Bridge
of Souls
The Quickening Book III
by Fiona McIntosh
Wyl Thirsk just isn't feeling himself these days - he has been so many other people!
Following the exciting events in Myrren's Gift & Blood and Memory (both
also reviewed on this site) he jumped into the body of his sister Ylena. Fynch found
out - to his cost - about Elysius and the Thicket, Aremys has found Lothryn (who also
isn't the man he was) and King Celimus is just getting worse and worse. Somehow grubby
enchanter Rashlyn and Celimus have got to be defeated and Wyl reunited with Valentyna,
but everything just keeps going wrong...
This has been a real page-turning trilogy, full of surprises. There is nothing new in
here with regards to background and characters, but the story keeps bubbling merrily along
and juggling the events in several locations. The narrative jumps about from place to place,
looking in on what is happening to a group of characters before moving on. Perhaps that
is part of the trick, for nothing is ever focused on long enough to become boring.
Those in search of more introspective fare might point out the cookie-cutter characters,
brave and self-sacrificing goodies, and sneering, gloating baddies. Ultimately caught
up in the book's magic spell, I found it easy to care about many of the folk, although
more gray characters might be a good thing amongst the exclusively black or white. This
has been the usual trio of tubby tomes and the fattest yet but it is a fairly quick read,
especially for books with a lot packed into them. This is good, old-fashioned fantasy
brought up to date for modern tastes with plenty of court intrigue amongst the questing
and magic. More, please. |
The Book |
Orbit (Time Warner UK) |
December 2005 |
Paperback |
1841493759 |
Fantasy |
More
at Amazon.com US
|| UK |
Excerpt |
NOTE: Some violence |
The Reviewer |
Rachel A Hyde |
Reviewed 2006 |
NOTE: |
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