Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #287567 in Books
• Published on: 2007-05-15
• Released on: 2007-05-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 496 pages

From Publishers Weekly
In this captivating third installment in Marillier's historical fantasy series (after 2006's Blade of Fortriu) set in the sixth-century Scottish Highlands and Ireland, Faolan of the Uí Néill clan—bard, assassin, spy and adviser to the Pictish King Bridei of Fortriu—must complete three difficult missions. For Bridei, he must track down a cleric named Colmcille. For his own peace of mind, he must return home to Erin and confront his past. (Ten years earlier Faolan faced an impossible choice that shattered his family and left his eldest brother dead.) For his deceased comrade Deord, he must bring news of the warrior's death to the man's family in Cloud Hill, a task that lands Deord's impoverished 16-year-old daughter, Eile, and her toddler in Faolan's care. Faolan brings Eile back to the court of King Bridei, where they find themselves enmeshed in a plot against the king's half-fey son, Derelei. Despite some anachronistic instances of liberated female behavior and a few discordant modern colloquialisms, this episode will appeal to series fans and new readers alike. (May)
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Review

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Customer Reviews

Best Juliet Marillier book yet
Juliet Marillier's The Well of Shades combines poetic writing with strong character development in this third installment of the Bridei Chronicles. The two main characters, Faolan and Eile, are among the most realistic characters Juliet has ever portrayed. Both of these characters share tragic pasts, but with the help of each other, work to overcome them. Juliet Marillier did an excellent job at interweaving multiple storylines in this novel without neglecting any characters or plots. As always, the historic setting of Marillier's work draws readers in to a new world, filled with love, war, earthly spirits, magic and transformation- in both body and soul. Readers of the previous two books will be amazed at the heart warming development of Faolan and Broichan.

This is by far Juliet Marillier's best book yet (And all of her books are worth 5 stars), but new readers should be advised to at least read Blade of Fortriu first.

Gripping page-turner in the continuing Bridei Chronicles
Juliet Marillier's written another winner in her third installment of the Bridei Chronicles.

"The Well of Shades" takes place almost immediately after the second book ("Blade of Fortriu") ends. A heartbroken Faolan returns to his homeland to complete an intelligence mission for Bridei, while also confronting the ghosts of his past. A side quest to inform Deord's family of his death brings Deord's daughter, Eile, into his life. Already open to his emotions (a result of his friendship with Ana from Book Two), his relationship with Eile helps him learn to heal and to love.

Book Three continues to focus on Faolan's road to rediscovery and learning how to feel again. Providing a fascinating backdrop is Bridei's leading Fortriu in a tenuous peace shortly after a great war (Book Two) and in the face of a rapidly changing political climate. A smaller side plot involves Broichan coming to terms with his past and a devious schemer from the Light Isles.

Overshadowing all the events is Bridei's concern that he has offended the Nameless God by not continuing the human sacrifice ceremony at the Well of Shades. But the Well and the ritual itself are just a reflection of the characters' need to come to terms with their past.

While the first two books focus more on the actions of the characters, Book Three really delves into the underlying motivations of the people of Fortriu. We learn more about the characters as their carefully constructed worlds fall apart and they learn to deal with that. Gripping and emotionally intense, this book (and series) is highly recommended.

Well of Storytelling
Book III of the Bridei Chronicles from Juliet Marillier begins with the trusted bodyguard/assassin of White Hill--Faolan--already well on his journey into the land of the Gaels to reconcile with the family he fled more than a decade before, to carry a dead friend's final words to the next of kin, and to spy on the Christian leaders in that region for Bridei, the king of Fortriu. On the back cover of the novel, a marketing person has described the young lady that Faolan finds at his friend's "home" while on his threefold mission as "the lovely young woman Eile, whose beauty shines forth despite her tragic circumstances." I won't deny that Eile's circumstances are tragic, and the actions she takes to free herself of them gave her some worth in my eyes, but I never grew to like the snappish, churlish girl. I ended up rooting for her for Faolan's sake, as many of the characters do. Despite Eile's unlikeability (for me), this novel sang with both familiar and new characters to Bridei's main storyline.

As I hint here, the May-December romance between the sixteen-year-old Eile and her father's friend Faolan is only one plotline that develops along the path to another plotline in The Well of Shades. Faolan gathers information for King Bridei while out and about, and brings back news of a Christian missionary's movements and influence. What readers may find most intriguing about this storyline is its foundation in historical fact. As with her first two novels in the series, Marillier pulls from the sparse history of the picts, weaving a fiction story among the bits of facts researchers know and "good guesses" scholars and writers can make. She mixes in a worried druid in search of answers and absolution; a toddler mage with powers neither he nor his parents truly know how to control; a devious, bored princess; and some settings in juxtaposition to each other (such as Eile's experience with the "noble" lady, Aine, at Blackthorn Rise in contrast to her experience with the queen, Tuala, at White Hill). What Marillier ends up with is a tale with many layers that feed into one another wonderfully. As with her first two novels in the series, her descriptions may seem tedious at times, but they give a reader a very deep feel for nuances of the world these characters live in. Something I did not notice in the first two novels, but found distracting in The Well of Shades, was Marillier's use of repetition. She reviewed material often enough that it stood out to me. It reminded me of later Terry Goodkind narratives.

Overall I enjoyed The Well of Shades immensely and was pleased with the way Marillier brought families together, tied up the story of Tuala and her parentage, gave insidious characters their due, etc., but I feel I must give new readers a warning. While the relationship between Tuala and Bridei bordered on "unease" for me at first due to their close upbringing as almost brother and sister, it is something the reader can get past pretty easily. But in this third novel, the underlying theme of incest nagged at the back of my mind. Sensitive readers may be uncomfortable if they can't get past a sixteen-year-old girl being abused by her uncle, Bridei and Tuala having a second child, or Tuala sharing/reliving with her father a vision in which he performs the sexual act in which she was conceived. While none of the sex scenes in this novel are explicit, the "unconventional" ones could turn off sensitive readers. I would like to point out that Marillier's use of them is sparse and essential to the plot(s). Fantasy readers should be so delighted with her world and her fiction that the minor discomfort, if noticed at all, will be shortlived.

From Sandy Lender, "Some days, you just want the dragon to win."