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The War of the Dreaming #2
Mists of Everness
The Chronicles of Everness continue.
Young Galen Waylock is the last watchman of the Dream Gate, beyond which the ancient evils wait, hungry for the human world. For a thousand years, Galen's family has stood guard, scorned by a world that dismissed the danger as myth. Even Galen's father deserted their post. Discarding his belief in the other world, he left Castle Everness and the lonely coast of Maine to travel the world as a soldier.
But the warning bell has sounded in the dream world, unheeded. Now, the minions of Darkness have stirred in the deep and the long watch is over. An army of mythic monsters has invaded our world, and Galen and his friends have begun to fight them. To join the battle with universal darkness, even his father returns. The forces of light have gathered in Castle Everness, which must stand, or all is lost.
John Wright has been called the most important talent of the new century, and received rave reviews for each volume of his debut SF trilogy, The Golden Age. Now, in Mists of Everness he continues the towering fantasy begun in The Last Guardian of Everness , a stirring epic that will inspire readers everywhere.
Young Galen Waylock is the last watchman of the Dream Gate, beyond which the ancient evils wait, hungry for the human world. For a thousand years, Galen's family has stood guard, scorned by a world that dismissed the danger as myth. Even Galen's father deserted their post. Discarding his belief in the other world, he left Castle Everness and the lonely coast of Maine to travel the world as a soldier.
But the warning bell has sounded in the dream world, unheeded. Now, the minions of Darkness have stirred in the deep and the long watch is over. An army of mythic monsters has invaded our world, and Galen and his friends have begun to fight them. To join the battle with universal darkness, even his father returns. The forces of light have gathered in Castle Everness, which must stand, or all is lost.
John Wright has been called the most important talent of the new century, and received rave reviews for each volume of his debut SF trilogy, The Golden Age. Now, in Mists of Everness he continues the towering fantasy begun in The Last Guardian of Everness , a stirring epic that will inspire readers everywhere.
422 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 2005
3 people are currently reading
262 people want to read
About the author
John C. Wright
137 books451 followersJohn C. Wright (John Charles Justin Wright, born 1961) is an American author of science fiction and fantasy novels. A Nebula award finalist (for the fantasy novel Orphans of Chaos), he was called "this fledgling century's most important new SF talent" by Publishers Weekly (after publication of his debut novel, The Golden Age).
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
March 31, 2018
Welcome back to the wacky world of myths and dreams, where magic items are real and have power, where fairies and angels walk the earth, where invoked incantations can stop an army, and where only criminals have guns and all rich people want to do is help the country except all the predatory bleeding hearts won't let them.
Oof. A bit of a mixed bag, this one. Not that the first novel in the series was a stone cold classic, opting for a breakneck pace over letting events actually register and characterizations shallow enough that babies could wade into them safely. It also ended on a cliffhanger, pretty much forcing you to get this book if you wanted anything resembling a complete reading experience with such quaint concepts as "beginning," "middle" and "end". I didn't love the first book and a mental extrapolation suggested I wouldn't love this one either but I figured there was a chance he could smooth over the parts I found rocky and I would be more used to the tone of the book.
And that does happen. Not enough to make me revise my first opinion that I wasn't going to love this but it wasn't a totally worthless reading experience either. Jumping ahead a little bit after the end of the first volume, we find the world in constant peril. Raven's on the run and massively depressed after his wife Wendy leaving him, Wendy is off somewhere in fairyland with an object everyone needs while sobbing all the time. Galen from the first book is still AWOL, while his wheelchair bound dad and grandfather are trying to figure out some way to salvage this mess. To no one's surprise its going to involve a lot of stuff blowing up and more magic items than your last dungeon crawl.
Most of the problems that plagued the first book for me are still here. While its a fantasy, the characters don't resemble real people enough that I care about any of them to a great extent . . . most of them are present merely to act out their one or two traits and move the plot along. Wendy remains a weird sticking point, a theoretically adult woman who giggles and pouts and says "Mommy" and "Daddy" like some regressed girl-child but is somehow supposed to be capable and also totally devoted to her husband. For me she stops the book cold every time she appears (which once she recovers from the events of the last book is quite a bit) since I don't find her aggressive silliness that endearing. It also doesn't help that she's about the only prominent female character in the book, other than her mother later, who is also a strong woman except when she's being a kitten dominated by her husband. Maybe she's meant to be mostly comedic but it never feels less than off.
The pacing continues to be on the wrong side of frenetic . . . there's a section about a third of the way in where all the mad running for their lives and attacking as they go starts to work and the crazed rush for the next plot twist almost justifies itself. Unfortunately that period is fairly short compared to the length of the book and for the rest we're treated to Wright's Myth-o-matic as he once again seeks to prove that he's read more than you have, which manifests as a parade of legends and legendary objects one after the other after the other and sometimes if you're lucky several at once. It doesn't work any better for me this time either because it goes by so quick that playing "spot the reference" is about as fun as doing "Where's Waldo" with a speed-reader and its unclear if we're supposed to be awed, fascinated, or amused by all this. He gets a little more mileage out of apparently considering the Shadow a myth of the new world with the addition of Pendrake, who is basically the Shadow by way of Daddy Warbucks and manages to do a lot of the heavy action lifting. But by this point he's like adding another instrument to a free jazz session . . . more noise is just more noise.
Granted, some of the concepts are intriguingly nutty. The selkies remain somewhat underrated in just how plain bizarre they are, the introduction of Prometheus livens things up and Wright's taste for action means that things rarely slow down long enough for you to be actively bored. But the tone shifts so widely that its hard to pin down a distinct feeling about what I'm reading . . . sometimes its deadly serious, sometimes its clear he's being satirical and sometimes its just the literary equivalent of a popcorn flick. For a good chunk of the book one of the characters snags a magical item that pretty much heals everyone instantly, robbing fight scenes of almost any tension or even purpose and turning them into video game respawning exercises. If I'm supposed to be concerned about the fate of this world then why not make a world that feels at least grounded in something real as opposed to a playground that the main characters traipse madly across?
If that's not enough to make the book feel pretty low-stakes, Wright also makes the mistake of shoehorning in some political advice toward the end as the action moves toward Washington DC and an infiltration of Congress . . . not only we have at least two mentions of laws resulting in only criminals having guns (considering how many bullets get exchanged in the course of this series, its clear they still aren't that hard to get) but Wright yanks out his best Ayn Rand impression and has Pendrake give a John Gault like speech about the Constitution and the rights we should have. Its fortunately not as long as Gault's fifty page droning but its not anymore interesting and has the feel that Wright has stopped being interested in the story itself and more about what he wants to say about the state of democracy. Which might make for the good topic of another book, but it doesn't quite work right here.
And then its almost immediately followed by one of the most cringe inducing sex scenes you're going to experience in a fantasy novel perhaps including fan-fiction and you're so far off the rails that suborbital space is beckoning.
So, its all entertaining to an extent but I think you have to be more dazzled by Wright's myths stacked on myths stacked on myths approach than I was to really have an impact, because that's mostly what the book has going for it. The characters are mostly notable for their more annoying tendencies, the action tends to blur after a while and even the stuff that wants to be zany and over the top just feels run of the mill after five hundred pages of the book trying to top itself chapter by chapter. Its clear Wright wants to show off his research and honestly I can't blame him but when nothing feels as strange or weird as the actual sources these ideas come from, it makes for a flattened almost theme parkish feel and you almost hope for Cthulhu to wake up and gobble up the whole bunch.
Oof. A bit of a mixed bag, this one. Not that the first novel in the series was a stone cold classic, opting for a breakneck pace over letting events actually register and characterizations shallow enough that babies could wade into them safely. It also ended on a cliffhanger, pretty much forcing you to get this book if you wanted anything resembling a complete reading experience with such quaint concepts as "beginning," "middle" and "end". I didn't love the first book and a mental extrapolation suggested I wouldn't love this one either but I figured there was a chance he could smooth over the parts I found rocky and I would be more used to the tone of the book.
And that does happen. Not enough to make me revise my first opinion that I wasn't going to love this but it wasn't a totally worthless reading experience either. Jumping ahead a little bit after the end of the first volume, we find the world in constant peril. Raven's on the run and massively depressed after his wife Wendy leaving him, Wendy is off somewhere in fairyland with an object everyone needs while sobbing all the time. Galen from the first book is still AWOL, while his wheelchair bound dad and grandfather are trying to figure out some way to salvage this mess. To no one's surprise its going to involve a lot of stuff blowing up and more magic items than your last dungeon crawl.
Most of the problems that plagued the first book for me are still here. While its a fantasy, the characters don't resemble real people enough that I care about any of them to a great extent . . . most of them are present merely to act out their one or two traits and move the plot along. Wendy remains a weird sticking point, a theoretically adult woman who giggles and pouts and says "Mommy" and "Daddy" like some regressed girl-child but is somehow supposed to be capable and also totally devoted to her husband. For me she stops the book cold every time she appears (which once she recovers from the events of the last book is quite a bit) since I don't find her aggressive silliness that endearing. It also doesn't help that she's about the only prominent female character in the book, other than her mother later, who is also a strong woman except when she's being a kitten dominated by her husband. Maybe she's meant to be mostly comedic but it never feels less than off.
The pacing continues to be on the wrong side of frenetic . . . there's a section about a third of the way in where all the mad running for their lives and attacking as they go starts to work and the crazed rush for the next plot twist almost justifies itself. Unfortunately that period is fairly short compared to the length of the book and for the rest we're treated to Wright's Myth-o-matic as he once again seeks to prove that he's read more than you have, which manifests as a parade of legends and legendary objects one after the other after the other and sometimes if you're lucky several at once. It doesn't work any better for me this time either because it goes by so quick that playing "spot the reference" is about as fun as doing "Where's Waldo" with a speed-reader and its unclear if we're supposed to be awed, fascinated, or amused by all this. He gets a little more mileage out of apparently considering the Shadow a myth of the new world with the addition of Pendrake, who is basically the Shadow by way of Daddy Warbucks and manages to do a lot of the heavy action lifting. But by this point he's like adding another instrument to a free jazz session . . . more noise is just more noise.
Granted, some of the concepts are intriguingly nutty. The selkies remain somewhat underrated in just how plain bizarre they are, the introduction of Prometheus livens things up and Wright's taste for action means that things rarely slow down long enough for you to be actively bored. But the tone shifts so widely that its hard to pin down a distinct feeling about what I'm reading . . . sometimes its deadly serious, sometimes its clear he's being satirical and sometimes its just the literary equivalent of a popcorn flick. For a good chunk of the book one of the characters snags a magical item that pretty much heals everyone instantly, robbing fight scenes of almost any tension or even purpose and turning them into video game respawning exercises. If I'm supposed to be concerned about the fate of this world then why not make a world that feels at least grounded in something real as opposed to a playground that the main characters traipse madly across?
If that's not enough to make the book feel pretty low-stakes, Wright also makes the mistake of shoehorning in some political advice toward the end as the action moves toward Washington DC and an infiltration of Congress . . . not only we have at least two mentions of laws resulting in only criminals having guns (considering how many bullets get exchanged in the course of this series, its clear they still aren't that hard to get) but Wright yanks out his best Ayn Rand impression and has Pendrake give a John Gault like speech about the Constitution and the rights we should have. Its fortunately not as long as Gault's fifty page droning but its not anymore interesting and has the feel that Wright has stopped being interested in the story itself and more about what he wants to say about the state of democracy. Which might make for the good topic of another book, but it doesn't quite work right here.
And then its almost immediately followed by one of the most cringe inducing sex scenes you're going to experience in a fantasy novel perhaps including fan-fiction and you're so far off the rails that suborbital space is beckoning.
So, its all entertaining to an extent but I think you have to be more dazzled by Wright's myths stacked on myths stacked on myths approach than I was to really have an impact, because that's mostly what the book has going for it. The characters are mostly notable for their more annoying tendencies, the action tends to blur after a while and even the stuff that wants to be zany and over the top just feels run of the mill after five hundred pages of the book trying to top itself chapter by chapter. Its clear Wright wants to show off his research and honestly I can't blame him but when nothing feels as strange or weird as the actual sources these ideas come from, it makes for a flattened almost theme parkish feel and you almost hope for Cthulhu to wake up and gobble up the whole bunch.
January 4, 2013
Hmmm. Four stars? This is a tough one.
On one hand, this two-part series is typical John Wright at his best. It reads like a rich, literate collage of myth and symbol; it has great pacing and interesting characters, as well as astonishingly complex and viable world-building. It opens well, moves along nicely, and wraps up convincingly. All in all, what's not to like?
On the other hand, this two-part series is also John Wright at his worst. In the second book in particular, he devolves at crucial moments into simplistic political commentary mode; it seems as if he intermittently tries to shove a beautiful, satisfyingly Size Ten story into a naive, poorly conceived Size Four moralistic allegory. It's too bad. The story has its own universal thrust and motive, and it clashes hard with these particular, temporal, and petty constraints.
But, on my scorecard, the story wins anyway. After the first couple of these episodes-- he's particularly prone to having his heroes make long moralizing rants, for instance-- I just started ignoring them. Without them, the story was once again free to act on me as it should. I loved it for all its scope and uniqueness, and for its indescribably rich depiction of an epic struggle between good and evil.
Four stars, yes. But you may have to skim.
On one hand, this two-part series is typical John Wright at his best. It reads like a rich, literate collage of myth and symbol; it has great pacing and interesting characters, as well as astonishingly complex and viable world-building. It opens well, moves along nicely, and wraps up convincingly. All in all, what's not to like?
On the other hand, this two-part series is also John Wright at his worst. In the second book in particular, he devolves at crucial moments into simplistic political commentary mode; it seems as if he intermittently tries to shove a beautiful, satisfyingly Size Ten story into a naive, poorly conceived Size Four moralistic allegory. It's too bad. The story has its own universal thrust and motive, and it clashes hard with these particular, temporal, and petty constraints.
But, on my scorecard, the story wins anyway. After the first couple of these episodes-- he's particularly prone to having his heroes make long moralizing rants, for instance-- I just started ignoring them. Without them, the story was once again free to act on me as it should. I loved it for all its scope and uniqueness, and for its indescribably rich depiction of an epic struggle between good and evil.
Four stars, yes. But you may have to skim.
June 9, 2012
This is a difficult book to read, definitely not the kind to skim through while watching the game or the latest reality show. No siree, this one requires all of your brainpower and then some. And that's just to keep with the plot twists, not to mention allegories and not-so-subtle political messages flying at you faster than jokes in Family Guy. As I mentioned in my review for the first book in the series, this is an incredible jumble of world mythology, real world and original worldbuilding that is not supposed to come together and yet somehow (magically LOL) does. This book also surprises with a hero who seems to have walked out straight out of an Ayn Rand novel, kind of Howard Roark, Hank Rearden and John Galt all rolled into one. Scenes and dialogue flow seamlessly from otherwordly, almost Bible-like, language to modern conversation, complete with cursing and military slang. Characters are memorable, scenery is incredible and the ending is just right. It's not a book; it's an experience. If you are ready to have your mind blown, go for it; if you're looking for a light read on the beach, go elsewhere and save this series for later. It will be worth the wait.
July 24, 2012
Took a point off for being preachy,
added it back for the epic conclusion.
Too rarely do I read about taking dragons down with fighter jets.
added it back for the epic conclusion.
Too rarely do I read about taking dragons down with fighter jets.
March 30, 2021
První půlka by byla za 4 hvězdičky, jenže potom to zase šlo z kopce a to jsme se tak na začátku nadchla, že to bude lepší než první díl. Kdyby se tak obě knížky spojily do jedné a chopil by se toho nějaký dobrý a nekompromisní editor, bylo by to někde jinde.
Chápu, že Wright předtím psal sci-fi a měl asi nějak potřebu svoje znalosti dát najevo, ale byla bych radši, kdyby si to třeba schoval na nějakou další serii a nepletl páté přes deváté. Also, pokud chcete do svých knih vkládat rodokmeny, měli byste své čtenáře nějak motivovat k tomu se do nich dívat a nenechávát je tam jako takovou nic neříkající výplň stránek.
Ale stejně pořád docela fajn odpočinkovka, akorát to finále nějak vyšumělo a musela jsem se trochu nutit to dočíst.
Chápu, že Wright předtím psal sci-fi a měl asi nějak potřebu svoje znalosti dát najevo, ale byla bych radši, kdyby si to třeba schoval na nějakou další serii a nepletl páté přes deváté. Also, pokud chcete do svých knih vkládat rodokmeny, měli byste své čtenáře nějak motivovat k tomu se do nich dívat a nenechávát je tam jako takovou nic neříkající výplň stránek.
Ale stejně pořád docela fajn odpočinkovka, akorát to finále nějak vyšumělo a musela jsem se trochu nutit to dočíst.
August 9, 2020
The conclusion of this threaded story tapestry is not as strong as the opening act. The ending gets opiney, and is a colossal disappointment for me, but until the last 100 pages or so, this is a pretty good story, with flashes of unique humor, impressive word play and dramatic flair. I must reiterate though, does not stick the landing: YMMV.
June 9, 2018
It's all very exciting and as always with Wright very beautifully written. Wonderfully easy to lose yourself in.
March 23, 2025
"La niebla" de John Wainwright (1953)
La niebla es una novela que juega con las emociones y el estado mental del lector. En ella, el detective Henry White.
La niebla es una novela que juega con las emociones y el estado mental del lector. En ella, el detective Henry White.
August 26, 2018
"Hace miles de años, a los guardianes de Everness se les encomendó la misión de esperar el advenimiento del Enemigo inmortal de dioses y hombres y dar la voz de alarma llegado el momento. Pero con el paso de las generaciones, los mortales han olvidado este cometido, y ya sólo el joven Galen Guardapasos, el último de los guardianes, sigue creyendo en la magia y en sus peligros.
El último guardián de Everness es una hermosa y original novela de fantasía, primera de una reciente serie de éxito internacional, que, de la mano de Galen Guardapasos, el último guardián de la Casa de Everness, nos introduce en un inquietante mundo de sueños y en la ancestral guerra entre el bien y el mal."
Damas y Caballeros, he aquí una recomendación más de mí para ustedes, nunca he visto que alguien recomiende esta lectura, yo la encontré por casualidad en un puestito de libros en mi ciudad (como amante de la mitología tuve que tomarla al ver la portada), lectura que para ser honestos me tomó un buen tiempo concluirla...
¿La razón? Esta es una lectura "pesada" necesitas de la mayor capacidad mental posible, debes estar atento a todo momento a los detalles, nunca sabes cuando el más mínimo de estos tomará un papel de gran importancia en el desarrollo de la historia.
Una novela con una MUY AMPLIA diversidad de la mitología universal, política, religión, en ocasiones un lenguaje fuerte, no se la recomiendo a niños.
NOTA: La historia está dividida en dos partes como se puede apreciar en las fotografías, si o si tienen que leer ambas para saber lo que sucede, inicia lenta, pero si le dan la oportunidad dudo mucho que se arrepientan.
El último guardián de Everness es una hermosa y original novela de fantasía, primera de una reciente serie de éxito internacional, que, de la mano de Galen Guardapasos, el último guardián de la Casa de Everness, nos introduce en un inquietante mundo de sueños y en la ancestral guerra entre el bien y el mal."
Damas y Caballeros, he aquí una recomendación más de mí para ustedes, nunca he visto que alguien recomiende esta lectura, yo la encontré por casualidad en un puestito de libros en mi ciudad (como amante de la mitología tuve que tomarla al ver la portada), lectura que para ser honestos me tomó un buen tiempo concluirla...
¿La razón? Esta es una lectura "pesada" necesitas de la mayor capacidad mental posible, debes estar atento a todo momento a los detalles, nunca sabes cuando el más mínimo de estos tomará un papel de gran importancia en el desarrollo de la historia.
Una novela con una MUY AMPLIA diversidad de la mitología universal, política, religión, en ocasiones un lenguaje fuerte, no se la recomiendo a niños.
NOTA: La historia está dividida en dos partes como se puede apreciar en las fotografías, si o si tienen que leer ambas para saber lo que sucede, inicia lenta, pero si le dan la oportunidad dudo mucho que se arrepientan.
December 29, 2012
Well, that's my 2012 Reading Challenge completed, so, yay!
I didn't enjoy this one as much as the first half of the story. This one kind of rambled on, and the confusing treatment and characterizations of the female characters, even allowing for their supernatural bent, were weird, to say the least.
The plot twisted and turned, new characters were dropped in suddenly while other characters were relegated to almost cameo-status, and the omnipresent mythology became even harder for me to keep track of as it drowned out the actual plot.
Maybe I'm just not smart enough for this novel, or maybe it isn't the kind of thing I should have been reading as my brain was winding down for sleep (although, given the content, you'd think this would be perfect).
Overall, though, I enjoyed it. The world that was built was interesting and novel, and while the characters themselves were a little weak, archetypical and in some cases even annoying (and the general ra-ra-'Merica! tone that popped out of nowhere was jarring), I'm glad to have read the books, and I'd recommend them to fans of fantasy and the weird.
I didn't enjoy this one as much as the first half of the story. This one kind of rambled on, and the confusing treatment and characterizations of the female characters, even allowing for their supernatural bent, were weird, to say the least.
The plot twisted and turned, new characters were dropped in suddenly while other characters were relegated to almost cameo-status, and the omnipresent mythology became even harder for me to keep track of as it drowned out the actual plot.
Maybe I'm just not smart enough for this novel, or maybe it isn't the kind of thing I should have been reading as my brain was winding down for sleep (although, given the content, you'd think this would be perfect).
Overall, though, I enjoyed it. The world that was built was interesting and novel, and while the characters themselves were a little weak, archetypical and in some cases even annoying (and the general ra-ra-'Merica! tone that popped out of nowhere was jarring), I'm glad to have read the books, and I'd recommend them to fans of fantasy and the weird.
August 28, 2019
Second half of the story. massive spoilers ahead.
For instance, it opens with a cheerful and happy land where the Meadow Mouse decides to go see the Owl. There is someone there named the Sad Princess, who has lost her name. (Which the reader can deduce.)
Meanwhile, for the rest -- a strange man, coming from shadows, gets news from Emily and breaks Azrael's spells; she takes her second husband and runs -- straight out of the story. Raven is in prison, and Pete and Lemuel prisoners because of their crippling injuries. But Raven, having naturalized and studied for it, knows what the man from centuries ago, who had him thrown in prison, about civil rights and all that. And Pete gets some help from the mouse, learning some things about the magical weapon he took up.
It rolls on from there, involving Wendy's mother, two chariots pulled by atypical animals for that purpose, the use of an atomic bomb, pirate radio stations, Galen's remembering some prisoners, help in getting to a Titan, a lot of beings with several names out of myth, legend, and folklore, and more.
For instance, it opens with a cheerful and happy land where the Meadow Mouse decides to go see the Owl. There is someone there named the Sad Princess, who has lost her name. (Which the reader can deduce.)
Meanwhile, for the rest -- a strange man, coming from shadows, gets news from Emily and breaks Azrael's spells; she takes her second husband and runs -- straight out of the story. Raven is in prison, and Pete and Lemuel prisoners because of their crippling injuries. But Raven, having naturalized and studied for it, knows what the man from centuries ago, who had him thrown in prison, about civil rights and all that. And Pete gets some help from the mouse, learning some things about the magical weapon he took up.
It rolls on from there, involving Wendy's mother, two chariots pulled by atypical animals for that purpose, the use of an atomic bomb, pirate radio stations, Galen's remembering some prisoners, help in getting to a Titan, a lot of beings with several names out of myth, legend, and folklore, and more.
October 31, 2012
The first thing I should say about this book is that I couldn't finish it, which is a rare thing for me. I waded more than halfway through and then just gave up. The premise of this book, an epic battle between good and evil, appealed to me. And I liked the idea that all world myths are true. But the execution was way off. The characters are completely drowned out by the deluge of mythical beings that the reader is constantly bombarded with. Non stop action is not something I would normally complain about and some of the battle scenes are very cool. But the book as a whole was simply overdone in my opinion. When a main character stands on the brink of death I want to be on the edge of my seat, biting my lip and pulling for them to make it. When one of the main characters in this book was in that position I felt nothing. I didn't care. That's when I had to put the book down.
March 3, 2012
This author is certainly one of the worst, if not the very worst, authors I have ever read. His libertarian or "Tea Party" political philosophy is mixed in with the fantasy, science fiction and absolute chaos of the story. His use of metaphor and simile is grossly excessive, and it appears that he has attempted to use every adjective and adverb available in the English language. He appears to have used every single god and goddess of Greek and Roman mythology, along with characters from European fairly tales and American comic books (The Shadow) as characters in his confused and nonsensical plot and subplots. Loose ends abound. The ending is grossly anticlimactic. This book is as crazy as his other works, and I regret having purchased and read any of them.
September 26, 2014
The sequel to the other Everness book. Like all books where magic is more of an atmosphere than a system, it all ends up in a glorious mess, where nothing in the plot makes much sense. On the other hand, it was a really fun ride. There's an odd mix of politics with the fantasy in the end, which makes it different from anything I've ever read. And the inclusion of The Shadow (you know, from the old radio serial) as the personification of justice was inspired.
The scarcity of female characters (basically one-- a half-elf, plus her mother Titania) was disappointing. There were unicorns and flying dream horses, it didn't have to be a story that shut out women.
The scarcity of female characters (basically one-- a half-elf, plus her mother Titania) was disappointing. There were unicorns and flying dream horses, it didn't have to be a story that shut out women.
August 3, 2009
I knew going in that Wright and I had some political differences, and I figured it might come to a head, which it did here. It was far from a deal-breaker--there's a bit of libertarian sermonizing, but Wright works to put varying views in the mouths of sympathetic characters, so it's not a big problem. For me, the bigger issue with this book was simply that the demands of bringing the plot somewhere kind of restricted the out-and-out derangement of the first book, and I missed that lunatic edge. All in all, a fun duology, imaginative and worth reading.
September 17, 2023
Wow! An awesome read for anyone who is fascinated by any and all lore, spiritual, religious, historical, or fantastical. In this conclusion, all are merged in a masterful weaving of tales. If you haven't the weaving mind, a mind to catch the nuances and double names of figures in history and lore, do not pick up these books. But if you do, be prepared to never view the world, or your dreams, the same way ever again.
April 28, 2008
The saga continues and it starts getting messy. Again we have the overwhelming bombardment of mythological references, but this time combined with more action. I really liked the ending, it wraps up everything nicely and shows what matters - not only in the "dream world" but also in the real world. Highly recommended!
January 19, 2020
Bought this together with book one, on the strength of my love for Wright's Golden Age series and Chaos series. Unfortunately, neither book in the Everness series really worked for me. Perhaps because, in these older books, Wright's ability to temper his mythology name-dropping with truly interesting characters has not yet matured.
January 5, 2016
Mr. Wright has a grasp of the human condition. Even though the story is world shaking in scope, his characters are not just author conveniences to move the story along.
And the story - without giving spoilers, it's clear that so many other authors are lacking in creativity because Mr. Wright was given their shares as well.
And the story - without giving spoilers, it's clear that so many other authors are lacking in creativity because Mr. Wright was given their shares as well.
March 22, 2010
Start: March 15, 2010
Finish: March 22, 2010
True rating: 9.5/10
Finish: March 22, 2010
True rating: 9.5/10
September 10, 2011
The end was not quite satisfying, but otherwise it was an excellent continuation of the series.
September 19, 2011
The scene where the two selkies converse on a battlefield beach is one of the most affecting I have ever read.
April 27, 2012
one of my favorites
October 4, 2013
Příliš překombinovaný závěr...ble.
October 23, 2014
Ressenya en català:
http://www.elkraken.com/Ressenyes_Cat...
reseña en castellano:
http://www.elkraken.com/Esp/N-esp/R-N...
http://www.elkraken.com/Ressenyes_Cat...
reseña en castellano:
http://www.elkraken.com/Esp/N-esp/R-N...
July 13, 2015
Laboriosam est voluptatum inventore sunt minus totam. Autem error aliquid quasi in adipisci. Saepe incidunt ipsam voluptatibus enim distinctio ratione eos. Eius eaque aut.
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