De gave van strijd

The Sorcerer's Ring #17

by Morgan Rice

“DE TOVENAARSRING heeft alle ingrediënten voor direct succes: intriges, samenzweringen, mysteries, dappere ridders en opbloeiende relaties vol met gebroken harten, bedrog en verraad. Het houdt je uren bezig en is voor alle leeftijden geschikt. Aanbevolen voor de permanente bibliotheek van alle fantasie lezers.”
—Books and Movie Reviews, Roberto Mattos (regarding A Quest of Heroes)

DE GAVE VAN STRIJD (Boek #17) is de finale van de bestseller serie DE TOVENAARSRING, die met EEN ZOEKTOCH VAN HELDEN begint (boek #1)!

In DE GAVE VAN STRIJD heeft Thor zijn grootste en laatste uitdaging, terwijl hij verder het Land van Bloed ingaat in zijn poging om Guwayne te redden. Hij komt vijanden tegen die machtiger zijn dan hij ooit had gedacht en Thor beseft zich al snel dat hij een leger van duisternis voor zich heeft, één waar zijn macht niet mee kan evenaren. Wanneer hij hoort over een heilig voorwerp dat hem de macht kan geven die hij nodig heeft – een voorwerp die eeuwenlang geheim is gebleven – moet hij een laatste queeste aangaan om het te krijgen voordat het te laat is. Het lot van de Ring staat op het spel.

Gwendolyn houdt zich aan haar belofte aan de Koning van de Bergrug. Ze gaat de toren binnen en ontmoet de sekteleider om erachter te komen welk geheim hij verborgen houdt. De onthulling brengt haar naar Argon en uiteindelijk naar de meester van Argon – waar ze het grootste geheim te weten komt. Eén die het lot van haar mensen kan veranderen. Wanneer de Bergrug door het Keizerrijk wordt ontdekt, begint de invasie. Als ze onder vuur liggen door het grootste leger die men kent, ligt de verantwoordelijkheid bij Gwendolyn om haar mensen te verdedigen en op een laatste, massale uittocht te leiden.

De Legioen broeders van Thor zien onvoorstelbare risico’s onder ogen, terwijl Engel door haar melaatsheid stervende is. Darius vecht voor zijn leven naast zijn vader in de Keizerlijke hoofdstad, totdat het een verrassende wending krijgt. Hij heeft niets meer te verliezen en moet uiteindelijk zijn eigen macht aanboren. Erec en Alistair bereiken Volusia en vechten hun weg stroomopwaarts. Ze gaan met hun queeste voor Gwendolyn en de bannelingen door, terwijl ze onverwachte veldslagen tegenkomen. En Godfrey beseft zich dat hij de uiteindelijk een beslissing moet nemen om de man te worden die hij zijn wil.

Volusia is omsingeld door alle krachten van de Ridders van de Zeven. Ze moet zichzelf als godin op de proef stellen en erachter komen of ze alleen de macht heeft om mannen te vermorzelen en over het Keizerrijk te heersen. Terwijl Argon, aan het einde van zijn leven, beseft dat de tijd gekomen is om zichzelf op te offeren.

Terwijl goed en kwaad in onbalans zijn, zal één laatste epische veldslag – de grootste veldslag van allemaal – de uitkomst voor de Ring voor altijd beslissen.

Met zijn geraffineerde wereld-opbouw en karakterbeschrijving, is DE GAVE VAN STRIJD een episch verhaal van vrienden en geliefden, van rivalen en minnaars, van ridders en draken, van intriges en politieke spelletjes, van ouderdom, van gebroken harten, van verraad, ambitie en oplichterij. Het is een verhaal van eer en heldendom, van noodlot, van tovenarij. Het is een fantasie die ons in een wereld brengt die we nooit zullen vergeten, en die voor alle leeftijden aantrekkelijk is. DE GAVE VAN STRIJD is de langste van alle boeken in de serie, 93.000 woorden!

“Vol met aktie …. Rice's schrijven is solide en stelling intrigerend.”
—Publishers Weekly (regarding A Quest of Heroes)

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Adventure, Young Adult, Epic, Ebooks, Epic Fantasy

313 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 23, 2014

About the author

Morgan Rice is the #1 bestselling and USA Today bestselling author of the epic fantasy series THE SORCERER’S RING, comprising seventeen books; of the #1 bestselling series THE VAMPIRE JOURNALS, comprising twelve books; of the #1 bestselling series THE SURVIVAL TRILOGY, a post-apocalyptic thriller comprising three books; of the epic fantasy series KINGS AND SORCERERS, comprising six books; of the epic fantasy series OF CROWNS AND GLORY, comprising 8 books; of the new epic fantasy series A THRONE FOR SISTERS, comprising eight books (and counting); and of the new science fiction series THE INVASION CHRONICLES. Morgan’s books are available in audio and print editions, and translations are available in over 25 languages.

TURNED (Book #1 in the Vampire Journals), ARENA ONE (Book #1 of the Survival Trilogy), A QUEST OF HEROES (Book #1 in the Sorcerer’s Ring) and RISE OF THE DRAGONS (Kings and Sorcerers—Book #1) are each available as free downloads!

Morgan loves to hear from you, so please feel free to visit www.morganricebooks.com to join the email list, receive a free book, receive free giveaways, download the free app, get the latest exclusive news, connect on Facebook and Twitter, and stay in touch!

Reviews

[Evan Ross · Rating 1 out of 5]

Finally! Suddenly he realized for the first time that he would never have to read another one of these finally he realized that he would never need to read these books again. And suddenly, for the first time he instantly grasped the true meaning of it all...no more glaring plot holes, no more bad pacing and obvious inconsistencies, and finally, lastly for the first time, poor grammar, poor sentence structure and just bad writing would, for the first time come to an end. Thorgrin vowed, please god please don't put me in another of Ms Rice's novels again. I am too one dimensional, juvenile and lack character. I repeat the same inner thoughts over and over and really have an easy time over coming all obstacles, especially the mind numbing cliff hangers that repeat ad nauseum at the end, predictably, of each chapter. Thor realized that for the first time, he was done and suddenly he felt a great numbness welling up in his mind.....

[Amanda · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thank god this series is over. The content could have been done in 5 books if they cut out all the repetitive language. How mind-numbing it is to read the same exact language over and over, chapter after chapter, and book after book.

The editors of these books should be FIRED. There are so many typos it's completely beyond acceptable. I cannot BELIEVE they even thought to reprint a review at the start of the book that acknowledges there are excessive typos!

The epilogue chapter was the nail in the ineptitude coffin - how is it that neither the author, nor the editors, nor the publishers picked up that the math is entirely wrong in calculating Guwayne's age? And who names a character Guwayne? How awful having to repeat that name over and over.

These books were only read to help meet my Goodreads challenge quota. Save yourself and read just about ANYTHING else.

[Josh · Rating 1 out of 5]

I honestly only finished this series because I wanted to see how it would end. The characters were static and not believable (and stupid most of the time), the book was full of typos (how many authors write "have went" in published books?) and pretty big plot holes and contradictions (like characters recognizing other characters they have never met), somehow the 20 or so main characters almost all survive through 17 books of unlikely odds. Often the author would use the exact same "thesaurus adjective" two sentences in a row to describe different things. Similes and metaphors felt forced and painful to read. It felt like the author just came up with strange new problems just so she could stretch the story into another 10 books. I honestly don't know why people would pay for all of these books (I read from for free through the library) because they are honestly probably the lowest quality books I have ever read.

[Chloe Cheng · Rating 1 out of 5]

As she read on, she was thinking, maybe, just maybe, the next chapter would not be as repetitious. Hoping against hope, she searched for any redeeming factor in the final book to justify the time spent in this entire series. To her great dismay, there was none. All was hopeless as page after page the plot holes are accumulating to be the size of the Ring's canyon. She summoned all her inner strength and continued to read on. Finally, just when she thought she cannot continue any longer, she reached towards the depths of her reserve and shouted with a great voice to her startled husband, "If I shall die trying to finish this story, so be it!"

[Layci · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this series and I'm sad that it's over. I can't even begin to rain in my thoughts on these books. I'll try to though without giving any spoilers away. Rice created a wonderful world and a plot that had so many twists and turns in it that even when i thought I had something figured out, she threw something else in completely surprising me. There were times when the story was absolutely heart wrenching and i'm not ashamed to say i broke down crying several times wondering what was going to happen next. The characters were amazing and strong, valiant heroes protecting all that they loved and cherished, yet most were broken and weak in different ways showing that although they were heroes they were still human and were imperfect in their pursuit of valor and honor, and because of this I felt a connection to all of them. I am looking forward to reading the King's and Sorcerer's series by Rice, and one day hopefully The Sorcerer's Son series that she promised in the Authors note of The Gift of Battle. I will say she desperately needed a new editor but that did not make me love these books any less, and I hope any who want to read this series will be willing to look past those errors too because it really is an amazing series. TO HONOR!!!

[L.R.W. Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Morgan Rice finally concluded the Sorcerer's Ring series in this tale.

I have mixed feeling about the conclusion. On one hand I'm thrilled she finally killed it because the last several books felt like the same thing regurgitated over and over again (like beating a dead horse).

That said, I appreciated her review of all that she brought us and her characters through in the series. Her brief mentions had me recall momenteous events in the characters lives. This made me realize how much growth each of the characters experienced since the beginning, several years ago.

My only objection to how she concluded the series was many of the events conveniently fell in place too conveniently. ***SPOILER*** I'm glad she reunited everyone at the end, but life just doesn't happen that cleanly, especially when the rest of the series was about exactly the opposite. ***END SPOILER***

Overall, I give this 4 stars out of 5

[Freyja · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first few books in the series really had my attention and I really enjoyed. I read them quickly. However the story as a whole, not just this book, just seemed to drag on and on for me. Which made it difficult to read. I liked the series. I was happy that I had finally finished it.

[Karin Diricx · Rating 4 out of 5]

Toffe serie goeie auteur ❤️ spijtig dat het al uit is.

[Scott · Rating 1 out of 5]

My goodness! These books became painful to read. This review is more for the entire series then this one book. I finished this series after such a large investment of time, but I can’t say I greatly enjoyed it. The first few books in this series were enjoyable, but beyond that the books are overly repetitive, have massive plot holes and just plain bad writing.

Most of the books in the Sorcerer’s Ring series feel like the author composed a rough draft and then the publisher went straight to print with no editing. If there was an editing staff, they should be fired immediately. I don’t claim to be a literary expert, but these books were just bad when I came to typos and repetitive language. I think finally Godfrey figured out what it meant to be a man 7 times in this series. All of the characters have perfect aim, as every bow shot, javelin throw, or stone throw ended in a “perfect strike”! If you are going to be wounded in this series, there is a 50% chance it’s going to be your bicep.

The worst part for me was the simple math errors. Through all 17 books the size of the Empire forces fluctuates constantly, seemly always coming back to rest at one million men, at one point being as many as 7 million. “O’Connor uses his last arrow to kill a foe” One paragraph later.... “O’Connor fires off four arrows....” In a chapter where there are 5 characters taking part, the paragraph ends with “and the four of the men ran away down the alley.” When the remaining members of the Ring get across the great waste there are only 12 members left, 11 of which are named characters. Three chapters later, there are eight members of the Silver still alive aside from Brandt, Atmay, and Kendrick.

There is not a consistent measurement of time in the entire series. Moons, days, sun cycles.... pick one please. I can only imagine this decision was made because the author wanted to make no effort in synchronizing the story lines accurately. We do at least know that it takes slightly more than 6 moons to gestate a baby. It was 6 moons. 6 moons had passed since.....

This entire series could have consisted of 5 to 6 books. There are many essentially useless characters and side plots. This series is a clear indication of a cash grab by the publisher and a severe lack of effort by or highly restrictive writing timeline imposed on the author.

If you are just starting to read this series, my recommendation is.... Don’t!

[acspascoal · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book (the whole series, actually):
- was pretty repetitive, with subsequent scenes replaying in exactly the same way (how many times do you have to set ships on fire and pass that as a new idea, for God's sake?!);
- had many typos that should have been fixed during the editor's review;
- had tons of inconsistencies, such as babies' ages (how can a baby that wasn't even born 12 months ago, now be the same age (1 year old) as another who had been born for "so many moons" before?), people recognising other characters they had never met or heard of before, and so on.

In the beginning of the series, I felt it was hard to put down the book, as I wanted to know what would happen next - there was excitement and some innovation, so I would disregard the typos and all. However, as the story continued and the books would become increasingly more expensive, those details started to play a bigger role on my perception. The story wasn't that exciting anymore, always repeating itself or becoming too easy to expect what would happen next. Different characters suddenly started to mash together, to become too similar to each other, and to act in the exact same way. The chapters all had the same recipe too: big obstacle, random character almost losing it, change of heart, character overcoming big obstacle; change character and repeat - really milking the cow, here...

In a whole, I liked the series (for most parts anyway), but I am kinda disappointed on how it was played. I don't like to leave stuff unfinished, so I felt somehow obliged to buy and read the 17 books, but I don't think they were worth as much as I payed for them. They were fun sometimes, sure, but there should have been a better attention to the detail and a more rigorous and critical analysis from both the author and the editor.

[Nick · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a great series! It ran a little long and it seemed like some of the stories repeated themselves, but all in all I'm glad I put in the time to finish it all. I loved the characters from book 1 and had to see how it all wrapped up.

[Sandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have now finished the series, parts remind me of other stories. Glad I held out and finished the series. A somewhat predictable ending in ways. I did enjoy , even though mistakes in editing....I could figure out what should have been there. I did enjoy the authors writing!

[Edwin · Rating 2 out of 5]

EINDELIJK.. Ik heb de serie uit. Heb me er door heen geworsteld.

Deze hele serie zou makkelijk in een boek of 5, 6 gepast hebben, als ze de herhalende teksten er uit hadden gehaald. Ook had ik het idee dat er scenes opnieuw in het verhaal werden gebracht, met andere personages, maar toch...

Meerdere malen komen er toch weer vreemde dingen in voor. Schepen waar je zo van de ene naar de andere overspringt, elkaar aan kunt staren. Schepen die varen in smalle rivieren, maar waar het toch mogelijk was dat een van de eerste schepen zich liet afzakken, omdraaide en dwars door de linie van de vijand voer.
Dan waren er nog de personages die elkaar herkenden, terwijl zij ze voor de eerste keer ontmoetten.

Halverwege het boek kwam er nog eventjes een queeste tussen door die Thor moest doen, en natuurlijk net op het laatste moment daar in slaagde.

En dan zweeg ik nog maar over de steeds weer herhalende zinsopbouw 'zij renden en reden' etc.

Zoals een andere reviewer al schreef, ik heb deze serie uitgelezen om aan mijn Goodreads quota te komen. Het verhaal zelf had potentie, was het maar geschreven door een auteur die wist waar hij het over had.

Ps. Op mijn site heb ik een halve punt afgetrokken omdat Rice schreef dat er een 'spin-off' van komt

[Bryan Gwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

So I finished the series and my previous reviews on the other books work here. It’s a good story and really keeps you reading. But the writing is sub par and it seems they did not have an editor. So many mistakes and miss used words. There are also some inconsistencies that don’t make a lot of sense in the story and the end is underwhelming. It’s very YA. That being said I still enjoyed it and would recommend it for someone not looking for too much depth but wants a fun adventure that pulls you along.

[KK from KY · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have given this 4 1/2 ⭐️ simply for the ending. After every book in this series ending of a cliffhanger, I was so afraid that I’d never get to a real ending, happy or otherwise. I did get a satisfying ending. Even though it was a very long series, I think I will miss these characters. I can also see a second series picking up in the future with the next generation of these characters. Overall I enjoyed all of this series.

[Aditya Bhattacharjee · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Quest of HeroesA Fate of DragonsA March of KingsA Cry of HonorA Charge of ValorA Grant of ArmsA Sky of SpellsA Reign of SteelA Rite of SwordsA Land of FireAn Oath of BrothersThe Gift of BattleA Sea of ShieldsA Rule of QueensA Vow of Glory
By no doubt, I did love this book. The whole series was good, but the last book went from here to another(like, Thor went to find his son, and then he started looking for the Destiny Sword, and Sorcerer's Ring). It was a little intense. If you like these kind of intense, mystery, action, middle aged fighting books, then this series is definitely for you. Morgan Rice

[R.D. weber · Rating 5 out of 5]

This series has everything you can hope to find on a meideval fantasy novel. It has brutal war that takes you to a place you can never travel to in our world.. dragons, knights of the highest honor and skill. Enemies that seem insurmountable more evil than any creature you can imagine. Then you have the heroes, the bravest and some of theist unlikely souls. I throughly enjoyed watching Thorgrin grown up into the warriors and man he became, traveling with him to faraway lands, watching him overcome countless obstacles and certain death to come put stronger and faster everyone. Then there's Gwendolyn, one of the fiercest queens, and smartest rulers in any land, watching her come into her role was beautiful to watch. The trials and enemies she faced making you think they would all die, but never on their backs. And probably the best one to see grow, was Godfrey. Growing up suppressing his lineage and pushing down his destiny only to see him come out fighting along side everyone else was a sight to imagine! Along with all the countless supporting characters. Eric, Kendrick, Reese, Eldon, and all the rest. Come together in the most amazing final showdown of good and evil. My only issues was the cousin love between Reese and Starra. Truly one of the best series I've ever read, and the seventeen books flew by. If you want to travel to far away lands, battle demons, gargoyles, dragons. And save the world! This series is for you!

[Jim Pike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Now that I have finished the entire series, I can get this out. The story line itself was the main reason I continued this series. There were a lot of repeated words (They ran and ran....they swam and swam...they flew and flew) making it sound like a 12 year old wrote it. Over use of the same wording, made it hard to stay focused on the actual story. How many first times can there be in 17 novels?? Too many inconsistencies as well. People who never met, knew each other. People on opposite sides of the world, knew what the other person just learned. I think if these books did have an editor, then that person needs to be fired, and go back to 3rd grade, and start their education over again.
The list of inconsistencies is just way to long to list.
The story itself, was quite good and I really enjoyed that part. It was mind numbing to get through, and I really only finished just because I wanted to see how it played out. I was sadly disappointed in the ending. After 17 books of fighting for everything, I felt it was all over way to fast and incomplete.

[Diane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well I did it, I read all 17 books in this series. And, I have held my tongue but it's now time to let loose. This series started out great but after several books it got pretty ridiculous. I realize this is a fantasy series, however, the monsters, the situations, the unbelievably stupid decisions we are supposed to believe were just too much. It was hard to keep reading at times.

Worst of all though was the grammatical errors. Morgan Rice needs a new Editor! There were so many sentences with missing words, duplicate words, and misspelled words. Characters who have been in every book, or at least many books, who suddenly had their names misspelled; Kendrick was called Kendra, Loti was called Lot. Come on!

I do not like stopping in the middle of a series, so I persevered. All in all, it was a good series, it just was not a great series.

[Julie Powell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great ending to the epic fantasy. I have the bundle #16-17, but wanted to say that it's been a long haul but it was a satisfying conclusion...with a hint of more about Thor's son.

The problem throughout the series was poor editing. Typos, wrong names and countless repetition did spoil the reading.

However, it had all the ingredients of an epic fantasy - heroes, villains, dark and light, battles and numerous twists and turns, love and honour. It was brilliantly imaginative. The characters were well-developed and Thor's story was intriguing...mystical and magical. It was also good to see how characters changed.

Overall, an excellent story with great writing style and tone, but one in serious needs of editing and proofreading.

Recommended.

[Jon · Rating 2 out of 5]

This the 17th and final book, in a series which should have been five books frankly, doesn't satisfy. The writing is terrible, constant use of phrases like "then for the first time in his life..." and overuse of the word shriek to the point where it's distracting. There's a lot of story told in this series but it's all repetitive, no feeling of epic grandeur or that all of these stories are leading to a single climax. Could have been so much better.

[Saurabh Prabhakar · Rating 2 out of 5]

How does this book get 3.97 ratings at Goodreads? It questions the integrity of the rating system.

The whole series is OK at best. got the first audiobook for free, started listening on the drive. Suddenly I was going through books like a man possessed. (what does that even mean "fighting like a man possessed)

There are so many repetitions. The way the 17th book ended was good. quick. Probably she read a review questioning the extremely lengthy writing.

[H.V · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whole series is amazing, it's a pack of different emotions. The books sure have some grammatical errors and repetitions but the story is really good. Total of 17 books is a lot but it was really nice to read all of it. The author has a great imagination, every character with their own destiny to achieve...but at last all are together celebrating happily. I looking forward to read the other books written by Rice.

[Robert McCurley · Rating 2 out of 5]

I loved the story line, but I was not impressed with the unbelievable battle scenes. Things like acrobatic and martial art moves while fighting in armor. A never ending supply of weapons like arrows and spears after abandoning ships. I know these books are for young adults, but I think more realistic battle scenes could have been better:

[Valerie Wells · Rating 5 out of 5]

I very much enjoyed the complete series. The story was exciting through out that kept my interest of what was happening next. I was very impressed with no horrible cursing & lots of couples in love but not having to detail sex . I hope everyone enjoys as much as I did.

[Martin Pingree · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome Ending to an awesome series !

[Jennifer · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am so glad this series is finally finished. Reese didn't actually die; Thor brought him back to life. They escape the land of blood and Thor goes on a quest by himself; to find the sorcerer's ring where he battles himself and finally becomes the king of the druids. Gwen leads the people of the Ridge out and back to the Ring. They are joined by Eric and the people of the Southern Isles. Reese's girlfriend dies a final time and just as she dies his cousin that he also loves shows up so now Reese is with his cousin. Alistair finally tells Eric that she's pregnant. She uses her magic to help in the fights. The baby dragon helps Thor in the fights. Darius helps destroy the Empire ship that is holding him captive and re-joins Gwen and company. Gwen and Eric and Reese get back to the Ring but Thor isn't in sight. Gwen leads the battle and then Thor finally shows up and basically single-handedly defeats the Empire. Then the Blood Lord shows up and surprise: it's his dead father reincarnated. So he has to defeat him. Argon retrieves the destiny sword and sacrifices himself to do it. Thor almost dies but sees his mother in a vision and she tells him that love is the only thing that can defeat darkness. And then he wins. Fast forward 12 moons; so he is finally 16 and finally getting married. As are all of the couples that have been established. Everyone is happy. Nobody of importance to the story died. And they are back where they started.

[Rob · Rating 4 out of 5]

De reeks heb ik met veel plezier gelezen. Al moet ik eerlijk zeggen dat het gehele verhaal overall wel 4a5 boeken minder had gekund. Wellicht te veel battles en had ik graag meee ingezoomd zien worden over de relatie tussen the Ring en the Ridge, tussen Ragon en Argon, tussen de vader en moeder van Thor. Bovendien na 16,5 boeken vind ik de slotapotheose tegenvallen. Waarom riepen Argon (en waar was Ragon gebleven en hun master?), Darius, Allistar en Thor hun krachten en powers niet gezamenlijk op? Wat was nu precies de meerwaarde van Angel en Jasmine? Waren de oh zo geweldige nieuwe onverslaanbare wapens van Reece&co the Legion toch niet zo goed? In mijn ogen toch gemiste kansen. Kortom leuk verhaal, maar niet episch.

[Ashton Noel · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's finally over! I felt this book just didn't add up. You have books and books in this series that drag out and halfway through this book I could not see how the author was going to wrap everything up given the pacing of the rest of the series. Then about 3/4 of the way through things finally move into motion then all of a sudden we have closure of every single storyline and they all lived happily ever after. It just felt rushed and like the author just wanted to be done writing the series. And quite frankly, I wanted the series to end too but it just felt lacking to me and unfitting to the rest of the series.

[Angelita Koehler · Rating 3 out of 5]

O livro é bom, porém a tradução para o português, apenas neste último, o 17, é péssima! Fico com a impressão de que não houve revisão desta tradução​.
Mas senti falta de um complemento neste livro, afinal foi introduzido um personagem (Darius) já no livro 12 ou 13 e este personagem que estava totalmente desconectado da história principal recebeu tantas páginas de atenção, mas ao fim, não foi esclarecido sua função na história, ou seja, seria totalmente dispensável na minha opinião!
De resto um final feliz como era esperado.