I admired Ms. Larke's ability to craft a good fantasy novel is her pervious book The Aware.Yet this addition to the series, chronicling the further adventures of Blaze Halfbreed, did not match my expectations despite my wanting to enjoy it.

The skill with which to first book was written was what drew me in initially. Many fantasy novels spend too much time detailing “this is how this land works and why” rather than telling readers “these things matter, because it causes this character to…”. Ms. Larke focused on the characters and constructed around them a world that would bring them into the conflict. In doing so, her book becomes a story rather than a novel. The writing was smooth, never troubled by tricky sentences or grammatical errors, yet it was not overly simple either.

I confess that is was for the appeal of the characters that I picked up this sequel. So many fantasy stories have a fantasy stereotype cropping up somewhere, but all of Ms. Larke’s were completely original. Refreshingly, all of the plot conflicts are a direct result of their personal choices in life: Blaze, a half-breed, choices to defy prejudice; Flame turns away from a royal life to embrace freedom, Tor tempers his inner ferocity with his faith in God…but this time the new character, Gilfeather, lacks the same spark. I felt that his utopian culture is too unrealistic, and that he himself never when under true development, merely, he was exposed to more outlandish situations. I also missed hearing the story told from Blaze’s point of view. The antagonist, a “ruthless dunmagicker” also shed some of his appeal on closer examination, and I much preferred him when he was a sinister presence as opposed to a person.

As for the plot…well, I’m not sure where Ms. Larke was taking me. Because I was hearing the story from Gilfeather’s perspective, I was shuffled from the main conflict and became an observer rather than an active part of the interesting parts, (i.e. what Blaze and co. were up to). The new islands seemed designed to prop up the plot rather than begin scenery, although I will salute their creativity.

Final Word: A disappointing sequel, but not a bad read. The originality and returning characters kept it afloat, and I’ll still pick up the concluding novel.
( )

I've been wanting to read this for 5 years, and when I finally got it - ew. It opens up with so much heavy-handed religious anti-preaching, I can't even. It's written in a way that I can just TELL that the good guys will be liberal and fun and happy and the pious are pinheaded freaks. I don't usually care what religious undertone a good story has, but ermagod this isn't a light aroma, this is sticking my head in a paint can. Go away, book. I need to open a window.

... Restrictions placed on a Fellih-faithful woman were not as stringent, as long as she did not commit adultery or tempt the menfolk with her behavior or dress. Jastriá had once explained that anomaly to me. It stemmed not from a more liberal attitude to women, but from a rather nasty aspect of the religion: women were not considered worth troubling oneself about. The Fellih-Master was contemptuous of women and the Holy Book was full of tales of their empty-headed, superficial femininity that was capable of neither piety nor scholarship. A woman, it seemed, went to paradise only if her husband accumulated sufficient merit in his own life to take her along with him. Rich women, therefore, often married more than one spouse in the hope that one of them would prove man enough to get her to heaven.

An excellent continuation of the series started in "The Aware." The societies and magical systems seem to be well thought out, and it's definitely a page-turner! The bracketing letters are interesting and amusing, and are offering some fascinating foreshadowing of the end of thethird book... maybe. ( )

http://yoyogodreviews.blogspot.com/2007/05/gilfeather-by-glenda-larke.html ( )

This cover is for the American edition; mine is different. ( )