Home :: Books :: Science Fiction & Fantasy  

Arts & Photography
Audio CDs
Audiocassettes
Biographies & Memoirs
Business & Investing
Children's Books
Christianity
Comics & Graphic Novels
Computers & Internet
Cooking, Food & Wine
Entertainment
Gay & Lesbian
Health, Mind & Body
History
Home & Garden
Horror
Literature & Fiction
Mystery & Thrillers
Nonfiction
Outdoors & Nature
Parenting & Families
Professional & Technical
Reference
Religion & Spirituality
Romance
Science
Science Fiction & Fantasy

Sports
Teens
Travel
Women's Fiction
The Meeting of the Waters (Book One of The Watchers)

The Meeting of the Waters (Book One of The Watchers)

List Price: $7.99
Your Price: $7.99
Product Info Reviews

<< 1 >>

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Celtic Folklore...
Review: I'd never even heard of Caiseal Mor when I picked up this book, so I wasn't really sure what to expect. The artwork was catchy and the blurb reminded me of Daughter of the Forest, so I figured I'd give it a try. Meeting of the Waters isn't a BAD book, but it isn't really exceptional. The characters seemed flat at times, and came off as frustrating. The back cover claims Aoife is supposed to be the protagonist, but she's really just a complimentary character, and she's a brat to boot! The Fir Bolg chieftain doesn't have an ounce of sense in his head, and to make matters worse, the dialogue is stilted and jerky. Most of the time the characters just sit around and argue with each other.

The folklore mentioned throughout the book gives the reader brief glances into the island's past and is definately the best part of the novel. At times I found myself wishing that Mor would write more on this sub-plot than the main plot.

If you're a real fan of Celtic folklore and can stand the novel's pace, then this might be a book you'd like to pick up and read. But if you prefer novels with a faster pace and an engrossing story and characters, you most likely won't really enjoy this one.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Celtic Folklore...
Review: I'd never even heard of Caiseal Mor when I picked up this book, so I wasn't really sure what to expect. The artwork was catchy and the blurb reminded me of Daughter of the Forest, so I figured I'd give it a try. Meeting of the Waters isn't a BAD book, but it isn't really exceptional. The characters seemed flat at times, and came off as frustrating. The back cover claims Aoife is supposed to be the protagonist, but she's really just a complimentary character, and she's a brat to boot! The Fir Bolg chieftain doesn't have an ounce of sense in his head, and to make matters worse, the dialogue is stilted and jerky. Most of the time the characters just sit around and argue with each other.

The folklore mentioned throughout the book gives the reader brief glances into the island's past and is definately the best part of the novel. At times I found myself wishing that Mor would write more on this sub-plot than the main plot.

If you're a real fan of Celtic folklore and can stand the novel's pace, then this might be a book you'd like to pick up and read. But if you prefer novels with a faster pace and an engrossing story and characters, you most likely won't really enjoy this one.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Meeting of the Waters
Review: This book, in fact this whole series, is better than I could have believed. The writing is superb, and the story takes you in from the beginning and leaves you wanting more at the end. Even for those not particularly interested in Celtic myth or folklore should find the story interesting enough for its own sake. However, if you are interested in the Celtic side, what a plus and a bonus you will find. Working in a library I have recommended it highly as added material, and had much favorable feedback.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Meeting of the Waters
Review: This book, in fact this whole series, is better than I could have believed. The writing is superb, and the story takes you in from the beginning and leaves you wanting more at the end. Even for those not particularly interested in Celtic myth or folklore should find the story interesting enough for its own sake. However, if you are interested in the Celtic side, what a plus and a bonus you will find. Working in a library I have recommended it highly as added material, and had much favorable feedback.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: How can a swashbuckling Celtic epic be BORING?!?
Review: With its gorgeous knotwork cover art and the back-cover blurb about "brave, copper-haired Aoife", the publishers evidently mean to recommend this book to readers who've read and loved Marillier's Sevenwaters series, the popular trilogy of Celtic epics featuring strong female protagonists. That's why I bought this book myself. I expected a similar sort of Irish-sword-and-sorcery adventure, complete with love and war and magic. The setting is the time of the Gaelic conquest of Ireland, among the Danaan and Fir Bolg tribes who resist the invasion.

Unfortunately, for about the first 500 pages of this book, the love and war and magic are there, but seen from a distance. It's as if _Daughter of the Forest_ had been told from the POV of the cook Janis, or something. We never get to know any of the lead characters very well, and most of them are unsympathetic. Aoife is a spoiled brat, and a minor character to boot. Her father, King Brocan of the Fir Bolg, is insufferably stubborn; Queen Riona lives only to humiliate her husband. Of their two sons, one is dull and the other foolish and gullible. On top of everything else, most of the exciting events take place "offstage" during these first 500 pages. Mostly, we see the characters arguing about the events in the mead-hall. So, for 500 pages, a bunch of jerks sit around and bicker, and refuse to actually get anything done, for fear of accidentally benefiting their old rivals, the Danaan. At one point, the "wise" Druid judge assigned to deal with the situation comes up with a solution that could make the Danaan and Fir Bolg work together. I, the reader, had thought of it some 100 pages earlier. And I'm no all-wise Druid. I spent most of the book yelling at the characters to grow up.

It gets a little better. In the last hundred or so pages. the characters spend a truly creepy night in a Fomorian wood, and after that there is a battle. However, the result is sort of anticlimactic; if feels like we could have gotten there several hundred pages ago.

And by the way, how does the Quicken tree work? At the beginning, it was said that its berries would provide immortality *only* if the user consumed them once a year for the rest of his/her life. By the end of the book, Mor seems to have forgotten that, and the berries confer instant immortality on anyone who takes them. It changes the meaning of the ending quite a lot.

I'm a little sorry to allow the first (and so far only) review on this page to be negative, but I just thought this book was grating. Maybe someone else will enjoy Caiseal Mor's style, but it just isn't for me.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: How can a swashbuckling Celtic epic be BORING?!?
Review: With its gorgeous knotwork cover art and the back-cover blurb about "brave, copper-haired Aoife", the publishers evidently mean to recommend this book to readers who've read and loved Marillier's Sevenwaters series, the popular trilogy of Celtic epics featuring strong female protagonists. That's why I bought this book myself. I expected a similar sort of Irish-sword-and-sorcery adventure, complete with love and war and magic. The setting is the time of the Gaelic conquest of Ireland, among the Danaan and Fir Bolg tribes who resist the invasion.

Unfortunately, for about the first 500 pages of this book, the love and war and magic are there, but seen from a distance. It's as if _Daughter of the Forest_ had been told from the POV of the cook Janis, or something. We never get to know any of the lead characters very well, and most of them are unsympathetic. Aoife is a spoiled brat, and a minor character to boot. Her father, King Brocan of the Fir Bolg, is insufferably stubborn; Queen Riona lives only to humiliate her husband. Of their two sons, one is dull and the other foolish and gullible. On top of everything else, most of the exciting events take place "offstage" during these first 500 pages. Mostly, we see the characters arguing about the events in the mead-hall. So, for 500 pages, a bunch of jerks sit around and bicker, and refuse to actually get anything done, for fear of accidentally benefiting their old rivals, the Danaan. At one point, the "wise" Druid judge assigned to deal with the situation comes up with a solution that could make the Danaan and Fir Bolg work together. I, the reader, had thought of it some 100 pages earlier. And I'm no all-wise Druid. I spent most of the book yelling at the characters to grow up.

It gets a little better. In the last hundred or so pages. the characters spend a truly creepy night in a Fomorian wood, and after that there is a battle. However, the result is sort of anticlimactic; if feels like we could have gotten there several hundred pages ago.

And by the way, how does the Quicken tree work? At the beginning, it was said that its berries would provide immortality *only* if the user consumed them once a year for the rest of his/her life. By the end of the book, Mor seems to have forgotten that, and the berries confer instant immortality on anyone who takes them. It changes the meaning of the ending quite a lot.

I'm a little sorry to allow the first (and so far only) review on this page to be negative, but I just thought this book was grating. Maybe someone else will enjoy Caiseal Mor's style, but it just isn't for me.


<< 1 >>

© 2004, ReviewFocus or its affiliates