Holder of Lightning

Cloudmages #1

by S.L. Farrell

It had been so many generations since the mage-lights were last seen that they'd become the stuff of legend. But for seventeen-year-old Jenna Aoire legend became reality one night on Knobtop Hill when she found the stone--not much more than a large pebble yet there was something about it that drew her. And then the mage-lights filled the sky, bringing trouble and magic with them that would irrevocably alter Jenna's life.

Genres: Fantasy, High Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, Magic, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Adult

589 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

S.L. Farrell also writes as Stephen Leigh and Matthew Farrell.

Reviews

[Camille · Rating 4 out of 5]

Was browsing the fantasy section at the library when this book caught my eye. I have found you can tell a lot about a book by it's cover, especially when it comes to fantasy. I have found that the worst cover-art often hides some really good fantasy within. It is a shame Authors have such little control over the cover art on their books. As such when looking for new fantasy authors I look for a few things on the cover to tell me if it good or not. 1 Swirling lights. This usually means lots of magic in my opinion a plus. 2 Men with swords and/or scantily clad women. I know it sounds bad, but I think they put that kind of stuff on the cover to draw men in, which means the story may have "emotional crap" as Chris likes to say which I also think a plus. 3 mystical creatures. This is always better if they are somewhat hidden in the landscape.

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

What a rollercoaster of emotions with this book. First, it was very well written. It gave enough description to know the layouts of most areas, but kept the pace well without getting bogged down in the nitty gritty of most things. I think the show dont tell motif was exemplified very well through the smooth dialogue. Lastly, the magic was very exciting although ill defined most times. I'll definitely be looking into implementing ideas from magic that costs you something.
Now for the bad and frustrating. I think the coming of age story with Jenna was fine until she has multiple sexual encounters with men much older than she: most of the book she is just 17 to 18. I think it is very Stockholm syndrome with one love interest and the other is just cause boy like girl. Very weird to have two relationships with .uch older men. Second, a pronunciation guide would have been nice with most of the towns, magic items, and specific items throughout the book are just not in English and I want to know how to say them. Lastly, I really disliked the Scrudu scene. He had a girl boss thing going on with her which isn't my favorite, but had been earned in various places throughout the previous chapters. Yet, it got spoiled cause he put an arbitrary rule in the test. Instead of her capitalizing on it to gain an upper hand or have her agency to overcome the problem. The dragon just lets her go. It sucked. All this build up for neither of the outcomes promised in previous chapters come to pass. THEN she turns into a FREAKING SEAL AFTER JUMPING OFF A CLIFF!!?!?!? It truly felt like he just wanted her to be part of various things he made instead of providing a satisfying climax to the big test.
The war that followed after also just felt like people coming to help when she was about to fall with no real reason other than she can't die yet. Nonetheless, the Mam hating her at the end of it felt so cathartic cause Jenna is kinda a selfish jerk who reacted to everything coming at her. Overall, felt like a few steps were missed on the landing.

[altosaxist · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good story, excellent and unique magic system. 3.5 stars mostly bc I couldn’t stand the main character Jenna (although I think you’re not supposed to like her). She stayed on my nerves the whole timeeeee

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a pretty traditional fantasy novel in a lot of ways. It starts out slowly, and the reader only starts to get a sense of the larger world when Jenna does. I think that aspect of the book worked really well.

I also really like the Celtic elements of the story, despite not being able to pronounce most of them. The book has a number of appendices; a pronunciation guide would have been great.

Things that worked less well: the romances. Pretty much all of them. I understand Jenna's attraction to Coelin- he's good looking, and he flattered her. But since she'd already figured out his game before any of them left the village, why the HELL did she fall for it when they meet up later? I sympathized when she learned the truth about him, but I wasn't surprised by it. She does have a lot to deal with at this point in the story, and isn't coping with it in a really healthy way (fantasy analog opiates are super bad for daily use, Jenna...) So turning to someone she thinks she knows makes sense. But ugh, she should have known he was a creep.

Next we have Ennis, who started out lying about who he was and where he was from. I can understand him lying to Mac Ard, and I don't blame him for it, but I felt like he should have been at least a little more guilty about having to lie to Jenna, too. Ennis also suffers from a lack of characterization which makes his romance with Jenna very dry. His personality can best be described as “he’s a nice guy." And we're told, not shown, that Jenna has fallen in love with him. The most romantic thing about him is apparently that being with him, in all senses of the word, make Jenna realize even more that the relationship she had with Coelin wasn't real. In a way the best real evidence of Jenna's love for Ennis was her reaction to his death. Her anger and grief read as more real than the romance itself did.

Finally, we have Maeve, Jenna's mother, and Mac Ard. Ugh, this guy... he comes to town looking for the magic stone that Jenna has already found. At first he comes across as a good person, but to me he seemed to have a whiff of suspicion about him. That might be because I've read the book before, though, so I know he's a creeper. Maeve, for her part, is all about taking care of herself and her daughter, at least until Mac Ard comes along. Maeve falls in love with him, but while he tells Jenna several times that he loves her mother, it's hard to take the guy's word on that. What he's after, start to finish, is the magic stone. He never stops offering to take the burden from her- and in some ways it is that, causing Jenna physical pain and gaining her a whole host of enemies who also want the stone and would kill her to get it. But he also has to know by this point that Jenna has bonded with the stone, and it would hurt or even kill her to lose it- she CAN’T physically hand it to someone else. And Mac Ard is different enough when Maeve isn't around to make me think he's using her, and finds it useful to have Jenna's mother in love with him. He won't marry her because something something nobles and politics and blah blah. I say, the mother of the First Holder is a strong political alliance... unless you want an excuse NOT to marry her.

So, Mac Ard. He also tries to kill Jenna two or three times and take the stone, then rambles about how he'd be her new dad if only she'd accept him. Throw in some hints that the stone has made Jenna crazy if anyone is around who might buy this, and you've got an idea of every scene he's in, except the last one.

Jenna meets up with Maeve again at the end of the book, after she's killed Mac Ard in self defense. I'm willing to cut Maeve some slack here, because she did love the guy (and had his child) but damn, this woman is cold. She's completely thrown over her daughter for this asshat. She never wanted to hear anything bad about him, and now she blames Jenna not just for his death, but for the fact that they ever fought at all. She flat out tells Jenna that she's not her daughter anymore, that they're enemies and she's loyal to the king Mac Ard served. She doesn't even seem half as interested in her own crying infant as she does the body of the now deceased Mac Ard.

The first time I read this scene it made me cry, I was so horrified by the idea of a mother choosing a man over her child, when he'd repeatedly tried to KILL said child. WTF, Maeve?

[Sarah Lyn · Rating 1 out of 5]

I just couldn't get past the fact that the author made up words to things that didn't need to be made up. Like cloak, guard, and king. They made up theirs own words and used them almost every sentence. It made the book almost seem ridiculous to me.
The story was somewhat creative. I liked that surprising people died. But there was pretty poor character and relationship development. I felt almost no connections to the characters and their relationships as the book went along.

[Iris · Rating 1 out of 5]

Even when it did start promising, the story didn't hold my attention for long. After a while it got boring and I skipped to the end. The ending wasn't even satisfactory for me. The story was just too long. It took too much time for things to start getting interesting.

[Bev Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Saw this book squirreled away in the fantasy section at the library. I felt it was a good story, but I found myself feeling sorry for the main character and that made me a little blind to the actual story line. I will add the second in the series to my "to read" folder.

[MegaWhoppingCosmicBookwyrm · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 ⭐️s
Definitely not continuing with this series. None of the characters are likable. Jenna, the MC, is probably one of the most unlikeable by far. I was extremely disappointed in the lack of strong character relationships, especially when the story sets up a strong mother-daughter bond at the very beginning only to do nothing with it. Everything just happens, because. There never seemed to be an actual story being told. I didn’t care if characters died so there was zero tension in battle scenes. Jenna pulls plot devices out like she has an endless supply. Some of the bits pertaining to Celtic lore were intriguing and so it gets the extra .5 rating.

[Nichelle Seely · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fairly garden variety fantasy. I liked that the use of power took a physical toll on Jenna, the protagonist, and she turned to drugs as a result. Don't think I've seen that before in epic fantasy. I didn't really connect with her until the last quarter or so of the book. Also, the story dragged in places.

Lots of Celtic words and names, a pronunciation guide would have been helpful. The ending was satisfying, despite the middle sag.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full review here:

http://jamesgenrebooks.blogspot.com/2...

While it does share much in common with Tolkien, it's hard to find fantasy that doesn't borrow from Middle Earth on occasion. The plot, once it gets going, is well paced, and the Machiavellian politicking is engaging. I will return here.

[Roger · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good god Jenna's mother is a piece of garbage, she almost immediately sides with a man she hardly knows against her own daughter. And when that guy tries to kill her daughter she doesn't seem too bothered by it. Then Jenna kills him in self defense and all of a sudden killing someone is a bad thing and she loathes Jenna. Just wow, I haven't felt this much disgust over a character in a long time.

[Dianna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I couldn't bring myself to finish the book. I ended up skimming the last two hundred pages.

[Marcy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great Celtic fantasy

I first read this series as a young teenager. Rereading it, as an adult, I find it still gives me such joy.

[Kathryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good story, stayed together well, moved quickly. I had trouble with the names of people and places so it made the reading of it not so enjoyable. Maybe could have written them phonetically.

[Lacey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good story, but whoever was in chrarge of converting this to an ebook made some irritating mistakes like repeated sentences and lack of page-breaks for seperate scenes

[Viridian5 · Rating 1 out of 5]

I finished Holder of Lightning by S.L. Farrell from wanting to see what happened but didn't enjoy it and won't look for the sequel.

It's been many generations since the magelights came and the spell-stones worked. Jenna will become the First Holder of a working master stone, bearing the burden and pain of that power, and finds herself in a tangle of politics and the greed of others.

Some of the author's choices seemed interesting and surprising at first, but when the novel goes on and you realize that 97% of the people Jenna meets will be some combination of treacherous, greedy, and/or stupid and the 3% that aren't will face horrible fates you start to feel that the degree of persecution the protagonist faces has reached a parodic level. It gets ridiculous. It's kind of brave that the author makes Jenna the kind of prickly, bitchy, suspicious personality that might result from daily chronic pain and the necessary paranoia, but Jenna doesn't have any endearing qualities for me. I feel bad for her that her life sucks, but there's very little to like in her.

Even the few people she can trust don't stir any positive feeling in me. I really didn't care if any of these people lived and some of the characters I really hoped would die.

I continued reading to get some resolution, and the ending provided some. Now I'm done.


(This is another DAW book, and it has two typos, both of which would be caught by a human being but passed over by spellcheck.)

[Darcy Stewart · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was good for the most part. I really liked the plot and the romance. However I didn't like how her mother was loyal MacArd. The man was crazy. When he first showed up I didn't like him, but now I don't like him one single bit. The book took a little time to start going, but after that it was just fine. I do wish it was a little bit shorter.

Jenna holds a stone of great power. And she does an excellant job keeping it that way. Bad news is that her mother becomes pregnant. It's too bad in the end Jenna can't trust anyone hardly. Everybody wants her stone, because it holds so much power. But for most people the magic would kill them, but not Jenna. Jenna goes through a lot of pain when she firsts holds the stone. The pain is unbearable for most, but not for her. However if Jenna is away from the stone it could kill her. It's a good thing in this book Jenna never lets it go.

Most of the characters I'm not too fond of, mostly because greedy. Even her mother is that way which disgusts me. You would think her mother wouldn't but no. Her mother betrays her. It's terrible how their relationship falls to pieces. Jenna is my favorite character. I do like her friends,, because they stand beside her.

[Jenn · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first finished book of 2012!

This book was a chance pick up as I was browsing the library. I love to look for series and when I saw there was at least 2 books I read the inside cover and decided to pick it up.

The story was enjoyable yet some parts were pretty predictable. Sometimes I felt that Jenna was annoying and being stubborn, but then I had to remember that she was only 17 years old and placed with quite a burden at such age.

It was hard for me to get used to the titles of the characters in the book. The author seems to switch around calling them by their actual name and then by their title bestowed upon by their families. Once I realized this I paid closer to attention so that I wouldn't get confused with the characters.

The beginning and parts of the middle of the book were a bit slow and at times i would only read a couple of pages and then put it down. Once i got past that the book would take off.

I enjoyed it enough that I have already started the second book.

[sjams · Rating 2 out of 5]

I kept trying to find some fault with this book, as a product of reading too many review blogs that are critical of fantasy. But there wasn't anything special, other than it was slow-going at times, and I'm not even sure if that's the fault of the book so much as of me. I liked that it seemed based on a Celtic viewpoint, but otherwise I didn't care too terribly about this book. My central problem was that I never connected with the main character. I couldn't decide if she was that cold-hearted before she got the stone, or after, or what happened to her, but I never felt like she had any sort of empathy for anyone else, and that turns me off from people in general. So I won't be reading the rest of the series, but this book itself wasn't a horrible book - just not my cup of tea.

[Elb4966 · Rating 2 out of 5]

I only read up to chapter 6 and if I finish the book, it is only because I like to finish what I start. The book is boring. The narration keeps switching from different person views, which disrupts the flow of the book. The author explains reactions, instead of letting the reader experience the reactions. Also, there is gratuitous descriptions occurring, which slows down the pace of the book.

It is not the worst book I've read, but it is clearly not the average book either. I am giving it 2 stars because it has the potential to be 2 stars, but I do not plan on reading it to see if it will improve.

Update: I finished the book. I think the idea of this story is a good one. But I am not interested in reading the rest of the series.

[Pavlo Tverdokhlib · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this one back in 2007, when I was just starting to build up my own library of SFF books, and I was picking up 1st volumes of a whole bunch of series, trying out different authors.

I was always fascinated with Celtic mythology, and Cloudmages seemed to be something quite interesting in that vein. However, I never went past the first book. There was a single reason fro this--a lack of pronunciation guide. The author liberally threw in Celtic (I'm presuming Irish) place and people names everywhere. And not understanding how to read them really undermined my enjoyment of the novel. Similarly to David Anthony Durham's "Acacia" which I've also read about the same time, it was a minor thing, but it completely ruined my enjoyment of the book.

[Tonya Harris · Rating 5 out of 5]

My sister found these books back when she was in college and loaned them to me. Man, was I ever glad she did! I love to read and I love a good book. So I was thoroughly pleased to find these and instantly add them to my huge collection.

At first this book seemed a bit slow but it didn't last long. Within the first 50 pages I was hooked and begging for more. Years later I still reread these books. The world that you get dropped in and the people you meet make it seem like you are almost there.

If you haven't read these, and are looking for a good fantasy book that you can lose yourself in, I have to urge you to read these!

[Nissanmama]

This is an epic story in the tradition of David Eddings complete with maps, glossaries and a roll-call of players. I entirely enjoyed hearing the accents of ancient Irishmen in my head as they struggled through adventure, adversity, love, war, and death. I especially appreciated that the "hero" of the story was a strong, seventeen year old girl. She learns many lessons, many of them painful, through her teachers and her own mistakes, but comes out matured and triumphant in the end. I am looking forward to the sequels.

[Prettytaz83 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good enough to catch me about halfway through to want to finish it out, and try reading the 2nd in the series. Not good enough to recommend to other people.

Semi-Spoiler ahead:

I didn't care for the way so much terrible stuff happened to Jenna -- some of it just seemed unnecessary for the storyline. I think there could have been a much more delicate, intriguing way to develop the plot, rather than have Jenna suffer over and over again....

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid beginning to a promising series of fantasy, though it moves a bit slow in the middle. The lead character is very engaging and well-thought out, and the world is well developed without having to be too much explained outside of the story itself. However, the vast list of minor characters with many similar names is a bit daunting, so much of the political intrigue is easily glossed over. I'll wait a bit before picking up the next book, but I do really want to know what happens next!

[White Picket Fence · Rating 3 out of 5]

Holder of Lightning is a very in depth novel. It has a great talent for in enveloping the reader into its world. Though the book was rather long I found quite a few parts of this book enjoyable. But my over all opinion of this book was not good. It carried on too long and it just was not my type of book. I would probably never read this one again But I might read the next book, because S.L. Farrell creates a fantastical world!

[Monica · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book very well, but there were parts I skimmed over because I wasn't quite as interested in the description of the locations or scenery as I was of the people and the situations. I enjoyed the way she brought Jenna, the main character, through all the obstacles, from the beginning to the end, from child to woman.

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I avoided this book for awhile because the cover was so awful, but now I realize how true the cliche of "You can't judge a book by its cover" is. This is one of the best fantasy series that I've read, and I've read a lot. Every character is fully developed and the story is captivating. This is one series that you'll want to read again and again.

[Jesslyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great story. Full of magic, political intrigue and classic coming of age fun. At times so gritty you can taste the crunch. This was a great find and even though it's in a series, the book stands on it's own--which is a relief in this age of cliffhanger endings (that, frankly, seem to me a cheat on the part of today's writers)

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

i enjoyed it and am reading the second. if you like fantasy/sci-fi then you know that all the magic sort of ends up being the same kind of stuff, so i enjoyed this book for the characters and the plot.