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The Ea Cycle #4
Black Jade
The third book in the Ea Cycle, BLACK JADE is as rich as Tolkien and as magical as the Arthurian myths Valashu Elahad rescued the Lightstone from the dark hell of the enemy's own city, only to have his triumph overturned. Once more the Lord of Lies has the sacred gem in his possession and its power is invincible. Val burns with shame. Treachery surrounds him. His only hope is the Black Jade that lies buried in the heart of a cursed and blighted forest, forgotten since the War of the Stone. Through this, the greatest black gelstei ever created, Val will seek to understand the darkness inside himself so that he can use evil to fight evil. If he does not, the world will fall into final corruption as the Dark Universe of the Lord of Lies. In either case, evil prevails. But Val must risk everything, even his soul. The stakes are too high for anything less. Val is the Guardian of the Lightstone until a new master is made known, that person who will rightfully wield its power. Should Val find the sacred gem and take it for himself, he will become a new Red Dragon, only mightier and more terrible than the Lord of Lies.
736 pages, Paperback
First published January 3, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 5, 2021
Getting all the way through the Ea Cycle is a quest all on its own. So much happens, but in actuality, it's just different aspects of a grand, LONG, seemingly endless adventure, in almost the same way that The Grail Quest was, EXCEPT it keeps pretty much the same adventurers for the entire tale.
The previous book stayed pretty close to home with so much seeming success before it all went to hell, leaving the adventurers guilt-ridden and tetherless -- and so that leads us BACK into (you might guess) the Grail Quest again.
Fortunately, none of this is quite that simple and the full quest is lush and we get to see a lot of great places and people, from mystical masters to vast, deadly deserts to a trip into the heart of the Enemy's nation... all to find the shining healer that is the only one who is truly worthy to wield the full might of the Lightstone, the Grail itself.
All of this was great, but I was particularly enthusiastic about the mild crossovers to Zindell's other series, including the Wild, the ascended beings, the world-creators (singers), and the created immortals. There really aren't all that many true crossovers with the Requiem series, but what we have here is still interesting.
This will never be Requiem, unfortunately. It is, however, like the original Grail legends, a moral as well as a physical quest, demanding the heroes to change their ways and purify their hearts, and this is taken seriously, realistically, in these pages. In that respect, this is a classic retelling that goes above and beyond the original style by also giving us the best bits of epic fantasy with all the magic and worldbuilding. :)
I would rank this book up with the first, with the second and third trailing behind. I'm looking forward to the 5th (and apparently last) book. After all, our enemy has merely been defeated, NOT destroyed. :)
The previous book stayed pretty close to home with so much seeming success before it all went to hell, leaving the adventurers guilt-ridden and tetherless -- and so that leads us BACK into (you might guess) the Grail Quest again.
Fortunately, none of this is quite that simple and the full quest is lush and we get to see a lot of great places and people, from mystical masters to vast, deadly deserts to a trip into the heart of the Enemy's nation... all to find the shining healer that is the only one who is truly worthy to wield the full might of the Lightstone, the Grail itself.
All of this was great, but I was particularly enthusiastic about the mild crossovers to Zindell's other series, including the Wild, the ascended beings, the world-creators (singers), and the created immortals. There really aren't all that many true crossovers with the Requiem series, but what we have here is still interesting.
This will never be Requiem, unfortunately. It is, however, like the original Grail legends, a moral as well as a physical quest, demanding the heroes to change their ways and purify their hearts, and this is taken seriously, realistically, in these pages. In that respect, this is a classic retelling that goes above and beyond the original style by also giving us the best bits of epic fantasy with all the magic and worldbuilding. :)
I would rank this book up with the first, with the second and third trailing behind. I'm looking forward to the 5th (and apparently last) book. After all, our enemy has merely been defeated, NOT destroyed. :)
August 16, 2017
Black Jade is the final book in Zindell's Ea cycle fantasy. The cycle is definitely a fine read for fantasy fans with beautifully described settings and a fast past plot that derives from both the Tolkien "Rings" trilogy and the Arthurian mythology while introducing a number of original ideas of it's own. The series does get repetitive in places and could probably have been better as a trilogy yet, all-in-all, I found it to be the best fantasy I've read in quite a few years.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews