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Title: The Sun Sword (The Sun Sword, Book 6) by West. Michelle ISBN: 0-7564-0170-4 Publisher: Daw Books Pub. Date: 06 January, 2004 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.6 (10 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Great Series, Great Book.....Not the REAL Conclusion
Comment: This book is great. It does bring some closure to some of the storylines. However, there is still alot left undone and I would have been very frustrated were Michelle West to abandon this world for something completely different. However, I just read on sf.net that Michelle is working on her next book called House War. If you've read this series, you know exactly what that book will be about. If you are deciding on whether or not to read this book, do it. It's great. Just know that there is another book coming to bring us the satisfying end to some of the story.
Rating: 5
Summary: A Stunning Conclusion to an Excellent Series
Comment: A lot of people complained about the fact that Jewel's story wasn't finished. After all, Jewel has played a major part in the battle for the Dominion. However, not to worry. I read in her home page that Michelle West was writing a stand-alone novel called House War that is about Jewel, the house war, and the den.
That aside, I would like to concentrate on the book. This is the conclusion to the series about the Southern war, and it was beautifully written. I thought that the character development with Diora and Kiriel was well done and believable. What truly touched me, however, was the new revelation about Auralis and Anya. By the end of the book, we see some changes in Auralis that are, I believe, for the better.
What I liked about these books was the fact that the author doesn't put in a bunch of shabby sex scenes between characters that detract from the story. Instead of romantic relationships, we see more of parent-child relationships. Such relationships include Teresa-Diora, Isladar-Kiriel, Sendari-Diora, Alina-Valedan, and even, to a lesser extent, Isladar-Anya. I also enjoyed reading the first meeting between Valedan and Diora, and continuing to watch their slowly growing relationship.
Some reviewers claimed that the final duel between Alesso di'Marente and Valedan kai di'Leonne was an anti-climax. I do not believe that this is entirely accurate, because it seemed to me that the real climax of the story was when Kiriel was battling the Great Beast on the battlefield, not when Alesso and Valedan dueled. I can also appreciate the fact that the author makes all of her characters seem real. Even the so-called bad guys made me want to cheer them on. Each character is not completely evil, not completely good. On both sides of the opposition, you see characters who are on a particular side for their own goals and values. No one character is black or white, but shades of gray instead.
In the conclusion, no loose ends in the SOUTHERN WAR were left dangling. They were satisfactorily resolved. Jewel's story wasn't meant to be resolved in this book because her role in the southern war was finished. And I will repeat: Michelle West is writing another book for Jewel called House War. Just hang in there people!
Rating: 5
Summary: While not without flaws, a satisfying conclusion
Comment: This book is a satisfying conclusion to the Sun Sword series as it has been developed so far. Okay, there are some indications of fatigue on the author's part--West's prose style, while it can be dramatic and moving (check out the last scene with Diora at the end of Broken Crown) is often torturous and convoluted, and it wears a little thin by this point in the series. Also, some have complained that the battle between the forces of the North and the South seemed strangely anti-climactic, and I can see their point.
*However.*
The author's *strengths* in this part of the series are completely on display as well. I believe I've mentioned in other reviews of her work that Michelle West has a real gift for characterization. This is *certainly* the case here. Her characters are so well developed that they feel almost *four*-dimensional. Her themes of childhood and parenthood continue to be present in the work; in particular I was rocked by the line about Kiriel, something like:
"Ashaf was the mother of her heart.
But she had always had two."
Without giving away spoilers I'll just say that for me, this line made a moment that could have come across as completely contrived and out of nowhere, not only suddenly make sense, but also carry significant emotional weight.
Some have complained also because they feel the story was not finished, in particular that of Jewel and Avandar. I actually found that to be a *strength* of the series, as strange as it may sound. Perhaps it's because I came in not having read Hunter's Oath and Hunter's Death, so I wasn't getting the whole of Jewel's story to begin with, but it seemed to me that this ability to "let plot threads go" actually contributed to the feel of the series as a whole. I mean, heck, it was always clear that the main story of these books was that of Diora, Sendari, Teresa and Valedan; Jewel may have had a part to play, but this wasn't her story, and now that she's finished with that, having gone "south if south calls," it's time for her to go back to the cares of the rest of her life. Just like in the real world, there are no endings, because nothing ever really ends.
The interplay of the two different cultures, South and North, both fully developed and contrasted with each other, is on display here as well, and Valedan's ability to draw on the strengths of both is fully realized. The meeting of Diora and Valedan and their slowly developing relationship is portrayed as only West could have done it, and Anya and Kiriel, Kiriel and Isladar, Kiriel and Ashaf's village, Elena and Telakar--wow.
The only thing I can think of that would have made it better would have been if she had found a way to work the cradle song into the conclusion. While that is the only song in the series, in my opinion it represents the best use of poetry in a fantasy series since Tolkien, in that it encapsulates what I see as one of the primary themes of the entire series. Having begun more or less with the cradle song in the first hundred or so pages of the Broken Crown (and thus set the tone), I would have liked to see it show up at the conclusion as well to sort of "close the circle." But that's only a minor flaw. Particularly when so many fantasy authors seem to be writing "the series that does not end," West is able, all things considered, to pull off her final book superbly. All in all, I found this to be an excellent conclusion to an excellent series. If she writes a future series dealing with Jewel and her den (as some have commented she plans to do) I will certainly buy it and read it as well. Well done, Ms. West. Well done.
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Title: The Riven Shield (Sun Sword, 5) by Michelle West ISBN: 0756401461 Publisher: Daw Books Pub. Date: 01 July, 2003 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Sea of Sorrows (The Sun Sword, Book 4) by Michelle West ISBN: 0886779782 Publisher: Daw Books Pub. Date: 08 May, 2001 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: The Shining Court (The Sun Sword, Book 3) by Michelle West ISBN: 0886778379 Publisher: Daw Books Pub. Date: 01 August, 1999 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: The Uncrowned King (The Sun Sword, Book 2) by Michelle West ISBN: 0886778018 Publisher: Daw Books Pub. Date: 01 September, 1998 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Hunter's Death by Michelle West ISBN: 0886777062 Publisher: Daw Books Pub. Date: 01 June, 1996 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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