Rating: 
Summary: World building at its best
Review: I just don't understand American publishers. First they split up Ash: A secret history (Another mighty fine book) into 4 novels, which totally destroyed the flow. Now, with Irvine's A View from the Mirror, they are doing something similar. Irvine wrote all four books before he approached a publisher, and when first published in Australia and New Zealand they were all released at essentially the same time.This series works best when read as one. It is one of the most complete examples of creating a world I have ever seen. The detail and complexity of Irvine's Sathenar is astounding. Then there are the characters. One of my biggest problems with most epic fantasy is that the characters are almost always entirely unequivocal. The good guys are sugary sweet and nice and the bad guys are ridiculously evil (cue demented laugh). Irvine avoids this mistake entirely. All his characters are as deep and complex as his settings, the 'bad guys' are most often misguided or stupid and the 'good guys' are far from heroic. If you are looking for clones of Eddings or Brooks, come no further, this book is not for you. If you are looking for something different, something which requires a little mental effort, then dive in.
Rating: 
Summary: Did I read the same book?
Review: After reading the glowing, five star reviews that seem to be continually posted for this book, i start to wonder if it was actually the same novel that i read. Well, half read, because i honestly couldn't bring myself to finish it. i struggled through the main character being ever-so-subtly named after the author (Llian/Ian); i struggled through the info-dump a few pages in, in which said main character explained at great length his entire childhood and life history to an old flame he had already known for years (convenient it only just came up now..). I read through clumsy dialogue, stilted action, cliched characters, and the sheer lack of readability that made me wince. The friend i borrowed this from assures me that the sheer concept behind it all was highly original, but personally i always find a story counts for little if it cannot be told skillfully. Maybe i'm just being picky, but i can't believe this is what passes for a decent fantasy novel. Sure, it's a first novel, but that shouldn't be an excuse for poor writing. Obviously, considering the massive publicity campaign and three equally bulky sequels that have followed, it hasn't had any effect on either his publishers or sales. But if the story really is as strong as i've been told, then what is really missing is the influence of an editor who should eliminate pieces of obviously amateurish writing within a novel before publication. As far as i know, that is what the editorial process is supposed to be there for... Well, one bad review obviously isn't going to dent Ian Irvine's four book contract and massive following, but the most i can say for him right now is that this novel is just one long list of things i try to avoid doing when i write myself.
Rating: 
Summary: Fantastic Story
Review: Luckily, I live in Australia, so I have had the pleasure of reading all 4 of Ian Irvine's great novels (the author is Australian & these novels were all, more or less, published simultaneously over here). Normally, with multi-volume works, I tend to read volume one & then read something else before going back to volume two. Not in this case. I read all four without interruption & I only ever do that if the story being told is something special. In a genre stuffed to overflowing with derivative, bloated, boring stories, Irvine offers a genuinely fresh and fascinating tale.
Rating:
Summary: The beginning of a geat nw series. A must read
Review: Three worlds (Santhenar, Aachan and Tallallamem) had passages that allowed humans to travel between them. However, out of the void came the bellicose Charon who conquered Aachan. The war forced the closing of the bridges that linked the three orbs. On each world lives natives and aliens from the other worlds. In common among the three worlds are a deep fear of the Charon and a desire of those left on the wrong world to return home. On Santhenar the chronicler Llian makes known the contents of top secret documents that contain dangerous information from a more magical era. His release of them turns him into an ostracized pariah among his peers. The psychic Karen is forced into stealing the magic Mirror of Aachan, an artifact that can save or destroy worlds. Soon afterward everyone on planet and some beings that are off-planet are after Karen. After meeting Llian, who joins herin flight, Karen struggles to survive. The first book in Ian Irvine's "The View from the Mirror" series is a complex, well-written science fiction fantasy that takes readers on a wild graphic trip into a strange universe. Santhenar and the key cast seem genuine and the concept of passages between tri-worlds appears real because of the tremendous depth of description, but that also slows down the epic a bit. This reviewer is disappointed that A SHADOW ON THE GLASS is not a stand-alone tale as the adventures continue with volume 2 THE TOWER OF THE RIFT that will arrive in bookstores in January 2002 or currently purchased along with 3 and 4 over the net. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: Great start to a great series!
Review: This is the first book of a great quartet called "The View From the Mirror". If you don't know already, the rest of the books in this series are called: The Tower On The Rift, Dark Is The Moon and The Way Between the worlds. The series is situated in a place where there are three worlds with their own human species. Then there came a fourth species who are desperate on the edge of extinction, therefore entering the other three worlds, changing the balance between them forever. Then the female and male protagonists are called Karan and Llian. Karan is a "sensitive" who has unpredictable powers that hardly work for her, while Llian is a brilliant Chronicler whose curiousity forever gets him into trouble. Karan is forced to steal this mirror that is an ancient relic, not knowing all the trouble that it would cause. Karan and Llian are thrown together by fate and are hunted across the world for the mirror they hold and the secret it possesses. This is a great starting book to a great series. It's storyline is highly original and unpredictable, where the good guys don't necessarily win all the time. I strongly recommend this book, or this series rather, because the series gets better as you go along. This first book may be a bit slow to start, but it picks up!
Rating:
Summary: Poorly written Jack Vance Imitation
Review: Ian Irvine supposedly was influenced in his writing by the great stylist Jack Vance-maybe so, but certainly not in plot structure (if any) or prose (poor, at best). Bluntly, don't bother. Look for some of the witty works of Geary Gravel (The Dreamwright, The Shadowsmith) or Paula Volsky (The Luck of Relian Kru, The Grand Ellipse) for similar, better authors.
Rating:
Summary: cool idea but not a good book-in fact bad book
Review: When i bought this book it had a lot of good reviews but it was nothing like what i expected. The main charaters at first are good but they develop into wining and annoying people always complaining. the book has absolutley no action done by the main charaters, no sword fights or any action at all, all the main charaters do is run away and complain about having to run. I give this book 1 star because the plot had could have become a good book but the charaters are nothing like what you would expect after reading Jordan, Goodkind, Brooks, Le Guin, Rowling, R.R. Martin, Nix, Herbert, Tolkein, and all the other fantasy authors i've read. I hate to tell authors that their book was bad because i know they worked on them extremely hard but i will never read anything else written by this author Ian Irvine.-read something else!
Rating:
Summary: Better than average fantasy. But not by much.
Review: This is a pretty good beginning to a fantasy series. You have your seeming unconnected random band of heroes (many of whom do not wish to be heroes), characters with hidden pasts who do not know their full magical potential (shades of anime, there), and mysterious dark forces on the move.
Most of the book seems to be taken up by the main characters running and hiding from those who would hunt the mirror. Although having a female character who is stronger than her male companion and finds him a burden is certinally a nice touch.
It will be interesting to see where this series goes in later books. If it will take 3 or more books for 'the man in chains' to be released and wreak havoc (and then be defeated in the final two pages, ala Mercedes Lackey books) or if there will be more of a give and take throughout this series.
Rating:
Summary: Good Read...
Review:
The Story of Llian, a student of history and a chronicler of the past uncovers the ultimate cold case - a murder long ago on a different world. He is outcast from his order for this disruption of the perceived history. He meets Karan, a sensitive with psychic abilities who is fleeing from hunters for her part in the theft of an ancient relic - a mirror that is evil and remembers everything it sees. The pair flee from the wizards and politicians that seek to stop their escape and to prevent them from using to mirror to solve the mystery. A slightly long story with just a few too many unneeded twists and rather obvious resolutions, but well written and worth a read. I look forward to reading the sequel.
Rating:
Summary: Poorly written Jack Vance Imitation
Review: When i bought this book it had a lot of good reviews but it was nothing like what i expected. The main charaters at first are good but they develop into wining and annoying people always complaining. the book has absolutley no action done by the main charaters, no sword fights or any action at all, all the main charaters do is run away and complain about having to run. I give this book 1 star because the plot had could have become a good book but the charaters are nothing like what you would expect after reading Jordan, Goodkind, Brooks, Le Guin, Rowling, R.R. Martin, Nix, Herbert, Tolkein, and all the other fantasy authors i've read. I hate to tell authors that their book was bad because i know they worked on them extremely hard but i will never read anything else written by this author Ian Irvine.-read something else!
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