The Jewelfire Trilogy

[Mark Robson]

Anyone here read any of these books by Freda Warrington? I read the first - The Amber Citadel - recently and found it excellent: rich, detailed and full of unexpected twists and turns. The races she uses are fascinating: the bhadrodomen are seriously creepy. I'm now trying to find time to begin the next - The Sapphire Throne. I also have the third sat on my shelf - The Obsidian Tower. At my current reading rate it might take me a while to get that far.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

I keep thinking that I need to order the first of these books. If I could hold a thought for more than a couple of minutes, I might even do it.

Tell me some more about the series, Mark. That might serve to fix the idea a little more firmly in my mind.

 

[nixie]

I've read first two, but don't have a copy of Obisdan Tower thought I did,so thats another to add to my too buy list

 

[Mark Robson]

Teresa, the first in the series tells the story of Tanthe, a village girl who has always had dreams of life in the big city - particularly the capital. She imagines the grandeur and the sophistication of life there, having garnered most of her ideas from the books she has read. When her sister is taken by the authorities and drafted to work on a great project initiated by the King, Tanthe, together with two of the lads from the village set out on a quest to get her back. It is easy to see that Tanthe, whilst truely wanting to get her sister back, is enamoured with the idea of going to the capital city to fulfil the quest.

The journey is massive - around 2000 miles, covering all sorts of terrain. Inevitably, they meet with all sorts of problems, not least of which include the Bhadrodomen. The story is shown from a tapestry of viewpoints, woven together with great skill to give the reader an overall picture of the impending doom of the land in which the story is set. Freda's characters are earthy, sexy, and often have a dark side that make them feel very real. The scope of the story appears vast. As I said, I've only read the first one so far, but towards the end of it there were so many threads running, that I'm amazed she had enough fingers to keep twisting them in the right direction.

Nixie has gone further than I - what were your thoughts on this, Nixie?

 

[nixie]

Helananthe is now queen,trying to restore her peoples faith.Her mother and brother are spirited away by the Aelyr.Tanthe and Eldareth need to find away into the Aelyr world.

Rufryd is sent by Helananthe to be ambassador to the Bhahdradomen on the island of Vexor.

As the tale goes on, you start to feel sympathy for the Bhahdradomen, you know you shouldn't but they don't have a life they ony exist.They need to wander their land is dying.It can't recover.
You do get to see it from every viewpoint,it keeps you engrossed

 

[Mark Robson]

Freda seems to have developed a way of making you feel sympathy for all her characters one way or another. This wasn't always the case - see the discussion on 'A Blackbird in Silver'. In her later works, though, I think it's one of her strengths as a writer. I find her prose style very lyrical; almost hypnotic at times. It's even more so when you hear her read it aloud.

Have recently ordered 'Court of the Midnight King'. I look forward to seeing this more recent work to see how her style has continued to develop.

 

[Freda]

I did try to make the Bhahdradomen very Bhad indeed - but in the end found it almost impossible to make them such cut and dried villains! I ended up feeling quite affectionate towards some of them! I love those complex, grey areas - it's why I can never write a straight good vs evil story!

I hope you'll seek out the other two volumes - if you like a big, meaty fantasy saga, it is quite a journey!

 

[Mark Robson]

I have the books, Freda. What I don't have is a lot of time to read. I love reading meatier fantasies, but I find that the majority of my reading these days is in my chosen area of writing - the YA fantasy shelves. That said, I will read them in the end, I promise. I very much want to read Court of the Midnight King first for several reasons. In particular, Nixie spoke very highly of it in another thread. I'm also aware that it is your most recent release, which I'd like to compare with your earlier work. As my own writing is still in the 'fast developing' stage, I find it fascinating to look at how authors' styles change over the years.

I hope you don't mind me saying that I felt The Jewelfire Trilogy was a big step forward from the Blackbird series. I have enjoyed what I've read of both, but your writing/plotting feels a lot smoother in what I've read so far of Jewelfire.

 

[sanityassassin]

Just been to the local library and noticed The Amber Citadel sitting on the shelf and I thought I'd give it a go and I'll let you know how I find it

 

[sanityassassin]

I am now on to the second book of the trilogy and am enjoying it very much except for one silly stupid thing which bugs me just a little is in a small passage the was an excessive use colours in desrcibing a scene silly I know but it is the only flaw I've found

 

[Mark Robson]

I am now on to the second book of the trilogy and am enjoying it very much except for one silly stupid thing which bugs me just a little is in a small passage the was an excessive use colours in desrcibing a scene silly I know but it is the only flaw I've found

I think one of the things I like most about Freda is the lyrical descriptions in her writing. She paints beautiful pictures of her landscapes and the detail that she packs into her narratives is one of the biggest attractions for me to the way she writes. It seems she does naturally what I would like most to be able to do - write with depth and feeling without compromising plot and pace. I found the first book to be excellently well written, though I've not yet had time to tackle the second.

Out of interest, which was your favourite character and why?