Loved it!, 20 Jul 2005
A collection of short stories by some of today's most popular authors... and a good cause thrown in for good measure. This collection is extremely varied, in terms of both writing styles and subject matter, so there's bound to be a few stories in there you'll absolutely love.

Buy this book - you won't regret it.

All you could ask for from a collection of short stories., 11 Jan 2005
I'll be honest, I only bought this book because I'm a J.K.Rowling fan and I have to have everything she's ever had published (even if it's only a foreward). I wasn't expecting too much from the actual stories themselves. But I was more than merely pleasantly suprised. The stories are wonderful. Each one is somehow very different from the others but they all share an element of 'sparkle' which makes the collection jell rather well. This 'sparkle' is not just magic, though there is some magic (of sorts) in some of the stories, but is rather a property of the characters. Though the stories are all about different people the main characters have, in their behaviour, something which makes them stand out, something which makes them just a little bit special. Perhaps it's this which makes the stories so enchanting; the fact that the characters are close to being average and normal, but have some small quality which anyone might possess, but which almost no-one actually does possess. I hope that makes some sense. If not, let me simply say that the stories are not only very original but are also very well written and very enjoyable to read. I highly recommend this collection of short stories.

"Magic Moments", 28 Jun 2002
Tilly has wild aspirations of becoming a famous opera diva.
Sandra dreams of creating the perfect bra to revolutionize womens' lives and what has become of Professor Martin Presley whose scientific discovery has the worst repercussions ever?

These are just some of the topics explored in "Magic", which is an interesting anthology produced for The National Council For One-Parent Families. It aims to raise money to support the millions of single parents, like myself, facing financial hardship in bringing up a child single-handedly.
Its forward is by J.K Rowling, Ambassador of this charity and herself a lone parent once caught in the poverty trap.

The stories are kindly donated by well-accomplished authors including Fay Weldon, Sue Townsend and John O' Farrell.
Oozing originality, its tales stretch the imagination and provide its reader with escapism in abundance whilst also supporting a worthwhile cause.
Hocus Pocus this is not. This is British Fiction at its finest.

"Magic Moments", 28 Jun 2002
Tilly has wild aspirations of becoming a famous opera diva.
Sandra dreams of creating the perfect bra to revolutionize womens' lives and what has become of Professor Martin Presley whose scientific discovery has the worst repercussions ever?

These are just some of the topics explored in "Magic", which is an interesting anthology produced for The National Council For One-Parent Families. It aims to raise money to support the millions of single parents, like myself, facing financial hardship in bringing up a child single-handedly.
Its forward is by J.K Rowling, Ambassador of this charity and herself a lone parent once caught in the poverty trap.

The stories are kindly donated by well-accomplished authors including Fay Weldon, Sue Townsend and John O' Farrell.
Oozing originality, its tales stretch the imagination and provide its reader with escapism in abundance whilst also supporting a worthwhile cause.
Hocus Pocus this is not. This is British Fiction at its finest.

Splendid book, filled with sparkling stories, 21 Jun 2002
I rarely read collections of short stories, but this one attracted me - it contans stories written by today's modern (mostly women) writers, and all of them tempted me to read other works by them.

Each story has magic as its theme - that is not to say the rabbit out of the hat magic, but more often the magic of an emotion or a feeling. My personal favourite is indeed the rabbit from a hat story by Meera Syal!

I can imagine that these stories will not appeal to everyone, but most of them will appeal to most women!

Read and enjoy.

The Colour of Magic is Terry Pratchett's maiden voyage through the bizarre land of Discworld. His entertaining and witty series has grown to more than 20 books, and this is where it all starts--with the tourist Twoflower and his hapless wizard guide, Rincewind ("All wizards get like that... it's the quicksilver fumes. Rots their brains. Mushrooms, too."). Pratchett spoofs fantasy clichés--and everything else he can think of--while marshalling a profusion of characters through a madcap adventure. The Colour of Magic is followed by The Light Fantastic. --Blaise Selby, Amazon.com

Loved it!, 20 Jul 2005
A collection of short stories by some of today's most popular authors... and a good cause thrown in for good measure. This collection is extremely varied, in terms of both writing styles and subject matter, so there's bound to be a few stories in there you'll absolutely love.

Buy this book - you won't regret it.

All you could ask for from a collection of short stories., 11 Jan 2005
I'll be honest, I only bought this book because I'm a J.K.Rowling fan and I have to have everything she's ever had published (even if it's only a foreward). I wasn't expecting too much from the actual stories themselves. But I was more than merely pleasantly suprised. The stories are wonderful. Each one is somehow very different from the others but they all share an element of 'sparkle' which makes the collection jell rather well. This 'sparkle' is not just magic, though there is some magic (of sorts) in some of the stories, but is rather a property of the characters. Though the stories are all about different people the main characters have, in their behaviour, something which makes them stand out, something which makes them just a little bit special. Perhaps it's this which makes the stories so enchanting; the fact that the characters are close to being average and normal, but have some small quality which anyone might possess, but which almost no-one actually does possess. I hope that makes some sense. If not, let me simply say that the stories are not only very original but are also very well written and very enjoyable to read. I highly recommend this collection of short stories.

"Magic Moments", 28 Jun 2002
Tilly has wild aspirations of becoming a famous opera diva.
Sandra dreams of creating the perfect bra to revolutionize womens' lives and what has become of Professor Martin Presley whose scientific discovery has the worst repercussions ever?

These are just some of the topics explored in "Magic", which is an interesting anthology produced for The National Council For One-Parent Families. It aims to raise money to support the millions of single parents, like myself, facing financial hardship in bringing up a child single-handedly.
Its forward is by J.K Rowling, Ambassador of this charity and herself a lone parent once caught in the poverty trap.

The stories are kindly donated by well-accomplished authors including Fay Weldon, Sue Townsend and John O' Farrell.
Oozing originality, its tales stretch the imagination and provide its reader with escapism in abundance whilst also supporting a worthwhile cause.
Hocus Pocus this is not. This is British Fiction at its finest.

"Magic Moments", 28 Jun 2002
Tilly has wild aspirations of becoming a famous opera diva.
Sandra dreams of creating the perfect bra to revolutionize womens' lives and what has become of Professor Martin Presley whose scientific discovery has the worst repercussions ever?

These are just some of the topics explored in "Magic", which is an interesting anthology produced for The National Council For One-Parent Families. It aims to raise money to support the millions of single parents, like myself, facing financial hardship in bringing up a child single-handedly.
Its forward is by J.K Rowling, Ambassador of this charity and herself a lone parent once caught in the poverty trap.

The stories are kindly donated by well-accomplished authors including Fay Weldon, Sue Townsend and John O' Farrell.
Oozing originality, its tales stretch the imagination and provide its reader with escapism in abundance whilst also supporting a worthwhile cause.
Hocus Pocus this is not. This is British Fiction at its finest.

Splendid book, filled with sparkling stories, 21 Jun 2002
I rarely read collections of short stories, but this one attracted me - it contans stories written by today's modern (mostly women) writers, and all of them tempted me to read other works by them.

Each story has magic as its theme - that is not to say the rabbit out of the hat magic, but more often the magic of an emotion or a feeling. My personal favourite is indeed the rabbit from a hat story by Meera Syal!

I can imagine that these stories will not appeal to everyone, but most of them will appeal to most women!

Read and enjoy.

Welcome to the Discworld, 20 Dec 2008
The one where we are introduced to incompetent wizard Rincewind, who accidentally becomes a guide to Twoflower (the Discworld's first tourist) in a series of escapades controlled by the gods, who are (literally) playing dice. Features dragons, the horribly carnivorous but loyal Luggage, and space travel - well, almost. Pratchett's humour takes a while to get used to, but stick with it - there's a whole world waiting to be discovered in the Discworld series, of which this is the very first instalment. `The Light Fantastic' picks up where this work finishes.

Wonderful fantasy world, 10 Dec 2008
Synopsis from Amazon:

It is fantasy? No - it's a different and more eccentric reality, where the world is flat and moves through space on the back of a giant turtle, Death stalks glumly about his duties, and dragons only exist if you believe in them. And your luggage follows you around on hundreds of little legs...

Follow Twoflower the naïve tourist and his inept guide Rincewind in their hilarious search for thrills, adventure and opportunities to not get killed. Follow them all the way to the Edge - and beyond...


This is the first Pratchett novel I have read, and I am glad I did, what a funny book!

Pratchett leads us through a fantastical world filled with gods, dragons, trolls and the like. This book was not a disappointment. Everything was described in such a way that it was easy to imagine and be transported there.

I loved Twoflower, I found his character hilarious. Pretty much all he did and said was funny. My other favourite character was Death. He had some great one-liners.

My only problem with the book was there were so many events and adventures and characters I slowly forgot who was who and what had happened before. However, this didn't really spoil the story for me.

The end is nicely set up for the next in the series, and I am looking forward to carrying on the adventure :-)

8/10


Don't start with this one if you're new to the series, 16 Jul 2008
This is certainly not one to start the series with if you are new to Terry Pratchett - it is thematically quite different (which is understandable considering that it's the first of his Discworld books) and rather rough in parts. It's certainly one to read once you're familiar with the world, but you'd be better off starting with something like Mort or Soul Music to get a better flavour of what Discworld is all about.

Discworld Begins., 30 Apr 2008
Ok you dont need to read every discworls novel, nor do you need to start here but I think it helps. This is one of the best, Rincewind has always been my favourite Pratchett Character anyway.

I loved it, 26 Apr 2008
I loved the book and all its characters down to the tiniest atom. Rincewind and Death are now official favourite characters of mine and I am now a Discworld fan. I have read through 13-14 books so far and hope to read more, but this one I always come back to.
People may have thought It wasn't that great, but it was better than [[The Last Continent]]!

Like a venerable patriarch, Magician stands at the head of a great tribe of fantasy writing. When Raymond Feist's enormous novel was published, critics called it "the best new fantasy concept in years", and Feist has refined and explored that concept over a dozen novels. His "concept" was to bring together two (and later, more) whole, intricately realised fantasy worlds. Midkemia is a Tolkienian realm, a European- Medieval series of kingdoms in which magic is prominent, and where men share the earth with dwarves and elves. Feist's genius was inventing another sword and sorcercy realm based more closely on eastern models, the Empire of Tsuranuanni, as vast as Ancient China, as formalised and devoted to the arts of war as a samurai Japan. A magical rift in time-space brings these two worlds clashing together, and the young boy Pug and his soldier friend Tomas are thrown into the ensuing maelstrom of invasion and epic battle, before embarking on a more fundamental magical journey towards the very roots of evil itself. Feist's two sequels to Magician, Silverthorn and A Darkness at Sethanon complete the richly conceived Riftwar Saga, and Feist has gone on to chronicle other aspects of his invented worlds. With Janny Wurts he wrote the Empire trilogy, which charts the rise, through the rigid patriarchy of the Empire of Tsuranuanni, of a remarkable female heroine, a woman who eventually reaches the heights of the imperial throne itself Daughter of the Empire, Servant of the Empire and Mistress of Empire. More recently he has returned to the world of Medkemia, and to his hero Pug, with the Serpentwar saga, beginning with Shadow of a Dark Queen and continuing with Rise of a Merchant Prince, Rage of a Demon King and Shards of a Broken Crown. Heroic Fantasy is a crowded-enough field, but Feist stands out in it for his sheer inventive power, the scope and range of his narratives, the diversity of his characters and his thundering battle sequences. Start reading here, and you may find yourself unable to stop until you have followed the saga right up to date. --Adam Roberts

Loved it!, 20 Jul 2005
A collection of short stories by some of today's most popular authors... and a good cause thrown in for good measure. This collection is extremely varied, in terms of both writing styles and subject matter, so there's bound to be a few stories in there you'll absolutely love.

Buy this book - you won't regret it.

All you could ask for from a collection of short stories., 11 Jan 2005
I'll be honest, I only bought this book because I'm a J.K.Rowling fan and I have to have everything she's ever had published (even if it's only a foreward). I wasn't expecting too much from the actual stories themselves. But I was more than merely pleasantly suprised. The stories are wonderful. Each one is somehow very different from the others but they all share an element of 'sparkle' which makes the collection jell rather well. This 'sparkle' is not just magic, though there is some magic (of sorts) in some of the stories, but is rather a property of the characters. Though the stories are all about different people the main characters have, in their behaviour, something which makes them stand out, something which makes them just a little bit special. Perhaps it's this which makes the stories so enchanting; the fact that the characters are close to being average and normal, but have some small quality which anyone might possess, but which almost no-one actually does possess. I hope that makes some sense. If not, let me simply say that the stories are not only very original but are also very well written and very enjoyable to read. I highly recommend this collection of short stories.

"Magic Moments", 28 Jun 2002
Tilly has wild aspirations of becoming a famous opera diva.
Sandra dreams of creating the perfect bra to revolutionize womens' lives and what has become of Professor Martin Presley whose scientific discovery has the worst repercussions ever?

These are just some of the topics explored in "Magic", which is an interesting anthology produced for The National Council For One-Parent Families. It aims to raise money to support the millions of single parents, like myself, facing financial hardship in bringing up a child single-handedly.
Its forward is by J.K Rowling, Ambassador of this charity and herself a lone parent once caught in the poverty trap.

The stories are kindly donated by well-accomplished authors including Fay Weldon, Sue Townsend and John O' Farrell.
Oozing originality, its tales stretch the imagination and provide its reader with escapism in abundance whilst also supporting a worthwhile cause.
Hocus Pocus this is not. This is British Fiction at its finest.

"Magic Moments", 28 Jun 2002
Tilly has wild aspirations of becoming a famous opera diva.
Sandra dreams of creating the perfect bra to revolutionize womens' lives and what has become of Professor Martin Presley whose scientific discovery has the worst repercussions ever?

These are just some of the topics explored in "Magic", which is an interesting anthology produced for The National Council For One-Parent Families. It aims to raise money to support the millions of single parents, like myself, facing financial hardship in bringing up a child single-handedly.
Its forward is by J.K Rowling, Ambassador of this charity and herself a lone parent once caught in the poverty trap.

The stories are kindly donated by well-accomplished authors including Fay Weldon, Sue Townsend and John O' Farrell.
Oozing originality, its tales stretch the imagination and provide its reader with escapism in abundance whilst also supporting a worthwhile cause.
Hocus Pocus this is not. This is British Fiction at its finest.

Splendid book, filled with sparkling stories, 21 Jun 2002
I rarely read collections of short stories, but this one attracted me - it contans stories written by today's modern (mostly women) writers, and all of them tempted me to read other works by them.

Each story has magic as its theme - that is not to say the rabbit out of the hat magic, but more often the magic of an emotion or a feeling. My personal favourite is indeed the rabbit from a hat story by Meera Syal!

I can imagine that these stories will not appeal to everyone, but most of them will appeal to most women!

Read and enjoy.

Welcome to the Discworld, 20 Dec 2008
The one where we are introduced to incompetent wizard Rincewind, who accidentally becomes a guide to Twoflower (the Discworld's first tourist) in a series of escapades controlled by the gods, who are (literally) playing dice. Features dragons, the horribly carnivorous but loyal Luggage, and space travel - well, almost. Pratchett's humour takes a while to get used to, but stick with it - there's a whole world waiting to be discovered in the Discworld series, of which this is the very first instalment. `The Light Fantastic' picks up where this work finishes.

Wonderful fantasy world, 10 Dec 2008
Synopsis from Amazon:

It is fantasy? No - it's a different and more eccentric reality, where the world is flat and moves through space on the back of a giant turtle, Death stalks glumly about his duties, and dragons only exist if you believe in them. And your luggage follows you around on hundreds of little legs...

Follow Twoflower the naïve tourist and his inept guide Rincewind in their hilarious search for thrills, adventure and opportunities to not get killed. Follow them all the way to the Edge - and beyond...


This is the first Pratchett novel I have read, and I am glad I did, what a funny book!

Pratchett leads us through a fantastical world filled with gods, dragons, trolls and the like. This book was not a disappointment. Everything was described in such a way that it was easy to imagine and be transported there.

I loved Twoflower, I found his character hilarious. Pretty much all he did and said was funny. My other favourite character was Death. He had some great one-liners.

My only problem with the book was there were so many events and adventures and characters I slowly forgot who was who and what had happened before. However, this didn't really spoil the story for me.

The end is nicely set up for the next in the series, and I am looking forward to carrying on the adventure :-)

8/10


Don't start with this one if you're new to the series, 16 Jul 2008
This is certainly not one to start the series with if you are new to Terry Pratchett - it is thematically quite different (which is understandable considering that it's the first of his Discworld books) and rather rough in parts. It's certainly one to read once you're familiar with the world, but you'd be better off starting with something like Mort or Soul Music to get a better flavour of what Discworld is all about.

Discworld Begins., 30 Apr 2008
Ok you dont need to read every discworls novel, nor do you need to start here but I think it helps. This is one of the best, Rincewind has always been my favourite Pratchett Character anyway.

I loved it, 26 Apr 2008
I loved the book and all its characters down to the tiniest atom. Rincewind and Death are now official favourite characters of mine and I am now a Discworld fan. I have read through 13-14 books so far and hope to read more, but this one I always come back to.
People may have thought It wasn't that great, but it was better than [[The Last Continent]]!

fun with elves and dwarves, 04 Dec 2008
Where to go after Tolkien and Lord of the Rings? Here's not a bad place to start.

Epic fantast is overloaded with authors these days, each offering what could be called 'map' fiction. You know the type of book- big map in the front intended to show the epic scope and scale, and depth of the world you're about to enter.

Magician goes one better than most- it has two maps, and two fantasy worlds across which the story unfolds. A neat trick, and one handled quite well in this first book of the riftwar saga (although it stands well enough on its own).

In this, the revised edition, you get 600-odd pages of story with nearly ten years of events (compared to LotR's 1500 pages covering about a year). Loads of things happen, and mostly at a break-neck pace- no bad thing, and for those wanting a bit more action with elves and dwarves and dragons than you get in Tolkien, you get plenty of that.

This is very much an American book though. The characters we begin with are humble enough, but instead of Frodo-like epic heroism resulting in permanent scarring and having to leave the world they've saved, here Pug and Thomas go from young boys to well powerful beings rather rapidly. Nothing wrong with that per se, and here it's very good. In later books , it's a problem for Feist in where he can take the characters (just like in Dungeons and Dragons games from childhoos- if you cheat on your stats nad make yourself super powerful, it's hard to generate any real dramatic tension to what happens). So it's the American dream in fantasy form- anyone can end up the world's most powerful magician (against the melancholic realism of duty in LotR).

Don't look for high quality literature here- the writing at times is clunky ('and a and b were there, along with c and d and e and f and....'), and even potentially interesting female characters end up rather subordinate to the men (just love interests in the end). If you want literate fantasy it has to be George RR Martin BUT this is a lot of fun on its own terms.

Unashamedly on the bandwagon, 14 Nov 2008
As with many other reviewers, I read this book on a fairly regular basis, and perhaps the simplest and best recommendation I can make is that it hooks me and surprises me every time.

If you're looking for a classic fantasy masterwork then read this book, but be warned, you'll find yourself comparing to it every other fantasy book you read.

Out Tolkien's Tolkien, 15 Sep 2008
This certainly has to be one of the masterpieces of fantasy literature. At first it feels a bit like the Sword in the Stone but soon this is left behind as you enter an amazing story set across two worlds. With boys that become heroes and find themselves the greatest forces that their worlds have known. It has all that is required of epic fiction and while it is not the finely crafted work of Tolkien but it takes fantasy to a new level, defined by breakneck pace with a well crafted story.

Truly Epic, 30 Jun 2008
Where to begin? Having only recently been introduced to the works of Feist, I now count myself a fan of sorts. This book is a wonderful introduction to his works, and is gripping from start to finish. The word epic doesn't seem to do this justice- where many authors would be content with creating one living, breathing fantasy world, Feist has given us two in the form of Midkemia and Kelewan, along with enough characters to grace several trilogies. Magician follows the intertwined destinies of Pug and Tomas as they make the transition from lowly court boys to powerful beings of almost legendary status. That the journey never once appears farcical or unbelievable is testament to Feists fantasy writing. This book will leave you yearning for more Feist.

Magic!, 06 May 2008
This is the best fantasy book I have ever read - I think it is a LOTR beater! It would make a fantastic movie, however I don't think anything would come close to the text. Characters are really well developed, the storyline is great, with every world and scene lavishly detailed. I would recommend this to anyone.

Loved it!, 20 Jul 2005
A collection of short stories by some of today's most popular authors... and a good cause thrown in for good measure. This collection is extremely varied, in terms of both writing styles and subject matter, so there's bound to be a few stories in there you'll absolutely love.

Buy this book - you won't regret it.

All you could ask for from a collection of short stories., 11 Jan 2005
I'll be honest, I only bought this book because I'm a J.K.Rowling fan and I have to have everything she's ever had published (even if it's only a foreward). I wasn't expecting too much from the actual stories themselves. But I was more than merely pleasantly suprised. The stories are wonderful. Each one is somehow very different from the others but they all share an element of 'sparkle' which makes the collection jell rather well. This 'sparkle' is not just magic, though there is some magic (of sorts) in some of the stories, but is rather a property of the characters. Though the stories are all about different people the main characters have, in their behaviour, something which makes them stand out, something which makes them just a little bit special. Perhaps it's this which makes the stories so enchanting; the fact that the characters are close to being average and normal, but have some small quality which anyone might possess, but which almost no-one actually does possess. I hope that makes some sense. If not, let me simply say that the stories are not only very original but are also very well written and very enjoyable to read. I highly recommend this collection of short stories.

"Magic Moments", 28 Jun 2002
Tilly has wild aspirations of becoming a famous opera diva.
Sandra dreams of creating the perfect bra to revolutionize womens' lives and what has become of Professor Martin Presley whose scientific discovery has the worst repercussions ever?

These are just some of the topics explored in "Magic", which is an interesting anthology produced for The National Council For One-Parent Families. It aims to raise money to support the millions of single parents, like myself, facing financial hardship in bringing up a child single-handedly.
Its forward is by J.K Rowling, Ambassador of this charity and herself a lone parent once caught in the poverty trap.

The stories are kindly donated by well-accomplished authors including Fay Weldon, Sue Townsend and John O' Farrell.
Oozing originality, its tales stretch the imagination and provide its reader with escapism in abundance whilst also supporting a worthwhile cause.
Hocus Pocus this is not. This is British Fiction at its finest.

"Magic Moments", 28 Jun 2002
Tilly has wild aspirations of becoming a famous opera diva.
Sandra dreams of creating the perfect bra to revolutionize womens' lives and what has become of Professor Martin Presley whose scientific discovery has the worst repercussions ever?

These are just some of the topics explored in "Magic", which is an interesting anthology produced for The National Council For One-Parent Families. It aims to raise money to support the millions of single parents, like myself, facing financial hardship in bringing up a child single-handedly.
Its forward is by J.K Rowling, Ambassador of this charity and herself a lone parent once caught in the poverty trap.

The stories are kindly donated by well-accomplished authors including Fay Weldon, Sue Townsend and John O' Farrell.
Oozing originality, its tales stretch the imagination and provide its reader with escapism in abundance whilst also supporting a worthwhile cause.
Hocus Pocus this is not. This is British Fiction at its finest.

Splendid book, filled with sparkling stories, 21 Jun 2002
I rarely read collections of short stories, but this one attracted me - it contans stories written by today's modern (mostly women) writers, and all of them tempted me to read other works by them.

Each story has magic as its theme - that is not to say the rabbit out of the hat magic, but more often the magic of an emotion or a feeling. My personal favourite is indeed the rabbit from a hat story by Meera Syal!

I can imagine that these stories will not appeal to everyone, but most of them will appeal to most women!

Read and enjoy.

Welcome to the Discworld, 20 Dec 2008
The one where we are introduced to incompetent wizard Rincewind, who accidentally becomes a guide to Twoflower (the Discworld's first tourist) in a series of escapades controlled by the gods, who are (literally) playing dice. Features dragons, the horribly carnivorous but loyal Luggage, and space travel - well, almost. Pratchett's humour takes a while to get used to, but stick with it - there's a whole world waiting to be discovered in the Discworld series, of which this is the very first instalment. `The Light Fantastic' picks up where this work finishes.

Wonderful fantasy world, 10 Dec 2008
Synopsis from Amazon:

It is fantasy? No - it's a different and more eccentric reality, where the world is flat and moves through space on the back of a giant turtle, Death stalks glumly about his duties, and dragons only exist if you believe in them. And your luggage follows you around on hundreds of little legs...

Follow Twoflower the naïve tourist and his inept guide Rincewind in their hilarious search for thrills, adventure and opportunities to not get killed. Follow them all the way to the Edge - and beyond...


This is the first Pratchett novel I have read, and I am glad I did, what a funny book!

Pratchett leads us through a fantastical world filled with gods, dragons, trolls and the like. This book was not a disappointment. Everything was described in such a way that it was easy to imagine and be transported there.

I loved Twoflower, I found his character hilarious. Pretty much all he did and said was funny. My other favourite character was Death. He had some great one-liners.

My only problem with the book was there were so many events and adventures and characters I slowly forgot who was who and what had happened before. However, this didn't really spoil the story for me.

The end is nicely set up for the next in the series, and I am looking forward to carrying on the adventure :-)

8/10


Don't start with this one if you're new to the series, 16 Jul 2008
This is certainly not one to start the series with if you are new to Terry Pratchett - it is thematically quite different (which is understandable considering that it's the first of his Discworld books) and rather rough in parts. It's certainly one to read once you're familiar with the world, but you'd be better off starting with something like Mort or Soul Music to get a better flavour of what Discworld is all about.

Discworld Begins., 30 Apr 2008
Ok you dont need to read every discworls novel, nor do you need to start here but I think it helps. This is one of the best, Rincewind has always been my favourite Pratchett Character anyway.

I loved it, 26 Apr 2008
I loved the book and all its characters down to the tiniest atom. Rincewind and Death are now official favourite characters of mine and I am now a Discworld fan. I have read through 13-14 books so far and hope to read more, but this one I always come back to.
People may have thought It wasn't that great, but it was better than [[The Last Continent]]!

fun with elves and dwarves, 04 Dec 2008
Where to go after Tolkien and Lord of the Rings? Here's not a bad place to start.

Epic fantast is overloaded with authors these days, each offering what could be called 'map' fiction. You know the type of book- big map in the front intended to show the epic scope and scale, and depth of the world you're about to enter.

Magician goes one better than most- it has two maps, and two fantasy worlds across which the story unfolds. A neat trick, and one handled quite well in this first book of the riftwar saga (although it stands well enough on its own).

In this, the revised edition, you get 600-odd pages of story with nearly ten years of events (compared to LotR's 1500 pages covering about a year). Loads of things happen, and mostly at a break-neck pace- no bad thing, and for those wanting a bit more action with elves and dwarves and dragons than you get in Tolkien, you get plenty of that.

This is very much an American book though. The characters we begin with are humble enough, but instead of Frodo-like epic heroism resulting in permanent scarring and having to leave the world they've saved, here Pug and Thomas go from young boys to well powerful beings rather rapidly. Nothing wrong with that per se, and here it's very good. In later books , it's a problem for Feist in where he can take the characters (just like in Dungeons and Dragons games from childhoos- if you cheat on your stats nad make yourself super powerful, it's hard to generate any real dramatic tension to what happens). So it's the American dream in fantasy form- anyone can end up the world's most powerful magician (against the melancholic realism of duty in LotR).

Don't look for high quality literature here- the writing at times is clunky ('and a and b were there, along with c and d and e and f and....'), and even potentially interesting female characters end up rather subordinate to the men (just love interests in the end). If you want literate fantasy it has to be George RR Martin BUT this is a lot of fun on its own terms.

Unashamedly on the bandwagon, 14 Nov 2008
As with many other reviewers, I read this book on a fairly regular basis, and perhaps the simplest and best recommendation I can make is that it hooks me and surprises me every time.

If you're looking for a classic fantasy masterwork then read this book, but be warned, you'll find yourself comparing to it every other fantasy book you read.

Out Tolkien's Tolkien, 15 Sep 2008
This certainly has to be one of the masterpieces of fantasy literature. At first it feels a bit like the Sword in the Stone but soon this is left behind as you enter an amazing story set across two worlds. With boys that become heroes and find themselves the greatest forces that their worlds have known. It has all that is required of epic fiction and while it is not the finely crafted work of Tolkien but it takes fantasy to a new level, defined by breakneck pace with a well crafted story.

Truly Epic, 30 Jun 2008
Where to begin? Having only recently been introduced to the works of Feist, I now count myself a fan of sorts. This book is a wonderful introduction to his works, and is gripping from start to finish. The word epic doesn't seem to do this justice- where many authors would be content with creating one living, breathing fantasy world, Feist has given us two in the form of Midkemia and Kelewan, along with enough characters to grace several trilogies. Magician follows the intertwined destinies of Pug and Tomas as they make the transition from lowly court boys to powerful beings of almost legendary status. That the journey never once appears farcical or unbelievable is testament to Feists fantasy writing. This book will leave you yearning for more Feist.

Magic!, 06 May 2008
This is the best fantasy book I have ever read - I think it is a LOTR beater! It would make a fantastic movie, however I don't think anything would come close to the text. Characters are really well developed, the storyline is great, with every world and scene lavishly detailed. I would recommend this to anyone.

the best of the three, 16 Oct 2008
This book really worked for me...Robin Hobb's prose is beautiful and effortless to read. None of Hobb's characters, from any of her books are easy or pleasant and this trilogy deals with many uncomfortable aspects of humanity which I think is one of the reasons that people have found it harder to like but finally I grew to understand Nevarre and sympathise with him.
Read em all!!!


eco warriors, 23 Sep 2008
third and final volume in robin hobb's trilogy of fantasy novels called the soldier son trilogy. these are about nevare. a would be soldier in a world where red indian style indigenous people are being threatened by the expansion of humanity, his career and life have been ruined and forever changed by a native magic woman who is using him to fight back against humanity.

whilst the book does bring you up to speed in the first chapter you really need to have read the first two volumes in the series [shamans crossing and forest mage] to get the most out of this, so go and read those first if you havent.

if you have, then you are safe to read on.

those who read the first two books will recall the second ended with nevare giving himself over to the magic, and leaving all his human friends and enemies thinking he's dead. as a result of this, he ends up with the natives, and another personality takes over his body. this is called soldiers boy, and he's determined to destroy humanity.

can nevare get control of his body and life back? and what will happen to the world?

typically excellent prose from robin hobb but this is more a novel of character than plot and thus many will find it slow moving. but as a novel of character this is exceedingly well written. the conflict between nevare and his other half is well done, and the experiences he goes through and the settings are as well. things do happen, and changes occur to the characters and the world as a result.

after which one hundred pages are required to wrap the fate of everyone else up, and this they do.

4.5/5 from me, as whilst typically excellently written the story ultimately isn't quite as strong as it was in the first two volumes. but robin hobb remains a very good writer and this will not put me off trying her subsequent work.

Know what you're getting into..., 18 Sep 2008
I choose to write this review more generally about the whole soldier son trilogy. Most of the reviews so far have made unfavourable references to the frankly awe-inspiring assassin/liveship/fool trilogies. I, however, don't think a comparison can reasonably be made. Superficially there are similarities between the styles of writing from Fitz and Nevarre (respective narrators of the books) - both are highy emotionally compelling character explorations told from the point of view of a character who is both protagonist and unwilling recipient of many of the events driving both stories. The books are confessionals of the struggle in these characters to do 'the right thing.'

There however the similarity ends. The soldier son books are set in an entirely different world (still equally fantastical) and contemporary with colonial technology and values, though in fact the same story could probably be transplanted onto any number of time periods. While the setting is largely militaristic (book one takes place predominately in a military academy, book two in a military outpost and book three in the opposing camp) little of the text is concerned with warfare - indeed the descriptions of any actual warfare are few and far between. If that is what you seek in a similar temporal setting, then I'd suggest reading bernard cornwell's sharpe series.

Instead, this series focusses on polar tensions. There are actually three societies comprising the world in which the books take place. The Plainspeople, the Gernians and the Specks. the first of these seem largely incidental to the story and seem to exist mostly to flesh out the world. This is not necessarily a bad thing but one does get a sense of unfulfillment from them. The other two societies, conversely are fantastically realised. We have the colonial-esque Gernians and the more traditionally fantasy-based tree people (the Specks). Both societies, and their drastically conflicting values are deeply explored, and the tension between the beliefs of each society creates a deliciously tense setting. Even the idea that they are at war is fascinating as neither really understands the concept in the manner of the other. Indeed, the Gernians are unaware that the specks consider themselves at war with them., while the Speck make war on them by spreading disease and discontent. The setting seems to be designed to highlight the contrast between urban expansion and natural harmony, and the 'war' between the peoples seems just to be a realisation of the deeper tension that exists as a result of urban encroachment on the natural environment.

This polarization is further explored with the protagonist, Nevarre Burvelle. Hobb takes the unique step of separating Nevarre into two distinct entities: Nevarre and Soldier's Boy. Intriguingly our narrator is only one of these two personalities - thus we have a series narrated by half a person - a concept that is truly fascinating and endlessly intriguing. Our narrator is principally the Gernian half of Nevarre, though he certainly has much sympathy for the specks, while his opposing half, Soldier's Boy appears to be primarily Speck in outlook - though the few glimpses we get of Soldier's Boy's sympathy for the Gernians suggest at a character who is equally as troubled with his conscience as Nevarre.

Conscience as it turns out plays a major role in the narrative. It forces one to question whether Nevarre really is literally split in two, or simply exploring his own actions and atrocities against the two opposing peoples. His loyalty by default is Gernian, but only the specks treat him well because he's fat. Yup. Fat. Huge in fact.

So here's another theme of the novel. Prejudice. Nevarre becomes hugely fat during book two as a result of becoming a mage. Suddenly he is ostracised by his own society, even his own family, and revered by the Specks. The exploration of people's attitudes towards fat people are not something one would expect in this genre, but the book carries it off fantastically. Here we have a hero who is physically un-heroic, indeed for much of book three he is not even in control of his body, we see through his eyes what soldier's boy does as becomes the personification of soldier's boy's conscience. To read a book told from the perspective of someone's conscience is an experience I will not soon forget.

I have heard criticisms of the magic system in the book as being "clumsy" or "impenetrable." I actually like the latter, though I see it as a compliment rather than a criticism. The eponymous "Forest Mage" is not our narrator Nevarre, but rather Soldier's Boy. We are not privy to soldier's Boy's thoughts, and thus the magic remains just that - magic. Nevarre doesn't know how it works, and so it should be. We use the idea of magic to describe phenomena we cannot fully comprehend. Nevarre dabbles, but certainly doesn't know what he's doing or how he's doing it. Interestingly there seem to be two different uses of the term magic. One is in the more traditional sense - a power to achieve incredible things such as fast travel, or an influence on people's emotions. The second use seems more intangible. It seems to refer to magic, or more properly in this usage "the magic" as an entity. Perhaps it could be more easily imagined as fate. If "the magic" wants something to happen, it happens. I rather like the usage, especially as it appears to be a version of fate that has an active and opposable component.

Nevarre is a wonderful character to read, though he may not always be terribly likable, and as with all Hobbs characters, sometimes you want to bang his head against the wall and explain the thing he can't seem to comprehend. I suspect he was also a joy to write. His incarnation as half a personality, gives a fascinating perspective and is something few writers have attempted. David Gemmell's Dark Moon did something similar, but on a much smaller scale. Make no mistake, this series is on an epic scale. We have 2000 pages of extraordinary character realisation. I have just discussed Nevarre, but the fabulous three dimensional characters that Hobb builds up around him are a joy to behold. Epiny in particular is exquisitely drawn, albeit from Nevarre's perspective, as she strives towards an early concept of feminism.

This series is slow. Glacially slow, and yet contains very little filler. It's also horrendously addictive. I found myself blasting through the whole series in three days. If you want fast paced high fantasy this is not for you. Even avid Robin Hobb fans brought up on a diet of Fitz and the Fool may wish to pass this one by, but if you like your fantasy to challenge your expectations and make you think, then I can think of few finer series.

To end on a lighter note, one does get the distinct impression from time to time that the venerable Ms. Hobb may have been on a diet while writing this. Some of the descriptions of the food that the specks lavish on Nevarre are salivation-inducing. Do not, under any circumstances, read this series (or at least the latter two books) without access to a well stocked fridge...

Lost in the forest, 17 Sep 2008
This is the third and final volume in the Soldier Son trilogy (after Shaman's Crossing and Forest Mage).

Barely escaping Gettys and its angry mob with his life, Nevare flees into the forest. Realizing that the King's Road is planned to go right through the part where Lisana's tree stands, he makes one last attempt at stopping its construction with the Magic. Alas, it doesn't work as expected and Nevare's Magic is all be depleted.

Finding him in this poor condition, Olikea and her son Likari need to feed him again until he regains a respectable girth, so they can present him as Great One to their kin clan at the Wintering Place, on the other side of the Barrier Mountains.

As time passes and Nevare tries to find out what the Magic expects him to do, his Speck self, Soldier's Boy, becomes more and more powerful, until he finally takes control of his body. Nevare is then nothing but a helpless witness of Soldier's Boy's actions: when he tattoos his skin with the dapples of the Specks, or when he plans a raid on the Gernians in Gettys to stop their Eastward progression. Only on rare occasions can Nevare surreptitiously tap Soldier's Boy Magic and dream-walk to his cousin Epiny, to try and warn her of the impending attack.

A major part of the book takes place in the forest with the Specks, and even though I'm a tree-hugger, sadly I must admit that their culture failed to intrigue me. I felt close to Nevare but not to Soldier's Boy. Probably because the "Gernian-bred" me was taking sides, and I found myself constantly waiting for signs that things would look up for Nevare, that the scales would finally tip in his favour and reunite his split personality without too much loss and sacrifice. But that's also why I found the last third of the book tremendously exciting.

As a whole, the Soldier Son trilogy was a more than excellent series, and Robin Hobb's storytelling surpasses everything I have read. However, I still have a preference for her precedent trilogies (The Farseer, The Liveship Traders, and The Tawny Man). I do hope it grows on me with time, though. I'm sure it will.

Tries to be two different things and doesn't really work, 30 Jul 2008
Robin Hobb is an excellent author, there's little doubt of that. While the Soldier Son is far from her best work, I am sick of people complaining because they prefer the Farseer more, or because her latest output is not as good as her older material. Well sorry to break the bad news to you, but authors have good times and bad times like the rest of us. I don't want another Farseer. I have already read that book. You cannot take a negative view on a novel because it is different from another. What you can do is take a negative view because the book is not particularly well written.

The Soldier Son suffered from day one. It was a difficult read, and in my opinion there were many great concepts and stories which were never really sewed together properly which caused the whole trilogy to have a detached feeling. What I mean by this is that there are two main themes through this series - the colonial era Gettysburg setting - Old Thares, Widevale, the plains people - and that part of it is all excellently described (even the main town in the last book is called Gettys). The second is the forest magic setting - the Specks and their great people, and their way of life. Again, very well described and an excellent new concept of magic.

Where it all fell down was where Hobb tried to bring these two cultures together - ironically mirroring the problems seen in the story between the two peoples. I feel that this story tried to be a great colonial book and a great tree magic book, and instead of perfecting one, the thread split down the middle and the whole trilogy fell into the crack at the centre. The book is as split as like Nevare and Soldier's Boy.

Having read it, I feel I have come away confused an a little bit bombarded with too many things which were mentioned too briefly. I have no clue how the whole Lisana thing saving Nevare actually works having only just finished it. I couldn't tell you how the problem of Nevare and Soldier's Boy finally being unified was actually rectified, because I don't think it was really explained very well. I have a nasty feeling that some things were swept under the carpet, though I can't seem to pinpoint specifically what I mean. I criticised the first two books but I think they were both better than the third, only upon reading Renegade's Magic did I realise how well thought out the world was and how well it was described in the first two books. But the book is not entirely without merit, I found myself enjoying most of it.

Hobb is now writing a new novel about the Realm of the Elderlings, set in the same world as the Six Duchies, thank God. This should please different people for different reasons.

Loved it!, 20 Jul 2005
A collection of short stories by some of today's most popular authors... and a good cause thrown in for good measure. This collection is extremely varied, in terms of both writing styles and subject matter, so there's bound to be a few stories in there you'll absolutely love.

Buy this book - you won't regret it.

All you could ask for from a collection of short stories., 11 Jan 2005
I'll be honest, I only bought this book because I'm a J.K.Rowling fan and I have to have everything she's ever had published (even if it's only a foreward). I wasn't expecting too much from the actual stories themselves. But I was more than merely pleasantly suprised. The stories are wonderful. Each one is somehow very different from the others but they all share an element of 'sparkle' which makes the collection jell rather well. This 'sparkle' is not just magic, though there is some magic (of sorts) in some of the stories, but is rather a property of the characters. Though the stories are all about different people the main characters have, in their behaviour, something which makes them stand out, something which makes them just a little bit special. Perhaps it's this which makes the stories so enchanting; the fact that the characters are close to being average and normal, but have some small quality which anyone might possess, but which almost no-one actually does possess. I hope that makes some sense. If not, let me simply say that the stories are not only very original but are also very well written and very enjoyable to read. I highly recommend this collection of short stories.

"Magic Moments", 28 Jun 2002
Tilly has wild aspirations of becoming a famous opera diva.
Sandra dreams of creating the perfect bra to revolutionize womens' lives and what has become of Professor Martin Presley whose scientific discovery has the worst repercussions ever?

These are just some of the topics explored in "Magic", which is an interesting anthology produced for The National Council For One-Parent Families. It aims to raise money to support the millions of single parents, like myself, facing financial hardship in bringing up a child single-handedly.
Its forward is by J.K Rowling, Ambassador of this charity and herself a lone parent once caught in the poverty trap.

The stories are kindly donated by well-accomplished authors including Fay Weldon, Sue Townsend and John O' Farrell.
Oozing originality, its tales stretch the imagination and provide its reader with escapism in abundance whilst also supporting a worthwhile cause.
Hocus Pocus this is not. This is British Fiction at its finest.

"Magic Moments", 28 Jun 2002
Tilly has wild aspirations of becoming a famous opera diva.
Sandra dreams of creating the perfect bra to revolutionize womens' lives and what has become of Professor Martin Presley whose scientific discovery has the worst repercussions ever?

These are just some of the topics explored in "Magic", which is an interesting anthology produced for The National Council For One-Parent Families. It aims to raise money to support the millions of single parents, like myself, facing financial hardship in bringing up a child single-handedly.
Its forward is by J.K Rowling, Ambassador of this charity and herself a lone parent once caught in the poverty trap.

The stories are kindly donated by well-accomplished authors including Fay Weldon, Sue Townsend and John O' Farrell.
Oozing originality, its tales stretch the imagination and provide its reader with escapism in abundance whilst also supporting a worthwhile cause.
Hocus Pocus this is not. This is British Fiction at its finest.

Splendid book, filled with sparkling stories, 21 Jun 2002
I rarely read collections of short stories, but this one attracted me - it contans stories written by today's modern (mostly women) writers, and all of them tempted me to read other works by them.

Each story has magic as its theme - that is not to say the rabbit out of the hat magic, but more often the magic of an emotion or a feeling. My personal favourite is indeed the rabbit from a hat story by Meera Syal!

I can imagine that these stories will not appeal to everyone, but most of them will appeal to most women!

Read and enjoy.

Welcome to the Discworld, 20 Dec 2008
The one where we are introduced to incompetent wizard Rincewind, who accidentally becomes a guide to Twoflower (the Discworld's first tourist) in a series of escapades controlled by the gods, who are (literally) playing dice. Features dragons, the horribly carnivorous but loyal Luggage, and space travel - well, almost. Pratchett's humour takes a while to get used to, but stick with it - there's a whole world waiting to be discovered in the Discworld series, of which this is the very first instalment. `The Light Fantastic' picks up where this work finishes.

Wonderful fantasy world, 10 Dec 2008
Synopsis from Amazon:

It is fantasy? No - it's a different and more eccentric reality, where the world is flat and moves through space on the back of a giant turtle, Death stalks glumly about his duties, and dragons only exist if you believe in them. And your luggage follows you around on hundreds of little legs...

Follow Twoflower the naïve tourist and his inept guide Rincewind in their hilarious search for thrills, adventure and opportunities to not get killed. Follow them all the way to the Edge - and beyond...


This is the first Pratchett novel I have read, and I am glad I did, what a funny book!

Pratchett leads us through a fantastical world filled with gods, dragons, trolls and the like. This book was not a disappointment. Everything was described in such a way that it was easy to imagine and be transported there.

I loved Twoflower, I found his character hilarious. Pretty much all he did and said was funny. My other favourite character was Death. He had some great one-liners.

My only problem with the book was there were so many events and adventures and characters I slowly forgot who was who and what had happened before. However, this didn't really spoil the story for me.

The end is nicely set up for the next in the series, and I am looking forward to carrying on the adventure :-)

8/10


Don't start with this one if you're new to the series, 16 Jul 2008
This is certainly not one to start the series with if you are new to Terry Pratchett - it is thematically quite different (which is understandable considering that it's the first of his Discworld books) and rather rough in parts. It's certainly one to read once you're familiar with the world, but you'd be better off starting with something like Mort or Soul Music to get a better flavour of what Discworld is all about.

Discworld Begins., 30 Apr 2008
Ok you dont need to read every discworls novel, nor do you need to start here but I think it helps. This is one of the best, Rincewind has always been my favourite Pratchett Character anyway.

I loved it, 26 Apr 2008
I loved the book and all its characters down to the tiniest atom. Rincewind and Death are now official favourite characters of mine and I am now a Discworld fan. I have read through 13-14 books so far and hope to read more, but this one I always come back to.
People may have thought It wasn't that great, but it was better than [[The Last Continent]]!

fun with elves and dwarves, 04 Dec 2008
Where to go after Tolkien and Lord of the Rings? Here's not a bad place to start.

Epic fantast is overloaded with authors these days, each offering what could be called 'map' fiction. You know the type of book- big map in the front intended to show the epic scope and scale, and depth of the world you're about to enter.

Magician goes one better than most- it has two maps, and two fantasy worlds across which the story unfolds. A neat trick, and one handled quite well in this first book of the riftwar saga (although it stands well enough on its own).

In this, the revised edition, you get 600-odd pages of story with nearly ten years of events (compared to LotR's 1500 pages covering about a year). Loads of things happen, and mostly at a break-neck pace- no bad thing, and for those wanting a bit more action with elves and dwarves and dragons than you get in Tolkien, you get plenty of that.

This is very much an American book though. The characters we begin with are humble enough, but instead of Frodo-like epic heroism resulting in permanent scarring and having to leave the world they've saved, here Pug and Thomas go from young boys to well powerful beings rather rapidly. Nothing wrong with that per se, and here it's very good. In later books , it's a problem for Feist in where he can take the characters (just like in Dungeons and Dragons games from childhoos- if you cheat on your stats nad make yourself super powerful, it's hard to generate any real dramatic tension to what happens). So it's the American dream in fantasy form- anyone can end up the world's most powerful magician (against the melancholic realism of duty in LotR).

Don't look for high quality literature here- the writing at times is clunky ('and a and b were there, along with c and d and e and f and....'), and even potentially interesting female characters end up rather subordinate to the men (just love interests in the end). If you want literate fantasy it has to be George RR Martin BUT this is a lot of fun on its own terms.

Unashamedly on the bandwagon, 14 Nov 2008
As with many other reviewers, I read this book on a fairly regular basis, and perhaps the simplest and best recommendation I can make is that it hooks me and surprises me every time.

If you're looking for a classic fantasy masterwork then read this book, but be warned, you'll find yourself comparing to it every other fantasy book you read.

Out Tolkien's Tolkien, 15 Sep 2008
This certainly has to be one of the masterpieces of fantasy literature. At first it feels a bit like the Sword in the Stone but soon this is left behind as you enter an amazing story set across two worlds. With boys that become heroes and find themselves the greatest forces that their worlds have known. It has all that is required of epic fiction and while it is not the finely crafted work of Tolkien but it takes fantasy to a new level, defined by breakneck pace with a well crafted story.

Truly Epic, 30 Jun 2008
Where to begin? Having only recently been introduced to the works of Feist, I now count myself a fan of sorts. This book is a wonderful introduction to his works, and is gripping from start to finish. The word epic doesn't seem to do this justice- where many authors would be content with creating one living, breathing fantasy world, Feist has given us two in the form of Midkemia and Kelewan, along with enough characters to grace several trilogies. Magician follows the intertwined destinies of Pug and Tomas as they make the transition from lowly court boys to powerful beings of almost legendary status. That the journey never once appears farcical or unbelievable is testament to Feists fantasy writing. This book will leave you yearning for more Feist.

Magic!, 06 May 2008
This is the best fantasy book I have ever read - I think it is a LOTR beater! It would make a fantastic movie, however I don't think anything would come close to the text. Characters are really well developed, the storyline is great, with every world and scene lavishly detailed. I would recommend this to anyone.

the best of the three, 16 Oct 2008
This book really worked for me...Robin Hobb's prose is beautiful and effortless to read. None of Hobb's characters, from any of her books are easy or pleasant and this trilogy deals with many uncomfortable aspects of humanity which I think is one of the reasons that people have found it harder to like but finally I grew to understand Nevarre and sympathise with him.
Read em all!!!


eco warriors, 23 Sep 2008
third and final volume in robin hobb's trilogy of fantasy novels called the soldier son trilogy. these are about nevare. a would be soldier in a world where red indian style indigenous people are being threatened by the expansion of humanity, his career and life have been ruined and forever changed by a native magic woman who is using him to fight back against humanity.

whilst the book does bring you up to speed in the first chapter you really need to have read the first two volumes in the series [shamans crossing and forest mage] to get the most out of this, so go and read those first if you havent.

if you have, then you are safe to read on.

those who read the first two books will recall the second ended with nevare giving himself over to the magic, and leaving all his human friends and enemies thinking he's dead. as a result of this, he ends up with the natives, and another personality takes over his body. this is called soldiers boy, and he's determined to destroy humanity.

can nevare get control of his body and life back? and what will happen to the world?

typically excellent prose from robin hobb but this is more a novel of character than plot and thus many will find it slow moving. but as a novel of character this is exceedingly well written. the conflict between nevare and his other half is well done, and the experiences he goes through and the settings are as well. things do happen, and changes occur to the characters and the world as a result.

after which one hundred pages are required to wrap the fate of everyone else up, and this they do.

4.5/5 from me, as whilst typically excellently written the story ultimately isn't quite as strong as it was in the first two volumes. but robin hobb remains a very good writer and this will not put me off trying her subsequent work.

Know what you're getting into..., 18 Sep 2008
I choose to write this review more generally about the whole soldier son trilogy. Most of the reviews so far have made unfavourable references to the frankly awe-inspiring assassin/liveship/fool trilogies. I, however, don't think a comparison can reasonably be made. Superficially there are similarities between the styles of writing from Fitz and Nevarre (respective narrators of the books) - both are highy emotionally compelling character explorations told from the point of view of a character who is both protagonist and unwilling recipient of many of the events driving both stories. The books are confessionals of the struggle in these characters to do 'the right thing.'

There however the similarity ends. The soldier son books are set in an entirely different world (still equally fantastical) and contemporary with colonial technology and values, though in fact the same story could probably be transplanted onto any number of time periods. While the setting is largely militaristic (book one takes place predominately in a military academy, book two in a military outpost and book three in the opposing camp) little of the text is concerned with warfare - indeed the descriptions of any actual warfare are few and far between. If that is what you seek in a similar temporal setting, then I'd suggest reading bernard cornwell's sharpe series.

Instead, this series focusses on polar tensions. There are actually three societies comprising the world in which the books take place. The Plainspeople, the Gernians and the Specks. the first of these seem largely incidental to the story and seem to exist mostly to flesh out the world. This is not necessarily a bad thing but one does get a sense of unfulfillment from them. The other two societies, conversely are fantastically realised. We have the colonial-esque Gernians and the more traditionally fantasy-based tree people (the Specks). Both societies, and their drastically conflicting values are deeply explored, and the tension between the beliefs of each society creates a deliciously tense setting. Even the idea that they are at war is fascinating as neither really understands the concept in the manner of the other. Indeed, the Gernians are unaware that the specks consider themselves at war with them., while the Speck make war on them by spreading disease and discontent. The setting seems to be designed to highlight the contrast between urban expansion and natural harmony, and the 'war' between the peoples seems just to be a realisation of the deeper tension that exists as a result of urban encroachment on the natural environment.

This polarization is further explored with the protagonist, Nevarre Burvelle. Hobb takes the unique step of separating Nevarre into two distinct entities: Nevarre and Soldier's Boy. Intriguingly our narrator is only one of these two personalities - thus we have a series narrated by half a person - a concept that is truly fascinating and endlessly intriguing. Our narrator is principally the Gernian half of Nevarre, though he certainly has much sympathy for the specks, while his opposing half, Soldier's Boy appears to be primarily Speck in outlook - though the few glimpses we get of Soldier's Boy's sympathy for the Gernians suggest at a character who is equally as troubled with his conscience as Nevarre.

Conscience as it turns out plays a major role in the narrative. It forces one to question whether Nevarre really is literally split in two, or simply exploring his own actions and atrocities against the two opposing peoples. His loyalty by default is Gernian, but only the specks treat him well because he's fat. Yup. Fat. Huge in fact.

So here's another theme of the novel. Prejudice. Nevarre becomes hugely fat during book two as a result of becoming a mage. Suddenly he is ostracised by his own society, even his own family, and revered by the Specks. The exploration of people's attitudes towards fat people are not something one would expect in this genre, but the book carries it off fantastically. Here we have a hero who is physically un-heroic, indeed for much of book three he is not even in control of his body, we see through his eyes what soldier's boy does as becomes the personification of soldier's boy's conscience. To read a book told from the perspective of someone's conscience is an experience I will not soon forget.

I have heard criticisms of the magic system in the book as being "clumsy" or "impenetrable." I actually like the latter, though I see it as a compliment rather than a criticism. The eponymous "Forest Mage" is not our narrator Nevarre, but rather Soldier's Boy. We are not privy to soldier's Boy's thoughts, and thus the magic remains just that - magic. Nevarre doesn't know how it works, and so it should be. We use the idea of magic to describe phenomena we cannot fully comprehend. Nevarre dabbles, but certainly doesn't know what he's doing or how he's doing it. Interestingly there seem to be two different uses of the term magic. One is in the more traditional sense - a power to achieve incredible things such as fast travel, or an influence on people's emotions. The second use seems more intangible. It seems to refer to magic, or more properly in this usage "the magic" as an entity. Perhaps it could be more easily imagined as fate. If "the magic" wants something to happen, it happens. I rather like the usage, especially as it appears to be a version of fate that has an active and opposable component.

Nevarre is a wonderful character to read, though he may not always be terribly likable, and as with all Hobbs characters, sometimes you want to bang his head against the wall and explain the thing he can't seem to comprehend. I suspect he was also a joy to write. His incarnation as half a personality, gives a fascinating perspective and is something few writers have attempted. David Gemmell's Dark Moon did something similar, but on a much smaller scale. Make no mistake, this series is on an epic scale. We have 2000 pages of extraordinary character realisation. I have just discussed Nevarre, but the fabulous three dimensional characters that Hobb builds up around him are a joy to behold. Epiny in particular is exquisitely drawn, albeit from Nevarre's perspective, as she strives towards an early concept of feminism.

This series is slow. Glacially slow, and yet contains very little filler. It's also horrendously addictive. I found myself blasting through the whole series in three days. If you want fast paced high fantasy this is not for you. Even avid Robin Hobb fans brought up on a diet of Fitz and the Fool may wish to pass this one by, but if you like your fantasy to challenge your expectations and make you think, then I can think of few finer series.

To end on a lighter note, one does get the distinct impression from time to time that the venerable Ms. Hobb may have been on a diet while writing this. Some of the descriptions of the food that the specks lavish on Nevarre are salivation-inducing. Do not, under any circumstances, read this series (or at least the latter two books) without access to a well stocked fridge...

Lost in the forest, 17 Sep 2008
This is the third and final volume in the Soldier Son trilogy (after Shaman's Crossing and Forest Mage).

Barely escaping Gettys and its angry mob with his life, Nevare flees into the forest. Realizing that the King's Road is planned to go right through the part where Lisana's tree stands, he makes one last attempt at stopping its construction with the Magic. Alas, it doesn't work as expected and Nevare's Magic is all be depleted.

Finding him in this poor condition, Olikea and her son Likari need to feed him again until he regains a respectable girth, so they can present him as Great One to their kin clan at the Wintering Place, on the other side of the Barrier Mountains.

As time passes and Nevare tries to find out what the Magic expects him to do, his Speck self, Soldier's Boy, becomes more and more powerful, until he finally takes control of his body. Nevare is then nothing but a helpless witness of Soldier's Boy's actions: when he tattoos his skin with the dapples of the Specks, or when he plans a raid on the Gernians in Gettys to stop their Eastward progression. Only on rare occasions can Nevare surreptitiously tap Soldier's Boy Magic and dream-walk to his cousin Epiny, to try and warn her of the impending attack.

A major part of the book takes place in the forest with the Specks, and even though I'm a tree-hugger, sadly I must admit that their culture failed to intrigue me. I felt close to Nevare but not to Soldier's Boy. Probably because the "Gernian-bred" me was taking sides, and I found myself constantly waiting for signs that things would look up for Nevare, that the scales would finally tip in his favour and reunite his split personality without too much loss and sacrifice. But that's also why I found the last third of the book tremendously exciting.

As a whole, the Soldier Son trilogy was a more than excellent series, and Robin Hobb's storytelling surpasses everything I have read. However, I still have a preference for her precedent trilogies (The Farseer, The Liveship Traders, and The Tawny Man). I do hope it grows on me with time, though. I'm sure it will.

Tries to be two different things and doesn't really work, 30 Jul 2008
Robin Hobb is an excellent author, there's little doubt of that. While the Soldier Son is far from her best work, I am sick of people complaining because they prefer the Farseer more, or because her latest output is not as good as her older material. Well sorry to break the bad news to you, but authors have good times and bad times like the rest of us. I don't want another Farseer. I have already read that book. You cannot take a negative view on a novel because it is different from another. What you can do is take a negative view because the book is not particularly well written.

The Soldier Son suffered from day one. It was a difficult read, and in my opinion there were many great concepts and stories which were never really sewed together properly which caused the whole trilogy to have a detached feeling. What I mean by this is that there are two main themes through this series - the colonial era Gettysburg setting - Old Thares, Widevale, the plains people - and that part of it is all excellently described (even the main town in the last book is called Gettys). The second is the forest magic setting - the Specks and their great people, and their way of life. Again, very well described and an excellent new concept of magic.

Where it all fell down was where Hobb tried to bring these two cultures together - ironically mirroring the problems seen in the story between the two peoples. I feel that this story tried to be a great colonial book and a great tree magic book, and instead of perfecting one, the thread split down the middle and the whole trilogy fell into the crack at the centre. The book is as split as like Nevare and Soldier's Boy.

Having read it, I feel I have come away confused an a little bit bombarded with too many things which were mentioned too briefly. I have no clue how the whole Lisana thing saving Nevare actually works having only just finished it. I couldn't tell you how the problem of Nevare and Soldier's Boy finally being unified was actually rectified, because I don't think it was really explained very well. I have a nasty feeling that some things were swept under the carpet, though I can't seem to pinpoint specifically what I mean. I criticised the first two books but I think they were both better than the third, only upon reading Renegade's Magic did I realise how well thought out the world was and how well it was described in the first two books. But the book is not entirely without merit, I found myself enjoying most of it.

Hobb is now writing a new novel about the Realm of the Elderlings, set in the same world as the Six Duchies, thank God. This should please different people for different reasons.

Fullfilling!, 29 Jul 2008
All the things that wernt quite right about the previous book (Noive) including lack of excitment, and forgotten characters, are all fixed in this book!
To anyone who read Noive, and thought "well its not worth reading the next one" I urge you to re-think.
Sonea really deveopled into a young woman in this book, and Ceryi was rememberd! You see new sides to the High lord, and un-answerd questions are finally answeard!
An excellent read, well worth it!

Excitement, Romance and Action brimming with magic - I was gripped to the very end!, 14 May 2008
Definitely the best book in the series, I found myself crying at three points in this book! Not only is it engaging and exciting but it is more of a human story laced with fantasy rather than the other way around. Each part of the book is interesting and relevant to the story and the trilogy in general is one I would read over and over, like His Dark Materials and the Harry Potter books.
Followers of the series will not be dissatisfied with the ultimate instalment, I assure you. It will have you gripped to the very end, I just wish there was a "Five Years Later" epilogue!

its like harry potter BUT BETTER!!!, 16 Feb 2008
I love the fact that she didnt hold back on anything when she wrote it. the fact that she despises akkarin but then turns out to be his ...... actually no i wont spoil it. read it and find out how this is the one of the best books ever written.

If you like the idea of the "dark side" of magic then you will love the abhorsen trilogy by garth nix. i read the trilogy of these books and i finished all 3 in a week! i was glued to them best books ever.

Quite a let down., 15 Jan 2008
I found the first 2 book quite interesting, although a bit simple.
I was really looking forward to the last book, expecting much more than I got after reading it. In other words, the end was disappointing, as if Canavan was forced to finish the book in a hurry.

Warning: SPOILERS follow.

Ok, Am I the only one who found Dannyl's quest awfully boring? The description of his trips and his affair with his scholar took forever and they were completely pointless.
Another thing that also annoyed me in the 2nd book is that the fist 50 pages or so were dedicated to providing a summary of the previous books to those who have only bought the last part. A trilogy is a trilogy. Those who only buy the last book should expect not to understand parts.

The use of stupid "native" slang like "rub" "raka" etc became very annoying.

Last but not least, the end let me down. As I was getting closer to the last 10 pages of the books, it was still all about repetitive and unimaginative descriptions of battles and nothing more. I kept wondering when is "everything" going to happen?
The answer was never. No catharsis, no closure, like a bad Hollywood action movie.
I may read the sequel, simply out of refusal to believe that that was the end.

LOVE IT, 14 Jan 2008
This book I believe is the best in "The Black Magician Trilogy". The way that Trudi writes is so emotive that you seem to feel what the character is feeling and you don't want to put it down.

I believe this is due to the previous books as well, because you start to know the characters more but any one reading this READ IT.

AMAZING

Loved it!, 20 Jul 2005
A collection of short stories by some of today's most popular authors... and a good cause thrown in for good measure. This collection is extremely varied, in terms of both writing styles and subject matter, so there's bound to be a few stories in there you'll absolutely love.

Buy this book - you won't regret it.

All you could ask for from a collection of short stories., 11 Jan 2005
I'll be honest, I only bought this book because I'm a J.K.Rowling fan and I have to have everything she's ever had published (even if it's only a foreward). I wasn't expecting too much from the actual stories themselves. But I was more than merely pleasantly suprised. The stories are wonderful. Each one is somehow very different from the others but they all share an element of 'sparkle' which makes the collection jell rather well. This 'sparkle' is not just magic, though there is some magic (of sorts) in some of the stories, but is rather a property of the characters. Though the stories are all about different people the main characters have, in their behaviour, something which makes them stand out, something which makes them just a little bit special. Perhaps it's this which makes the stories so enchanting; the fact that the characters are close to being average and normal, but have some small quality which anyone might possess, but which almost no-one actually does possess. I hope that makes some sense. If not, let me simply say that the stories are not only very original but are also very well written and very enjoyable to read. I highly recommend this collection of short stories.

"Magic Moments", 28 Jun 2002
Tilly has wild aspirations of becoming a famous opera diva.
Sandra dreams of creating the perfect bra to revolutionize womens' lives and what has become of Professor Martin Presley whose scientific discovery has the worst repercussions ever?

These are just some of the topics explored in "Magic", which is an interesting anthology produced for The National Council For One-Parent Families. It aims to raise money to support the millions of single parents, like myself, facing financial hardship in bringing up a child single-handedly.
Its forward is by J.K Rowling, Ambassador of this charity and herself a lone parent once caught in the poverty trap.

The stories are kindly donated by well-accomplished authors including Fay Weldon, Sue Townsend and John O' Farrell.
Oozing originality, its tales stretch the imagination and provide its reader with escapism in abundance whilst also supporting a worthwhile cause.
Hocus Pocus this is not. This is British Fiction at its finest.

"Magic Moments", 28 Jun 2002
Tilly has wild aspirations of becoming a famous opera diva.
Sandra dreams of creating the perfect bra to revolutionize womens' lives and what has become of Professor Martin Presley whose scientific discovery has the worst repercussions ever?

These are just some of the topics explored in "Magic", which is an interesting anthology produced for The National Council For One-Parent Families. It aims to raise money to support the millions of single parents, like myself, facing financial hardship in bringing up a child single-handedly.
Its forward is by J.K Rowling, Ambassador of this charity and herself a lone parent once caught in the poverty trap.

The stories are kindly donated by well-accomplished authors including Fay Weldon, Sue Townsend and John O' Farrell.
Oozing originality, its tales stretch the imagination and provide its reader with escapism in abundance whilst also supporting a worthwhile cause.
Hocus Pocus this is not. This is British Fiction at its finest.

Splendid book, filled with sparkling stories, 21 Jun 2002
I rarely read collections of short stories, but this one attracted me - it contans stories written by today's modern (mostly women) writers, and all of them tempted me to read other works by them.

Each story has magic as its theme - that is not to say the rabbit out of the hat magic, but more often the magic of an emotion or a feeling. My personal favourite is indeed the rabbit from a hat story by Meera Syal!

I can imagine that these stories will not appeal to everyone, but most of them will appeal to most women!

Read and enjoy.

Welcome to the Discworld, 20 Dec 2008
The one where we are introduced to incompetent wizard Rincewind, who accidentally becomes a guide to Twoflower (the Discworld's first tourist) in a series of escapades controlled by the gods, who are (literally) playing dice. Features dragons, the horribly carnivorous but loyal Luggage, and space travel - well, almost. Pratchett's humour takes a while to get used to, but stick with it - there's a whole world waiting to be discovered in the Discworld series, of which this is the very first instalment. `The Light Fantastic' picks up where this work finishes.

Wonderful fantasy world, 10 Dec 2008
Synopsis from Amazon:

It is fantasy? No - it's a different and more eccentric reality, where the world is flat and moves through space on the back of a giant turtle, Death stalks glumly about his duties, and dragons only exist if you believe in them. And your luggage follows you around on hundreds of little legs...

Follow Twoflower the naïve tourist and his inept guide Rincewind in their hilarious search for thrills, adventure and opportunities to not get killed. Follow them all the way to the Edge - and beyond...


This is the first Pratchett novel I have read, and I am glad I did, what a funny book!

Pratchett leads us through a fantastical world filled with gods, dragons, trolls and the like. This book was not a disappointment. Everything was described in such a way that it was easy to imagine and be transported there.

I loved Twoflower, I found his character hilarious. Pretty much all he did and said was funny. My other favourite character was Death. He had some great one-liners.

My only problem with the book was there were so many events and adventures and characters I slowly forgot who was who and what had happened before. However, this didn't really spoil the story for me.

The end is nicely set up for the next in the series, and I am looking forward to carrying on the adventure :-)

8/10


Don't start with this one if you're new to the series, 16 Jul 2008
This is certainly not one to start the series with if you are new to Terry Pratchett - it is thematically quite different (which is understandable considering that it's the first of his Discworld books) and rather rough in parts. It's certainly one to read once you're familiar with the world, but you'd be better off starting with something like Mort or Soul Music to get a better flavour of what Discworld is all about.

Discworld Begins., 30 Apr 2008
Ok you dont need to read every discworls novel, nor do you need to start here but I think it helps. This is one of the best, Rincewind has always been my favourite Pratchett Character anyway.

I loved it, 26 Apr 2008
I loved the book and all its characters down to the tiniest atom. Rincewind and Death are now official favourite characters of mine and I am now a Discworld fan. I have read through 13-14 books so far and hope to read more, but this one I always come back to.
People may have thought It wasn't that great, but it was better than [[The Last Continent]]!

fun with elves and dwarves, 04 Dec 2008
Where to go after Tolkien and Lord of the Rings? Here's not a bad place to start.

Epic fantast is overloaded with authors these days, each offering what could be called 'map' fiction. You know the type of book- big map in the front intended to show the epic scope and scale, and depth of the world you're about to enter.

Magician goes one better than most- it has two maps, and two fantasy worlds across which the story unfolds. A neat trick, and one handled quite well in this first book of the riftwar saga (although it stands well enough on its own).

In this, the revised edition, you get 600-odd pages of story with nearly ten years of events (compared to LotR's 1500 pages covering about a year). Loads of things happen, and mostly at a break-neck pace- no bad thing, and for those wanting a bit more action with elves and dwarves and dragons than you get in Tolkien, you get plenty of that.

This is very much an American book though. The characters we begin with are humble enough, but instead of Frodo-like epic heroism resulting in permanent scarring and having to leave the world they've saved, here Pug and Thomas go from young boys to well powerful beings rather rapidly. Nothing wrong with that per se, and here it's very good. In later books , it's a problem for Feist in where he can take the characters (just like in Dungeons and Dragons games from childhoos- if you cheat on your stats nad make yourself super powerful, it's hard to generate any real dramatic tension to what happens). So it's the American dream in fantasy form- anyone can end up the world's most powerful magician (against the melancholic realism of duty in LotR).

Don't look for high quality literature here- the writing at times is clunky ('and a and b were there, along with c and d and e and f and....'), and even potentially interesting female characters end up rather subordinate to the men (just love interests in the end). If you want literate fantasy it has to be George RR Martin BUT this is a lot of fun on its own terms.

Unashamedly on the bandwagon, 14 Nov 2008
As with many other reviewers, I read this book on a fairly regular basis, and perhaps the simplest and best recommendation I can make is that it hooks me and surprises me every time.

If you're looking for a classic fantasy masterwork then read this book, but be warned, you'll find yourself comparing to it every other fantasy book you read.

Out Tolkien's Tolkien, 15 Sep 2008
This certainly has to be one of the masterpieces of fantasy literature. At first it feels a bit like the Sword in the Stone but soon this is left behind as you enter an amazing story set across two worlds. With boys that become heroes and find themselves the greatest forces that their worlds have known. It has all that is required of epic fiction and while it is not the finely crafted work of Tolkien but it takes fantasy to a new level, defined by breakneck pace with a well crafted story.

Truly Epic, 30 Jun 2008
Where to begin? Having only recently been introduced to the works of Feist, I now count myself a fan of sorts. This book is a wonderful introduction to his works, and is gripping from start to finish. The word epic doesn't seem to do this justice- where many authors would be content with creating one living, breathing fantasy world, Feist has given us two in the form of Midkemia and Kelewan, along with enough characters to grace several trilogies. Magician follows the intertwined destinies of Pug and Tomas as they make the transition from lowly court boys to powerful beings of almost legendary status. That the journey never once appears farcical or unbelievable is testament to Feists fantasy writing. This book will leave you yearning for more Feist.

Magic!, 06 May 2008
This is the best fantasy book I have ever read - I think it is a LOTR beater! It would make a fantastic movie, however I don't think anything would come close to the text. Characters are really well developed, the storyline is great, with every world and scene lavishly detailed. I would recommend this to anyone.

the best of the three, 16 Oct 2008
This book really worked for me...Robin Hobb's prose is beautiful and effortless to read. None of Hobb's characters, from any of her books are easy or pleasant and this trilogy deals with many uncomfortable aspects of humanity which I think is one of the reasons that people have found it harder to like but finally I grew to understand Nevarre and sympathise with him.
Read em all!!!


eco warriors, 23 Sep 2008
third and final volume in robin hobb's trilogy of fantasy novels called the soldier son trilogy. these are about nevare. a would be soldier in a world where red indian style indigenous people are being threatened by the expansion of humanity, his career and life have been ruined and forever changed by a native magic woman who is using him to fight back against humanity.

whilst the book does bring you up to speed in the first chapter you really need to have read the first two volumes in the series [shamans crossing and forest mage] to get the most out of this, so go and read those first if you havent.

if you have, then you are safe to read on.

those who read the first two books will recall the second ended with nevare giving himself over to the magic, and leaving all his human friends and enemies thinking he's dead. as a result of this, he ends up with the natives, and another personality takes over his body. this is called soldiers boy, and he's determined to destroy humanity.

can nevare get control of his body and life back? and what will happen to the world?

typically excellent prose from robin hobb but this is more a novel of character than plot and thus many will find it slow moving. but as a novel of character this is exceedingly well written. the conflict between nevare and his other half is well done, and the experiences he goes through and the settings are as well. things do happen, and changes occur to the characters and the world as a result.

after which one hundred pages are required to wrap the fate of everyone else up, and this they do.

4.5/5 from me, as whilst typically excellently written the story ultimately isn't quite as strong as it was in the first two volumes. but robin hobb remains a very good writer and this will not put me off trying her subsequent work.

Know what you're getting into..., 18 Sep 2008
I choose to write this review more generally about the whole soldier son trilogy. Most of the reviews so far have made unfavourable references to the frankly awe-inspiring assassin/liveship/fool trilogies. I, however, don't think a comparison can reasonably be made. Superficially there are similarities between the styles of writing from Fitz and Nevarre (respective narrators of the books) - both are highy emotionally compelling character explorations told from the point of view of a character who is both protagonist and unwilling recipient of many of the events driving both stories. The books are confessionals of the struggle in these characters to do 'the right thing.'

There however the similarity ends. The soldier son books are set in an entirely different world (still equally fantastical) and contemporary with colonial technology and values, though in fact the same story could probably be transplanted onto any number of time periods. While the setting is largely militaristic (book one takes place predominately in a military academy, book two in a military outpost and book three in the opposing camp) little of the text is concerned with warfare - indeed the descriptions of any actual warfare are few and far between. If that is what you seek in a similar temporal setting, then I'd suggest reading bernard cornwell's sharpe series.

Instead, this series focusses on polar tensions. There are actually three societies comprising the world in which the books take place. The Plainspeople, the Gernians and the Specks. the first of these seem largely incidental to the story and seem to exist mostly to flesh out the world. This is not necessarily a bad thing but one does get a sense of unfulfillment from them. The other two societies, conversely are fantastically realised. We have the colonial-esque Gernians and the more traditionally fantasy-based tree people (the Specks). Both societies, and their drastically conflicting values are deeply explored, and the tension between the beliefs of each society creates a deliciously tense setting. Even the idea that they are at war is fascinating as neither really understands the concept in the manner of the other. Indeed, the Gernians are unaware that the specks consider themselves at war with them., while the Speck make war on them by spreading disease and discontent. The setting seems to be designed to highlight the contrast between urban expansion and natural harmony, and the 'war' between the peoples seems just to be a realisation of the deeper tension that exists as a result of urban encroachment on the natural environment.

This polarization is further explored with the protagonist, Nevarre Burvelle. Hobb takes the unique step of separating Nevarre into two distinct entities: Nevarre and Soldier's Boy. Intriguingly our narrator is only one of these two personalities - thus we have a series narrated by half a person - a concept that is truly fascinating and endlessly intriguing. Our narrator is principally the Gernian half of Nevarre, though he certainly has much sympathy for the specks, while his opposing half, Soldier's Boy appears to be primarily Speck in outlook - though the few glimpses we get of Soldier's Boy's sympathy for the Gernians suggest at a character who is equally as troubled with his conscience as Nevarre.

Conscience as it turns out plays a major role in the narrative. It forces one to question