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Book Review: Child of the Prophecy by Juliet Marillier

Posted by Lahni in Fantasy - (Comments Off)

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Child of the Prophecy by Juliet Marillier

Third in the Sevenwaters Trilogy, (See reviews for Daughter of the Forest and Son of the Shadows)

This story is told from the point of view of Fainne who is the niece of the narrator of the second book and the granddaughter of the first. Through-out the first two books the people of Sevenwaters have been waiting for the child of the prophecy. The prophecy tells of of child who will bear the mark of the raven and will help the people to regain sacred islands that were from them by the Britons. Fainne, who grew up far away from Sevenwaters is a sorcerer’s daughter and has been taught in the ways of her father. Her grandmother, a powerful sorceress herself, has a grudge against Sevenwaters and sends her to back. The child of the prophecy has come of age and they are planning on retaking the islands. Fainne’s grandmother expects her to sabotage their plans Fainne fears her grandmother and what she might do to her loved one but she also grows to love her uncles and cousins and can’t imagine betraying them to her grandmother. The novel is mostly about her struggle between these two sides. And of course there is a love story in there too!

I liked this book almost as much as the other two. I wasn’t totally in love with the main character but she was real. I found the narrators in the other two books to be so perfect and unrealistic. The story was really good though. All of these books were so fun to read and just get lost in. Definitely worth the time!

Fainne, Ireland, Juliet Marillier

Book Review: Son of the Shadows by Juliet Marillier

Posted by Lahni in Fantasy - (3 Comments)

son

Son of the Shadows by Juliet Marillier

Read for: What’s in a Name Challenge – Book title with a relative in it

This is the second novel in the Sevenwaters trilogy (First novel – Daughter of the Forest). It tells the story of Sorcha’s (the narrator of the previous novel) youngest daughter. Although the novel is part of the trilogy, it could be read without reading the first novel.

Liadan, Sorcha’s youngest, is sixteen when the novel begins. There have been tales of a band of vicious mercenaries in the area and as she is travelling home, Liadan, a healer, is taken against her will by this group of men. The men demand that she try to save one of their number who has been involved in an accident and is dying. She does as is she commanded, but the man is beyond saving. As she spends time with the men, she soon realizes that they are not as bad as the stories about them have led her to believe. And wouldn’t you know it, Liadan ends up having a relationship with the leader of this group of men, Bran.

Bran sends Liadan home and, of course, she soon realizes that she is pregnant. For some reason when her family finds out about the pregnancy, they don’t care who the father is and they allow Liadan to carry the child and remain at Sevenwaters with it. Liadan wants to be with Bran but she knows that her family with not accept him, because he is this crazy, evil murderer so she keeps the identity of her father’s baby a secret. Bran is a wanted man and Liadan does everything she can to protect him from the men around her who all want him dead. (They don’t know what a great man he is, you see…) Anyway, I don’t to give away the ending, but everybody gets to live happily ever after.

I liked this book almost as much as the first one. The story was great. I loved all the twists and unexpected turns (and the expected ones too). Marillier started telling this story in the previous book, without us even realizing it. (But you don’t need to have read the book to understand, she is very careful to give the reader all the pertinent details.) I also really like Mariilier’s writing, it just draws the reader into the story and I almost felt as if I was there.

There were a few things that bothered me about this book that I didn’t notice in the first one. Some of the characters were a little unbelievable. I had a hard time reconciling the two sides of the men Liadan meets as she is trying to nurse the injured man back to life. They were supposed to be hardened men, men who didn’t trust and had terrible secrets in their past but they were so ready to accept Liadan into their inner circle. It just didn’t make sense to me. There were also certain parts of the story that were almost cheesy. There is a very fine line in a love story between cheese and reality and Marillier might have left a toe or two cross that line a few times.

Overall though, this book was pretty good and I will definitely be reading the third one.

Bran, Ireland, Juliet Marillier, Liadan, Sevenwaters

Book Review: Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier

Posted by Lahni in Fantasy - (2 Comments)

daughterforest

Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier.

Read for: Once Upon a Time Challenge

This is a novel based on The Six Swans fairy tale. In the fairy tale a king with 7 children (six sons and one daughter) gets remarried to a jealous woman. The new queen turns her step-sons into swans who can only return to their human form for 15 minutes every day. Luckily, the daughter was able to escape before she was turned into a swan. If she can sew six shirts out of starwort for her brothers and remain silent the whole time, she can release them from the spell. Eventually, another King finds the remaining daughter, falls in love with her and marries her. In her new home, she is wrongly accused of a crime and as she cannot speak to defend herself she is sentenced to burn. She has almost finished her brothers’ shirts, only one is missing a sleeve. Just as the fire is being lit, her brothers, as swans, appear and she slips the shirts over their necks one by one. She is then able to speak and proclaim her innocence. She is released from the stake and her accusers are burned in her place. She and her husband live happily ever after and all of her brothers are turned back into men, but for one brother who is left with a wing in place of his arm.

In Daughter of the Forest, Marillier basically retells this story. And I mean basically. I’ve never found this particular fairy tale to be all that compelling but I loved this version of it. I have to admit, I had a hard time getting into the story at first, but once I did, I could not put the book down. Marillier tells the story in a Celtic setting and adds some extra magic to the story by including the fair folk, who assist the heroine (Sorcha) in her quest and setting the story in an enchanted wood that protects Sorcha through the first part of her task.

Marillier also does a good job of spinning the love story. Fairy tales always seem to have people falling in love at first sight and living happily ever after, but in this retelling, the love between Sorcha and Lord Hugh grows gradually and we as readers see the love before the characters do themselves.

And even though I knew what the ending of the story was, I still found it very suspenseful! I could not stop turning the pages, waiting to see what would happen to Sorcha as she was being led out to be put to death. Would she finish the shirts? Would her brothers come? How would she be saved from the fire? The ending of this story is quite different from the ending of the fairy tale, but also quite similar. I don’t want to give away the ending so that’s all I’ll say. I think the ending is much more satisfying than the ending of the traditional story.

I also found the characters in this story very compelling. They were so easy to love (or hate, as the case may be) but they still had faults. I especially liked Sorcha’s brothers and the relationship they all had with her and each other. It was so much fun to read about them.

I really liked this book and can’t wait to read the next one. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who likes a good fairy tale!