bard Collan. Sarra's 'old world values' and Collan's 'desire for independence from Women', reminds me of the classic struggle occurring in Women's fiction throughout the globe. This 'role reversal' was quite a hoot. While at times, the multiple-perspective story-telling is confusing, (Part of me, wishes that the author had split this book in separate sections to avoid this problem), I was still able to enjoy this novel. I applaud the author for writing about a matriarchal world, and taking risks to write something different. If this had been a novel set in a standard patriarchal society it would lose some of its impact.
Rating:
Summary: What can I say?
Review: I absolutely adored this book! A lot of people give complaints about a female ruled society, but it makes sooo much sense if you take the time to read her next book (which I also seriously recommend)Besides being emmensely gratifying for women, it is a unique idea, and well thought out. She doesn't just say, oh, women rule instead of men, she makes it totally natural. And I must say that everything was perfect! The romance is everything I could wish- the perfect blend of frustration, sex, and a higher, purer thing-Love. The characters are well thought out too- I must confess I couldn't put the book down. The humor had me laughing out loud. There's not much I can say except READ THE BOOK! You won't regret it.
Rating: 
Summary: Somewhat disappointed
Review: This book was something to do, and offered only a little entertainment. I finished it to see what happened in the end, and as a matter of discipline. However, none of the characters really engaged me and as a ridiculous number of them were killed off for no reason, it's probably good that I didn't care about what happened to them! It would have been better to have fewer main characters, with more time spent developing them, than trying to cram so many characters with so many names and relationships and functions and magics into the book. It also seemed like some characters were put in the book just to be killed off after a brief description of their lives were provided. Strange! There was no explanation for why suddenly Sarra becomes the leader of the rising; she came off as domineering and bossy with no justification for it, and virtually no experience as a leader! Why all the long-term members of the rising would suddenly start following her orders was not explained; there should have been some time spent describing whatever training she might have had to make it believable for her to be suddenly in that role. The wards on her magic also seemed strange - I mean.....what was the point? Most of these characters just weren't developed well - I didn't care what happened to any of them. I don't care to read any more books in the series, which is unusual for me. I was very surprised by the number of 4 & 5 stars given.
Rating:
Summary: great read
Review: i got captivated by this book and her next book, im waiting for the 3rd in the series to come out
ive been trying to find similar books that have this blend of fantasy,relationships and conflict. She does it really well, read the book, its definitely worth the time
Rating: 
Summary: mindless drivel
Review: Edgar Allen Poe said something like ~a good writer captures his reader in the first page~. I was totally lost among the many unmemorable characters in this book. I couldn't make sense of it or keep anything straight. None of it seemed to tie together. I've tried reading it twice now, and have had to put it away after 200 pages or so. I would think that a writer could make a reader say to himself "Whoa! I didn't see that coming" or "Hmm, that makes sense" within that many pages. Draw the reader into some action. Tell a bit of a story. All I got was a third-hand summary of a battle, a mildly tense moment when a prepubescent boy is rescued from a homosexual slave driver that wants to cut his gonads off because he sings nice, and an account about a total moron of a bard who got his tongue cut out because he deliberately insulted his hostess, some government bigshot, in front of several guests. Needlessly complex environment, boring plot, and disgusting characters (usually male) that exhibit stupidity at every turn. All in the first 200 pages. I'm not a masochist: I just couldn't read it anymore. At least for this reader, Ms. Rawn failed miserably in capturing attention. Based on the varying reviews here, you'll either really love the book or you'll really dislike it. If you really must try it, make sure you pick up a used copy rather than pay full price.
Rating:
Summary: Great read, much better than i expected
Review: This book when I got it from a friend to read I thought "I'll start to read it, and then give it back" Much to my suprise i liked it! The concept of the magic and wardings, and the way society is structured is unique, and the characters while difficult to understand at the begining very quickly grow on you, along with their strugles. This author did a wonderful job, and i can't wait for the next installment, as i have just now finished book 2 and I'm waiting on #3.
Rating:
Summary: If I could rate it lower...
Review: ...I would. The Ruins of Ambrai is a start of a series that I looked forward to reading. It had a very interesting premise and I had liked her prior books well enough, even though her plotting until this point was simplistic. And I was wrong. The biggest flaw with the novel is that it takes a premise or even a bit of fun and gives women the ultimate authority in this setting. Not unlike men, particularly in the middle ages where most fantasy is vaguely based upon. But if it was a joke or a point, it very much hits the reader over and over and over again like a ton of bricks. Thus it deflects any most of the promising bits of the novel to Rawn's own hubris or political/social leanings. Aside from that, the book was mired in Rawn's own limited ability to plotting and ability to telegraph that plot in the first book in a series. She should read some George RR Martin and perhaps she can come up the a series that veers away from her simplistic plots and/or feminist leanings that she has used as a crutch for three series now. You could pick up almost anything else off the book rack and find something better than The Ruins fo Ambrai.
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