Book Description
Barcelona, 1945—A great world city lies shrouded in secrets after the war, and a boy mourning the loss of his mother finds solace in his love for an extraordinary book called The Shadow of the Wind, by an author named Julian Carax. When the boy searches for Carax's other books, it begins to dawn on him, to his horror, that someone has been systematically destroying every copy of every book the man has ever written. Soon the boy realizes that The Shadow of the Wind is as dangerous to own as it is impossible to forget, for the mystery of its author's identity holds the key to an epic story of murder, madness, and doomed love that someone will go to any lengths to keep secret.
Customer Reviews:
Engaging story, told well.......2007-10-10
I wasn't looking for deep thoughts, but for entertainment. This book delivers, an engaging tale spiced with hidden family histories, dark secrets, and a tragic hero. It finishes on an overly melodramatic note, building up to more of a climax and confrontation than was necessary. I'd deduct half a star, but not a whole one.
Shamelessly indulgent........2007-10-07
My sister strongly recommended this book when I was visiting her this year. So I picked it up when I saw it being sold at train stations and airports all over Europe.
First, I have to say that this was a nearly compulsively pleasant read. The literary equivalent of a hot bath and a glass of red wine. The Shadow of the Wind is a coming of age story with mildly supernatural/mysterious overtones with a strong theme of books and book lovers. In order to ensure that his readers are completely blissed out, Zafon includes romance, gothic family histories and political corruption. There is even a mysterious stranger with a hidden face who may or may not be the devil. Think Anne Rice in some of her better moments, and you'll get the idea.
The Shadow of the Wind is a reader's guilty pleasure. It harks pleasantly back to another time. It is evocative. It keeps the pages turning.
Sadly, it does not deliver on its promise. That is almost inevitable, given how many doors it opens and how many different themes Zafon tries to keep in the air. There are a few too many implausible ways that the loose ends are tied up in the last third of the book. The resolution is not really as satisfying as I had hoped. The flaws keep The Shadow of the Wind from being a really high quality novel, even though they do not really detract from the entertainment value.
In a way, the failure of the end is caused by the magnificent success of the beginning. The first half of the novel was always going to be a hard act to follow. Still, I would more than recommend it for readers willing to take it for what it is-- great entertainment value.
A good, moving story.......2007-10-03
The protagonist, Daniel Sempere is the son of a bookstore-keeper. At the age of 10, he finds a rare book by one Julian Carax in the "Cemetery of Forgotten Books". After finishing it, he finds out that there's someone who is trying to destroy all existing copies of Carax's books. This is how begins a complex plot that lasts about 10 years, and involves lots of mysteries and original characters.
"Original" is a good summary of this book. On one hand a typical thriller, but on the other hand not quite. There is something special about this book, about the way it is written. It's not a deliberate page-turner like many modern fiction novels aspire to be, although it could be, since it's obvious from the start that the author has the skill to make it so. Instead, its plot unfolds in a more relaxed tempo, spanning over a longer period of time.
There are many exciting characters in this book - like Fermin. This guy made me laugh quite a lot, he's a hysterically funny guy. Inspector Fumero is also a very unusual and interesting character, in his own wicked way. Another character is probably the city of Barcelona, where all the plot takes place and that's described beautifully.
I like books about books, so "The Shadow of the Wind" was a delight in this aspect. Additionally, I felt there's a certain closed loop in it - the enigmatic resemblance of Carax's and Sempere's lives. The difference is that Carax's life turned extremely tragically, while Sempere's ended well. There's a strange kind of emotionality hidden in this concept, and I found it very moving.
To conclude, this is a very good book. I can't say it's perfect - the author seems a bit inexperienced and there are some omissions and inconsistencies. However, in the whole, I loved reading it and hence recommend it.
A real page-turner.......2007-09-30
This book is CRAZY! It has absolutely everything: love, murder, betrayal, incest, and more! "The Shadow of the Wind" is set in post-war Barcelona in the year 1945. Daniel, a young boy, accompanies his father to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books one evening and finds a book written by Julian Carax. After reading the book, Daniel is so engrossed that he attempts to locate other books by the same author, but cannot find any. However, he does discover stories about a mysterious man named Lain Coubert, which is the same name Carax uses for the character of the devil in one of his novels. Lain Coubert has spent years tracking down copes of Carax's books and setting fire to them. In time, Daniel comes face to face with Lain Coubert, and Daniel soon finds himself immersed in a story that began many years ago and may very well threaten his own life.
This is a truly excellent book that has the makings of a great gothic novel. It took me a long time to finish reading it because there are so many characters and plot twists to keep track of, but the intriguing story was well worth the effort I put into it. I couldn't put this book down. I highly recommend it.
For Every BOOK Lover..........2007-09-26
Whenever I read a book I underline key phrases or words that impact me in some way or another. During my recent flight from NYC to Los Angeles I finished a fabulous epic novel by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. In July, I was vacationing on the Carribean Island of Anguilla and I came across the book inside a basket in the living area of the Cove Castles restort. I started thumbing through the pages and thought it might be something I'd like to read. I was attracted by the fact that it was an epic Gothic-type novel that had spent two years on SPAIN's best-seller list. In the early pages a critic wrote that like A.S. Byatt's POSSESSION it is an ultimate love letter to literature. I found that to be true. The more lines I underline will determine the goodness of the book (for me). And so, I now share with you to decide.
Here are the fabulous LINES in the book that captured me:
"Some things can only be seen in the shadows."
Few things leave a deeper mark on a reader than the first book that finds its way into his heart.
A secret's worth depends on the people from whom it must be kept.
...frilly words.
Nations never see themselves clearly in the mirror, much less when war preys on their minds.
I bought the book on a whim. The title seemed suggestive.
That book taught me that by reading, I could live more intensely.
I wondered what on earth she saw in me that could make her want to befriend me, other than a pale reflection of herself, an echo of solitude and loss.
To truly hate is an art one learns with time.
His favorite language was money, the rest was neither here nor there.
"Age--the price we all must pay."
People tend to complicate their own lives, as if living weren't complicated enough.
"Presents are made for the pleasure of who gives them, not for the merits of who receives them."
If you ever have a daughter--a blessing I wouldn't wish on anywone, because it's Murphy's Law that sooner or later she will break your heart--if you ever have a daughter, you'll begin without realizing it, to divide men into to camps: those you suspect are sleeping with her and those you don't.
"Nobody knows much about women, not even Freud, not even women themselves. But it's like electricity: you don't have to know how it works to get a shock on the fingers."
Cinemas are full of lonely people, I thought. Like me.
Disamred, I realized how easily you can lose all animosity toward someone you've deemed your enemy as soon as that person stops behaving as such.
I slipped on my trademark angelic smile.
I can assure you without a shadow of doubt that the girl was no apparition. I could even describe her smell. Lavender, only sweeter. Like a little sugar bun just out of the oven.
Real women are won over bit by bit. It's all a question of psychology.
The female heats up like an iron. Slowly, over a low heat, like a tasty stew. But then, once she has heated up, there's no stopping her.
If you really want to possess a woman (or man), you must think like her (or him), and the first thing to do is win over her (his) soul. The rest...is a bonus.
If you want problems, you'll get them. Life isn't like novels, you know. In Life you have to take sides.
To go in pursuit of your dreams...
All I wish is for you to be happy...that everything you aspire to achieve may come true.
At the bottom of the cupboard, I kept an old tin cookie box, a treasure chest of sorts. There I stored a menagerie of useless bits of junk that I couldn't bring myself to throw away: watches, and fountain pens damaged beyond repair, old coins, marbles, wartime bullet cases I'd found in the park, and fading postcards.
...hit songs by the celebrated crooner Antonio Machin.
The leopard cannot change his spots.
If a fly finds its way into his shop, he'll open the door and windows wide so that the insect, one of God's creatures, is swept back by the draft into the ecosystem.
The trouble is, there are some low moments, and when those strike close to home everything looks blacker.
The only card I could play was to tell the truth.
He would stare at you without saying a word, and you wouldn't know what he was thinking, and so, like an idiot, you'd tell him things it would have been better to keep to yourself.
He gave the impression that he was one of those people who cannot be happy anywhere.
He was a very private person, and sometimes it seemed to me that he was no longer interested in the world or in people.
He was living in the past, lockied in his memories. He lived within himself, for his books and inside them--a comfortable prison of his own design.
Time is a great healer.
His soul is in his stories.
"We exist as long as somebody remembers us."
"Someone once said that the moment you stop to think about whether you love someone, you've already stopped loving that person forever."
"Don't be offended, but sometimes one feels freer speaking to a stranger that to people one knows. Why is that?"
I shrugged, "Probably because a stranger sees us the way we are, not as he wishes to think we are."
"And how do you see me?"
"Like a mystery."
At last I managed to retrace my steps within the tangle of corridors and tunnels until I entered a narrow passage that felt like a gangway stretching out into the gloom.
"You can see a mile off that she's worth a million bucks, but the crux of the matter is this:
is she the sort who makes one fall in love or the sort who merely stirs up the lower parts?"
In good time you'll see that sometimes what matters isn't what one gives but what one gives up.
Only three or four things are worth living for; the rest is manure.
Love is a lot like pork: there's loin steak and there's bologna. Each has its own place and function.
Money is like any other virus: once it has rotted the soul of the person who houses it, it sets off in search of new blood. In this world a surname is less lasting than a sugared almond.
Like old cities, Barcelona is a sum of its ruins. The great glories so many people are proud of--palaces, factories, monuments, the emblems with which we identify--are nothing more than relics of an extinguished civilization.
Greed will corrupt us all in the end.
Books are mirrors: you only see in them what you already have inside you.
Few things are more deceptive than memories.
"The fragrances of the eternal feminine no longer overpowers me the way it mesmerizes you. At my age the flow of blood to the brain has precedence over that which flows to my loins."
"People who have no life always have to stick thier nose in the life of others."
"Life flies by, especially the bit that's worth living."
I imagined she was thinking that I was dying of curiosity and impatience, so I decided to adopt a nonchalant air, making it very clear that if she wanted to play mystery games with me, she had every chance of losing.
"I believe that nothing happens by chance. Deep down, things have their secret plan, even thought we don't understand it....It's all part of someting we cannot comprehend, something that owns us."
"And keep your dreams," said Miguel, "You never know when you might need them."
Some of us suffer from an excess of juvenile ardor and a lack of strategic grasp of the situation.
Death makes evryone feel sentimental. When we stand in front of a coffin, we all see only what is good or what we want to see.
When everyone is determined to present someone as a monster, there are two possibilities: either he's a saint or they themselves are not telling the whole story.
Never trust he who trusts everyone.
When you're eighteen, in the absence of subtlety and greater experience, an old bathroom can seem like paradise.
Have you ever covered a woman (or man) with oil, from head to toe, completely and meticulously?
Contrary to what you firmly believe, the earth does not revolve around the desires of your crotch. Other factors influence the evolution of mankind.
It is one thing to believe in women, and another to believe in what they say.
There are people you remember and people you dream of.
There was another silence, of the kind in which gray hairs seem to creep up on you.
I tried to conjure up the words I wanted to offer...but I was incapable of writing or feeling.
"We all do what we're best at."
"...what is really killing him is loneliness. Memories are worse than bullets."
Time goes faster the more hallow it is. Lives with no meaning go straight past you, like trains that don't stop at your station.
A story is a letter the author writes to himself, to tell himself things that he would be unable to discover otherwise.
He was learning to see the world again through your eyes, to recover the boy he had once been.
So long as we are being remembered, we remain alive.
He's not a bad person. We all love in our own way.
We're all whores sooner or later.
All that remains in my memory is the touch of her lips...
I often catch her marooned in one of her silences, alone with herself.
She still sees her old music teacher whose symphony is still unfinished and who, it seems, has made a career as a gigolo among the ladies, where his bedroom acrobatics have earned him the nickname "The Magic Flute".
Father and son disappear into the crowd, their steps lost forever in the shadow of the wind.
Customer Reviews:
Un libro exquisito, inusual y adictivo.......2007-08-26
Hace mucho que no leia un libro que me atrapase de esta manera. Lei La sombra del viento en 4 dias, aun cuando ya me caia de suenio. Este libro tiene la frescura de los libros de Laura Restrepo y un toque de Alfred Hickok.Es imperdible!
Simplemente maravilloso..........2007-08-19
Cuando empece a leer tenia grandes espectativas sobre este libro y me complace poder afirmar que no me decepcionó en lo absoluto.
La Sombra de Viento es una novela donde el misterio y el amor se entrelazan magistralmente en una serie de historias que te haran sentir que realmente te encuetras junto a Daniel y Fermin recorriendo las calles de la Barcelona de mediados del siglo XX, tratando de decifrar el misterio alrededor de ese libro titulado "La Sombra del Viento".
Si quieres tener una lectura que te atrape entre sus páginas debes leer este libro, créeme será todo un viaje...
La sombra del viento.......2007-07-27
Lei este libro por casualidad. Estaba conversando sobre libros con una nueva amiga y ella me comento que habia dos libros que ella atesoraba especialmente, y La sombra del viento es uno de ellos. Lo lei en castellano y me encanto, es un libro que devuelve al lector la maravilla de la lectura, es historico, romantico, semi thriller, escrito con ganas! He leido muchos libros en mi vida pero este esta entre mis favoritos dentro de este genero. 100% recomendado especialmente si se quiere motivar a alguien a que entre en el mundo magico de los libros. Llore, rei y una sonrisa me aparecio en la cara durante y despues de la lectura. Que lo disfruten! Por cierto, me acabo de comprar la version en ingles para echarle un vistazo y ver que tal.
Infantilising pap.......2007-07-13
This is the emperor's new clothers of recent book successes. Its appeal is the same lazy, infantilising escapism that has driven many adults to reading trash like Harry Potter with herd-like conformism. The writing is stale, even when describing the drearily fantastical, and shows a Disneyfied Barcelona akin to the London of Mary Poppins. My toes curl when I hear intelligent people gush praise over this schlock.
Of course, as with all negative reviews on Amazon, this one will be judged "unhelpful" by those wishing to confirm their conformist hunch. But I hope a few among you won't waste your precious life with this cartoonish pap when the masterpieces of the Spanish-language canon sit unopened on your shelves, or are just a click away on Amazon.
The Shadow of the Wind.......2007-04-21
I read it both in Spanish (original language) and English (translation) and in both forms this novel is exquisite, unusual and captivating. It is a very rare form of the "love story" theme.
Customer Reviews:
THE SHADOW OF THE WIND.......2006-11-10
THIS WORK OF FICTION WAS CAPTIVATING. IT WILL KEEP YOUR INTEREST FROM THE VERY BEGINNING AND YOU WILL NOT WANT IT TO END. THE AUDIO VERSION WAS NICELY DONE. I ALWAYS ENJOY WHEN THE CHARACTERS COME ALIVE THROUGH THE NARRATOR. I WOULD RECOMMEND HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS BOOK.
Book Description
A powerful and vivid account of Vietnam, one of the most beautiful, ravaged, and misunderstood countries in the world
In Shadows and Wind, Robert Templer paints a fascinating and fresh picture of a country usually viewed with hazy nostalgia or deep suspicion. Here is Hanoi, an increasingly tense and troubled city approaching its millennium but uncertain of its direction. Here are people emerging from a long wilderness of malnutrition, discovering a new lifestyle of leisure and luxury. And everywhere are the anomalies that burst the bubble of optimism: a vastly expensive luxury hotel sitting empty in an unknown town six hours from an international airport; museums crammed with fake exhibits. And there remains the one-party Communist state, still wrapped in secrecy and corruption, and making for an uneasy bedfellow with the rapacious capitalism it now encourages.
Drawing on hundreds of interviews in Vietnam and years of research, Robert Templer has produced the first in-depth examination of the problems facing modern Vietnam. Shadows and Wind is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the Vietnam that now has emerged from a century of conflict with both foreign powers and with itself.
"Groundbreaking. . . . In a convincing blend of colorful reportage and trenchant analysis, Robert Templer blows away the myths that have misinformed the world about this deeply troubled country."--Jeremy Grant, The Financial Times
"A meticulous and fascinating investigation.. . . For anyone interested in the real legacy of the Vietnam War, this book should be compulsory reading." --The Guardian
Customer Reviews:
Contemporary Look At Vietnam.......2005-04-11
While in Vietnam I picked up an interesting book about contemporary Vietnam called Shadows and Wind by Robert Templer. Anyway, after my first trip to Vietnam I read Stanley Karnow's excellent history, Vietnam, which focuses on the cuses of the war and the aftermath and I felt this might be a follow up of sorts, picking up where Karnow left off. It's not as contemporary as I'd like-it was published in 1998, but the author has interesting insights to make about the myth of Vietnam, the culture, the generation gap, food, politics, Viet Kieu (exiled or refugee Vietnamese), religion, and everyday life. Albeit the chapters on politics were long and difficult to get through-they came in the middle of the book, which seemed to slow me in my progress. However, I found the opening and closing chapters the most interesting and informative about contemporary Vietnamese society and from what I saw on my last trip to Hanoi-it is still fairly accurate. The Vietnamese are slowing making their way to the usual global consumerism with their pursuit of Honda Dream motorcycles, cell phones, and other consumer goods, but the governement has kept economic expansion moving at a trickle compared to other countries. More than half of the population was born after the war and no one ever gave me grief because I was an American. It'll be interesting to see whether or not Vietnam develops an economic model like China.
One of Two Great books on Vietnam!.......2004-09-08
I read this book because it was recommended in the back of my favorite book on Vietnam: The Bamboo Chest: An Adventure in Healing the Trauma of War
After reading this book I can understand why Mr. Graham recommended it in his book The Bamboo Chest, and why there are so many who've read both The Bamboo Chest: An Adventure in Healing the Trauma of War and Shadows And Wind and consider them the two best books on Vietnam in recent years. As a Vietnamese-American I can definitely attest to the both authors' understanding of the topic of Vietnam: one author gained his through living and reporting on Vietnam for three years, and the other through living in Vietnam during the worst years of the War, and spending eleven months in a re-education camp, just like my uncle!
Get The Bamboo Chest and Shadows and Wind and you'll have a complete understanding of Vietnam and its people!
Get the facts behind the headlines!.......2004-09-07
This book and memoir "The Bamboo Chest: An Adventure in Healing the Trauma of War" by Frederick "Cork Graham are the best books on Vietnam that my reading club and I have read in the last ten years. Both of them stories that have never been told by any other writers who appear only to be regurgitating the findings of previous writers many of them long since dead. If you really want to know what is behind the veil of secrecy in Vietnam then these "Shadows and Wind" and "The Bamboo Chest" are the books for you! Both are written by authors who spent more than a year in Vietnam. Graham spent eleven months as the first american political prisoner held in that country since the end of outright fighting.
Wonderful book.......2004-04-11
A truly wonderful book. Templer writes with beautiful flowing prose, expressing complex ideas and thoughts in an enjoyable and easy to understand manner. Thoroughly researched, this well-organized book provides some essential history and how the history relates to the modern society, then covers all of the main issues of Vietnamese culture and society - including hunger, writing, AIDS, youth, and corrruption - bringing a picture to life of an often confusing and stereotyped land. I learned a tremendous amount from this book. Many of my pre-impressions and stereotypes were wiped away and I finished with more questions, more curiousity, and more understanding about this country that I expected. Highly recommended.
A windbag errant.......2003-10-27
Persuasive only to the unknowledgeable reader this is journalism at its slippery worst. Close examination of the references shows many inaccuracies which make even a junior scholar of Vietnam cringe.It is clear that Mr Templer has no real knowledge of the Vietnamese language and his social and political commentrary is very much a scissors and paste selection from various news agencies. Even more disappointing is his obvious bias which seems to have been the result of perceived attacks on his personal vanity. He is far from a dispassionate observer and this book will only reinforce the prejudices of readers who are parti pris. One is saddened to think that the naive should be so easily drawn to such self-opinionated stuff, when there are books like Neil Jamieson's "Understanding Vietnam" available.
Book Description
Self-Growth
Customer Reviews:
A book to savor.......2005-01-01
Diane Wind Wardell brings us a glowing picture of Janet Mentgen, who developed and teaches Healing Touch (HT), and established the Healing Touch International organization. Many nurses and other caregivers are using HT, which includes a variety of interventions in addition to hand and distant healing.
At the same time, this book is a marvelously detailed journal of the development of Wardell as a healer and HT teacher.
This is the sort of book one likes to dip into, ponder its lessons, and return to savor again and to chew on. The lack of index and references will hinder such deeper study.
Substance and process.......2004-04-19
This is an experiential tale of being the "sorcerer's apprentice" written in a stream of consciousness style which envelops the reader in a sense of the experience of the healing touch training.
A Fine Piece of Art on Healing.......2001-03-08
Combining her poetic and clinical writing style, Diane Wardell has captured the essence of multi-dimensional healing found within the Healing Touch certification program. Wardell is both courageous and strong as she teaches and inspires while telling the story of Healing Touch and its founder, Janet Mentgen. Wardell's sensitivity and at times personal journey vulnerabilities guide the reader through the essence of healing in its purest and truest form of a compassionate mother teaching her child about life and its challenges. I applaud the author for the courage to open herself up to the world and especially her world, the medical community. White Shadow is the first book I would recommend for anyone who is called to hands-on healing arts. It contains a wealth of knowledge and wisdom for Healing Touch practitioners as well, in training and certified. On a final note, I find White Shadow provides a spiritual framework of unity to those of us within the Healing Touch community but also touches all of us as healers around the world in a way which far exceeds our peer relationships and professional training.
Healing Touch.......2001-02-21
Diane Wardell has written a very moving account of her mentor and her own life changing experiences. In White Shadow Ms. Wardell has given us a wonderful insight into the art of healing touch and the lives of those who are dedicated to its practice. While the book is directed towards health professionals and those who strive to acquire the ancient skill it is also enlightening to anyone who wishes to learn more about healing touch. White Shadow is a very personal account of the people involved in bringing this art into modern times and western medicine. I was very taken up by this story, educated, and touched. Wardell has given us an opportunity to see how an individual can awaken the healing abilities that lie within us all. I recommend it to anyone who is interested in personal and world wide healing.
Book Description
At Santa Fe, the musty pomp of fading Spain mingled with the acrid smell and gusty language of buffalo hunters, gringo traders, gamblers, elegant cabelleros, and crooked politicians plundering the new nation. It was a time when all lived dangerously, and Dona Tules Barcel more dangerously than all.
Her whole life had been tumultuous. As a child she had known cold and hunger and witnessed the terror of Navaho raids. She dreamed of fine clothes and a rich marriage but realized the bitter hopelessness of the poor. She fell in love with a handsome stranger who snatched her away to the sinister excitement of a mountain gold camp. But here again terror and death touched her and she fled to Santa Fe where she became a market vendor and traded her favors to soldiers and politicians.
But when a blue-eyed Yankee gave her a gold friendship ring, her luck began to turn and Dona Tules began her role as a notorious gambling queen. She became the governor's mistress and a power in the town where she once had been despised. Her gambling sala in Santa Fe was the rendezvous where conflicting forces of customs and traditions, old and new ideas challenged each other. THE WIND LEAVES NO SHADOW is a powerful story of love, hate, and jealousy, told against the authentic background of a growing, vigorous America.
Customer Reviews:
Fourth in an unusual fantasy quintet.......2006-12-10
This is the fourth volumes in a group of five books. Sharon Green initially started with the intention of writing two individual novels, but the tale grew in the writing into an unusual double trilogy.
Green herself described it in the afterword to the final book as an "odd series" organised into "two crossed trilogies in the form of an X."
One trilogy tells the story of the sorceress Chalaine and the sorcerer-prince Bariden. That trilogy starts with "The Hidden Realms", shares the middle book "Dark Mirror, Dark Dreams" with the other trilogy, and is concluded in the final book of the quintet, the appropriately named "Game's End.
However, "Silver Princess, Golden Knight," kicks off another trilogy within the same broader canvass, telling the story of Princess Alexia and the mercenary captain Tiran d'Iste, both of whom are shapeshifters. Their adventure, which includes both a romance and a quest for a kingdom, starts here, and continues as the two stories come together in "Dark Mirror, Dark Dreams", which is the middle book of both trilogies. The story of Alexia and Tiran is sort-of concluded in this book, "Wind Whispers, Shadow Shouts". The double titles denote this second trilogy.
The reason I say "sort-of-concluded" and the reason I describe this as the fourth volume rather than one of two ending stories, is that you are told at the very end that the result of Alexia and Tiran's story might be completely overturned if the final battle fought by Chalaine and Bariden goes the other way - so you have to read "Game's End" to see whether it does.
The linkages between the two stories are clearest in the middle book, where all four characters work together, and at the conclusion of "Dark Mirror, Dark Dreams" each of the two couples become the rightful King and Queen of their own Kingdom. In the final two books, each couple has to defend their newly-gained realm and people against attack by powerful evil from beyond the worlds.
If you are going to read this series, it helps to read each trilogy in order and to read "Game's End" last. Hence the sequence is
1) and 2) "The Hidden Realms" & "Silver Princess, Golden Knight"
(Either can be read first)
3) "Dark Mirror, Dark Dreams"
4) "Wind Whispers, Shadow Shouts"
5) "Game's End"
This quintet of fantasy novels, written between 1993 and 1996, is rather more mainstream than some of the author's earlier works. Sharon Green has put a lot of effort into creating the personalities and magic powers of the heroes and heroines, and some of the other major characters. The plots - in both senses of the word - are also quite intricate.
Rather less effort appears to have been put into creating the worlds where the stories take place, the minor characters or most of the villains, who tend to be fairly two-dimensional and thinly sketched out - to such an extent that many of the places in the stories and many of the characters do not even have names. In places there is good use of humour but there could be rather more.
Overall as fantasy novels go this is average, by which I do not mean to damn the book with faint praise. It's not the best fantasy story you will ever come accross, but it's not the worst either.
The main thing going for this series is that it is such an unusual way to build a story as to make it interesting to see how Sharon Green put it together.
good but...........1999-11-23
this was an interesting read. If you like a good storyline and well developed charecters then you'll like this one. but you MUST start at the begining of the series or you'll be beyond confused. Sometimes it was hard to keep up with the charecters thinking- they are suppossed to be these super smart people but for the rest of us it should have been spelled out a little more.
Average customer rating:
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Freedom's Shadow (Winds of Freedom, Book 2)
Marlo Schalesky
Manufacturer: Crossway Books
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Only the Wind Remembers
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Cry Freedom (Winds of Freedom, Book 1)
ASIN: 1581342667 |
Book Description
Three lives each chained to the past. Three souls searching for the elusive shadow of freedom.
Leaving his tribe behind, White Wolf finds himself in the midst of a war that echoes the indecision fighting within his own heart. Let go of the anger and fear that are his strength or remain imprisoned by the painful memories? It is a pilgrimage that will take him far from home, but back to his heritage.
As war blazes on American soil, frontiersman Jonathan Grant returns to England to face his own past. There his new faith will be tested to the point of death--and he must decide whether to let his old ways and prejudices bind him again or to walk in the light that will release him.
Driven by revenge, headstrong Annie Hill wants nothing more than to retaliate against the Indians for what they've taken from her. But how far will she go before realizing that vengeance only tightens the shackles on her heart?
They are three souls whose paths will cross as they each try to run from the past.
Three struggles leading to one truth: that only forgiveness will set them free.
Average customer rating:
- Wonderful addition to a wonderful series!
- Interesting Addition to Series
- Multi-layered plot
- I love reading about the Wind River Reservation
- absorbing and interesting mystery
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The Shadow Dancer (Platinum)
Margaret Coel
Manufacturer: Center Point Large Print
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 1585472840 |
Book Description
Margaret Coel's mysteries, set on the Wind River Reservation, have been acclaimed by Tony Hillerman, who called her "a master." Now she presents her newest and most engrossing tale.
James Sherwood, aka "Orlando," has resurrected the old Shadow Dance religion, having his followers dance for days at a time for the promise of an Indian paradise. For Orlando and his followers, nothing must delay the coming of the New World-not even the investigation of Ben Holden's death. Arapaho attorney Vicky Holden and her friend, Father John O'Malley, believe that Orlando has more to do with it than he lets on. But to get the proof they need, they will have to learn his dance.
Customer Reviews:
Wonderful addition to a wonderful series!.......2007-07-04
Margaret Coel's Father John O'Malley series is a winner. It's nice mixture of modern-day life with a solid background in Native American history. In this book Ms. Coel highlights shadow dancing which is an ancient Indian custom. A modern-day cult leader has gathered a bunch of young, idealistic natives together to practice this ancient art as well as to prepare for the end of this present world and the beginning of another that will place the Indian at the top of society. But people are killed, and one of them is Vicky's ex-husband Ben Holden. As Vicky tries to clear her name in Ben's murder she uncovers a plot that will destroy the Wind River Reservation. These books are great. The characters are believable, and Father John is one of most real sleuths out there today. I highly recommend this series, but suggest that it should be read in sequence.
Interesting Addition to Series.......2004-09-11
I really enjoy this series of books set on the Wind River Reservation. When I first started this one, though, I was a little disappointed because it sounded like it was just rehashing all the same plot points from previous books - Father John and Vicky pining for each other, Ben Holden demanding that Vicky return to their marriage, a new assistant for Father John, and his superior's threatening Father John with the closing of the mission.
However, as soon as the stage was set with these events, things irrevocably changed. I found this mystery very intriguing and am anxious to see where the author takes things from here.
Multi-layered plot.......2004-01-06
This is one of the best books in an excellent series. Margaret Coel spins a multi-layered plot which begins when Arapaho attorney Vicky Holden returns to her home at the Wind River Reservation after going to Denver to try to sort out her relationship with the reservation's priest, Father John. Her ex-husband, Ben, talks her into meeting him for lunch but their conversation ends in a bitter argument. When Ben is found dead, Vicky becomes a major suspect. Meanwhile Father John is dealing with the disappearance of a young Indian named Dean Little Horse and an Indian cult whose shadow dancers are twisting some of the early Arapaho religious practices. Added to this, Vicky is working on water rights for the Indians and Father John is battling his superiors who want to close the mission where he is the priest. Mix these elements together and you have an enjoyable reading experience with well-drawn characters and the beautiful Wyoming reservation as a background.
I love reading about the Wind River Reservation.......2003-09-15
Margaret Coel has a rich sense of place and describes the Arapaho/Shoshone reservation so well you can imagine you've been there many times -- and it is for this and her description of reservation life that I read her books so eagerly.
This was a pretty good mystery, involving Jesuit priest/detective John O'Malley and his Arapaho lawyer friend Vicki Holden. Vicki's ex-husband is found shot to death, and since they had just had a very public fight in a restaurant (and they are well known to have had a very difficult marriage), she is the obvious suspect. Even her own children suspect her. She must find the real killer or killers to avoid getting charged (and probably convicted) of this murder. Her only lead is a fight her ex told her about at dinner -- with two Lakota Indians who had been working for him. She must find them and discover what the fight was about, since they are obvious suspects. She believes they are hiding out at a ranch that holds an apocalyptic cult, but the cult is very secretive and locating these two men proves difficult and dangerous. John O'Malley gets involved, trying to keep Vicki from harm. He is also looking for someone -- an Arapaho man who has disappeared. Of course there is a connection between the death of ex-husband Ben Holden and the disappearance of this other man, but that connection is only uncovered late in the story.
My only complaint -- and I think Coel is figuring out this can't continue -- is the pointlessness of Vicki and John pining quietly for each other, knowing that nothing but a friendship can result. The "romance" between the two is an annoyance. I keep wanting to tell VIcki to find someone who is actually available (unlike this priest). This book suggests that Coel may be moving in that direction.
absorbing and interesting mystery.......2002-09-08
It has been four months since lawyer Vicky Holden left her high-powered job in a high profile legal firm to return home to the Wind River Reservation. She finally agrees to face her abusive ex-husband Ben at a local restaurant but they aren't together a few minutes before he loses his temper, makes a scene, and walks out.
A mortified Vicky departs from her public humiliation not long after the incident occurred only to later learn that Ben was murdered. The local FBI agent knows that Vicki had motive and opportunity, but no alibi. The gun is wiped clear of finger points except for a clear one that belongs to Vicki. Unless Vickie can find the real killer, she will be indicted for premeditated murder.
Margaret Coel has written an absorbing and interesting mystery that gives readers a glimpse into the modern day west. The protagonist is a feisty determined woman and her friend catholic priest Father O' Malley is her mirror image. Together this unlikely pair gets in and out of trouble so many times it feels as if they are stars in a Wild West epic.
Harriet Klausner
Average customer rating:
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Wind Shadow West
Ralph Naranjo
Manufacturer: Hearst Marine Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0688025080 |
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- Why Didn't I Learn This in College?
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