Circle of Stars

Circle #2

by Anna Lee Waldo

Emerging from his hidden, pastoral childhood, Madoc, the prophesied savior of the druids, rises to fulfill his fate as messiah to his people. Fearing persecution, Madoc must protect his true identity while learning the ways of the ancient druids for control of Wales, Madoc sets out on a dangerous voyage to find a new home for his dwindling flock. It is a journey that will lead him to the land that will later be known as America.

There on the beaches of ancient Florida, he meets Cougar, a Native American healer of the Calusa people. Madoc discovers his match in this beautiful, gifted young woman. And Cougar finally meets the white ghost whom she has known in her dream and awaited her entire life. Now, their love can be the key that links together the legendary blue-eyes, fair-haired Native American tribe to that of the ancient druids as they struggle to forge a future for themselves in a new land that could bring them their ultimate chance for survival...

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Fantasy, Historical, Romance, Adult, Historical Romance

640 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Anna Lee Waldo wrote the best-selling historical novel, SACAJAWEA. Her interest in the subject began as a child when she collected spear points on the shores of Whitefish Lake in Montana and listened to stories of Blackfeet and Crow grandmothers.

It took her ten years to write about the first woman to go with a military contingent, with a baby in a cradleboard, half way across the North American continent. Anna Lee is now writing a sequence of books that began in Wales in the twelfth century called the DRUID CIRCLE series. These books are based on the elusive history of the son of Prince Owain Gwynedd, named Madoc, who came to America in 1170.

Reviews

[Amanda Helling · Rating 1 out of 5]

Great characters, nothing else to recommend it. The book has far too much detail (both in the sense that the author was displaying her research and in the sense that you get too many individual days - like it's Madoc's log of his days). The timeline is hard to follow as for a while you get individual days detailed out, but then large time periods pass without specificity or clarity. Sometimes it seemed the author jumped around a bit in time without making it clear.

I felt the author treated the Native Americans like savages in her writing, making them sound dumb and barbaric even while Madoc said things to the effect of "They're just different than us".

Not my cup of tea. This book should be 300 pages at most.

[Thalla Rothach]

Blissfully gave up on this series. I did a lot of historical research before coming to these books, so the various inaccuracies-pagan survivals, riding naked into battle-just nope. But what really got me was that this story is based on white nationalist propaganda from the 19th century: real ancient Americans were lost white tribes, all ancient ruins built by lost white race-and some of these tribes were deeply tanned Welsh, because the Hidatsa or Mandan language didn't really exist-it was just funny sounding Welsh. So I think is was a bad idea to write a novel based on racist stuff.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

This 600 page book should have been no more than 250-300 pages. I liked the premise and 2 parallel stories, but just because you have done extensive historical research doesn't mean that seemingly endless descriptions make for good storytelling. The ending seemed abrupt and didn't live up to the 600 pages of buildup of the relationship between the two main characters. I did learn quite a bit, especially that Welshmen really did reach and explore what is now the US in 1170. One more reason to abandon Columbus Day; Columbus wasn't first, he just received better press about his journey. 2.5 stars.

[Rosen Pavus · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF.

[Teresa · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn’t finished this book. It was slow, the characters were flat and it was so predictable. Completely not for me.

[Gina · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a sequel to Circle of Stones. Circle of Stones was the story of Brenda, a mistress of Prince Owain of Gwynedd (North Wales). This is the story of her son Madoc, whom it was prophesied would save many Druids by taking them to an "unproved land" (America). During this time, the Druids were being persecuted by the "New Religionists" under King Henry in the 12th Century. It also contains the story of native people in Florida that Madoc will eventually meet. I am only 1/3 of the way through at this point.

I would like to take on some of the myriad complaints and unfavorable reviews that I have read. A lot of people are mentioning maybe it shouldn't be called "historical" fiction bc it's based on a legend. At the end of the book, the author confronts this and talks about what she has uncovered in her research. I haven't gotten that far, so I don't know what it says. Regardless, historical fiction IS fiction. Typically, authors do a LOT of research and there is a mixture of fact and fiction, and they often discuss that in the end of the book bc people like to know which is which. Therefore, it does not have to be fact to be a true historical fiction. The setting being accurate is one of the most important elements to a good historical fiction, imo. Usually, there is a lot else that is fact, but if the whole thing was, it would be a non-fiction, biography, history...

A couple of people complained about the detail regarding ship-building. I thought that was boring and awful to read as well. However, that part of the story was what was happening. Madoc was building ships. So unless she makes that same statement and skips over that period of his life, it's necessary to talk about the ship-building. I did not agree that she put that in there in order to show off her research...I thought it was necessary that she learn what materials they used and what type of ships it was likely that they built. Here is where she was more true to history (see above) rather than just making a fluff story about this time period and leaving out what most likely actually happened. For someone interested in boats and navigation, they probably would have LOVED this. You have to expect it, knowing that seafaring was Madoc's destiny and love.

I agree with the person who thought it was ridiculous that the girl could learn languages in a couple of days - and might convenient to the story. In real life, if Madoc and the girl couldn't communicate for quite some time...well, that's life...but doesn't make for a very good book. I think it's possible that someone could do that, but what is the likelihood? But it's a fiction and for all that is good about it, I can overlook that. Fiction stories often have unrealistically perfect people, to say nothing of movies...but people eat that up. lol.

I also did not find reading the portion of the story that overlapped with Brenda's to be too long or too short. It was the same time period, but a different experience, events, and perspective. If you read other historical fiction, you will find yourself reading about the same time period from the POV of different people...think of the myriad books about the reign of King Henry the VIII....there's a book from the perspective of each and every one of his wives, and multiple books about some of them, King Henry himself, and so on.

So far, it's not nearly as fun and interesting to read as Circle of Stones, but I still like it.

Feb 7
Well, it's been almost a month, and I've gotten almost no farther, so I guess everyone was right! It just starts feeling like more of a chore reading it just to get through it...doesn't pull you in. I have to say, the Native Indians she describes are just depressing. I mean really, how many worthless chiefs can one village have? I can't imagine this is based on any reality, or if it is...gahhh!! It's ridiculous. I might just return this to the library and get something better. Or skip to the end and read about the reality vs story and THEN return it ;)

April 5th
Read is inaccurate...I did end up taking it back. I just didn't like it. For me, it started out so well, but then became ridiculous in some ways (as others have said)and boring in others. I used to finish any book I started, but life's too short. If I'm not enjoying it, if it really feels like work, forget it. I'm keeping it on here so I don't lose track of it.

[Benjamin Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

A follow-up to Circle of Stones, this novel follows Madoc, a Welshman and lesser know "discoverer" of the new World in the 12th century. If you enjoyed the first book then you'll like this one too. I've had both on my shelves for years and finally committed to reading them this year...I barely made it. The first was a bit dry for my taste and moved a little too slow so I had procrastinated on this second volume as long as I could.

The first third of this second book overlaps the first book completely, but telling of the events from a different perspective, that of Madoc's instead of his mother, Brenda. That was problematical in that it was too long for those who had read the first book, but was rushed for those who hadn't...no character depth developed. The rest of the novel was well written, even though still at that same slow pace that occurred in the first book.

I'm not so sure of the historical accuracy here either. Of course, the author is dealing with a pieced-together legend so I didn't expect "facts" on Madoc's life. But I do expect things like the weather in Florida, the nature of fish and wildlife, etc. to be at least close to reality. Her novel, Sacajawea, had similar problems with taking too much literary license with known facts. I also found some things just plain hard to swallow like when a Welshman and a native American girl come to understand one another so easily, including language, in just a few days, and in some cases, only hours. Such sloppy writing/editing just serves to jar the reader out the experience.

I understand a third book in this series has recently been published. If I had nothing else to read, I would go ahead and pick it up. But as it is, life is too short and my TBR list is already way too long.

[Drkazmd65 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yet another of my Bargin Bin finds. I got this book at least two years ago, and started and stopped reading it at least twice over that time. It took me a while to decide that I liked the characters enough to continue reading it.

This book falls into a genre that I generally like - semi-historical fiction. It's not the best of the genre that I have ever picked up, but it was a good read, with well developed characters and enough 'reality' to properly suspend disbelief. This is a story that could have happened.

One of the storylines in this book begins with the youth of Madoc (destined to be a great explorer) and his upbringing in 1100's Wales - a time when the old religon (Druidism) is disappearing in conflict with Christianity. Madoc, the bastard son of the old King of Wales finds himself and his people needing to flee Wales after his father dies, and his brothers begin warring over power and whether Wales will be tolerant of the old religion. Madoc has been trained as a sailor, and leads a small fleet of 10 ships to the new world in search of a place where the druids can live in peace.

In the other storyline, Cougar, a Calusa woman is growing up in what will become Florida and finding her way to her real parents, to becoming a Healer, and finding a place where she can live in peace as well. Cougar has always had dreams/visions of meeting a fair-haired man commanding a village of floating lodges. The storylines intersect with an interesting and plausable clashing of cultures.

[Natasha G · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a little exasperating. I enjoyed the characters, and without them I would have given up on the book a long time ago. The prose was very clunky, mostly because it seemed the author wanted to really show off how much research she did, and thus would put ridiculous detail in places it simply wasn't natural. It became the equivalent of, "I think I will get into my combustion engine car and turn its round steering wheel, press the pedals to inject the engine with gas, and power the machine to the corner store." That is not much of an exaggeration. Also, there wasn't much pie. I felt I was drudging through this book looking for the tasty morsels of goodness that were promised by how dramatic the characters were, and I got very few crumbs indeed. However, in the end it really was worth it and enjoyable.

[Serena · Rating 3 out of 5]

Slightly disappointed in this book, especially after having read it's epic prequel, Circle of Stones. The characters did not grasp me as they did in the first, and I found myself dragging my feet in trying to complete it. I only did so out of loyalty to Anna Lee Waldo and my desire to complete the story of Madoc, especially after the first one gripped my attention so. Unfortunately, unlike Circle of Stones, I still have yet to read this book a second time.

[Renee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great historical (maybe) fiction. The maybe is because they haven't been able to definitively prove that the main character, Madoc, actually sailed from Europe to North America in the 1100s, 300 years before Columbus, with a group of Welch settlers who were Druids trying to escape persecution by the Christians in Europe. Very interesting & entertaining.

[Selenia · Rating 2 out of 5]

I rarely put down a book without finishing it, but I had to with this one when I got halfway through and the two main characters hadn't met. The outline is:
chapter 1: she weaves baskets and gathers berries
chapter 2: he mopes around and talks about wanting to travel
and on and on ad nauseum

[Natalie Cornish · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was an excellent story told by a poor storyteller. She tried too hard to give elaborate descriptions and result was more a distraction than an enhancement. However, the actual story was interesting and I liked how she alternated viewpoints. It also seemed well researched.

[Carol]

Historical fantasy, worth the read but
the end is slightly unsatisfying.

[honestly mem]

When in the hell did I pick this book up?

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting, if you like history and myth.

[Jackie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Compared to Circle of Stones, this book is severely lacking. While the subject was of great interest to me, I couldn't get into it.

[Theresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

a story of self esteem and building your place in life

[Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun to finish this book on my Columbus day holiday weekend. So Madoc may have discovered America before Columbus, eh? This historical fiction reflects on that thought.

[April · Rating 2 out of 5]

The beginning was good but it lost momentum half way through. I kinda surprised by the ending....

[Patrick Bättig · Rating 4 out of 5]

Geschichte von Madoc, der als erster Amerika entdeckte um seine Druidenbrüder zu einem sicheren Hafen zu geleiten, in dem sie in Frieden leben können.

[Bianka · Rating 1 out of 5]

Couldn't finish. Way too boring.

[Nico · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book started out interestingly enough, but I got very bored around page 108 of this edition. A lot of detail about ship building, and I nearly decided not even to finish the book. I read something else in-between, taking a break. Decided to go back to it, and am actually glad I did. I'm not crazy about Waldo's writing style. At times her sentence structure, and interconnecting events (within a paragraph) confused me. Her writing style often reminded me of a term-paper rather than a novel. But, I stuck with it, and ended up being pulled into the lives of the characters and their various adventures. There is a lot to learn from this story if one sets time aside to investigate the history and artifacts of the time. That being said, I felt that I would have liked to have seen some drawings of the ships and coracles, maybe a glossary of terms, including of some plants (she talked about an orange fruit with 2 seeds, I still don't know what that is). It was actually a really good book if one can get past her writing style, a lot of repeating narratives, and a few boring spots. Clearly a lot of research and effort went into this. 3 1/2 - 4 stars. 5 stars for the author's obvious dedication to this topic, and research.