The Sable Moon

The Book of Isle #3

by Nancy Springer

Like a misty fog, a dark force rolls over the Isle of Welas. Now proud-hearted Prince Trevyn must embark on a quest to free the Isle of evil's grip and realize his own legendary destiny... - Prince Trevyn hates Gwern, the weird boy who suddenly turns up one day. He does not know why his parents Alan and Lysse take him into their castle. His hatred causes him to run away where he meets Wael for the first time, Wael is a god that inhabits the bodies of wolves and is attacking villages. Trevyn turns up in a village just in time to save Meg, a village girl whom he quickly falls in love with. Wael has other ideas as he lures Trevyn over the sea to Tokar where he is enslaved and sold to an old priest. It is here that Trevyn learns the true nature of Wael and escapes to try and use this information. He finds himself on Elwestrand, home of the elves, where he is reunited with his uncle and learns more of Wael. Once he returns to Isle he fights the wolves but it is not until Gwern is killed and hands his powers off to Trevyn that he finally has the power to defeat Wael and be re-united with Meg.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Young Adult, Novels, High Fantasy

264 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published February 1, 1981

About the author

BIO -- NANCY SPRINGER


Nancy Springer has passed the fifty-book milestone, having written that many novels for adults, young adults and children, in genres including mythic fantasy, contemporary fiction, magical realism, horror, and mystery -- although she did not realize she wrote mystery until she won the Edgar Allan Poe Award from the Mystery Writers of America two years in succession. DARK LIE, recently released from NAL, is her first venture into mass-market psychological suspense.
Born in Montclair, New Jersey, Nancy Springer moved with her family to Gettysburg, of Civil War fame, when she was thirteen. She spent the next forty-six years in Pennsylvania, raising two children (Jonathan, now 38, and Nora, 34), writing, horseback riding, fishing, and birdwatching. In 2007 she surprised her friends and herself by moving with her second husband to an isolated area of the Florida panhandle, where the birdwatching is spectacular and where, when fishing, she occasionally catches an alligator.

Reviews

[X · Rating 4 out of 5]

As with the previous books in the series, Isle is not the most original fantasy world, but the story is still delightfully captivating. I usually do not like sequels that have the previous main character's kid as the protagonist, but in this case it did not seem like Hal and Alan were only peripheral characters even though they were no longer the "main" characters, and Trevyn became quite a likable hero by the end of the story. There were a few things I was not entirely clear about, but perhaps they will be explained by the end of the series, and in any event, I am looking forward to starting the next book and reading more about Isle, magic and adventuring.

[Deb · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've been reading a lot lately. Again, I ran out of books on my to-read shelf at home. I had to return to this series of books I own. Thankfully, I've replenished. I probably won't need to return to this series for a while.

I like it. It's fantasy. I like some of the wording. I guess it's just starting to feel a little to archaic. There's often less action than I'd prefer. There's less to ponder.

Maybe it's just that real life has been more interesting and action-filled this week.

This book is okay; it's something to read, but I wouldn't have felt like I missed much if I skipped it.

[Ian Banks · Rating 3 out of 5]

Less derivative than The Silver Sun but still filled with a cast of Magical Celts (TM) having fantastic adventures. It’s a more confident and clever novel but one that doesn’t affect me as much as Silver Sun did. Still a good read, though.

[Airin Efferin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Out of the whole series I think I like this book's heroes and heroines best. Most realistic with the relationship development!

[SpentCello · Rating 4 out of 5]

This continued in much the same vein as The Silver Sun and follows the events that occurred, but a couple of decades on. I can see why comparisons to Thomas Covenant are made as the two series share a lot of tropes, particularly the emphasis on semi-magical, valiant horses and a quasi-paradise heartland for characters who have fulfilled their prophecies. The Sable Moon was strong on characters and explored some more of the world, but while the travel sequences were better than the last book, they still seem off by being either hectically frantic with people not sleeping or eating for ages, or stagnant and repetitive. There was much less of the conlang in this and I found that a pleasant relief, however, I wish there had been more Meg and less Trevyn.

[Jimbo · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Sable Moon was not the strongest of the three books in this five book series. I found it to be meandering and filled with riddles that didn't really mean all that much and did nothing to move the plot forward. The last fifty pages were compelling, but getting there was not always interesting enough to hold my interest. This is rare for a Springer book. I have loved everything I have read, this one just seemed out of focus at times. Plus, like all fantasy, the wandering around trying to "find" you duty or fate or whatever just gets old.

I will happily look for the fourth book and I am hoping that it will be about Dair, Prince Trevyn's son because that is an interesting character.

[Massimiliano · Rating 4 out of 5]

A surprisingly good little book. I was expecting something worse, I must be honest. Some bits feel a bit confusing, but overall I enjoyed the atmosphere of the novel and the subtle, celtic, approack to magic.

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great installment in the Books of Isle series. Wonderful content regarding accepting the shadow, the concept of the wyrd. Acceptance of self and one's destiny/ fate is a major theme. A bit long, but they all are. Lots of textual errors/typos in the Kindle version but decipherable.

[Helen Fleischer · Rating 5 out of 5]

A highly satisfying, magical adventure .

[Lindsey Duncan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not done yet, GoodReads!

All right, now about the book itself. This, the third volume of Nancy Springer's Isle series, follows the next generation after The Silver Sun - Trevyn, the headstrong son of Alan and Lysse, part elf, someday king, and all-round pain in the neck. Trevyn's pride is a driving force of the first section of the novel, causing him to reject his blood-brother and walk away from his true love. My favorite part of the book is his arrival in Welas, where his pride both defeats him ... and at the same time, is the thing that defines and sustains him.

(Younger readers may feel differently, but through a lot of this volume, I had trouble liking Trevyn as a character. It is perhaps telling that I inadvertently stole the name, years and years later, for an RPG char's psychotic ex-boyfriend ...)

The main problem with The Sable Moon is that it relies even heavily on the deep, mysterious mythos of Isle - but here, perhaps in part because the fantasy field has now been inundated with similar tales, it wears thin. Instead of complementing the lyricism of the prose, the magical world feels like a deus ex machina, reducing motivations to, "Because I said so."

Still, as a romantic interest, Meg is positively delightful, a spunky heroine in a vein that has become perhaps just a touch too familiar ... but perhaps because she's original rather than imitative, she comes off very true and likeable. It's just a shame we don't get a bit more of her perspective. Hmm, so I've changed my mind - Meg is my favorite part of the novel.

[Cera · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yikes, I've gotten so behind on these! Only sketchy thoughts are left, sadly.

I liked the way that Springer plays with some Tolkien tropes (the 'call' to sail across the sea) both by reproducing them and inverting them, providing nice parallel experiences for different characters. I also appreciated her attempts to write a female character who was somewhat competent without being unearthly. The world is still very gendered, but Meg was a nice change of pace from the oh-so-perfect romantic interests of the earlier books.

As I said in earlier reviews, the books are very cliched because they're very early novels in the fantasy explosion, so they use lots of Tolkien-dervied ideas which have now become so standard that readers roll their eyes at them. But Springer was doing it early on, and her prose is really quite nice, so I'm glad I read this.

[Arlene Allen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nancy Springer writes poetry disguised as fantasy fiction.

[John Behnken · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as good as the first two, but enjoyable.