The Tower on the Rift (The View from the Mirror, Book 2)

Rating:
Summary: Improving
Review: I read the first book in the series with a slightly jaundiced eye. While passably written, it didn't feel fresh and I felt too bogged down in the details of the differences between the different human races.

Things improved noticably in the second book for me. There was less exposition and more focus on the characters. Particularly intriguing is the Yggur/Maigraith relationship-- I'm curious to see where that goes.

I still didn't like Karan (the main character), which makes it more challenging to like the book, but I'm more in a hurry to buy the third book then I was to buy the second.

Rating:
Summary: I'm still interested!
Review: I'm by no means a fanasy fanatic, but after stumbling across this series, I'm beginning to consider myself one. The first book takes you to a land that, dare I say, mixes science fiction and fantasy together and thoroughly immerses you in it's detail. The idea behind the books is extremely original considering that fantasy has become a genre that never seems to run dry in terms of new settings. An extremely enjoyable and worthwhile read.

Rating:
Summary: powerful epic fantasy
Review: Tensor of the Aachim blames the other three human species for the woes suffered by his people actually caused by his leadership. His desire is pandemic destruction at a level never seen in known history. His scheme gels when Yggur the Sorcerer destroys Thurkad, forcing the Great Conclave attendees to flee for their safety. Tensor abducts Lilan the Chronicler and steals the magical Mirror of Aachan that a millennium ago belonged to his race and reflects all it has seen. Through the Twisted Mirror, Tensor plans to eradicate all he loathes.

Karan borders on lunacy without Lilan to anchor her, but only she can find Tensor, Lilan, and the mirror, that is if her mind remains sane long enough to hold a rationale thought. She and the likes of Yggor and Shand the hermit magician will meet in a desperate gathering of the magic at a bastion long lost to time in the midst of the Dry Sea Desert with the fate of Santhenar and probably the other two orbs at stake.

THE TOWER ON THE RIFT, volume two of the "View From the Mirror", is a powerful epic fantasy loaded with numerous threads and sidebars that ultimately merge into a complex cohesive story line. An introductory synopsis of the first novel (see A SHADOW ON THE GLASS) helps provide perspective, but reading the debut volume would enhance perusing this extremely complicated book. Ian Irvine's vividly descriptive universe should go to the head of the reading lists of the sub-genre audience because the characters are multiple-dimensional, the worlds and its species feel real, and the outstanding plots majestic in scope.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: he's finished the series
Review: This book is a great sequel to a great book. The story draws you in from the first page. Even though it had been five months since I read the first book, the authour refreshed my memory with a good synopsis of his first book, A Shadow on the Glass. This series will be one that I will be hard pressed to wait for the next six months in order to read the next book in the series. Over all, a great buy.

Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable but not passionating.
Review: This is the second book of The View from the Mirror (after A Shadow on the Glass and before Dark Is the Moon and The Way Between the Worlds).

Yggur's army is now marching on the city of Thurkad, and after Tensor's treacherous attack of the Conclave, all parties spread in different directions.

Tensor, the leader of the Aachim, steals the Mirror and kidnaps Llian, believing the Chronicler might prove useful in his scheme to use the artifact. Since the city of Shazmak has been destroyed by Yggur's Whelm become Ghâshâd, the now homeless Aachim are forced to flee North, towards the Dry Sea.

Mendark the former magister, along with his guard Osseion, his lieutenant Tallia and the young girl Lilis try to escape through the underground network of Thurkad, which has just capitulated. With the help of Pender and his boat, they sail to Zile, an old city famous for its Great Library.

Llian believes Karan dead, but the young Sensitive woman is soon rescued from the ruins of the Conclave by Shand, and takes refuge in the wharf city of Thurkad while the mysterious old man is looking for help. Karan is terribly worried about Llian, whom she realize she's fallen in love with. Her sole idea is to deliver him from the clutches of Tensor.

Maigraith, saved by her Faellem liege Faellamor, is brought to Yggur, whom she'll seduce.

In this volume, after yet other interminable pursuits through tunnels and over seas and salt deserts, all parties converge again towards the much conveted Mirror of Aachim, for a final conflagration in the Tower of Katazza. But whereas the characters are likeable, and the story gained a little in complexity, I didn't find it very passionating or attention-catching, and in the end my mind was often wandering elsewhere.