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Arhel #3
Mind of the Magic
Trouble just seems to follow Faia Rissedotte. She's a powerful mage, perhaps the most powerful. And it's Faia's fate to bring the Delmuire Barrier down, to end life as it has been for millenia on Arhel, and to reunite it with the rest of the world. Much as Faia will fight it, Fate will have its way with her--but even the gods won't be the same when she's done.
305 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 1995
9 people are currently reading
220 people want to read
About the author
Holly Lisle
109 books449 followersHolly Lisle has been writing fiction professionally since 1991, when she sold FIRE IN THE MIST, the novel that won her the Compton Crook Award for best first novel. She has to date published more than thirty novels and several comprehensive writing courses. She has just published WARPAINT, the second stand-alone novel in her Cadence Drake series.
Holly had an ideal childhood for a writer…which is to say, it was filled with foreign countries and exotic terrains, alien cultures, new languages, the occasional earthquake, flood, or civil war, and one story about a bear, which follows:
“So. Back when I was ten years old, my father and I had finished hunting ducks for our dinner and were walking across the tundra in Alaska toward the spot on the river where we’d tied our boat. We had a couple miles to go by boat to get back to the Moravian Children’s Home, where we lived.
“My father was carrying the big bag of decoys and the shotgun; I was carrying the small bag of ducks.
“It was getting dark, we could hear the thud, thud, thud of the generator across the tundra, and suddenly he stopped, pointed down to a pie-pan sized indentation in the tundra that was rapidly filling with water, and said, in a calm and steady voice, “That’s a bear footprint. From the size of it, it’s a grizzly. The fact that the track is filling with water right now means the bear’s still around.”
“Which got my attention, but not as much as what he said next.
” ‘I don’t have the gun with me that will kill a bear,’ he told me. ‘I just have the one that will make him angry. So if we see the bear, I’m going to shoot him so he’ll attack me. I want you to run to the river, follow it to the boat, get the boat back home, and tell everyone what happened.’
“The rest of our walk was very quiet. He was, I’m sure, listening for the bear. I was doing my damnedest to make sure that I remembered where the boat was, how to get to it, how to start the pull-cord engine, and how to drive it back home, because I did not want to let him down.
“We were not eaten by a bear that night…but neither is that walk back from our hunt for supper a part of my life I’ll ever forget.
“I keep that story in mind as I write. If what I’m putting on paper isn’t at least as memorable as having a grizzly stalking my father and me across the tundra while I was carrying a bag of delicious-smelling ducks, it doesn’t make my cut.”
You can find Holly on her personal site:
Hollylisle.com
You can find Cadence Drake, Holly's currently in-progress series, on her site:
CadenceDrake.com
You can find Holly's books, courses, writing workshops, and so on here:
The HowToThinkSideways.com Shop, as well as on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and in a number of bookstores in the US and around the world.
Holly had an ideal childhood for a writer…which is to say, it was filled with foreign countries and exotic terrains, alien cultures, new languages, the occasional earthquake, flood, or civil war, and one story about a bear, which follows:
“So. Back when I was ten years old, my father and I had finished hunting ducks for our dinner and were walking across the tundra in Alaska toward the spot on the river where we’d tied our boat. We had a couple miles to go by boat to get back to the Moravian Children’s Home, where we lived.
“My father was carrying the big bag of decoys and the shotgun; I was carrying the small bag of ducks.
“It was getting dark, we could hear the thud, thud, thud of the generator across the tundra, and suddenly he stopped, pointed down to a pie-pan sized indentation in the tundra that was rapidly filling with water, and said, in a calm and steady voice, “That’s a bear footprint. From the size of it, it’s a grizzly. The fact that the track is filling with water right now means the bear’s still around.”
“Which got my attention, but not as much as what he said next.
” ‘I don’t have the gun with me that will kill a bear,’ he told me. ‘I just have the one that will make him angry. So if we see the bear, I’m going to shoot him so he’ll attack me. I want you to run to the river, follow it to the boat, get the boat back home, and tell everyone what happened.’
“The rest of our walk was very quiet. He was, I’m sure, listening for the bear. I was doing my damnedest to make sure that I remembered where the boat was, how to get to it, how to start the pull-cord engine, and how to drive it back home, because I did not want to let him down.
“We were not eaten by a bear that night…but neither is that walk back from our hunt for supper a part of my life I’ll ever forget.
“I keep that story in mind as I write. If what I’m putting on paper isn’t at least as memorable as having a grizzly stalking my father and me across the tundra while I was carrying a bag of delicious-smelling ducks, it doesn’t make my cut.”
You can find Holly on her personal site:
Hollylisle.com
You can find Cadence Drake, Holly's currently in-progress series, on her site:
CadenceDrake.com
You can find Holly's books, courses, writing workshops, and so on here:
The HowToThinkSideways.com Shop, as well as on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and in a number of bookstores in the US and around the world.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
March 20, 2015
This third and final book in the Arhel series was another fun and quick read, although there were things I both liked and disliked about it.
One of the things I liked was that it took the one thread I hadn’t thought was wrapped up well in the previous book and spun an entire story about it. We learn a lot more about Arhel, the part of the fictional world these books are set in, and how it came to be the way it is. I also liked that there was humor in the book. Nothing uproarious, but there were several little things that made me smile or chuckle. I think the humor has steadily and subtly increased throughout the series.
Unlike the other books, this book is told from the perspective of a single character – Faia, the main character from the original book. I’ve liked her throughout the series. She had been a strong character, capable of taking care of herself, never in a serious romantic relationship but perfectly capable of interacting with and having meaningful friendships with other people while finding ways to make herself useful.
In this book, however, Faia lost a lot of the qualities that I had liked so much about her. She seemed to be having a bit of a crisis. She was having a harder time finding ways to be useful, and she was starting to feel like her life couldn’t possibly be complete without a husband. So, the interesting story was frequently interrupted by potential suitors being paraded through the pages for Faia to consider and we frequently had to listen to her thoughts about why she wanted a husband and why this or that man wouldn’t do. This is a minor and mostly vague spoiler for the romance part of the story:
That last paragraph might be a teensy bit of an exaggeration, but not much of one. It annoyed me enough that I’m tempted to knock off half a star for it on the sites where I can give half stars. However, I did enjoy the story aside from that one rather large annoyance and I enjoyed the entire series a lot, so I’m going to be generous.
I was happy to see that I have another book in my backlog by the same author. It’s the beginning of another series, and I think I’ll save it for the next time I’ve been slogging through some tougher reads and need a good change of pace.
One of the things I liked was that it took the one thread I hadn’t thought was wrapped up well in the previous book and spun an entire story about it. We learn a lot more about Arhel, the part of the fictional world these books are set in, and how it came to be the way it is. I also liked that there was humor in the book. Nothing uproarious, but there were several little things that made me smile or chuckle. I think the humor has steadily and subtly increased throughout the series.
Unlike the other books, this book is told from the perspective of a single character – Faia, the main character from the original book. I’ve liked her throughout the series. She had been a strong character, capable of taking care of herself, never in a serious romantic relationship but perfectly capable of interacting with and having meaningful friendships with other people while finding ways to make herself useful.
In this book, however, Faia lost a lot of the qualities that I had liked so much about her. She seemed to be having a bit of a crisis. She was having a harder time finding ways to be useful, and she was starting to feel like her life couldn’t possibly be complete without a husband. So, the interesting story was frequently interrupted by potential suitors being paraded through the pages for Faia to consider and we frequently had to listen to her thoughts about why she wanted a husband and why this or that man wouldn’t do. This is a minor and mostly vague spoiler for the romance part of the story:
That last paragraph might be a teensy bit of an exaggeration, but not much of one. It annoyed me enough that I’m tempted to knock off half a star for it on the sites where I can give half stars. However, I did enjoy the story aside from that one rather large annoyance and I enjoyed the entire series a lot, so I’m going to be generous.
I was happy to see that I have another book in my backlog by the same author. It’s the beginning of another series, and I think I’ll save it for the next time I’ve been slogging through some tougher reads and need a good change of pace.
April 4, 2015
Each of the books in Holly Lisle's Arhel Trilogy offers a self-contained adventure, so the books could, in a pinch, be read as stand-alones. But now that I've read the third and (I think) final volume, I can appreciate the ongoing character arc of Faia Rissedotte, her journey from unlearned, rebellious teenager in the first book, to loyal friend and courageous, loving mother in the second book (where she plays an important secondary role), to world savior and challenger to the gods in the third. I liked Faia quite a bit when I read the first book, but I love her by the third. What she goes through here will make you wince on her behalf; her ill treatment at the villains' hands will make you downright mad. But she always comes out swinging.
The first and second books were not particularly romantic, but by the third book Faia is ready to fall in lasting love, and the romance she gets is quite sweet, as it develops gradually, over the course of the adventure she and her eventual love interest share. I can believe they'll live happily ever after because they took their time getting there. Faia and Edrouss are both admirable characters who deserve their happy ending.
The problem is compelling, the perils appropriately scary, and the villains thoroughly despicable. All in all, a quick, enjoyable read.
The first and second books were not particularly romantic, but by the third book Faia is ready to fall in lasting love, and the romance she gets is quite sweet, as it develops gradually, over the course of the adventure she and her eventual love interest share. I can believe they'll live happily ever after because they took their time getting there. Faia and Edrouss are both admirable characters who deserve their happy ending.
The problem is compelling, the perils appropriately scary, and the villains thoroughly despicable. All in all, a quick, enjoyable read.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 10, 2009
This little number was an impulse garage sale buy. Noteworthy because a serious douche bag ran off with a whole tote full of books I wanted to buy right beside me. He announced he wanted his son to read and ran off to the garage sale cashier. This book he missed in another tote next to it. Some people can be so rude. Anyhow this book was pure delight. Well-written, thoughtful, fun, and even a healthy dose of romance. A good find for a fantasy reader.
November 13, 2025
I read this book series a few years ago. It was a quirky little book found from a local book shop. I don't really have too much to say about this series; it's not a terrible trilogy, just all over the place. The book series starts out pretty great. A girl finds out she has magical abilities and goes to a magic school. Plot kinda drops from there...
What was really downhill through this series was the plot. I remember it being all over the damn place that just got far flung the further the books went along. The strangest thing to me was just the unwonted sexual themes. The MC sleeps with some random student for no reason. Sneaks into his window? Just really strange was my first uhhh moment.
Some magical themes were neat and interesting. I thought the trees that ate people were terrifying. My biggest gripe was just the world seemed like it was meant to be bigger. So many unvisited areas in the story. Holly, I just wished it was a better fleshed out story.
Overall, it's fun if you just want something to read through quickly. The books are not very long, but they did not age well.
What was really downhill through this series was the plot. I remember it being all over the damn place that just got far flung the further the books went along. The strangest thing to me was just the unwonted sexual themes. The MC sleeps with some random student for no reason. Sneaks into his window? Just really strange was my first uhhh moment.
Some magical themes were neat and interesting. I thought the trees that ate people were terrifying. My biggest gripe was just the world seemed like it was meant to be bigger. So many unvisited areas in the story. Holly, I just wished it was a better fleshed out story.
Overall, it's fun if you just want something to read through quickly. The books are not very long, but they did not age well.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 25, 2019
Less depressing than book 2 (despite having sad parts), and has a different feel to the story. Think it relies more on the setup of book 2 to make sense for the setting and background of characters.
Interesting ideas about magic and gods. Didn't catch me for some reason, enjoyed book 2 slightly better.
Interesting ideas about magic and gods. Didn't catch me for some reason, enjoyed book 2 slightly better.
February 9, 2016
It may be kind of unfair to read the third book in a series and review it when you haven't read the rest of the author's work. And I think I may have started this book several times and not been able to hang in for the ending which was new to me. The plot line is good- a guilty young mage with a child picks up an unwanted houseguest just as her country is experiencing a destabilization of magic. It turns out to be a trickster god who wants her to return to the Ancient Ones ruins and release a certain Edrouss Delmuirie. We get that she was party to his magical incarceration and that there was some business with Thirk who wanted to sacrifice her daughter. She goes, and gets tricked into making another magical crisis. She's then setting off on a road trip with three men after rashly promising her friend that she will rescue her from a sudden aging backlash she's experienced. Her daughter remains behind with her father and his pregnant wife. To tell you the rest would run heavily into spoilers, but you see we have a very complex plot line. the problem is not caring about Kirtha, the kid, or even very much about our heroine Faia. We are told about her mother love, but we don't feel any of the emotions of the characters, they are narrated. At the end of one chapter I could have smacked the author for stating the obvious, that the Hunter was jealous. If she'd stayed in faia's response, feeling controlled, diminished, etc we might have felt with her. I will read more of Holly Lisle's works out of curiousity and also to see if she grew greatly as a writer.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 18, 2016
Somehow, I have trouble getting into Holly Lisle's writing. It always strikes me as something I would have been really glad to read back when finding a new Andre Norton was an amazing discovery, that seems rather contrived to me now. But the plot here is pretty original: magic in this world may or may not be directly connected with the Dreaming God/E. Delmuirie, trapped in some sort of spell for all of human history. Attempts have been made to awaken Delmuirie before. But Faia is about to get dragged into one that just might succeed-- and have dire consequences for the world as she knows it.
Faia is a bit more grown up, and she's got complexity beyond the standard Sword&Sorceress magicworkerwoman with child. But as with Norton, it's really the plot that steals the show, unassisted by the two-dimensional male characters (in the same mold as Norton's secondary characters). An interesting read. Compare to The Magic Goes Away.
Faia is a bit more grown up, and she's got complexity beyond the standard Sword&Sorceress magicworkerwoman with child. But as with Norton, it's really the plot that steals the show, unassisted by the two-dimensional male characters (in the same mold as Norton's secondary characters). An interesting read. Compare to The Magic Goes Away.
September 13, 2013
This was a fantastic finish to the trilogy. It made the previous two books appear to have been almost an extravagant world building exercise in preparation fr telling us this last adventure. All the threads of adventures, cultures, histories and everything we had learnt came together so that this book could be all action, adventure and storytelling of great skill.
It was great to see characters such as Faia and Medwind return again, as well as to see that all of their previous magic has a price and what happens to a magical existence when the magic all goes out.
A thrilling end to an amazing trilogy. The ending feels satisfying, but I would love to see the author return here at some point and explore the possibilities of the wider world
It was great to see characters such as Faia and Medwind return again, as well as to see that all of their previous magic has a price and what happens to a magical existence when the magic all goes out.
A thrilling end to an amazing trilogy. The ending feels satisfying, but I would love to see the author return here at some point and explore the possibilities of the wider world
January 26, 2014
I happened across the book while I was cleaning my room. I figured I'd remember more of the book as I read. I was kinda right. I remembered enough to keep track of the characters but not enough to spoil the story.
I like Holly Lisle's heroines. They get hurt. They black out. They aren't superheroic nor superobnoxious. I particularly like Medwind who is a randy, polyandrous scholar. I don't think I've ever run into a character like her before Ms. Lisle's books.
Like many adventure stories, the plot is fairly shallow. In some ways it's believable because it's fantasy. In some ways I wish fantasy didn't have to be the rationale for the plot.
This is, for me, a beach read: a fluffy adventure story.
I like Holly Lisle's heroines. They get hurt. They black out. They aren't superheroic nor superobnoxious. I particularly like Medwind who is a randy, polyandrous scholar. I don't think I've ever run into a character like her before Ms. Lisle's books.
Like many adventure stories, the plot is fairly shallow. In some ways it's believable because it's fantasy. In some ways I wish fantasy didn't have to be the rationale for the plot.
This is, for me, a beach read: a fluffy adventure story.
January 24, 2016
This final book in this series is not one I remember at all. I remember wanting to read this book and after I did, it left me a little bemused. The story finished and all the threads tied up, it just didn't move me.
July 29, 2016
A good wrap up to the trilogy. Faia inadvertently removes all the magic from Arhel. This is about how it happened, and who Delmuirie and the First Folk really are. I enjoyed it, It was a fast paced and fun read.
October 12, 2008
Not bad. Had a struggle getting through it the first time for some reason, but this re-read was much better. Maybe even a four.
July 25, 2010
Great for light reading
January 28, 2011
Review to be added later.
February 19, 2012
Great book! The characters breathed, lived! The problems felt real, the romance warmed my heart while the tragedies ripped at my soul. Great read!
July 28, 2015
I didn't like this book. It didn't have the pizzaz that Lisle's books normally do. I don't think it was as well written as her other books, even the ones in this series.
September 4, 2014
This book was lost in Hurricane Sandy. This book was found in a library sale July 2014.=0)
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews