Alyssa's Ring

The Guardian Cycle #5

by Julia Gray

After wandering the world in exile, guided only by the prophecies of the mysterious Tindaya Code, Terrel is at last returning to Vadanis, his journey at an end. But the powers that have sought to destroy him are not yet defeated. For the prophecy to be fulfilled, the ancients must arise—and it is Terrel who must struggle to defend them. And, as the Dark Moon rises, Terrel makes his stand, but this time, he does not fight alone. In Alyssa’s Ring, The Guardian Cycle reaches its spectacular conclusion.

Genres: Fantasy

576 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2002

About the author

Julia Gray is the pseudonym of Mark and Julia Smith, a married couple who live and work in Norfolk. Having met while they were both working for a major London publishing house, they sparked each other into creative life, and began writing as a team a few months after setting up home together. They have been writing full time since 1991. They also publish under the pseudonym Jonathan Wylie.

Reviews

[River · Rating 4 out of 5]

Slightly anticlimactic for me but a very nice ending to a very long saga.

This book has a similar issue to the others I've had problems with in that it is quite over-padded with explanations that don't really amount to much. There's pages upon pages of Terrel ruminating on whether he thinks something could be possible or not - the man thinks himself in circles.

Madness is tossed about more often than most and it reads to me as an easy cop out for why someone does something. Like Jax for instance, I was hoping for a lot more development for him but he just becomes confusing in his "madness" by flip flopping.

It's rather funny to see how often the third book, The Crystal Desert has influence in this one. It's almost as if the authors knew that it was a strong book that impacted a lot.

I was sad to see some of those who left/departed (trying to avoid spoilers here) but it was nice seeing those who remained and visited. Likewise that last line on the last page made me smile and laugh.

Overall, I felt as if the Tindaya Code itself was a major issue with these books; it gave way too much exposition - and it wasn't even good information, most of the time it was too cryptic to figure out until right at the end. If it had been removed or watered down a lot more, it wouldn't have been such a thorn in my side. Whenever the ghosts talked about the Code, it was like my eyes glossed over and I longed to say "okay, ya I get it, you guys don't understand this obscure prophecy, move along".

As a series would I recommend it? Not for those who are faint of heart... its a LOT of reading. Each book is about 500 pages long with pacing issues aplenty. Would I recommend reading a book in particular? Yes, the first one. In my opinion it was the best overall - as much as I loved Crystal Desert, I think it'd be too confusing for it to be your first book of the series.

The cover art is stunning as always, absolutely love how much colour is in each; how they all represent an actual scene in their respective books. The Jasper Forest is stunning, as is The Crystal Desert. As well as the detail I've mentioned before of the moons on the covers/spines reflecting the book too. Very well done! These books are now shelf-candy for my eyes lol

[Omiai · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, it was a long road, but this series is finally at an end. Since this is the final book in the series, I will try to review both it and the series as a whole.

Basically I found this book a little unexciting, considering it was the last in the series. All the action happens in a few chapters at the end, and doesn't have much more happening than the big fights in the previous books.

Despite this book being called 'Alyssa's Ring' there was a distinct lack of Alyssa in this book, but I'm kind of glad of that, as she tends to become annoying every couple of books, and I'm sure she was due for another annoying streak in this one. But I guess that is just a petty way to look at things.

I still adore most of the characters, especially Taryn, who I have a soft spot for, he was such a lovely and endearing character. Jax however confuses me something terrible! He seems to change his mind every five minutes. Hindering, helping, then trying to kill Terrel, finishing it off by helping him again and then getting angry at him. Out of all the characters, i'd say he was the weakest written, as he's just a bit vague and all over the place for my liking, compared to the other characters, who are quite clear.

It was an interesting read, and I'm glad I read this series as it is a good fantasy series, however, having read all 5 books now, I do feel like it should maybe only have been 2 or 3 books. So much stuff happens in the 5 books, but a lot of it seems like filler material to pass the time until real things happen. I kind of feel like she should have cut out a lot of the unimportant stuff and made it more condensed. I also feel that a little more description was in order, as I often found it hard to picture things, due to the lack of description.

But in general, it was a good read, and I recommend this series, not as highly as I would with some other series perhaps, but the characters make it worth while.

[Jill Rebryna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm so glad I read this quintet!

[Arminion · Rating 4 out of 5]

I expected that the fifth and final book of the series will be focusing entirely on Terrel's hometown - Vadanis, since there is so much he has to do there. Instead, we are still stuck on the mainland with a bunch of new characters and Vadanis appears only in the last third of the book!
I was impatient while reading this. I didn't care about all this new minor characters and their problems. And once again, we have a child prodigy traveling with our hero. I wanted Terrel to reach Vadanis, confront Jax and rescue Alyssa. But, as the story moved forward, I became more and more interested in these "minor" characters, especially since one of the member of the Terrel's party is a traitor and I was interested to see who will it be. But, regardless of these "side quests" they were still just filler.
All the previous books had a pretty confusing ending with Terrel floating in a waking dream of an elemental, trying to heal him, usually seeing some kind of apocalyptic scenery from above. I wasn't surprised when we had something similar here, but on much larger scale. That's not strange since now he has to heal an entire planet!
Some questions are finally answered, like who is the Guardian and the Mentor, as well as the role of the Sleepers (although we still don't find out who made them Sleepers in the first place). We also finally see the demise of Jax, although I was expecting something more "juicy" for him.
The only thing that bothered me was the Muzeni's pipe which Terrel was tagging all along. I always thought it would play some important role in the story and in the end, nothing! What was the point of this item? If this was a movie, this whole pipe business should definitely end in "deleted scenes".
In the end of the book, we also have a few glimpses of the characters from the previous books which I found to be a nice touch.

Conclusion? The Guardian cycle is a nice fantasy series for young adults, although a little to simplistic and repetitive. Terrel is a character I can relate to, although he is too passive and non-aggressive for my tastes (he never stands up to Jax for example or gets angry). The lack of description of people and places definitely hurts the series, as well as vague explanation of supernatural effects.
Final rating: 3.5 stars.

[Swiftsea · Rating 3 out of 5]

Odd. Anti-climatic. Oversimplified the entire series. Terrel's destiny ends up being nothing fantastic. Alyssa? =_=" I can't say how much I dislike the fact her character never develops throughout the whole series. I understand it's because she's in a comatose state but nevertheless, I expected more from her character.
The ending was realistic though, where every character then carries on their lives their own way. I admit I quite liked the desert people; including the one other young mage with a gift. I thought that more could have been built on his character and his sister's.
Also, how did that ghost even relate to the story?

>_< Only if you read this novel would you understand the references I've made.

[Mad about · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stunning conclusion to the series. I wished it could have re-capped over the people Terrell had met on his journeys but know that wouldn't have worked too well as the whole point of it was that he had moved forward.
With the magic running through their world but not being in your face like witches or wolves its subtle and beautiful.
So glad I read this

[Naomi · Rating 4 out of 5]

See review of Book One. As well as I can remember, this was a fitting and well written end to the tale. I would need to re-read the whole set in order to give a full review (something I'd be happy to do if I ever found the time!)

[Steffy · Rating 1 out of 5]

The worst ending ever.
Made it look like reading the other four books were also a waste.