Rating: 
Summary: Enjoying the journey - can't wait for the next book.
Review: A fantastic read. Get the whole series.30 years of a possible 500-year storyline have passed by the end of this book. The main character, Arithon has found refuge from the curse of the Mistwraith and is about to embark on several months of contemplation and study with Davien the Betrayer as a company. Arithon has mastered his conscience and accepted himself, and this will have a huge impact on the way he will do things in future books. The message of this book is clear: when we face ourselves, come accept ourselves completely, good and bad, then we can move on. When we change in ourselves, this will start to be reflected in the world around us. Ms. Wurts never shirks from her chosen path of challenging the reader on all levels. From the unfamiliar words set in beautiful Austen-like prose, to the impact that emotion, or a sweep of beautiful scenery should have on our senses, but doesn't because of our jaded modernity, she doesn't hold back one iota. She challenges assumption, never letting us settle for any kind of answer, only further and deeper insight and understanding. The result is a rich tapestry of character, detailed physical settings; taut, unabashed emotion; thought-provoking twists of plot and character development; woven through with ideals of love, and full of contrasts like truth and lies, love and lust, true vocation and ambition. My favourite aspect of Wurt's writing in this series is her version of Magic. She blends scientific and esoteric principals to lend a sense of massive cosmic force and adds variety to this vision by including elements of individual spiritual progress, training and personality quirks. I particularly like the notion that all things, animate and inanimate have a consciousness and that in order to use even the tiniest stone; the magic user has to ask permission. The sacredness of nature is celebrated and at the same time is under attack by the greed of the townborn - and as the reader, I am as anxious about that issue, as I am for the Paravians to return, for Elaira and Arithon to unite, for the Mistwraith to be beaten, the Fellowship to be together and the Royal families to return and restore the Clanborn to freedom etc... It's not a series for the faint-hearted, complacent or jaded. Be prepared to live it as you read it.
Rating:
Summary: Enjoying the journey - can't wait for the next book.
Review: A fantastic read. Get the whole series. 30 years of a possible 500-year storyline have passed by the end of this book. The main character, Arithon has found refuge from the curse of the Mistwraith and is about to embark on several months of contemplation and study with Davien the Betrayer as a company. Arithon has mastered his conscience and accepted himself, and this will have a huge impact on the way he will do things in future books. The message of this book is clear: when we face ourselves, come accept ourselves completely, good and bad, then we can move on. When we change in ourselves, this will start to be reflected in the world around us. Ms. Wurts never shirks from her chosen path of challenging the reader on all levels. From the unfamiliar words set in beautiful Austen-like prose, to the impact that emotion, or a sweep of beautiful scenery should have on our senses, but doesn't because of our jaded modernity, she doesn't hold back one iota. She challenges assumption, never letting us settle for any kind of answer, only further and deeper insight and understanding. The result is a rich tapestry of character, detailed physical settings; taut, unabashed emotion; thought-provoking twists of plot and character development; woven through with ideals of love, and full of contrasts like truth and lies, love and lust, true vocation and ambition. My favourite aspect of Wurt's writing in this series is her version of Magic. She blends scientific and esoteric principals to lend a sense of massive cosmic force and adds variety to this vision by including elements of individual spiritual progress, training and personality quirks. I particularly like the notion that all things, animate and inanimate have a consciousness and that in order to use even the tiniest stone; the magic user has to ask permission. The sacredness of nature is celebrated and at the same time is under attack by the greed of the townborn - and as the reader, I am as anxious about that issue, as I am for the Paravians to return, for Elaira and Arithon to unite, for the Mistwraith to be beaten, the Fellowship to be together and the Royal families to return and restore the Clanborn to freedom etc... It's not a series for the faint-hearted, complacent or jaded. Be prepared to live it as you read it.
Rating:
Summary: I LOVE this book
Review: Buried in this massive volume is an outstanding story with engaging characters shackled by painfully executed prose. In many ways Ms. Wurt's descriptions of magic remind me of the metaphysical diarrheic prose David Brin can sink in to as read in "Earth" and "Kiln People". After so many paragraphs of "elevated harmonics" "polarities" and "magnetics" you start to wonder if you are reading epic fantasy or a "Star Trek" novel and ultimately it all translates into "blah blah blah." But you keep reading, skimming most of the magic babble much like skimming the parts of "Moby Dick" that relate to the technical aspects of whaling. You keep going because there is a rousing good yarn in there and you are determined to liberate it from the pages no matter the cost. The characters are great, if a bit over-wrought and self-tortured. Even manly-men in this series practically break down in tears when they have to kill someone or are faced with the unknown mysteries of ancient magic. After a while it starts to wear thin. Finally, the reader does not learn the meaning of "Peril's Gate" until almost the very end of the novel and while the rite of passage our protagonist wades through is epic, brutal and appropriate, it takes far too many pages most of which rehash things we already know. In the end this novel has wonderful characters, convincing emotion and moments of brilliance separated by gulfs of ponderous magical prose. I will buy the next volume but not in hard cover.
Rating: 
Summary: exhilarating sword and sorcery thriller
Review: Combined the two siblings were a power like none the world has ever seen before. However, after defeating an invincible evil, the duo turns towards each other. The Prince of Light Lysaer demanding justice wants to kill his brother Prince of Rathain Arithon just as the Curse predicted they would. However, in spite of some powerful allies, Lysaer has found Arithon living up to his birth born Master of Shadow abilities as the latter escapes perfect traps.
Both brothers use magic to survive as their rivalry leads each into separate adventures. However, Arithon knows that Lysaer is coming closer so he needs an ally to counterbalance his sibling's magical associates. Reluctantly, Arithon turns to the enchanter Davien the Betrayer who has also lived up to his name, having betrayed and killed Arithon's kin and could just as likely do the same to the Master of Shadow.
PERIL'S GATE is an exhilarating sword and sorcery thriller, but feels bloated as Janny Wurts adds filler material. Still the adventures of the siblings are exciting when the subplots remain steady and not filled with sidebars. Sub-genre fans will enjoy the events that seem to slowly bring the siblings closer to the final confrontation, leaving the latest entry in the Wars of Light and Shadow clearly for the S&S crowd. Harriet Klausner
Rating: 
Summary: This is an ending?
Review: Having been captivated by the Janny Wurts of the Empire Trilogy(although, with Raymond E. Feist), the Cycle of Fire, and "That Way Lies Camelot," I came to the Wars of Light and Shadow/Alliance of Light with high hopes; they were dashed. To begin - and as many have pointed out - it's a struggle to follow the narrative with such tangled prose. Just because it's an exotic, different world we're reading of doesn't mean it needs a narration to match - and then there are the all the lines, either quotes or just sentence-ends, which are italicized in a melodramatic way, and if you were as lost in the text as I was for so much of these novels, you think, "So what?" because it seems meaningless - unless they were put at such regular intervals to snap us back into awareness by making us think something groundbreakingly important has happened, so we should pay attention again (rather than thinking, "What the hell just happened? God, this is BORING!..."). Now, as for "Peril's Gate," we go on with the garbled words - this time, more depressed than usual - for about 700 pages, but expecting at any time for some massive twist/denouement to occur, if you're thinking that this is the end of the series, as I (going by the concluding-sounding remarks Wurts makes in the acknowledgements, and the non-association of the new one, "To Ride Hell's Chasm") did. And then, nothing of the kind happens...just a fizzled ending which only considers Arithon - oh, and Elaira, who punctuates the proceedings with about 30-odd "Cry Mercy"s as if it meant something important. The final section, "Closures," doesn't really close at all, because Lysaer says something for the first time in about 200 pages, and it ends in a "dot-dot-dot"(ellipsis points?) as if there's more to come. In short, there's just too many loose ends to consider this an end. (I may, however, proceed with a continuing novel[s] to get rid of the cheated feeling "Peril's Gate" left me with, and after all, Stephen Donaldson's "Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant" were better than the first. Unless it's more of the same, in which case, forget it.) Oh, and one more thing - remember how, at the start of "Curse of the Mistwraith," it said something like "the proceeding is the assemblage of historical documents pertaining to these major events in the history of Athera[or whatever it is]"? Well, what kind of florid historians does this land have, to account for the narration? It's a wasted premise, because these are _far too subjective_(not to mention personal - unless the historians of the land are also channelers) for historical documents, and it might have run better as being from first person, or at least something _not_ a "history." UPDATE - 10/18/03: Okay, so, this isn't the ending. A 7th (STORMED FORTRESS) is coming out July 2004. Having spent so much time reading the other books and finding needlessly-used big words in several dictionaries while doing so, I may read this one. Unless there's better stuff available then - which, if the trends of books 1-6 continue, there probably will be.
Rating:
Summary: The story must be in there somewhere
Review: I have read all of the books Janny Wurtz has written. Each book is getting more and more difficult to read. I feel like I have to search for the story and it is buried six feet under extra prose. I keep searching to find a sentence with less than 3 adjectives in it. I am losing interest in the characters. The story reads like a english lesson on how many words can be put into a single sentence. Where is her editor? I'm on page 306 or about half way through and it is really work to read this book. In 20 years I have not given up on a series midway through but Ms. Wurtz is pushing my limits.
Rating:
Summary: Deep and wonderful!
Review: I love this series. It works on so many layers and is so complex. If you look away one second, then you're going to have to reread it because you've probably missed something.
If you've followed this series from the first book, then you're hooked like I am. The characters are individual and convincing, the trials they go through original, and the plot very sticky -- everything has the markings of a thought-out story that is very carefully and thoroughly developed.
Rating: 
Summary: Good, but loses the reader in the end.
Review: I really enjoyed Peril's Gate. Wurts demonstrates a genius for writing and imagery that makes it easy to become engrossed and totally consumed into her worlds. Her descriptions of the stuff of what reality really is beyond what we can physically see is inspired and thought-provoking. I did, however, like so many others, have to gloss over the last part where Arithon is in Davien's cave. I agree about the rehashing, and was thoroughly annoyed. I was enjoying the book immensly right up to the climax, which turned out to be anti-climatic. I love what she does with the story and all it's twists and turns, but the imagery and description become boring and slows the pace of the book to a standstill. It's a shame such a wonderful story is finally undone by the over-long and arduous rehashing and self-examination. How much can one man suffer? Again, I love the story, the characters, the places, etc. Hopefully, the next book will have more story and less words.
Rating:
Summary: I LOVE this book
Review: I think this is a wonderful book, though you have to be a good reader to really apreciate it. The way it's written makes it a little difficult to understand, but if you have patience, the descripitions can mean a lot.It really is a good book. You shouldn't be discouraged from reading it by anything. It has a deep plot that makes you think. Arithon is not the kind of hero who can shrug off killing. He is only human. I think the whole series is wonderful.The books make you think, and yet it is a good fantasy novel with sword fights and arcane powers. I can't wait to read the next book!
Rating: 
Summary: Not really unforgettable
Review: I was actually very disappointed . Why ?
For the first time I suddenly became aware of the lurking danger that Wurtz becomes a second Jordan and her novels will tend to get watered down like the Wheel of Time does .
For Wurtz repeats herself , has little inspiration and fills (can you imagine 60 pages about fevered Arithon in a cave ?) .
Well she is not and has never been an epic writer but in Peril's Gate there happens even less then usual .
600 pages to show us basically a running wounded unwashed smelling Arithon with half the world behind him ... not really original , we had it already 3 times .
The 2 times before he escaped to sea , this time his escape borders on ridiculous .
400 pages of running over hundreds of leagues and when his ennemies are already on him (actually shooting crossbows) he happens to be on the EXACT only one point where he can escape .
All that of course with much dismay (Ooooh Arithon you don't dare to go there . It is certain death . You have no chance etc) .
Besides nothing new with the Koriani , with the Fellowship and Lysaer is still his old shining self .
Ah yes , Lysaer's son more or less dies - we'll see in the next 1000 pages if it is good or bad news .
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