Dark Is the Moon (The View From the Mirror, Book 3)

Rating:
Summary: Let the True action begin!
Review: Alot of the criticisms of this series are due to the fact that since the story was so long, they split it up into 4 parts! I applaud the publisher for at least allowing him to tell his story the way he wants! That said, this book will appeal to people interested in what makes a person or society work more than the action/adventure. Here is where all the various characters really "get going" with their agendas. (And believe me- ALMOST EVERYBODY has one) I hadn't liked Maigraith at all, but you're in for a surprise here! I enjoy not having a character's sainthood or villainy spelled out for me. This author is NOT casual simply-entertainment reading. If you read his bio, you'll see that his point of view stems from his conservationist work.

Rating:
Summary: I love it
Review: I read this book over a year ago, but i still remember can remeber how much i enjoyed reading it.
This novel is different from most fantasy novels in that the main characters have very little control on what happens around them or even control over their own fate. although extraordinary on their own, Karan and Llian are small in comparison to Faellamor, Rulke, Tensor and Mendark. They are pulled back and forth and are tangled in a deadly game where the entire world is at stake.
one thing i liked about this series is the way that your opinion of the characters changes dramatically over the length of the series. those people that seemed noble and good turn out to be the most evil characters of all and the most evil characters the most noble. It blurs the black and white lines between good and evil that are normally so sharp in fantasy novels.
This sets this series apart from others, it is unique in many ways and not as cliched as many fantasy novels are prone to be.

Rating:
Summary: A question of trust.
Review: I'm really going up and down about this series. I found the first book lukewarm, while reading the second book interested me enough to run out immediately and buy the third. However, now that I've read the third I'm feeling a little bit let down.

The two main characters, Llian and Karan, spend most of the book stressing out about whether they trust each other. Somehow, this point is more important than the lives of their friends or the fate of the world. I have to say that I still find Karan one of the more remarkably unlikeable female leads in recent fantasy. I sincerely hope that in the 4th book, they get a therapist offline and the rest of the book can continue without further whining.

That said, the adventure *does* continue and other of the characters become more interesting. I like very much the direction Rulke is taking and I'm curious to see more about him.
Not a terrible read, just not a great one.

Rating:
Summary: an amzing book
Review: It is an amzing book. Now I can only wait to read the others.

Rating:
Summary: In the same vein...
Review: This is the third book in The View from the Mirror tetralogy (after A Shadow on the Glass and The Tower on the Rift, and before The Way Between the Worlds).

Dark Is the Moon starts in the tower of Katazza, where Tensor has just opened a gate to the Nightland. In the process, Rulke the Charon has managed to escape from his imprisonment of a thousand years, while Karan and Llian have been sucked throught the gate. Mendark, Malien, Tallia and Yggur have to overcome their differences and ally against their common enemy and try to use the power of the Rift to seal the Nightland. Karan and Llian's lives are at stake.

And so in the Nightland, Karan and Llian have no choice but to team with Rulke, or they'll be trapped forever. But in the battle, the new alliance draws to much power from the Rift and Katazza collapses over them. Thanks to that diversion, Karan manages to escape throught the gate and lands in the rubble of the destroyed citadel. However, Llian is still stuck with Rulke, who compels him to tell the Histories but finally lets him go five days later. When with Karan they catch up with Yggur, Mendark, Shand and the others, everyone suspects he's become Rulke's spy.

After crossing the Dry Sea again, the group realizes that their only chance to beat Rulke is to make a replica of the golden Flute, a legendary artifact that is said to have the power to open the Way between the Worlds. But for this they need Aachan red gold, which is extremely rare, and information on how to use the instrument.

In this thrid volume, all roads diverge, to converge again at the end for another confrontation: Mendark sets off to Havissard in search of the gold, Yggur goes back to Thurkad where his army is at war, Tallia and Shand go look for young Lilis's father, and Karan wants to go back to her estate in Gothryme to see how her people are faring. Llian accompanies her, and on the way they stop in Chanthed, where lies the College of the Histories, and where he thinks he might gather new information for his Great Tale.

In the meantime Faellamor, with the help of her always faithful Maigraith, is searching for a way to break the Forbidding and tries to link with fher far away kin, the Faellem, and ask them for help. They manage to open a gate to Havissard.

Dark is the Moon is of the same quality as the previous books in the series, that is, full of entertaining adventures and well written, but nothing outstanding, although the characters have started to grow in depth, and me to consider reading Ian Irvine's next series, The Well of Echoes. But on to the fourth and final volume first.