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Dawnspell: The Bristling Wood (Deverry) by: Katharine Kerr

Publisher: Voyager
Release date: 17th May, 1990
Media: Paperback

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Average rating - (more reviews)

Rating: - My favourite so far

This is my favourite of the series so far! In this book the modern day plot follows Jill and Rhodry as they are forced apart by circumstance, and ends on a real cliffhanger where Rhodry vanishes, and it is up to Jill and Salamander to try and find him. In the past we meet another incarnation of Jill and Rhodry, at a time when the silver daggers are brought into being and Rhodry fights to bring the one true king of Deverry to power.

As I said in a previous review, because the flashbacks tend to be the bulk of the book, it is necessary to find them entertaining if the novel as a whole is to be considered a success. In this novel, I thoroughly enjoyed reading about Jill and Rhodry's previous life, especially the novelty of Jill being reborn into a man's body this time around. It was a gripping insert, and I loved to see exactly why the silver daggers came into being.

We saw a great deal more of modern times, and the politics affecting Deverry. Lovyan stepped onto centre stage, and I appreciated the fact that Kerr wrote into the story strong female characters. I got tired of Rhys' stubborn ways concerning Rhodry and was frighteningly indifferent to his plight.

One character I was genuinely curious about and repelled by was Perryn. His treatment of Jill, and the way he was able to entice women, was presented as extremely disturbing, especially because it was so involuntary.

Again, I loved the Wildfolk, and found it particularly amusing when Salamander used them to cow the pirate folk of Slaith.

All in all, a great book. Because of the extreme cliffhanger and the introduction of Taliesyn as a character, I am desperate to read the fourth in this sequence and think that Kerr is doing a fabulous job bringing the world of Deverry alive.

Rating: - the series as a whole

this series is a great one, & once u'v finnished the first 4, there's another 12? to go!!! it just keeps getting better!

Rating: - Great and getting better

Kerr is certainly getting better and better as her series goes along. The characters are gaining more depth, the plot is unfolding into a complexity I had trouble keeping up with on the first read or two. A valuable resource are the soul tables and the pronounciation guides.

Anyone comparing this series to Marvel comics must be having trouble understanding the amazing amount of reseach and time gone into creating the series. It is evident in just the construction of the names! The historical accuracy and gelling into a darkages/medieval celtic world astounds me every time. I can just about smell the horses and the riders. Kerr does not gloss over the horrors of the time either, life was not pleasant then. This is something I appreciate every time I read the books.

Rating: - Childish

This is the third in an expanding series set in a cod-Celtic world focussed on the "kingdom" of Deverry. I was impressed enough by the first to buy the whole opening quartet, and was sadly disappointed. Books 1 and 2 are advertised as re-written, and are reasonably polished. The unrevised 3rd and 4th books have a first draft quality and increasing reliant on dialog, long stretches that read like film-script, which isn't well-written and expose the poor quality of the character writing. Book 1 dealt with some adult themes, principally incest, but in book 3 the heroine Jill is just gratuitously and tastelessly sexually abused. The series's main gimmick is that the main characters are linked by destiny through reincarnation, and their "reunions" at different points in history are the notional thrust of the first four books. In the first book the stories run parallel and reflect on weach other. As the series runs on the link between eras is weaker and the switch between stories is awkward and arbitrary. In the later volumes, in an attempt to prop up the idea of an eternal battle between good and evil, the author crow-bars in opposing schools of "Light" and "Dark" magic, obvioulsy "inspired" by The Force from Star Wars. Her magicians also work and battle in an "astral plane" with extraordinary close parallels to the world of Marvel comics hero Dr Strange. In the final analysis these are teen romances, populated by lacklustre characters, adequately written but operating on the law of diminishing returns. I bought them so I had to read them. Don't be sucked in.

Rating: - Better than the first two!

This was one of the best fantasy novels I have ever read- its funny, I almost stopped after darkspell... That one let me down. But as it turns out, I made a great decision! The only problem I had was that she dove into her best flashback sequence ever in the forging of the silver dagger group, but then she proceeded to leave us hanging.... in the middle of that story she returns to the current story which I found to be less intriging... and then she never picks up the other story. A huge disappointment! Still- a fabulous read!

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