Sadar's Keep

The Queen's Quarter #2

by Midori Snyder

New powers rise up from among the people to overthrow the Fire Queen, who ages before had stolen youth and power from her sisters Earth, Air, and Water, suppressing all magic but her own.

Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult, Fiction, Magic, High Fantasy, Science Fiction Fantasy, Speculative Fiction

365 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Midori Snyder is the author of eight books for children and adults, published in English, French, and Dutch. She won the Mythopoeic Award for The Innamorati, a novel inspired by early Roman myth and the Italian "Commedia dell'Arte" tradition. Other novels include The Flight of Michael McBride (a mythic western), Soulstring (a lyrical fairy tale), The Oran Trilogy: New Moon, Sadar's Keep, and Beldan's Fire (imaginary-world fantasy, recently re-published in Vikings's Firebird line), and Hannah's Garden (a contemporary faery novel for young adults). Except the Queen, a novel written in collaboration with Jane Yolen is forthcoming in 2010.

Her short stories have appeared in numerous venues including the The Armless Maiden; Black Thorn, White Rose; Xanadu III; Swan Sister; Borderland; and The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror. Recent stories have appeared in Young Adult anthologies, The Greenman, Tales From the Mythic Forest and Troll's Eye View, A Book of Villianous Tales. Her nonfiction has appeared in Realms of Fantasy and other magazines, and in essay collections including Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: Women Writers Explore Their Favorite Fairy Tales.

In addition to writing, she co-directs The Endicott Studio for Mythic Arts with Terri Winding. She co-edited and designed the online Journal of Mythic Arts from 2003 - 2008; and she served as chairwoman on the judges' panel for the 2007 James Tiptree, Jr. Awards.

Midori currently lives in Arizona with her husband, Stephen Haessler.

Reviews

[Pam Baddeley · Rating 3 out of 5]

After enjoying book 1 of this trilogy I looked forward to the next volume, but found it rather hard going sadly. I suppose it suffers from the 'middle book of a trilogy' syndrome, at least for me, as a considerable part of it dealt with people getting to where they needed to be with not a great deal of actual plot development. We were also introduced to a lot more characters so I found those sparsely developed and even main ones from the first book had less airtime. Some of the characters were so 'similar' that I sometimes couldn't remember who somebody was when they came back into a scene. I also found some of the character quirks which were all right in the city context such as Jobber's pigheadness became a little wearing when the character did not appear to grow, though I could see why this was as the old rivalry between the Fire Queen and her Earth sister is revived through Jobber and the new character Shedwyn who has the Earth gift.

The story starts to gather momentum from the point where Kai, who stayed behind in Beldan, runs into peril. Once things start to build to a battle between the main forces of the 'goodies' and some of their opponents, the book began to interest me more. We also learn what lies behind the history of the Burning and what caused the Fire Queen to turn into the evil tyrant she became. The final showdown with her and another main villain will be the subject of book 3 I assume.

Since reading the book, I have become aware that this series has been republished, by a different publisher than the edition I have, and targeted for young adults. It definitely was not intended as such in its original 1990 publication and this volume not only contains quite a lot of swearing and graphic violence but also has a couple of explicit sex scenes. I suppose the later publisher's view was that quite a few characters are in early adolescence. However, I should just add this as a warning that it definitely is a bit strong, certainly for early teens.

As with the first volume, the writing is a bit clunky here and there. That didn't matter much with book 1 as the story had such interest. However, given the boredom I struggled with in the first half to three quarters of the story, I can only give this 3 stars.

[Liana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Don't get me wrong, I REALLY loved this story (woo, 5 stars!) but I really feel like I gotta address this...

How on earth did this book get published as a young adult novel? I like to think of myself as a positive thinking person, but this book has stronger adult content in it than what I've read in actual adult novels...! Two rather descriptive sex scenes, strong sexual innuendo, harsh language, and everything gets more vulgar as the story goes on. I'm sorry, but I cannot recommend this to a teenager, in fact I'd discourage it. It's a bit shameful when I read adult books where the sex scenes are mildly put out, and then you have this teenage book that goes to the trouble of rubbing nipples, touching hair that should be hidden and - ARGH, NOT GONNA ANY MORE, NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE, so much NOPE! There's too much more that I won't say about it, so you'll just have to take my word for it when I say it's very adulty. The first book wasn't really all that better either, but Shadar's Keep takes the gold for sure.

Random quote time!

"After a glass of this you'll fuck anything in a skirt."
"Judging by what I've seen of the women here, I'll need it."

...Erm, yeah, mhmm.

Anyhoo, I loved the story telling in Shadar's Keep more than I did in New Moon. It's extremely exciting and I'm super anxious to see what will happen next! The suspense is super high right now, and Lirrel is still awesome.~

[Kerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm slowly rereading my way through this trilogy from the late 1980s and early 1990s. I had already read the first two volumes (this one and New Moon), but while I've owned it since it was published, I have never read the concluding book (I don't remember why I didn't read it at the time).

I've really enjoyed reread the first two. They are quite hard work - the print is small and the prose is quite dense compared to the easier style that is own employed these days. They are gritty books without being "grimdark" as we would say now. There's bad language and hard lives and flawed people, but the story, setting and characters are all interesting and worth the effort.

I'm looking forward to find out the end of the story.

[STU · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyed the first book in the series.
This one seemed a bit slow and, well....., not much seemed to happen.
But expecting a bit to happen in the final book of the trilogy.

[Judith Blaauw-Klaver · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dit tweede deel sleepte me vanaf het begin mee en ik ben daarom meteen doorgegaan in deel 3.

[Cat Yampell · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.7

[haley / halyonix · Rating 2 out of 5]

still determined to get through this trilogy because of my friend who loved it but i still hate one of the character's names. at least now there are other characters to focus on.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is hard for me to evaluate this book completely, as it is the second volume of a trilogy which I picked up randomly used and I have not seen the first or third volumes. HOwever, I liked this volume well enough that I am now looking for the other two. It picks up in the midst of a rebellion against the Fire Queen Zorah; originally she was one of 4 queens embodying the magic of the 4 elements (earth, air, fire, water) but to stay forever young she
killed the other three queens and made herself a tyrant by
inviting in foreign soldiers, the Sileans. Her regime has tried to exterminate other potential magic users (magic use in hereditary in some Oran families). Refugee magicusers, mostly children, are hiding out in the underworld of the
major city Beldan and fleeing to join the rebels at Sadar's
Keep. The city sections are convincingly gritty. The Sadar's Keep section culminates in a battle with in which three new
potential queens (fire, air and earth) take part. At the end of this book the fourth potential queen of water is still in Beldan.

[Fantasy Literature · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sadar’s Keep continues the story that began in New Moon. Three of the four young queens had been found by the end of the first book, and the army that is slowly pulling together around these young woman is starting to find some unusual allies. Midori Snyder focuses the story around the preparations for battle at Sadar’s Keep between the army of the uprising, known as the New Moon, and the Oran military. Sadar’s Keep is also the site of the battle between the current Fire Queen Zorah and her queens 200 years earlier, and Snyder uses that to fill in the back history, making this new fight an echo of the previous battle. And we realize that the previous queens are trying to take control of the current queens and fight through them again, making this fight more than just an echo.

Snyder writes very complex characters ... Read More:
http://www.fantasyliterature.com/revi...

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

The second book in the Oran Trilogy, three of the elements have gathered but Earth and Fire would rather outshine and overcome each other. Jobber, our street-smart city girl is despising the training with the sword, feels completely outclassed and ugly next to Shedwyn, and is completely out of place in the mountains. Shedwyn envies the lithe tom-boy and her fluid movements and struggles with her own sense of inferiority. And poor Lirrel is trapped in between. As the story progress, one begins to wonder what the root of Earth and Fire's rivalry really is...and will they ever find the fourth and final element? The element of Water?

[Yvonne Vetjens · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dit was de tweede keer in tien jaar dat ik de serie las. Het gekke was dat ik me er bijna niets van kon herinneren, behalve dat vier meisjes krachten van de vier elementen bezitten. Hoewel de boeken heel vlotjes lezen, merkte ik dat ik er wel even in moest komen. Hoe verder ik in de boeken kwam, hoe meer ik erdoor gegrepen werd. Midori Snyder is geweldig in het neerzetten van verschillende personages, en haar manier van schrijven is beeldend en kleurrijk. Het laatste boek heb ik in een paar dagen uitgelezen - ik moest weten hoe het ook alweer afliep!

[Leslie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sadar's Keep is the second book in the Oran Trilogy. I read the trilogy out of order, and knowing what happens in the final book made this book less interesting than it might have been otherwise. The trilogy is very enjoyable, a good story in a well-designed world where elemental magic weaves the world together.

[Afeni · Rating 4 out of 5]

I find the same thing compelling about this book as I do the rest of the series, the actions of an organized broad based group that fights the good fight against oppression, not just a "chosen" few who will make oppression go away.

[Ryan George · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book... Gosh... 15 or so years ago. Was my gateway to fantasy. One day I will get around to reading the first book. But for now 4 stars. That may change once I reread with a more practiced lens

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

So much better than Book One! Now that I understand the world of Oran, I can get into what is taking place!

[Brett]

Fantasy

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty solid fantasy yawn, actually. I hope the series ends as well as the first two books promise.

[April James · Rating 5 out of 5]

An addicting series you just cannot put down.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad, just another decent fantasy trilogy.

[RogueHireling · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this book. As I suspected, it was easier to read than the first as things are being done about all the senseless violence now.

[sayitwithasmile · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rereading a favorite series. Still so good.

[CJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Series holds up since college. The new characters (Shedwyn, Shefek) are well-rounded. Everybody's using their magic.

[Echo · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid second book in the series, but the plot is a bit slow compared to some books. All the characters feel very real. Their pride and insecurities feel very natural, never two dimensional.

[Kirsten]

Misplaced this -- will have to finish it when I relocate it...