The Broken Citadel

Tredana #1

by Joyce Ballou Gregorian

In the Otherworld, change was afoot. The winds whistled through the ruins of Treglad, echoing the name of a long-forgotten goddess. In the city of Treclere, the Deathless Queen slowly drew all the land under her spell of dark sorcery. In the city of Tredana, a Prince pledged himself to a quest that would make his destiny--or would take his life. In a tower on an island of glass, a Princess was imprisoned by her own mother's decree. In the ice of the north the Kermyrag burned in eternal flames, with a crown between his white-feathered wings and tears of blood in his dark eyes. And in Massachusetts there was a window to Otherworld, and a young woman named Sibby was about to step over the sill.

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

352 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1975

About the author

Joyce Ballou Gregorian was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the third child of the noted oriental rug dealer and expert Arthur T. Gregorian, an Armenian immigrant, and Phebe Ballou, of New England descent. She graduated from Beaver Country Day School in 1963, attended Edinburgh University for one year and graduated with honors from Radcliffe College in 1968. She then taught English for one year at the Iran Bethel School in Tehran. After that she joined the family business and became it's president. She married John Hampshire in 1986 and died in 1991 in Boston, Massachusetts, at Massachusetts General Hospital, after a long battle with cancer.

Reviews

[Alex Fayle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This series of books, The Broken Citadel, Castledown and The Great Wheel, most certainly wasn't one of the biggest influences in my life, but they are great books and sometimes haunt my thoughts. The Broken Citadel was one of the first "portal fantasies" that I ever read. I think it sticks in my mind so much because while I was reading it, I played Canadian new wave band Strange Advance's Worlds Away over and over, imprinting on my a romantic love of the series.

I know that portal fantasies are out of style these days, but the Tredana series is one of the better ones.

It's of course out of print, and being the only books the (late) author wrote, it's highly unlikely they'll ever get re-issued in print or electronically, but if you can get your hand on a used copy, I'd highly recommend them.

[Charlotte · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid fantasy story that reads like a mix of Tolkien, Ende and Lewis, in a very good way. Although the world certainly suffers from the typical problems of many old fantasy-stories, a world consisting of surprisingly few cities, but each with at least one king and queen, and evil cities full of shadows and emptiness and silent people, it still feels very alive. There's lots of detail in many great places within the story, which I look forward to revisiting in vol 2.
I especially enjoyed how Gregorian twists many clichees in her stories. She makes use of the clichee-images of the 'hero' and the 'princess', thus not creating yet another boring copy of a stereotype, but rather showing all the many annoying flaws in these stereotypes - very refreshing. The female protagonist never once got on my nerves, she's never too smart and never too stupid, although at times there is an overdose of "I'm meant to [save him/her/world:]", which is never a good reason for an author to give their character, and a few moments and situations that don't make too much sense or aren't explained well.

Still, solid 4 stars for a novel which I look forward to continue reading in the next volume.

[Margaret · Rating 4 out of 5]

(This is essentially a review of the whole trilogy, not just this first book, so please take it as such.)

When eleven-year-old Sibby breaks into an old, mysterious house, she enters a window to another world, which she is fated to visit three times over the course of her life, each time becoming more and more entwined with its people and its conflicts.

The excellent worldbuilding is particularly of note; occasionally I wanted Gregorian to unpack it a little more, as I sometimes felt I wasn't quite getting all the allusions, but even that speaks to just how fully the world is imagined. The characters are equally rich and developed over the course of the books, and I loved how Gregorian handled the unpredictable and wonderful romance.

Each book has a fairly self-contained and resolved plot of its own, but there are overarching characters and story arcs which carry on throughout, so I wouldn't recommend reading them independently of each other. I'd definitely recommend reading them, though, if you can find them all; they're out of print, and it took me a while to track all of them down. (Thank goodness I waited until I had all of them to read them, in fact.)

[Tina Dyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the other formative fantasy influence on my childhood (the first is Susan Cooper's "Dark is Rising" series.) Here, a teenage girl named Sybby slips between worlds to participate in what seems to be the standard rescue-the-princess adventure...except the ramifications turn out to be complex, sophisticated, and very,very realistic. Each book in the series has a slightly different historical influence--this one is medieval european. A YA protagonist, but not dumbed-down or silly; a viable read for adults.

[Atiana · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read this book in german translation, but even so I just loved it. I think Joyce Ballou Gregorian creates a world like Tolkien and C.S. Lewis had done before, but completely different to other fantasy-countries.

Especially i love Ajjibawar - through all 3 books...

[Otis Campbell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Our main gal here is an eleven-year-old yankee kid named Sibby, living up in Massachusetts. She’s poking around a creepy, empty old Victorian mansion down the road when she looks through a window and spots a real nice library. Being a curious little thing, she breaks right in. But when she tries to step back out the door to run home for supper, the backyard is gone. She’s standing on a total stranger's seashore in a completely different dimension called the Otherworld. Now, this ain't a friendly neighborhood. The place is a giant, confusing gumbo of old Greek myths, Celtic fairy tales, desert nomads, and—I kid you not—a live brontosaurus just roaming around. Luckily, before some swamp monster can eat her alive, Sibby gets picked up by a band of traveling adventurers. The leader of the crew is Prince Leron, a heroic fellow who has pledged himself to a massive, life-or-death quest. They’ve also got a wise old blind prophet named Arbytis taggin' along. Turns out, the neighborhood is being terrorized by a real piece of work called the Deathless Queen of Treclere (who goes by Simirimia). This Queen is using dark sorcery to control the whole land and has locked up a poor Princess in a glass tower on an island. Leron and his buddies are on a mission to knock the Queen off her high horse, rescue the princess, and save the day. Sibby just rolls up her sleeves, joins the party, and realizes she has to find a whole lot of inner grit and spiritual backbone just to survive the road trip. They go see oracles, get their fortunes told, and fight all kinds of crazy creatures. By the time it’s all over, Sibby helps them win the day, learns a shocking secret about who she actually is, and slips back through the window into Massachusetts right at the exact second she left, like nothing ever happened. It's a mighty fine yarn. It starts a little slow and the world-building is thicker than cold molasses, but once the quest gets moving, it’s a real classic "kid falls into a magical world" adventure.

[Raquel · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am thoroughly disappointed with this book. So much so, that I actually gave it one star! Which is crazy! This is such a rare occurrence for me; I don't think I've ever given a book one star before! Ever. And I feel so bad about it! I actually considered giving it two stars just to be nice but decided I probably should be honest.

This book had so much POTENTIAL. Throughout the narrative, there were so many interesting and cool ideas that, unfortunately, simply weren't executed properly. There were also a lot of likeable characters and intriguing world building but the author didn't flesh anything out and so the reader is left with two-dimensional characters and a slew of unanswered questions.


But this novels greatest downfall, in my opinion, was the writing itself. It felt quite stilted and, at times, extremely simplistic & amateurish. In some rare instances, Gregorian's writing would come alive and sing off the page but it wouldn't last long; a few pages later it would turn lifeless again. By the last quarter of the book, this almost switching back and forth was starting to grate on my nerves.


And to top it all off, the "romance" that was added in, to be utterly frank with you, was abhorrent to me and I genuinely don't know why the author thought that was ever a good idea.

1/5 stars :(

[Amethyst Uchida · Rating 5 out of 5]

Is it really 5 stars good? I don’t know. What I do know is that I read this in jr. high or high school and loved it, re-read it in my 20s (or 30s; I’m old and can’t remember how long ago it was) and loved it, and whenever I think about it, I feel the urge to find it and re-read it. I think I rediscovered it by finding it on a shelf at my library. There is no way I would have remembered the author or title to look it up. (I mean this was pre-Google/Amazon!) It was already out of print by then.

Luckily, I found all three books at my local used bookshop (gosh, I miss that place!) and snatched them up.

Anyway, it’s the exact kind of fantasy/adventure I love. The author’s world-building skills are amazing. Now I feel like I have to go dig in my basement and find those paperbacks I acquired 20+ years ago!

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

It grabbed me because it’s an adult novel about an 11-year old who walks through a window and finds herself in a different world—in which she feels strangely at home. She joins a quest to rescue a princess, then a prince, and to defeat the deathless Queen. I figured out the secret about her about midway and shades of C.S. Lewis, she gets home with no time gone. Good—I’m looking forward to the sequel.

2020 note—I need to reread this so I can go on to the sequel.

[Yousseif Abdellatif · Rating 4 out of 5]

I finished The Broken Citadel and felt like I'd been let in on a secret. Gregorian, Joyce Ballou writes like someone who knows the room is listening but says it anyway, no fluff, no hedging. The last chapter trails off a little. Perfect for curious folks who like inside stories, not for readers who want a tidy summary.

[Johann Fourie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Its start slow but gets interesting after while. I will consider reading the next book in the series.

[Todd · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good portal fantasy that got lost in the late 70s. My only real complaint is the PoV switch right in the middle of the book. I wanted a book from Sibby's perspective, not Leon's.

[James]

Brought to a strange world where strength of mind and spirit are constantly required of her, Sibby finds friends, adventure, and a sense of belonging.

[K H · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this book! But the two after are yucky.

The characters in this book were delightful, if classic tropes, and the plot line was fun and engaging.

********Spoilers for the rest of the series ahead *******

The love triangle for Sibby in the next two books is between a man at least 20 years older than her (her being 20) and her cousin that’s closer to her age. Yuck. I know this is typical of fantasy/medieval books from the 80s but it was still too gross for me to more than skim the rest of the series. Also the last paragraph of book three was soooo sappy considering the first book in this series held 0 romance for the protagonist.

[Alisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. It's more "high fantasy" than what I usually read, but I was sucked right into it. A preteen girl (a bit of an outcast, never really fitting in) leaps into a magical world and joins a group of travelers on a quest, thereby finding where she truly belongs. I know, it's a synopsis that could be used to fit to any number of fantasy novels, but this is carefully plotted and beautifully written. I'm looking forward to picking up the next book in the Tredana Trilogy.

[Onewooga · Rating 4 out of 5]

Actually, currently re-reading! I need this category.

[Arlene Allen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book and her writing! It is about a girl, some ruins, and transport into a richly imagined alternative world. The heroine is a litte girl in this book, the first of a trilogy.

[Sara Light-Waller · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just loved this series. Some of my favorite fantasy books.

[Yvette Saafir · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved This book would love to read it again

[Kaila]

This sounds right up my alley. Must acquire.