"Great fantasy epic"
The off world Gardier use powerful magic to invade the land
of Ile-Rien. The off-world military are winning on all
fronts defeating the natives at sea, on the land, and in
the air. Unless something is done quickly, the people of
Ile-Rien will become enslaved. A magical artifact attached
to Tremaine Valiarde transports her and two sorceress to
the Isle of Storms. They meet the Syrneiese warrior Ilias and Giliead who have
come to the island to see if an evil wizard has taken up
residence there. The two groups team up when the Gardier,
who have an outpost in a huge cave on the island, captures
them. Working together, they escape and go to the homeland
of Ilias and Giliead and then back to Ile-Rien to get an
army together that will destroy the Gardier outpost and
subsequently the means of traveling between the two worlds. Book one of the Fall of Ile-Rien is a fantastic opening
installment in what looks to be a great fantasy epic. The
heroine, a potential suicide victim, finds she has
something to live for, as she becomes a freedom fighter
intent on saving two worlds from Gardier domination.
Martha Wells is an excellent world builder, a writer who
makes the audience believes that the Gardier and the two
worlds they want to conquer actually exist. Harriet Klausner
Reviewed by PNR Group Member
Posted April 10, 2003
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Reviewers nationwide, as well as fellow artists in the
fantasy arena, have already marveled at the astonishing
voice and vision of Martha Wells. With this, the first book
in an extraordinary new epic trilogy, the Nebula Award--
nominated author of The Death of the Necromancer and Wheel
of the Infinite dazzles as never before -- bringing a stark
and breathtaking reality to an imperiled world of
magic. . . . Ile-Rien faces the grim specter of its own imminent demise.
Once a fertile and prosperous land, it is now under attack
by the Gardier, a mysterious army whose storm-black
airships appear from nowhere to strike without warning.
Every weapon in the arsenal of Ile-Rien's revered wizards
has proven useless -- their magic quickly identified by the
enemy and rendered instantly impotent, their conventional
arms spontaneously and inexplicably exploded. And the last
hope of a magical realm under siege rests within a child's
plaything. The tiny sphere was created for Tremaine Valiarde's
amusement when she was a child of twelve, presented to her
by her uncle Arisilde, the greatest of all sorcerers. But
the mage -- among the first to identify the impending
Gardier threat, along with Tremaine's notorious father,
Nicholas, and one of the first to die because of it --
secreted a power within the orb capable of defeating the
invaders. And now, years later, it falls to a young woman
lacking any magical knowledge and abil-ity to release it. Tremaine's initial attempts have disastrous consequences,
transporting her to a strange world far removed from
anything she has ever experienced or imagined. In this
terrible and wondrous place -- where primitive magic
cultures lag far behind Ile-Rien's sophisticated sorcery,
where noble warriors clash with dark wizards, where
starving demons prowl for prey and the Gardier prepare
their assaults -- Tremaine must somehow unlock the sphere's
powerful secrets . . . before the slow and monstrous
awakening of a hideous evil is complete.
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