The Woman of Rome: A Novel (Italia)

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If you like Moravia, you'll like it

Unforgettable

Our fragile human nature

Amor Fati in Fascist Italy

of risotto and regret..

The Woman of Rome: A Novel (Italia)
Alberto Moravia
Manufacturer: Zoland Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Literary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Italian | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 1883642809
Release Date: 1999-06-01

Book Description

THE GLITTER AND CYNICISM of Rome under Mussolini provide the background of what is probably Alberto Moravia’s best and best-known novel — The Woman of Rome. It’s the story of Adriana, a simple girl with no fortune but her beauty who models naked for a painter, accepts gifts from men, and could never quite identify the moment when she traded her private dream of home and children for the life of a prostitute.
One of the very few novels of the twentieth century which can be ranked with the work of Dostoevsky, The Woman of Rome also tells the stories of the tortured university student Giacomo, a failed revolutionary who refuses to admit his love for Adriana; of the sinister figure of Astarita, the Secret Police officer obsessed with Adriana; and of the coarse and brutal criminal Sonzogno, who treats Adriana as his private property. Within this story of passion and betrayal, Moravia calmly strips away the pride and arrogance hiding the corrupt heart of Italian Fascism.

Customer Reviews:

If you like Moravia, you'll like it.......2004-09-01

Good novel. You must like Moravia, and you should not mind about happy ends. I enjoyed it, and I will remember it, so I'm doubting between 4 or 5 stars.

Unforgettable.......2003-11-29

This story of innocence and failure is told by the beautiful and flawed Adriana, whose desire for a tranquil life cannot reconcile itself with the corrupt world she lives in and cannot escape from. Set in Mussolini's Rome, the elegant and readable story is full of the kinds of complexities and frustrations real life provides.

Adriana is an unforgettable character, somehow maintaining her innocence and hope despite descending into what her society would call scandalous circumstances. Through her strength alone, it seems, the story manages to end with a touch of optimism.

The reputation of this book precedes it, and so I won't spend more time describing the plot or heaping more superlatives on what is likely the best book to come from Alberto Moravia, one of Italy's most underrated authors.

Read The Woman of Rome, and even if it touches you only a
fraction of the extent to which it touched me, that will be more than most books can aspire to.

Our fragile human nature.......2002-10-29

Moravia's elegant novel takes the familiar theme of unfulfilled dreams and invests it with quiet strength and descriptive authenticity. Months after reading "Woman in Rome," it is the voice of Adriana, the woman of the title, that lingers in my memory. By telling in the 1st person his story of a young woman whose beauty, poverty, passivity and kindness lead her to prostitution and abandonment, the author shows us how such a fall from hope and grace is a gradual, imperceptible process, one day after the next. Moravia writes in a deceptively simple style that keeps the reader close to his heroine's actions, so that her losses become our own. Near the end of the novel there is an astonishing paragraph, in which the narrator imagines herself drowning. This heartbreaking paragraph encapsulates the downward pull of the entire book, the longing for oblivion in the face of lost dreams. It is too long to quote in full, but here are some excerpts. (Note, too, the beautiful translation.)

"I obeyed and he undressed in the dark and got into bed beside me. I turned toward him to embrace him, but he pushed me away wordlessly and curled himself up on the edge of the bed with his back to me. This gesture filled me with bitterness and I, too, hunched myself up, waiting for sleep with a widowed spirit. But I began to think about the sea again and was overcome by the longing to drown myself. I imagined it would only be a moment's suffering, and then my lifeless body would float from wave to wave beneath the sky for ages. [...] At last I would sink to the bottom, would be dragged head downward toward some icy blue current that would carry me along the sea for months and years among submarine rocks, fish, and seaweed, and floods of limpid seawater would wash my forehead, my breast, my belly, my legs, slowly wearing away my flesh, smoothing and refining me continually. And at last some wave, someday, would cast me up on some beach, nothing but a handful of fragile, white bones [...] a little heap of bones, without human shape, among the clean stones of a shore."

Amor Fati in Fascist Italy.......2002-06-18

Alberto Moravia was a leading mid-Twentieth Century Italian novelist and short story writer. Although his works were quickly translated into English, they were little read in the United States. Fortunately for interested readers, many of his books are now in print again and accessible, including his 1949 novel, The Woman of Rome.

This is a story of Adriana, a beautiful, poor, and uneducated young woman who begins as an artist's model at the age of 16. Although she dreams of a quiet, modest home with a loving husband and children, she becomes both a prostitute and a thief. As a prostitute, she is involved with a number of men with competing ideologies and interests including Astarita, a Fascist chief of police, Giacomo, a student revolutionary against the Fascists and Sozmogo, a criminal and a thug.

The story is told in the first person. Adriana is always on stage and the character of highest interest. The reader gets to know her well. The book is told in a linear, easy-to-follow style which builds to a large cresendo, for me, at the end of the first part. The second part of the book loses slightly in dramatic intensity and in construction.

As with any work of depth, this book functions on a number of levels which reject easy paraphrase or simple meaning. Many readers see the book as a picture of corruption in Rome while others see it more as the story of Adriana. I am more inclined to the second view. As far as I can tell, however, there is a strong spiritual theme in the book which sometimes gets too little emphasis in the pull of conflicting readings.

There are no less than four pivotal scenes in The Woman of Rome set in a church. Although the book is replete with sex, violence and raw brutality, it is also highly internalized. Many of its most effective moments are those in which Adriana relects (in church or out) on her life and on the course it has taken.

The German philosopher Frederich Nietxche (Adriana does not mention and would not have known of him) used the phrase "amor fati" to describe the wise person's attitude towards life. The phrase means loving one's destiny or, to use another related Nietschean phrase, "becoming who one is". The specific facts of one's life may be determined by circumstance. What is not determined is one's attitude. A person can understand his or her life and accept it joyfully, regardless of its state. It is in the acceptance and understanding that choice resides and that gives life its value and dignity.

The novel shows the attempt of a poor, but intelligent woman to find "amor fati" and to become who she is. She struggles to accept her nature and her being as a prostitute. Many of Adriana's reflections in the church are quite explicit and insightful. Adriana, alas, is no more successful than are most people in staying with her insight into herself. That, in my opinion, is the tragedy of the story which leads to the downfall of the men involved with Adriana.

The spiritual tone of the book goes well beyond Nietsche. Together with the theme of amor fati, there is a religiosity that emphasises, in the context of Western theology, God as merciful and as all-forgiving rather than God as a moralizer or judge. This God -- or self-understanding is open to all regardless of creed or station. The religion that seems to be espoused in the book recognizes the sinful, fallen nature of people and their frequent inability to change. It seems to suggest the possiblity of atonement and forgiveness offered to everyone by a turning of the heart, even if, perhaps, behavior cannot be changed. It is a powerful picture of a God of mercy and forgiveness who holds the possiblity of love out to all.

This is a first-rate or nearly first-rate Twentieth Century novel.

of risotto and regret.........2002-06-08

Frankly this book brought Sticky to new depths of sadness and depression as Adriana (the titular Woman of Rome) abandoned all hope and care and sunk to prostitution and risotto. It is the latter which saddened Sticky the most, our protagonist creating ever more bland risottos with every turn of the page, and forsaking the sticky rice teachings of the kind Chinese laundry gentleman who ran the little laundry on the Via Di Consolazione.

Book Description

"Tells of life in turn-of-the-century Roman times. The novel's insights into the social and political temperaments of the times makes for involving reading."
—The Bookwatch

An indefatigable writer and the author of over 40 books, Matilde Serao (1857-1927) was arguably the most famous Italian woman journalist of the nineteenth century. The Conquest of Rome (1885), which tells the story of the arrival in Rome of a provincial deputy from the poor South, paints a brilliant portrait of political and social life in contemporary Rome. Upon his arrival in Rome, Frencesco Sangiorgio dreams of a glittering future there. Although the Eternal City greets the young man's ambition with indifference, he gradually makes his mark on his parliamentary colleagues, soon establishing a place in high society. His fate is sealed, however, when he falls under the sway of the enigmatic Angelica Vargas, and the conquest of Rome that seemed so tantalizingly close begins to slip away.

Book Description

Thomas Covenant knew that despite his failure on the Isle of The One Tree, he had to return to the Land and fight. After a long and arduous journey, fighting all the way, he readies himself for the final showdown with Lord Foul, the Despiser, and begins to understand things he had only just wondered about before....

Customer Reviews:

Well executed, but missing something..........2007-09-05

Having read all of the first six Convenant books in a relatively short ammount of time, I will say that I came away enjoying the saga. White Gold Wielder, for it's part, provides a very good cross-section of the series as a whole. Donaldson's strengths are present in full force. Unfortunately, so are the weaknesses.
I'll mention the strengths first. Foremost is the character development. Thomas Covenant is a character unlike any other in modern fantasy, and Linden Avery is extremely well developed as his foil and complement. Alternating between their respective points-of-view, Donaldson effectively creates reader sympathy and empathy for their sometimes conflicting motives while at the same time advancing their shared cause.
Donaldson's other strength is world building. After the first five novels, "The Land" and it's encompassing world at large are fairly completely developed, so in WGW, Donaldson is able to use his setting as another character to drive the plot and draw the reader in, much as he did in the early part of the first trilogy when Covenant was many times too unlikeable to be engaging. Covenant does not revert to his dispicable past, far from it, but as his future becomes more and more bleak, the future of the land provides the story with hope of a happy ending.
Now, for the negatives. The biggest problem is that the whole thing is just so dark. Like the Despiser, Donaldson assails his characters with blow after blow, failure after failure. That's not a bad thing in and of itself, but in this instance, the darkness is not often enough tempered with moments of light. In spite of everything, we've grown to like Covenant and Linden, and their uninterupted plight is draining. Without giving anything away, while the climax ties up nearly all of the loose ends (not all though), it occurs too close to the end of the book to allow the characters and the reader to soak in the consequences of the saga.
The other problem I'd list as a negative is the overall pacing of the Second Chronicles. The events at the end of The One Tree and the beginning of White Gold wielder render much of the middle book meaningless. The story as a whole could have been more effectively told as two longer books while not leaving out anything significant to the main plot. I spent much of the sixth book waiting for the fifth book to be endowed with some significance, and it just never came.
Despite it's flaws though, White Gold Wielder is a good read and an acceptable conclusion to the Second Chronicles, even though it falls short of matching the level of the previous trilogy. Viewed for what it is, it's a very good book, but as a fan of the series and the genre, it's hard to overlook what the book is not.

Very Poor Ending to a Very Depressing Series.......2007-07-22

I was really disappointed with this final book of the series for two reasons. First of all this book was really slow. This book was nearly as slow as the first book in the series. I hadn't expected this since the previous book(The One Tree) was pretty fast paced and packed with action. Secondly the ending was really disappointing. Possibly one of the worst endings to a series, I have ever read.

In this book we see the same recurring theme whenever Covenant and Linden have been together. They constantly question their own motives, they question their pasts, they question each other, and they question everyone around them. The difference in this book is that we see it over and over again. Just when it seems that they have finally resolved their issues and we are finally going to be able to move on, the whole cycle starts all over again.........self doubt, doubt of each other, doubt of those around them. This whole tiresome debate really slows this book down. It is like Donaldson needed something to fill the pages before the ending and this was all he could come up with. It is really tiresome to see the same issues debated over and over without ever seeing a solution or resolution.

The ending was a real let down for me. We have had to suffer through 6 books of drudgery, death, and sacrifice where time and again the forces of evil have prevailed and countless noble characters were killed. Now things can finally be made right at the ending of the book, but that is not the ending we get.

WARNING SPOILERS FOLLOW: Instead in the end, Foul lives to rise another day, and two of the three Ravers who have been personally responsible for so much of the death and destruction in the series, walk away with not as much as a hand slap. Linden may have restored the Land, but we never really know if her efforts were effective. Covenant never really learns how to control his power (he just becomes a lightening rod for Foul), Covenant and Linden are separated, and Covenant dies a brutal death. Overall this was a really depressing ending for a very depressing series.

Titanic ending for the second chronicles!.......2006-07-29

Amazing! Absolutely the best book of both trilogies and one of the best of all fantasy literature! With a major change of character for both Thomas Covenant and Linden Avery, the second chronicles go down with a bang...and a cliff-hanger.

After the Starfare's Gem's awful failure at the Island of the One Tree, Linden convinces Covenant to return to the Land and put out the Banefire, the Sunbane's main source of energy. That might even reduce the horrendous power of the Sunbane. After harsh travels back to the Land, the crew finally reaches Revelstone, home of the Clave and the Banefire. There, after a great battle against Gibbon-Raver, Covenant FINALLY knows how to call on, and control, the tremendous power of the white gold. He is truly ready to take on Foul in an ultimate confrontation.

From start to finish, it is nothing short of action and surprises. At the end of White Gold Wielder, you will be shocked...if you read it. I was so ecstatic and heartbroken at the end because of major character changes and redemption. Totally satisfying.

It can't be better.......2005-05-24

Despite the crushing failure at the Isle of the One Tree, Covenant and Linden realize that they have no choice but to go on fighting the nefarious plots of Lord Foul. They decide to return to The Land and attempt to extinguish the Banefire hoping that this will slow the desecration of the Sunbane. The minions of Lord Foul are poised to oppose them every step of the way. They also know that even if they slow down the Sunbane, they still must eventually find a way to stop Lord Foul himself.

Donaldson brings the trilogy to a brilliant conclusion in this volume. Linden finally comes to terms with the "ghosts" of her past and realizes that she is not inherently evil despite having made mistakes in the past. Covenant achieves an inner peace after he finally accepts what he must do to defeat Lord Foul. The triumph of two flawed human beings over the "devil incarnate" provides an interesting premise for Donaldson to explore the frailties of human nature. I finally began to like Covenant in this volume and I actually began to empathize with him. Although we expect Covenant and Linden to win in the end, the ending was inventive and engaging and not at all what I expected.

There is a rumor that Donaldson may write the Third Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. I, for one, am avidly awaiting their publication.

Donaldson Stands Alone.......2005-04-28

And the epic continues. SRD is one of my all-time favorite fantasy writers. It's been awhile since I picked up the First and Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. But these books are so rich in symbolism and meaning. Some people are turned off by the main protagonist dreery and often pessimistic viewpoints. And these books are quite anti-typical and anti-archtypical fantasy, in similar likeness of Martin and Erikson. But Donaldson speaks with a rich prose that ignites off the pages in a similar fashion -yet completely different than that to- of Lovecraft. The Land is a wealth of wonder and awe wreathed in mysticism, myth, and held in otherworldly Laws.Now Donaldson is not for everyone, optimism is not always a focus but seeking solutions, accountability, love, and drama are deeply examined. Never expelled. And some readers are turned off and despise the leper Thomas Covenant because of his actions whom mysteriously arrives at a alternate reality aptly called simply The Land, whether real, imagined, hallucinated, or dreamt is a question that may or may not be answered. His science fiction The Gap series should not be dismissed by serious readers but is even more brutal than TCoTC in regards to portraying the baser nature of human beings in a most graphic sense. It's about the human condition. Except for a couple of events, TCoCT is more filtered in fantasy entrappings but no less diminishing on it's impact on readers. Truly emotionally moving in a high order. Great sci-fi reading, but might be a bit too harsh for new readers introducing themselves to this remarkable writer. These are the books that I read with the same amount of zeal, color, and drama as watching the Original Trilogy of Star Wars as a youngster only deeper. A complex Star Wars series in fantasy trappings. Be warned, this series is not for everyone as I said before. IMO, kicks the tail off Tolkien in-spite the latter's great literary merit and love how it takes many of the master's long established and overused archtypes and sacred literary laws and dumps them on their head, such as one Thomas Covenant that is relunctant, griping, cowardly even, indecisive, discompassionate, selfish, and capable of even heinous crime. And for those that thought they'd been dragged through a wilderness of morass self-pity, remember... Star Wars. IMO, one of the greatest fantasy series ever written and would love to debate or discuss it with anyone. It is a realm where one's choice are held balanced in scales, bearing gravity on one's own or other's futures. Even possibly whole civilizations. A stunning and thoroughly thought provoking and stimulating masterpiece.Love it or hate it, SRD's works have left their mark.There are so many awesome moments in both trilogies. TCoTC is quite biblical in that sense but not expounding age old religious stories and principals and spiritualities of course.These books discombobulates the mind, with the wide range of fluent implications and messages. Allusions are confounding and staggering.Probably my favorite moment, of countless, countless favorite moments is Blood of the Earth piece in The Illearth War:TCoTC Book 2.And..."Covenant! Beloved! Strike a blow for me!" rings in my ears forever.

White Gold Wielder-Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant Book Three

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White Gold Wielder-Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant Book Three

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Book Description

The first book in Kate Elliott's acclaimed Jaran series-the groundbreaking story of a young woman coming of age on an alien planet...and her effect on the human race's survival.

Customer Reviews:

Very, very good! Highly recommended........2004-10-09

Tess, a young woman on her way back to her home planet from university on Earth, accidentally finds herself marooned in the middle of a vast prairie. She had been puzzling over a shuttle that seemed to have horses in it, and sure enough, the horses have been delivered to a tribe of Russian-like nomads on this planet owned by Tess's brother, who had declared the planet off-limits except for limited, incognito exploration. The natives are a primitive, pre-space society, unaware of their origins in the distant solar system.

Tess is not completely helpless. She does speak a language that the natives can understand, but she does undergo great hardships while she tries to adjust to the conditions in which she finds herself. It is, indeed, a society dominated by women, though it feels more as if the usual male dominance is merely absent. The women are presented as all preoccupied with domestic and social matters; it would have been nice to have one of them show some interest in logical, or scientific things. (Okay, there is a woman who is an expert maker of fabric and clothing.)

The personalities are beautifully drawn, their relationships depicted very plausibly. (The various reactions to the personalities and the "plot" seem to reflect Ms Elliott's success in drawing on her readers' experiences of the various types she depicts. To some, the basis of the Slavic culture will be an obstacle, to others, something that enriches the texture.) No prior knowledge of Russian or Slavic culture is needed to enjoy the book; enough is provided to make it all understandable.

The story takes place, as others have reported, in the context of mankind finding itself in the control of an impossibly powerful alien empire, to which --apparently-- mankind is no more than a minor footnote. (But the aliens are humanoid, which makes things very interesting.) The interdicted planet, with its puzzling earth-like natives turns out to have been established in antiquity by the aliens themselves--a "Seeded" planet. No doubt the author would have some day revealed more about these coincidences, but having read only this first book, I'm quite ignorant of the overall logic of the historical background.

Ultimately, my enjoyment of the book was based on the wonderful female characters. They really live and breathe, and you ache to meet them again, when Tess has been away from the tribe. There is plenty of SF-sociology to satisfy the most rabid fan of such things, but not so much as to turn others off. Tess, who is destined to own the planet someday, is close enough to Royalty to please those who like such things, but is level-headed enough not to be too obnoxious. The men are believable (and believable in the context in which they find themselves). I'm very sad to hear that subsequent volumes were less enjoyable; I guess I have to find out for myself!

Arch

Beautiful! (And not "gay" fiction.).......2004-06-30

I picked up Jaran for about 25 cents at a library book sale, and I've never looked back. This was my first introduction to Kate Elliott's writing, and since then I've enjoyed the rest of the Jaran books and her Crown of Stars series (I'm anxiously awaiting the arrival of the sixth book, and hoping for more on the growing romance between Ivar and Baldwin). I've since read my copy of Jaran into the ground, and have to replace it because the spine is broken in numerous places and the pages are beginning to fall out. What higher praise can there be, for an author, than to have a devoted reader replace a copy of a beloved novel instead of ending the relationship?

That being said, I will try not to spoil anything. Jaran is not a fantasy book. There is no magic here, no wands or sourcery or incantations. It is pure science fiction, but without the monotonous and cliché use of outer space and starships as a setting. Rather, it is set on a "primitive" planet, where technology is sorely behind the times and the major cultural center surrounds a university. Tribes of Jaran roam the plains, and the Jahar, bands of Jaran warriors, war and explore in their beloved home. They've their own laws, myths, songs and stories, and ways of life, entirely different from those in more developed regions. Though the Jaran come from regions that are not technologically developed, they are still extremely intelligent. Definitely not the "brutes of the north" that some writers are so fond of! The book occasionally switches locations, focusing briefly on Tess' brother, the Duke, but this simply offers a bit of insight into why Tess does some of the things she does. It also offers characters a reason to appear later, so they don't simply drop out of nowhere with no readily apparent reason for their appearance.

Romance is at the heart of Jaran, where the intelligent, confident, university-educated leader of a Jaran tribe (Ilyakoria Bahktiian) meets the heir of a planetary Dukedom (Tess Sorensen). However, the story is not about them alone, and the plot is supported by a host of interesting and well-developed supporting characters (Yuri, Kirill, and Nikolai, to name but a scant few). Traveling is not done in a haphazard way, but to seamlessly advance the plot. Each move has a point, and is not done simply to get characters from one place to another without explanation. There are no characters that are granted immunity, either. Many get injured, and friends, foes and family alike are all subject to death. Dialogue is executed very well, too, at times touching, at times witty, at times passionate and at others downright hilarious. Like the Jaran themselves, it varies with the moods of the speakers and the situations.

Elliott's writing is absolutely superb, and of a quality that one rarely finds anymore. It's the writing of someone who takes her time, not someone who churns out book after book in order to satisfy the demands of publishers for more money and the public for more books. Settings are beautifully described, and the characters are developed very well. Not only are they remarkable to begin with, they grow as the story progresses. Though other books follow it, Jaran can easily stand on its own as a remarkable work.

Several reviewers have said that this is a "gay book," or that Ms. Elliott has an "obsession with gay themes." This is not true. While homosexual attractions are included as a very minor part of her Crown of Stars series, they are not the focus of it. The same is true for Jaran. Yes, there *is* a tribe of gay men, who have forsaken their tribes and people because they do not conform to the idea of getting married to women and having children. Yes, they would far rather sleep with each other. Yes, their leader is in love with Bahktiian. But this does *not* make Jaran a gay story! Again, that group of people who are different merely serves to enrich the world (and in a romance, the presence of gay characters is rare indeed... such tales usually revolve around heterosexual ideals alone). Do not let the label of "gay fiction" given to this work by some deter you from reading an amazing story. Even if you are uncomfortable with homosexuality, you won't mind this. There are no graphic sexual descriptions, or depictions of men kissing or touching other men sexually. It's simply an interesting little plot twist, not a major storyline. (I would not, however, object if Ms. Elliott wished to write a Jaran installment about the gay tribe in particular. I *adore* gay sci-fi and fantasy, thank you very much, and I only wish that there were more of it! If Ms. Elliott happens to find this, I register a plea: more Ivar and Baldwin! I was most engrossed and appreciative, and hope to see more.)

Simply put, Jaran is a wonderful sci-fi romance. It will make you laugh, it will make you cry, and it will undoubtedly leave you changed, even if only a little bit. *This* is high sci-fi, what every author should strive for: a unique world, well-developed and unique characters, and such wonder that readers will gladly return to the realm of the Jaran time and time again.

WOW!!!!!!!!!.......2004-03-24

I LOVE THIS SERIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Jaran has got to be one of the best books i've ever read. With this new trend towards making sci fi movies I think jaran should be considered!! I really love this book!! You get so attached to the characters and really feel for them. Ilya and Tess are such a great couple! Let me warn you now, unless you have the time and money to go out and buy the other three books in the series, refrane from reading until you have more time. I got so envolved with the series that I ended reading them all in a week!!! O and to warn you now there is a HUGE clifhanger at the end of book two! ENJOY!!!!!!!!!!!

Out of the frying pan into the fire.......2003-10-21

Kate Elliott caught my attention the first page of her first book with the classic story of a run away. She explains the reasons why, and not just what happened. She writes about her character's emotions, education, life, and romances. And why the person is running away and all the many mixed and changing emotions.
Elliott begins with the character of Teress Sorenson (Tess), who is running away from her responsibilities as an heir to the Dukedom of a chain of planets including Earth. And as she is traveling on a Kepellii ship to an interdicted planet (a planet that is still primitive and no technologies are aloud on it) were she got lost on it and the ship left her there with no modern tech and in the middle of a plane. She was then found by a tribe of Jaran who "adopted" her and took her in. The Jahar (a group of male Jaran warriors) went on a trip and she demanded go with them. They traveled to the shrine Morvia and then left to recruit all the different tribes of the Jaran to go against the Kaja King in the first and last strike to defend the Jaran way of life.

why buy it when the series has never ended?.......2003-09-11

I read this book the first year it was published. It was great. I wanted more and read the following books but guess what? Kate Elliott has NEVER finished or wrapped up this series and I highly doubt that she will. Not only does she NOT wrap up the series, but she turns against the main hero in this book and makes him a laughingstock in following stories.

I found it ludricrous that the publisher came out with an Anniversary Edition celebrating a book that was never completed!!

All this book will do - in the long run - is disappoint and sadden you. Although this story ends, it teases you into a series that has no conclusive ending. The hero becomes the village idiot, and Kate Elliott is off writing a completely different series! Golly, I guess the publishing world can't get enough of the fantasy series that never ends.

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David Livingstone, The Truth Behind the Legend
Rob Mackenzie
Manufacturer: Fig Tree Publ
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000JWHZQQ

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