BONES OF THE PAST

Rating:
Summary: Once again, a triumph!
Review: For those who fell in love with the characters from the first book, enjoy this sequel which follows into a strange and mystical world that's both fun and spooky. Holly Lisle creates these places like they're just over the next hill... you could get there if you just tried hard enough. Certainly they're real enough to be on a map! Highly recommended reading.

Rating:
Summary: Best First Book Ever
Review: Hi - I'm Rhion, and I read this book almost ten years ago. I was a little more than ten at the time - yes I know, its not exactly 'appropriate' for that age group - and it was the first 'grown-up' book I ever read. Sure I'd read tons and tons of other books by that age - Tolkien ect - but this was the first one I'd ever grabbed straight off the Sci-Fi/Fantasy section. And I positively loved it. Read it to pieces. And I really need to get another copy - need to get back to that place where the ppl were being sucked dry by the trees, almost like some of the myths I've read from Welsh/Celtic history.....Anyways this was the Best First Book Ever for me, well that and The Ring Of Allair (which is unfortunately out of print, heck the book is from early 80's late 70's can't remember which), and of course the timeless classic by Gordon Dickson The Dragon Knight. So thats my review and I hope you didn't mind my blabber...

Rating:
Summary: yet another great book by a fantastic author!
Review: I have pretty much all of the books in this particular series and I have to say,it's a well-written book.The characters seem to all steal the book in their own rights.From Faia and Kirtha to Medwind,to the somewhat infamous kiddie tribe bunch,the Tagnu. It also has enough villians(or are they??)to shake a stick at.Lessons and morals are found throughout a well thought out book.Kudos!!

Rating:
Summary: Stand-alone sequel to Fire in the Mist
Review: Medwind Song, the head-hunting mage of Fire in the Mist, Nokar the Librarian, and a motley assortment of scholars head into the northern jungles in search of the Lost City of the First Folk.

Rating:
Summary: An author with an original style.
Review: This story is wonderful. The plotting and characterization unfold with freshness and originality, no opportunity to create tension is wasted, and emotional content never seems contrived. Seven Fingered Fat Girl is a marvelous character. In the early going she often carries the book, keeping the reader compelled to read on, just to see what will happen to her and Four Winds Band. Choufa and the tale of the sharsha frequently serve the same role. If not for these characters and plot lines holding my interest so keenly, those involving Medwind and Roba would have had me setting the book aside soon after opening it. Until the characters come together as a group, about halfway through, these last two character's and their tales are just plain boring. Holly Lisle does a fantastic job of limiting descriptive passages and time spent on scene setting. But these otherwise wonderful traits have a drawback. Readers unfamiliar with this world may feel lost early on. This sense of 'where am I, and where am I being lead' is compounded by two things. First, there is no obvious story question. Nothing that lets the reader say, "I wonder if .........." and points the way to the story's end goal. Second, Lisle's odd mix of an 'ancient' world coupled with modern thinking and terminology (like "nested subroutines") takes time to get used to. Her ability to maintain a driving level of tension is wonderful, and she isn't shy about including compelling and unusual subject matter (for a work of Fantasy) like; mass child abuse, abandonment and neglect; and adolescent sex. She does an excellent job of showing us what's happening in these cases, and throughout the story, without ever resorting to boring passages of exposition. Her knack for drawing emotions from her readers is good, but inconsistent.