Magelord: The House of Bairn

Rating:
Summary: The Best of the Magelord series!
Review: By far the best Magelord book. A must-read, especially if you've read the first two books.

Rating:
Summary: selfish, childish wish-fulfillment
Review: I have not read the first two books in the MageLord trilogy; if they are similar to "The House of Bairn," I probably never will. Actually, I never felt a need to read them, even to make sense of the third book. That could mean either that each of the three books can stand alone, or it could mean that Martin almost completely dropped earlier plot threads. Based on the book itself, which contained some hints and references to the two earlier books, I'm inclined to suspect the latter.

"The House of Bairn" opens with Bjorn, a mage-gifted hunter, accidentally unleashing a MageLord on his unsuspecting world. This Lord, Soren, transported himself from the distant past, before the MageLords died in a world-devastating war, and he sends Bjorn back in time to balance his spell.

In the past, Bjorn, now called Bairn, becomes an apprentice to the MageLord Rylur. He learns magic and math, while plotting the destruction of the MageLords, who rule the world with no consideration for the powerless. Martin makes an interesting link between this world's magic and modern theories about subatomic particles, and the conversion of matter to energy; in this world, magical Power is produced by the destruction of matter, not a nuclear explosion.

Bairn eventually provokes a war between the male Northern Alliance and the female Southern Alliance. After the war, he ends up as the most powerful man in the world, lives for thousands of years until the time he, as Bjorn, released Soren, and returns to set the world to rights. He defeats Soren, and forcibly establishes peace between normal people and the magi, who have lived in hiding according to his laws. He also miraculously saves his parents from death, and ends up with three loving wives.

This whole book is basically adolescent wish-fulfillment. Bairn, alone of all people, is willing to study Power reservoirs, and so learns the secret of converting matter to Power; he doesn't tell anyone, and for some reason, Martin assumes no one would ever be able to duplicate Bairn's experiments. Be serious, please.

Also, Bairn has so much Power that he can effectively take over the world, and for many intents, does so. He provokes a world-devastating war, instead of trying to change the future. He could save thousands in the years he spends on the moon, yet he only saves his parents. He imposes sanctions against any normal people who harm the magi, and enforces them, yet doesn't do a thing to stop any other crimes. We're supposed to treat this man as the hero? This is supposed to be an emotionally satisfying conclusion to a story of hideous persecution?

"The House of Bairn" is selfish, childish trash. No, I wrong trash. This is tripe. It is, however, reasonably well-written and entertaining tripe, though it left me with a very bad taste in my mouth.

Rating:
Summary: selfish, childish wish-fulfillment
Review: I have not read the first two books in the MageLord trilogy; if they are similar to "The House of Bairn," I probably never will. Actually, I never felt a need to read them, even to make sense of the third book. That could mean either that each of the three books can stand alone, or it could mean that Martin almost completely dropped earlier plot threads. Based on the book itself, which contained some hints and references to the two earlier books, I'm inclined to suspect the latter.

"The House of Bairn" opens with Bjorn, a mage-gifted hunter, accidentally unleashing a MageLord on his unsuspecting world. This Lord, Soren, transported himself from the distant past, before the MageLords died in a world-devastating war, and he sends Bjorn back in time to balance his spell.

In the past, Bjorn, now called Bairn, becomes an apprentice to the MageLord Rylur. He learns magic and math, while plotting the destruction of the MageLords, who rule the world with no consideration for the powerless. Martin makes an interesting link between this world's magic and modern theories about subatomic particles, and the conversion of matter to energy; in this world, magical Power is produced by the destruction of matter, not a nuclear explosion.

Bairn eventually provokes a war between the male Northern Alliance and the female Southern Alliance. After the war, he ends up as the most powerful man in the world, lives for thousands of years until the time he, as Bjorn, released Soren, and returns to set the world to rights. He defeats Soren, and forcibly establishes peace between normal people and the magi, who have lived in hiding according to his laws. He also miraculously saves his parents from death, and ends up with three loving wives.

This whole book is basically adolescent wish-fulfillment. Bairn, alone of all people, is willing to study Power reservoirs, and so learns the secret of converting matter to Power; he doesn't tell anyone, and for some reason, Martin assumes no one would ever be able to duplicate Bairn's experiments. Be serious, please.

Also, Bairn has so much Power that he can effectively take over the world, and for many intents, does so. He provokes a world-devastating war, instead of trying to change the future. He could save thousands in the years he spends on the moon, yet he only saves his parents. He imposes sanctions against any normal people who harm the magi, and enforces them, yet doesn't do a thing to stop any other crimes. We're supposed to treat this man as the hero? This is supposed to be an emotionally satisfying conclusion to a story of hideous persecution?

"The House of Bairn" is selfish, childish trash. No, I wrong trash. This is tripe. It is, however, reasonably well-written and entertaining tripe, though it left me with a very bad taste in my mouth.

Rating:
Summary: selfish, childish wish-fulfillment
Review: I have not read the first two books in the MageLord trilogy; if they are similar to "The House of Bairn," I probably never will. Actually, I never felt a need to read them, even to make sense of the third book. That could mean either that each of the three books can stand alone, or it could mean that Martin almost completely dropped earlier plot threads. Based on the book itself, which contained some hints and references to the two earlier books, I'm inclined to suspect the latter.

"The House of Bairn" opens with Bjorn, a mage-gifted hunter, accidentally unleashing a MageLord on his unsuspecting world. This Lord, Soren, transported himself from the distant past, before the MageLords died in a world-devastating war, and he sends Bjorn back in time to balance his spell.

In the past, Bjorn, now called Bairn, becomes an apprentice to the MageLord Rylur. He learns magic and math, while plotting the destruction of the MageLords, who rule the world with no consideration for the powerless. Martin makes an interesting link between this world's magic and modern theories about subatomic particles, and the conversion of matter to energy; in this world, magical Power is produced by the destruction of matter, not a nuclear explosion.

Bairn eventually provokes a war between the male Northern Alliance and the female Southern Alliance. After the war, he ends up as the most powerful man in the world, lives for thousands of years until the time he, as Bjorn, released Soren, and returns to set the world to rights. He defeats Soren, and forcibly establishes peace between normal people and the magi, who have lived in hiding according to his laws. He also miraculously saves his parents from death, and ends up with three loving wives.

This whole book is basically adolescent wish-fulfillment. Bairn, alone of all people, is willing to study Power reservoirs, and so learns the secret of converting matter to Power; he doesn't tell anyone, and for some reason, Martin assumes no one would ever be able to duplicate Bairn's experiments. Be serious, please.

Also, Bairn has so much Power that he can effectively take over the world, and for many intents, does so. He provokes a world-devastating war, instead of trying to change the future. He could save thousands in the years he spends on the moon, yet he only saves his parents. He imposes sanctions against any normal people who harm the magi, and enforces them, yet doesn't do a thing to stop any other crimes. We're supposed to treat this man as the hero? This is supposed to be an emotionally satisfying conclusion to a story of hideous persecution?

"The House of Bairn" is selfish, childish trash. No, I wrong trash. This is tripe. It is, however, reasonably well-written and entertaining tripe, though it left me with a very bad taste in my mouth.

Rating:
Summary: It really is a great book!
Review: I have to say it's my favorite fantasy book. I've read Weiss and Hickman, Salvatore, and all the other greats but this one tops 'em all.

Rating:
Summary: A fantastic conclusion! How dare he end it!
Review: I met this book with great anticipation and sadness - Since I knew it was the last one. All ends are neatly tied up in the same great style as the previous two books. Finally the MageLords and Bairn are revealed and justice is served with earth-shattering concequences. This book was as good as or better than the previous two. Third times a charm they say. I just can't believe it's over. I'll have to re-read them all again.

Rating:
Summary: One of the few books I can read again and again!
Review: I picked this book up because it seemed interesting, and after looking through the pages for a few moments, I decided it was pretty good, and picked it up, and read it straight through, then started at the begining again. Let me tell you, that's something I haven't done since I picked up the Mallorean just after Demon Lord of Karanda was published. Magelord is the story of Bjorn, a member of a secret group of mage gifted people, who must discover the ancient secrets and powers of the Magelords, a group of wizard-tyrants who had ruled the world a thousand years ago, in order to prevent all his people from being slain by a holy crusade. One of the best books I've ever read.

Rating:
Summary: Best in the series.
Review: Of the three books in this series, this one was my favorite. The history of why the events in the first two books made it even better.

Rating:
Summary: This book was terrible
Review: The reason this book is so bad is because there is a lame storyline. The Holocaust has been written as a story over and over but this one by far is the lamest. He takes mages and creates a storyline for them to be hunted (and killed) by the followers of Hrothgar and some bozo priest. The reason, because the fear the power that they will hold over common non-mage folk. Sounds like the X-men to me, there is not an original thought in this book. The main character who becomes the almight mage Bairn plays a decepitve game of learning all the "powerful" spell he can, become a magelord and take over the world!! In this case it was easier done than said because the "magelords" whom this fraud was being perpatrated were watching re-runs of Max Headroom whilst our "hero" plotted to destroy them. In the first book Valerian is an awesome and powerful mage but we come to find out that he is a low-level chump of one of the dumbest characters ever in a fantasy novel, Rylur the magelord. Valerian, almost single handedly destroyed the entire planet in the first book as a lower mage but the mages in the third book who are much more powerful are like the Keystone Kops. There was no thought or effort into this book, the author was attempting to make a deadline. This book was such a waste of time and money.

Rating:
Summary: This book was terrible
Review: The reason this book is so bad is because there is a lame storyline. The Holocaust has been written as a story over and over but this one by far is the lamest. He takes mages and creates a storyline for them to be hunted (and killed) by the followers of Hrothgar and some bozo priest. The reason, because the fear the power that they will hold over common non-mage folk. Sounds like the X-men to me, there is not an original thought in this book. The main character who becomes the almight mage Bairn plays a decepitve game of learning all the "powerful" spell he can, become a magelord and take over the world!! In this case it was easier done than said because the "magelords" whom this fraud was being perpatrated were watching re-runs of Max Headroom whilst our "hero" plotted to destroy them. In the first book Valerian is an awesome and powerful mage but we come to find out that he is a low-level chump of one of the dumbest characters ever in a fantasy novel, Rylur the magelord. Valerian, almost single handedly destroyed the entire planet in the first book as a lower mage but the mages in the third book who are much more powerful are like the Keystone Kops. There was no thought or effort into this book, the author was attempting to make a deadline. This book was such a waste of time and money.