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The River Into Darkness #2
Kompas duše
Drugi deo duologije Rečni sliv tmine
Lord Eldrič je poslednji mag. Tajanstven i opasan, posvetio je svoj neprirodno dug život zatiranju svih ostataka magije u svetu. Doživeo je užasavajuću viziju smaka sveta, kataklizme koja bi se dogodila ukoliko bi nastavio da koristi svoje moći.
Ali postoje i oni koji su spremni da žrtvuju sve kako bi se domogli moći i dugovečnosti koju magija pruža. Teleriti, fanatični sledbenici drevnog šegrta magije koji se pobunio protiv svojih gospodara, uspeli su da izdrže magov gnev i da odgaje sopstvenu čarobnicu – devojku po imenu Ana Filding.
U očajanju, lord Eldrič priziva sve svoje podanike i šalje ih da pronađu i ubiju Anu, a među tragačima je i mladić koji je poznaje – Erazmo Flateri.
Premda Erazmo zna da bi ako odbije magova naređenja zaradio mučnu i sporu smrt, gnušanje prema Eldriču i Anina privlačnost daju dodatnu snagu njegovoj neposlušnosti. Eldričevim namerama, međutim, mnogi služe i iz nehata i iz neznanja.
Erazmo će proživeti čarobno duhovno putovanje pod senkom magove prevlasti. Preispitaće sve svoje vrednosti – i temelji njegovog sveta biće uzdrmani.
Raselovi likovi su u duhovnoj potrazi, u kojoj pokazuju izrazite ljudske karakteristike. Oni nisu čisti heroji, niti čisti zločinci, već stvarne ličnosti koje stvaraju istoriju isto onako kao i ljudi od krvi i mesa – tapkaju u mraku, rade što bolje mogu, vođeni različitim interesima i sukobljenim verovanjima. Kompas duše nastavlja putovanje kroz izvanredno osmišljen, majstorski opisan novi svet, s čijim ćete se junacima rastati kao s prijateljima kada priči dođe kraj.
Svaka priča, knjiga ili serijal samo potvrđuju Rasela kao jednog od najboljih pisaca fantastike njegove generacije.
Lord Eldrič je poslednji mag. Tajanstven i opasan, posvetio je svoj neprirodno dug život zatiranju svih ostataka magije u svetu. Doživeo je užasavajuću viziju smaka sveta, kataklizme koja bi se dogodila ukoliko bi nastavio da koristi svoje moći.
Ali postoje i oni koji su spremni da žrtvuju sve kako bi se domogli moći i dugovečnosti koju magija pruža. Teleriti, fanatični sledbenici drevnog šegrta magije koji se pobunio protiv svojih gospodara, uspeli su da izdrže magov gnev i da odgaje sopstvenu čarobnicu – devojku po imenu Ana Filding.
U očajanju, lord Eldrič priziva sve svoje podanike i šalje ih da pronađu i ubiju Anu, a među tragačima je i mladić koji je poznaje – Erazmo Flateri.
Premda Erazmo zna da bi ako odbije magova naređenja zaradio mučnu i sporu smrt, gnušanje prema Eldriču i Anina privlačnost daju dodatnu snagu njegovoj neposlušnosti. Eldričevim namerama, međutim, mnogi služe i iz nehata i iz neznanja.
Erazmo će proživeti čarobno duhovno putovanje pod senkom magove prevlasti. Preispitaće sve svoje vrednosti – i temelji njegovog sveta biće uzdrmani.
Raselovi likovi su u duhovnoj potrazi, u kojoj pokazuju izrazite ljudske karakteristike. Oni nisu čisti heroji, niti čisti zločinci, već stvarne ličnosti koje stvaraju istoriju isto onako kao i ljudi od krvi i mesa – tapkaju u mraku, rade što bolje mogu, vođeni različitim interesima i sukobljenim verovanjima. Kompas duše nastavlja putovanje kroz izvanredno osmišljen, majstorski opisan novi svet, s čijim ćete se junacima rastati kao s prijateljima kada priči dođe kraj.
Svaka priča, knjiga ili serijal samo potvrđuju Rasela kao jednog od najboljih pisaca fantastike njegove generacije.
357 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 1998
1 person is currently reading
167 people want to read
About the author
Sean Russell
42 books143 followersAka Sean Thomas Russell
Sean Russel has co-written, with Ian Dennis, a mystery series called "Memoirs of a Bow Street Runner". The first volume of the series was published by Bantam under their joint pen name, T.F. Banks.
Sean Russell was born 1952 in Toronto. At the age of three his family moved to the outskirts of the city, where they lived in a cottage at the beach of Lake Ontario. At the age of ten he decided to become an author, and the fantasy genre caught him years later, while reading J. R. R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. After university, he moved to Vancouver, and two years later to Vancouver Island, where he still lives with his family. He published his first novel in 1991.His first historical naval novel Under Enemy Colours, published in 2007, introduced a new Royal Navy hero, Charles Hayden, and HMS Themis, a fictitious frigate.
Mr. Russell cites history as one of his passions, collects old yachting and sailing books, skis, sails and travels. Past interests include caving, rock climbing, hiking, and racing sailboats.
Sean Russel has co-written, with Ian Dennis, a mystery series called "Memoirs of a Bow Street Runner". The first volume of the series was published by Bantam under their joint pen name, T.F. Banks.
Sean Russell was born 1952 in Toronto. At the age of three his family moved to the outskirts of the city, where they lived in a cottage at the beach of Lake Ontario. At the age of ten he decided to become an author, and the fantasy genre caught him years later, while reading J. R. R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. After university, he moved to Vancouver, and two years later to Vancouver Island, where he still lives with his family. He published his first novel in 1991.His first historical naval novel Under Enemy Colours, published in 2007, introduced a new Royal Navy hero, Charles Hayden, and HMS Themis, a fictitious frigate.
Mr. Russell cites history as one of his passions, collects old yachting and sailing books, skis, sails and travels. Past interests include caving, rock climbing, hiking, and racing sailboats.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
January 14, 2022
Odlično!
Definitivno preporuka za sve ljubitelje ozbiljne epske fantastike.
Na kraju knjige piše da njegova dela smatraju dostojni Tolkinovom pisanju. Nisam čitala njegove romane, pa ne bih mogla da kažem je li zaista tako.
Napomena: Ovo je zapravo jedan roman rascepkan na dva dela, jer bi bilo predugačko staviti sve u jednu knjigu. Nije duologija kao što sam mislila.
Definitivno preporuka za sve ljubitelje ozbiljne epske fantastike.
Na kraju knjige piše da njegova dela smatraju dostojni Tolkinovom pisanju. Nisam čitala njegove romane, pa ne bih mogla da kažem je li zaista tako.
Napomena: Ovo je zapravo jedan roman rascepkan na dva dela, jer bi bilo predugačko staviti sve u jednu knjigu. Nije duologija kao što sam mislila.
March 14, 2009
Very nice duology/two-volume novel. At the beginning a fair amount of political intrigue, but it never turned into a mannerist fantasy.. much as I liked the courtly scenes. Or anything else, really. There was enough detail and background to make it real.
And the characters reacted like people. I particularly liked the way that they weren't bloodthirsty. Most of them. Erasmus' group went to some lengths to avoid killing or seriously endangering the priest, even though they knew he was untrustworthy and dangerous. They contrasted well with the mage.
And the ambiguity. Even at the end I wasn't sure who the bad guy was, or even if there was one. Too much fantasy needs to get away from the conflict of Good and Evil.
The names occasionally bothered me. Flattery? Eldritch??
And the characters reacted like people. I particularly liked the way that they weren't bloodthirsty. Most of them. Erasmus' group went to some lengths to avoid killing or seriously endangering the priest, even though they knew he was untrustworthy and dangerous. They contrasted well with the mage.
And the ambiguity. Even at the end I wasn't sure who the bad guy was, or even if there was one. Too much fantasy needs to get away from the conflict of Good and Evil.
The names occasionally bothered me. Flattery? Eldritch??
October 8, 2023
This review is for both 'books' in this series
For a modern fantasy novel, The River into Darkness (Gonna call it RID for short) isn’t fluff. It successfully combines a good story with more substantial ruminations on morality, memory, fate, and the expressions of evil. This book wasn’t perfect, and not everyone will enjoy it, but its redeeming qualities far outweighed its failures. It has earned its place on my favorites shelf.
(For clarity, RID was broken down into two separate ‘books’, Beneath the Vaulted Hills and Compass of the Soul. Don’t be fooled, they are really just two volumes of the same book. The publisher, DAW, decided not to print a thousand page mass-market paperback encompassing both parts and instead split the book into two volumes. While RID was written after World Without End (same caveat in re the volumes), it is the chronological prequel.)
RID is set in a fantasy world akin to late 1700’s England. The plot starts out with courtly/aristocratic drama and international intrigue which is revealed to be a skirmish between two groups of magic wielders. Eldrich, the last proper mage, seeks to fulfill his group's wishes and destroy the last remnants of magic from the earth. His nemesis, the secret society of the Tellerites, are dedicated to preserving magic. Sounds pretty straightforward? Trust me, its not. The plot is too complicated and nuanced to be reduced to a paragraph or two (which is why all the book descriptions suck). We don’t even have a main character, there are like five.
I shouldn’t like this book as much as I do. The pacing is inconsistent, some of the characters are rather flat, and others are introduced mainly for their appearance in the next book (looking at you Averil Kent), some scenes are way too long, and others too short. Normally, these are dealbreakers for me, but they just work.
I read a review before reading this book, and someone said that the author spent most of the second volume trying to get you to like Eldrich. I saw that and said “Nah, that’s not something I’d fall for." Fast forward to the climactic scene at the very end. I realized that I was rooting for both Eldrich and the last Tellerite simultaneously. Not that I liked Eldrich at all, I still found him to be a despicable and disturbing character, but Russell was able to infuse RID with enough moral ambiguity to put me on the fence. I count that as a great success. I want to be persuaded like that when I read a book. Entertain me or make me feel conflicted, and this book did both.
Going back to the characters, the closest RID has to a conventional protagonist would be Erasmus Flattery, however, he’s not the main character. He is just along for the ride. He thinks of himself as the main character, and the others sometimes do too, but he’s not. There’s a scene in which Kent wonders what the Countess of Chilton likes about Erasmus. Kent is puzzled because Erasmus is ordinary and bland, lacking distinguishing features to win over the greatest beauty in the Kingdom. I feel like that was the author interjecting and saying that Erasmus is just the connecting character, not the main character. Lines of intrigue converge on Erasmus, but he’s not the subject of the intrigue.
With the exception of ‘Deacon’ (*coughs* Grand Inquisitor) Rose, I found the characters worthy of loving and hating. Russell did a good job of painting characters that felt real. They came off of the page and alive in my head.
About free will and decision making. Erasmus floats about like a falling leaf. The Countess of Chilton starts out the same way too. As the story progresses, she is presented with the illusion of choice. Essentially kidnapped, made to see visions, and scared out of her mind, she ‘makes a choice’ that she has to live with for the rest of the novel. She has to wrestle with the fact that she made the choice, even though it was under duress. The author plays with the moral ambiguity of a situation like that in a way that I found satisfying and worthy of the nuances.
I started this review with a quote about memory. One of Eldrich’s favorite things to do is to alter people’s memories. He routinely questions people and makes them forget, erasing himself from their minds, making them forget, his, to be frank, creepy, conduct. For the two artists in the book, Averil Kent the painter, and Marrianne Edden the novelist, memories are their most important possessions. It is what drives them on both their personal and professional levels, and Eldrich deems it fit to strip them of that. During those scenes I could feel their fear and rage on a deep level. Clarendon, on the other hand, has the ‘curse of memory’. He cannot forget. No detail is lost on him. He can remember things twenty years ago as clearly as if they were in front of him. His inability to forget makes him, in the core of his being, sad and miserable, irrational and distraught. His memory is so strong that even Eldrich cannot tamper with it. It truly was a curse for him.
Our antagonist (?) Anna Fielding, the last of the Tellerites, is another ambiguous character. At her center she is a frightened, harmed, and abused child. Messing with things she cannot understand in an attempt to follow her adopted family’s wishes and avenge their deaths. I couldn’t feel but pity, sympathy, and revulsion at her actions. Tragic, is the word I would use to describe her.
Anyway, I really enjoyed this book. Yeah, it was flawed. No, its not gonna be a Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings, but it was good. It’s gonna live in my head for a while.
Oh, my favorite quote of the book.
I’ll be regularly using that reply with my boss, coworkers, and friends.
Memory is fiction, a narrative we write and rewrite to explain an ever changing present, a story in which we are the hero, the victim, the wronged or the incomparable lover. And if memory is fiction, what then is history?
For a modern fantasy novel, The River into Darkness (Gonna call it RID for short) isn’t fluff. It successfully combines a good story with more substantial ruminations on morality, memory, fate, and the expressions of evil. This book wasn’t perfect, and not everyone will enjoy it, but its redeeming qualities far outweighed its failures. It has earned its place on my favorites shelf.
(For clarity, RID was broken down into two separate ‘books’, Beneath the Vaulted Hills and Compass of the Soul. Don’t be fooled, they are really just two volumes of the same book. The publisher, DAW, decided not to print a thousand page mass-market paperback encompassing both parts and instead split the book into two volumes. While RID was written after World Without End (same caveat in re the volumes), it is the chronological prequel.)
RID is set in a fantasy world akin to late 1700’s England. The plot starts out with courtly/aristocratic drama and international intrigue which is revealed to be a skirmish between two groups of magic wielders. Eldrich, the last proper mage, seeks to fulfill his group's wishes and destroy the last remnants of magic from the earth. His nemesis, the secret society of the Tellerites, are dedicated to preserving magic. Sounds pretty straightforward? Trust me, its not. The plot is too complicated and nuanced to be reduced to a paragraph or two (which is why all the book descriptions suck). We don’t even have a main character, there are like five.
I shouldn’t like this book as much as I do. The pacing is inconsistent, some of the characters are rather flat, and others are introduced mainly for their appearance in the next book (looking at you Averil Kent), some scenes are way too long, and others too short. Normally, these are dealbreakers for me, but they just work.
I read a review before reading this book, and someone said that the author spent most of the second volume trying to get you to like Eldrich. I saw that and said “Nah, that’s not something I’d fall for." Fast forward to the climactic scene at the very end. I realized that I was rooting for both Eldrich and the last Tellerite simultaneously. Not that I liked Eldrich at all, I still found him to be a despicable and disturbing character, but Russell was able to infuse RID with enough moral ambiguity to put me on the fence. I count that as a great success. I want to be persuaded like that when I read a book. Entertain me or make me feel conflicted, and this book did both.
Going back to the characters, the closest RID has to a conventional protagonist would be Erasmus Flattery, however, he’s not the main character. He is just along for the ride. He thinks of himself as the main character, and the others sometimes do too, but he’s not. There’s a scene in which Kent wonders what the Countess of Chilton likes about Erasmus. Kent is puzzled because Erasmus is ordinary and bland, lacking distinguishing features to win over the greatest beauty in the Kingdom. I feel like that was the author interjecting and saying that Erasmus is just the connecting character, not the main character. Lines of intrigue converge on Erasmus, but he’s not the subject of the intrigue.
With the exception of ‘Deacon’ (*coughs* Grand Inquisitor) Rose, I found the characters worthy of loving and hating. Russell did a good job of painting characters that felt real. They came off of the page and alive in my head.
About free will and decision making. Erasmus floats about like a falling leaf. The Countess of Chilton starts out the same way too. As the story progresses, she is presented with the illusion of choice. Essentially kidnapped, made to see visions, and scared out of her mind, she ‘makes a choice’ that she has to live with for the rest of the novel. She has to wrestle with the fact that she made the choice, even though it was under duress. The author plays with the moral ambiguity of a situation like that in a way that I found satisfying and worthy of the nuances.
I started this review with a quote about memory. One of Eldrich’s favorite things to do is to alter people’s memories. He routinely questions people and makes them forget, erasing himself from their minds, making them forget, his, to be frank, creepy, conduct. For the two artists in the book, Averil Kent the painter, and Marrianne Edden the novelist, memories are their most important possessions. It is what drives them on both their personal and professional levels, and Eldrich deems it fit to strip them of that. During those scenes I could feel their fear and rage on a deep level. Clarendon, on the other hand, has the ‘curse of memory’. He cannot forget. No detail is lost on him. He can remember things twenty years ago as clearly as if they were in front of him. His inability to forget makes him, in the core of his being, sad and miserable, irrational and distraught. His memory is so strong that even Eldrich cannot tamper with it. It truly was a curse for him.
Our antagonist (?) Anna Fielding, the last of the Tellerites, is another ambiguous character. At her center she is a frightened, harmed, and abused child. Messing with things she cannot understand in an attempt to follow her adopted family’s wishes and avenge their deaths. I couldn’t feel but pity, sympathy, and revulsion at her actions. Tragic, is the word I would use to describe her.
Anyway, I really enjoyed this book. Yeah, it was flawed. No, its not gonna be a Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings, but it was good. It’s gonna live in my head for a while.
Oh, my favorite quote of the book.
“Are you ready?”
“No. But I shall not become so with time”
I’ll be regularly using that reply with my boss, coworkers, and friends.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 6, 2013
The first half of this duology was excellent so I was looking forward to how the grand plan would be finished. Alas, we spent all of this time jumping from character to character learning about their inner turmoils only to be left hanging at the end. It feels very much like the editor pulled the plug and the last chapters had to be finished overnight. Why get us equally wrapped up in each individual if he was going to default to a single perspective at the end? Ordinarily I would happy forget the last bit and make up my own ending, but I really wanted to know what Russell would make up, not what I would patch in.
April 9, 2019
Much like the first series, this one ended with disappointment. Again, the character pitched as the main protagonist has little to no agency. He's buffeted along by fate, constantly subject to the will of others, and makes very few choices for himself. In the end, he ends up as a shallow shadow of his former self (which was pretty shallow to begin with) who appears to simply go through the motions for the rest of his life. Not the epic quest the other book would have us believe was assigned to him.
In fact, the real main character of the book is the mage, Eldritch. And the author spends the entire book trying to prove to the reader that he's a sympathetic character worthy of forgiveness. But every time he almost succeeded in convincing me, he showed Eldritch being a jerk to another of the main cast. In fact he systematically uses and demeans every other character in the book, to the point where it's no wonder they all either want to kill him or fake their own deaths to escape him.
When you add to this the weird, creepy resolution to the weird creepy stalker plot, the book just isn't really worth the time you'd spend on it. I ended up skimming large swaths of the last third of the book just in case there was some kind of turning point, but there really wasn't. It's a dismal story and all it managed to do was disgust me.
In fact, the real main character of the book is the mage, Eldritch. And the author spends the entire book trying to prove to the reader that he's a sympathetic character worthy of forgiveness. But every time he almost succeeded in convincing me, he showed Eldritch being a jerk to another of the main cast. In fact he systematically uses and demeans every other character in the book, to the point where it's no wonder they all either want to kill him or fake their own deaths to escape him.
When you add to this the weird, creepy resolution to the weird creepy stalker plot, the book just isn't really worth the time you'd spend on it. I ended up skimming large swaths of the last third of the book just in case there was some kind of turning point, but there really wasn't. It's a dismal story and all it managed to do was disgust me.
March 14, 2019
I am probably being too generous but the reason I gave it 5 stars is there weren't any Prince Michaels in this book/series i.e. things that are introduced and then completely forgotten in this series. I still wonder what became of Prince Michael in the Swans War trilogy among many other things. Russell did the same thing in the Moontide and Magic Rise series. So many, what the??? What exactly happened on the island and why? I procrastinated reading the River into Darkness series because of the frustration with the two series I just mentioned. My fears were unfounded. As a bonus, there was actual magic in this series, which was noticeably lacking in the Moontide and Magic Rise series, which happens to be a sequel to the River into Darkness series. Much more satisfying. Russell always does an amazing job of world building, character development, and story arcs but is soooo hit and miss on resolving his numerous story lines. Moontide and Magic Rise and Swans War - big misses. Initiate Brother Series and River into Darkness - big hits and worthy reads.
August 12, 2018
After the first book that was action filled, this one felt like a stretch...Even though the ending was anticipated it somehow left me too sad and disappointed. Mages have feared for centuries that the magic will somehow destroy their world. But when Eldritch left it, he left it to men and their church. When most of characters left the in-between world that was colorless and foggy and desperate, I don’t see them returning into ‘normal’ world but very pale dark copy of it, with lifeless hues and a world where there is no magic to oppose church or selfish and egocentric humans. Sad really...
But I don’t think it’s just the ending...somehow the book promised so much more, yet so many questions left unanswered...
But I don’t think it’s just the ending...somehow the book promised so much more, yet so many questions left unanswered...
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 27, 2018
I did enjoy reading The Compass of the Soul but I had a few issues with this novel. First, the ending was completely mysterious and left much resolved. Next, some portions were long winded with too much description. Overall, I was hooked but it was not as strong as the first book in the duloagy.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 20, 2023
I really enjoy Sean Russell’s work. It was a slow start but a satisfying conclusion to the duology. I still enjoyed the imagery of the caves from the first book more, but I was captivated and felt content with this book.
Now I plan to go back and re-read World Without End.
4/5 stars ⭐️
Now I plan to go back and re-read World Without End.
4/5 stars ⭐️
January 11, 2015
Absolutely recommended. Fascinating characters, interesting mysteries, well-written. Definitely read both River into Darkness books back to back, it's all one story. And read the other two (Moontide and Magic Rise) for good measure, as they are closely intertwined.
January 15, 2015
Not as good as the first book. Finished just because I wanted to complete the story but not as good as I remember it to have been.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews