The Ring of Fire

Children of Ynell #1

by Shirley Rousseau Murphy

In most regions of  Ere to be a Seer, gifted with telepathic and visionary powers, means death--or does it?  For some it may mean an even worse destruction of their minds and enslavement by the dark powers determined to conquer the world. Zephy and the goatherd Thorn are dismayed to discover that they themselves are Seers, but once they know, they are driven to escape from the repressive city of their birth and rescue others, many of them children, who have been captured and imprisoned by its attackers.

A Kindle edition of this book is available in an omnibus titled The Shattered Stone .

Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult

206 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1977

About the author

Shirley Rousseau Murphy is the author of over 40 books, including 24 novels for adults, the Dragonbards Trilogy and more for young adults, and many books for children. She is best known for her Joe Grey cat mystery series, consisting of 21 novels, the last of which was published when she was over 90. Now retired, she enjoys hearing from readers who write to her at her website www.srmurphy.com, where the reading order of the books in that series can be found.

Murphy grew up in southern California, riding and showing the horses her father trained. After attending the San Francisco Art institute she worked as an interior designer, and later exhibited paintings and welded metal sculpture in the West Coast juried shows. "When my husband Pat and I moved to Panama for a four-year tour in his position with the U. S . Courts, I put away the paints and welding torches, and began to write," she says. Later they lived in Oregon, then Georgia, before moving to California, where she now enjoys the sea and views of the Carmel hills.
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Reviews

[Kristyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I was in elementary school, I discovered Shirley Rousseau Murphy's book Nightpool, and subsequently read the other two books in the trilogy, The Ivory Lyre, and The Dragonbards. I loved the books and was so excited when I found more books by her in our local used book store.

I bought them, made book covers for one book whose cover was falling apart, then somehow didn't read them. Fast forward 20 or so years, and I rediscovered them on a bookshelf at my parents' house.

I just sat down to read the first book and read it in two days. I'm starting on the second The Wolf Bell now.

These books seem to be aimed at a somewhat more adult audience than her later Dragonbard books, but I can recognize her style in these as well.

[Jaime Buckley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This series was one of the very first that captured my attention as a youth. Brilliantly written and captivating as you get pulled into the land of Ynell and get a creative taste of telepathy.

Highly recommended for youth. Loved it.

[AE Michels · Rating 3 out of 5]

A reasonably solid YA fantasy book of its time. Nothing too complex, but a well-constructed world (if a somewhat depressing one) and good strong characters. Can be read alone, but works better as part of its series.

[Kaila · Rating 3 out of 5]

More like 2.5 stars. I wanted to like it more than I did, as I was a fan of the other Shirley Rousseau Murphy YA series I read. Some random events happen that make no sense and have large implications to the story. One is explained at the end and I still have no idea what the heck happened there.

Overall it was well written, but there are writing conventions that get under my skin and this used one of them: when the characters ask endless questions in their thoughts to show development/movement. Something like, “Why is this happening to me? Could it be because we disrespected the gods? Do the gods even pay attention to us anymore? And what about my mama, what will she do when I leave? Will she even care?” and on and on and I can’t stand it. It was happening every other page and drove me nuts.

There is quite a bit of violence on screen and our intrepid youngsters kill some people. There are allusions to rape but we don’t have to see it, thankfully.

I have not decided yet whether I will go on with the series since this was only so-so.

[John Teske · Rating 2 out of 5]

The title of this book was written on an index card that survived high school, college, and my career, and so, I came at last to read the book on the index card.

From what I remembered from oh so long ago, this book was supposed to be really cool and cutting edge.

I have tried reading YA stuff, as much adult fantasy and sci fi is smutty, and the YA stuff is much cleaner in many many ways. One of the pitfalls of the YA genre seems to be melodrama, and at times this really detracts from the story. "Rebel without a cause" and all that kind of stuff, hormones, etc etc.

Overall, this book just progressed a bit too slowly for my taste. It has some interesting concepts, and the last 50 pages of the book really IS the book.

I am torn and unsure about reading the next novel.

[James]

In most regions of Ere to be a Seer, gifted with telepathic and visionary powers, means death--or does it? For some it may mean an even worse fate: destruction of their minds and enslavement by the dark powers determined to conquer the world. Zephy and the goatherd Thorn are dismayed to discover that they themselves are Seers, but once they know, they are driven to escape from the repressive city of their birth and rescue others, many of them children, who have been captured and imprisoned by its attackers.A Kindle edition of this book is available in an omnibus titled The Shattered Stone.

[Joe Santoro · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is very.... 70s. There are alot of drug references, and long flowing descriptions of caves and plants. There's a small, generic bit of plot about a world oppressed, but there's just ALOT of description. It seems the author has a long running cozy mystery series... perhaps those are better.

[Brittany · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found the story engaging, but the older writing style made it hard to get through.

[River · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had no idea what to expect from this book, it's description is just vague enough to leave you with very little to go on. Yes, there are psychic kids. Yes, the future lies in their hands... congrats, you've just described a sizable chunk of fantasy/sci-fi novels.

You're thrown into the world with no knowledge of what's happening, just that the town we arrive in is very religiously strict, and if you're psychic you're basically evil incarnate and must perish. We follow a girl and her friend who surprise surprise are psychic, and a slightly older boy who is psychic too and acts like a Gary Stu for quite some time. Something I do admire about this book however, is its ability to pack in so much plot into such a small amount of pages. I'm used to reading bricks that do less in their entirety than this did in a chapter.

Not to say it didn't have its moments as well, the first 40% or so drags like one of the donkeys they keep using. We learn in detail the layout of most houses and tools. Then it sprints as soon as the action begins. There are odd moments where the pace goes from sprint to crawl randomly, which makes me feel like I skipped a page -but didn't. Also, I never could understand why they needed to stay in the village as long as they did, and when they do get out, things are handed to them quite easily.

It was a good read, an interesting perspective. However, somebody needs to fire the editor for this book. Let me show you the shopping list of interesting typos... "no chance ot slip into the tunnel", "been thrown inth the street", and my personal favourite that comes at a high intensity moment "The man was gone in durnkenness". That last one, comes near the end of the book when I was flying through the words to see what would happen, and then wham... durkenness, I laughed, tension gone. Additionally, there was a lot of repetitive phrases and words, it was enough that I noticed it happening more often than not.

All in all, I'd truly rate it a 2.5.