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Dreamtime #3
The Diamond Isle
Internationally acclaimed author Stan Nicholls delivers the dramatic conclusion to The Dreamtime! Desperate to find a cure for the curse of immortality and debilitating visions that torment him, Reeth Caldason has traded his fighting skills for potential access to powerful ancient magic. But now Reeth is trapped on the Diamond Isle, fending off the pirates who plague the surrounding waters as he struggles to understand his true nature. And the specter of war looms. . . .
448 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2007
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198 people want to read
About the author
Stan Nicholls
67 books191 followersStan Nicholls (born 1949) is a British author and journalist, working full-time since 1981. He is the author of many novels and short stories but is best known for the internationally acclaimed Orcs: First Blood series.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
April 24, 2021
I dont think this book needs or deserves a long review. The series finishes in much the same way as the rest of the books, I desperately wanted to love it, it had all the right ingredients to be a classic, but somehow it never gets there. For me every facet seems unfinished. The characters dont always behave in line with the way they have been portrayed and parts of the story seem to be completely inconsequential. The ending feels rushed with elements of the story coming into play which have a major bearing on events but that arent ever really explained.
I'm going to move onto Orcs after this in the hope that I can redeem the author as I was mostly disappointed by this series.
I'm going to move onto Orcs after this in the hope that I can redeem the author as I was mostly disappointed by this series.
March 10, 2017
Having now finished the trilogy, I can safely say that I'm disappointed by it. It isn't elegant, the factions in it are overly ponderous, the huge buildup for a release of hidden ability by Reeth is met with less than ten pages of discovered power before POOF! All magic is gone. So a character is given nearly godlike power, only to have it removed almost as soon as he discovers it, the rebels have been fighting to be left in peace, only to have a third party swoop in and save the day, and our young wizard friend is no longer a wizard, because again, magic is gone. Back to the rebels. They fight for three books to be freed of the Epmires, when a barbarian warlord shows up out of the mists, defeats their enemies for them, and then says "Well, my job here is done. Live in harmony all of you!" and then proceeds to actually leave them alone. This device steals so much of the hard efforts away from the Mains it isn't even funny. It feels like the laziest kind of Deus ex machina to have one character suddenly become a god, and then have another person show up who destroys magic simply by passing through the area. So despite all of the heroic actions of so many, the war is really ended by two men. Two men who accomplish that job in the space of an hour or so, no less.
June 16, 2018
Started too many threads and sub-plots in the first two books that never got fully developed and then were all wrapped up in the last chapter in a completely offhand manner. Also, the denouement was handled in an utterly unrealistic way, and let's keep in mind, this is a fantasy novel. Unrealistic is a defining characteristic of the genre and even in that framework, it was a bewildering method of handling a major part of the storyline.
Overall, rather disappointing.
Overall, rather disappointing.
October 27, 2020
Stan Nicholls hält die Spannung bis zum Ende durch, unter anderem dadurch, dass es kaum Andeutungen zum Ende der Geschichte gibt und man das ganze Buch über rätselt, wo es eigentlich hingeht. Leider ist das Ende meiner Meinung nach viel zu schnell abgehandelt und auf etwa fünf Seiten wird alles beendet und so mancher Handlungsstrang kommt dabei ein wenig zu kurz. Nichtsdestotrotz ist es eine empfehlenswerte Buchreihe, die einige neue Ideen in die Fantasy bringt.
June 30, 2023
Sympa, même si j'ai l'impression que la fin est un peu précipitée
July 27, 2015
The final book of this trilogy (The Diamond Isle), was better than the middle book (
The Righteous Blade
), but not as good as the first one (
The Covenant Rising
). The ubiquity of magic replacing modern technology in a medieval setting continued to be an issue. It was jarring in the first book, wearing in the second, and by this book I'd somewhat accepted it. Because the rest of the trilogy is well written, I kept trying to make sense of the approach - for example, in this last book, it occurred to me that maybe Nicholls was re-creating space opera battles using ocean frigates - but none of my attempts really worked. What was clear was that Nicholls was inspired by post 9/11 real-world events to make some fairly direct points about civil liberties versus security, etc - direct enough to pull me out of the book, and wonder again about the purpose (e.g., was the entire trilogy a satire or parable? I decided not).
Taking the story for its own sake, then, as a fantasy: It could have been stronger. As is often true with series or big books, what you expect to find at the end isn't always what you get. In this case, I expected Nicholls to deal with big questions about the Founders, the Dreamtime, magic, and the nature of the universe. He provides bland answers to the first two, and skips the others almost entirely. Instead, the trilogy is about politics and individuals. The latter is often overlooked in epic fantasy, and I give Nicholls credit for addressing it here. Unfortunately, he doesn't carry through the strong characterization from book 1. For example, in book 2, several characters casually fall in love, and there's a terrible betrayal. In this book, we have to take for granted that casual love has turned into deep passion. The betrayal fades from a severe shock to a constant repetition of "I wish I hadn't done that." Despite a long setup, Nicholls doesn't wring from the situation the turbulent emotion and difficult choices that he could have.
Many of the deeper questions get pretty off-hand answers. For example, Reeth has been searching for something since book 1. Near the end of this book, he heads off, finds it right away, and casually walks in with "we must have been destined to find it, and that's why no one else did." It's pretty unsatisfying. Similarly, the fearsome warlord Zerreiss has been just off-screen for most of the trilogy. During book 2 and especially book 3, he keeps doing amazing that is kept from the reader. At the very end of the trilogy, this special effect, which until now has affected one city at a time, suddenly covers two entire empires. And then he walks off into the sunset.
Where book 1 was 3.5 stars, this one was 2.5. The writing was quite good, but the wrapup was disappointing.
In looking at the trilogy overall, I quite enjoyed book 1, Covenant Rising, but I can't really recommend the whole series.
Taking the story for its own sake, then, as a fantasy: It could have been stronger. As is often true with series or big books, what you expect to find at the end isn't always what you get. In this case, I expected Nicholls to deal with big questions about the Founders, the Dreamtime, magic, and the nature of the universe. He provides bland answers to the first two, and skips the others almost entirely. Instead, the trilogy is about politics and individuals. The latter is often overlooked in epic fantasy, and I give Nicholls credit for addressing it here. Unfortunately, he doesn't carry through the strong characterization from book 1. For example, in book 2, several characters casually fall in love, and there's a terrible betrayal. In this book, we have to take for granted that casual love has turned into deep passion. The betrayal fades from a severe shock to a constant repetition of "I wish I hadn't done that." Despite a long setup, Nicholls doesn't wring from the situation the turbulent emotion and difficult choices that he could have.
Many of the deeper questions get pretty off-hand answers. For example, Reeth has been searching for something since book 1. Near the end of this book, he heads off, finds it right away, and casually walks in with "we must have been destined to find it, and that's why no one else did." It's pretty unsatisfying. Similarly, the fearsome warlord Zerreiss has been just off-screen for most of the trilogy. During book 2 and especially book 3, he keeps doing amazing that is kept from the reader. At the very end of the trilogy, this special effect, which until now has affected one city at a time, suddenly covers two entire empires. And then he walks off into the sunset.
Where book 1 was 3.5 stars, this one was 2.5. The writing was quite good, but the wrapup was disappointing.
In looking at the trilogy overall, I quite enjoyed book 1, Covenant Rising, but I can't really recommend the whole series.
February 25, 2014
Standard fantasy fare, bought on a whim in Australia for flight home, didn't realise it was the third book in a trilogy, the David Gemmell recommendation sold it me.
Despite not knowing the back stories, by half way through the book I was enamoured by most of the characters, and whilst it always had the feeling it was going to have a suitable conclusion all round, it did feel like the characters were in peril.
Not good enough (especially as I know the ending now) to make me want to go back and read the previous books, but would probably invest time in the series if I was starting from scratch.
Despite not knowing the back stories, by half way through the book I was enamoured by most of the characters, and whilst it always had the feeling it was going to have a suitable conclusion all round, it did feel like the characters were in peril.
Not good enough (especially as I know the ending now) to make me want to go back and read the previous books, but would probably invest time in the series if I was starting from scratch.
August 15, 2007
wow!! what an amazing conclusion!!! i love this trilogy, definitely going onto my to-buy list. although it hasnt been brilliantly written, the plot is gripping and on-going. i recommend these books to anyone you likes their light fantasy and old-style fighting.
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December 3, 2008dont own
February 1, 2015
French review about this Dreamtime Trilogy :
https://arckhangelos.wordpress.com/20...
https://arckhangelos.wordpress.com/20...
December 6, 2014
Disappointing ending, seems like the write just ran out of interest (or maybe time)
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews