I am currently working my way through Anne Bishop's PILLARS OF THE WORLD. Although, in general, I love her writing this one is giving me problems.
The book has an inquisition (as in witch finder general) plot and these tend to give me hives.
This book also has the feel of a series (or trilogy) - I am having enough difficulty with it that I broke my rule and read the ending chapter.
She refers to her magic workers as 'wiccanfae'. This is teeth gratingly annoying. Just imagine 'catholicfae' or 'hindufae' etc., etc.
I am going to trudge on - but this is definitly not going to be a zippy read for me.--Shelley (17 Oct 01)
I did read Bishop's PILLARS OF THE WORLD and quite liked it, though I didn't find it any where near as compelling as her other books. And I didn't find the romance particularly compelling either. So it was an enjoyable read but not particularly memorable for me.--JW (30 Oct 01)Ari, the heroine, is the last witch in her family. She and her family had guarded and taken care of the land she lives on for years. But now it's not safe to be a witch. Songs are being sung that make witches look evil and an inquisition is hunting, torturing, and killing them. The Fae are also in peril. The roads connecting the Fae to the mortal world are slowly closing and they have to find out why.
I moderately recommend this book. This is my first Bishop book -- and I don't know if some of it was the expectations after hearing so many raves about her previous books -- but I found this a slow starter and had no trouble frequently putting it down.
One problem I had was that I've become used to the fae being portrayed as coldly cruel and unfeeling to humans and even to each other. In this book, while the fae looked down on humans, they didn't seem indiscriminately cruel and they almost seem human in their thoughts and acts. This took some getting used to. Plus, I was really unsure for quite a while just who the hero was going to be??
That being said, the book gradually got more and more interesting and, by the second half, I no longer felt any need to put it down. Some surprises were learned, lots more action occured, and I came to really care about a lot of the characters. I have to admit to liking Morag, the gatherer, the most. I wasn't sure for quite a while but now am really looking forward to the next book. :-) --Linda (22 Oct 02)
