Originally reviewed on The Book SmugglersAfter cutting out her own heart and giving it to the darkangel Irrylath, Aeriel has not only found a way to save her world from the clutches of the White Witch and her seven icari, but she has also found a way to save Irrylath's soul. After breaking the curse on her new bridegroom, Aeriel and Irrylath make their way to Isternes, the childhood home of Irrylath, before he was treacherously traded away to the White Witch by his nursemaid Dirna for life and power. Here, Irrylath finds his true mother, his brothers, and his birthright as the eldest son and heir to the land - but though he and Aeriel are welcomed with open arms by his Esternese kin, their struggles remain. Irrylath remains plagued by terrible dreams and withdraws from Aeriel's touch and compassion - and Aeriel learns that her husband, in name if not in truth, still is snared by the hook of the White Witch. If she is to save him - and to truly save her world from the Witch, who even now searches for a new babe to make into a darkangel - Aeriel must embark on a dangerous quest, and solve an ancient, hidden riddle.A Gathering of Gargoyles continues the story of a brave young woman named Aeriel, who has inexplicably become the one person that can stand against an evil that threatens to consumer her world. And, dear readers, I loved this book so very much. I must start this review properly by thanking the lovely Megan no h for her emphatic recommendation, because A Gathering of Gargoyles is truly and utterly awesome. It is in fact a better novel than The Darkangel; The Empire Strikes Back to the first novel's Star Wars. I know that science fiction analogy may seem at first blush NOT to make sense with this trilogy, but in actuality it has far more resonance than one might suspect - because A Gathering of Gargoyles makes it abundantly clear that this series is actually one rooted in science fiction. Aeriel's world, as it becomes known in A Gathering of Gargoyles, is actually our moon; a "daymonth" to Aeriel and her fellow creatures, is the equivalent to a lunar day, with the constant companion of the Earth, or "Oceanus" to Aeriel, shining its pale blue light upon the moon's surface. Unlike our current moon, though, Aeriel's world is a place of impossible, fantastical life - in which there are seas of dust hiding moonwhales and serpents, with deserts and forests, gargoyles and lons. This is the most impressive thing about this trilogy, and A Gathering of Gargoyles in particular - the incredible scope of imagination. To be sure, this is a fantasy novel with magical creatures and gifts, but the story never once feels tired or familiar because of the magic of Ms. Pierce's prose and the wildly imaginative setting. Reading A Gathering of Gargoyles is almost like being in a dream - things are strange and ever-shifting, but you never really feel confused or lost, because it is your dream, and impossible things are accepted as a matter of course. From a pure story perspective, the actual plot of the novel is fairly simple - Aeriel leaves Isternes to find the lost lons, so that Irrylath's brothers can ride them into battle against the White Witch - and her journey takes her to the edges of the world. In truth, the story is about Aeriel as she discovers who she is, what she is truly capable of, and how far she will go to stop the Witch and win Irrylath's heart. The riddle - actually more of a prophecy - that sparks her journey lies at the heart of the book, and I love that its meaning changes as Aeriel's self-awareness grows. For all that she is risking everything for Irrylath, this is truly Aeriel's story, and I loved every last second of it. I loved following Aeriel from Isternes, across the Sea-of-Dust, to singing for her sup and on the run from bandits, to the desperate land of Pirs and the terrible truth of its ruler, to eventually back in her own home of Terrain. On each leg of her far journey, Aeriel learns a new truth, gathering Irrylath's former gargoyle guards along the way. My main complaint for The Darkangel was Aeriel's lack of oomph, and her utter, unflinching goodness. While she is still unerringly moral and good in A Gathering of Gargoyles, this book shows us glimpses of her vulnerability. She falls for the tricks of a false king and a hag; she shows her frustration when all her work seems to have gone to waste. And, most touchingly, we feel her heart breaking as she realizes the truth of Irrylath and that he does not love her.This volume ends on a sweet note, with the promise of even more fantastic adventure and peril ahead - the trilogy must close with Aeriel and Irrylath's confrontation of the White Witch, and I cannot wait to find out how it all ends.If you haven't read this gem of a series before, I implore you to find a used copy and start. Absolutely, wholeheartedly recommended, and one of my most cherished finds of the year.
Okay, so I really enjoyed this book. I'll admit that the first half of the book didn't really hook me. only when Aeriel crossed the Sea did it get interesting. I really liked Aerirel's character (though occasionally she would do things that didn't make sense, but I'll get to that later). It was very refreshing to have a female main character who wasn't dependent on a guy, like so many YA girls are these days. She saw the it wouldn't work out with Irrylath and later to go on her quest, though she was still pretty upset about the whole thing. I mean, she got enchanted by/fell in love with Irrylath when he was evil and she married him. Now he's normal and he isn't into her. So she realizes he needs his space (the whole thing with the witch was pretty traumatizing) and she leaves. So I was having real trouble getting past the whole part after she leaves (the Sea of Dust trip and the bits and pieces after that were pretty boring). But then she got to the other side, passed the county where there was all of these bandits, and was on the run from them, and that's where it got interesting for me. You are at the edge of your seat waiting to see what happens next. The plot had a lot more twists and turns then the first book. In fact, I liked this sequel much better than The Darkangel. The pacing was much faster and the whole thing was generally more intense. My only complaint was that sometimes Aeriel did some pretty stupid stuff. When she is at the suzerain's house, Erin gives her every kind of warning that the suzerain is bad news, but Aeriel still hangs out with him. I don't know if Pierce didn't convey how extensively Aeriel was under the hungerspice's spell, but she just felt stupid for staying with him, to me as the reader. Same thing went for went they were escaping the suzerain's house and being chased by a darkangel. He is using Aeriel's shadow to approach their group and Erin and Roshka are lying flat on the ground to minimize their shadows. Roshka is telling Aeriel to get down, but she wasn't, she was just standing there. Was she under the darkangel's spell? It kind of confused me. But whatever, the plot was so good in the second half that I can overlook the few times Aeriel's character acts oddly. I really liked how the author didn't provide the reader with a map (like they do in most adventure stories), yet I am fairly confident that I could draw one myself fairly accurately after reading this book. That's very impressive to me that Pierce gave a clear (more or less) picture of the land they were in. The only other issue I had with this book was how time was kept. The whole magical land seems to be a moon orbiting a planet, Oceanus, and the sun is called Solstar. They have these things called day-months and fortnights. (I have no idea how long these things are, so estimating time within the book is difficult). I know how long a fortnight is with our calendar, but I don't how that translates into the day-months they have. Oh, she's upset because she's been at the suzerain's for two day-months! Ummm...so what does that mean to me? I think that the whole land is best compared to Alaska because days and nights appear to last for more than 12 & 12 hours, depending on the time of year. (In the book there seemed to be very long periods of time where the sun wouldn't rise or set). Well, at least the whole system is something different and I can respect that Pierce tried something new. I still found Aeriel's point of view in the third person to be kind of clod and impersonal (but a lot of adventure stories are like that). It would have been cool if Pierce wrote it in the first person, so we could get to know Aeriel's character a little more and understand her motivations more clearly. Also I really liked the ending. A lot of things came together that I didn't think would until the third book. I loved the bombshell Irrylath told Aeriel at the end about him and the witch. All in all, the book was great, much better than the first in my opinion. Aeriel really steps up as the heroine and the plot is pretty well-paced (I haven't read a good plot like that in a while, so it was nice & reminded me kind of like Percy Jackson, but not as intense). I can't wait to read the next book. Happy St. Patrick's Day!
What do You think about A Gathering Of Gargoyles (1998)?
It seems to follow a rule: The second book in a trilogy is invariably the weakest link, usually there only to bridge the story between the first and third books. I can't say this was 100% true for A Gathering of Gargoyles but I will say, if not the story, then the characters were weaker, especially Aeriel. I don't know what happened, but somehow she became dumber during the book. Despite numerous hints, whether about something as trivial as the cloak she wore or about something as important as her true identity, she had to be beaten upside the head with a sledgehammer before any of these concepts got through to her. And once they did, she had to act in the predictable dumb-heroine manner: “What are you saying? Are you saying what I think you're saying? You're crazy!” Despite that annoyance, the story continued its theme of intertwining various elements from folklore and fairytales, as well as a deeper exploration into the sci-fi background of Aeriel's world, into a lyrical story of transformation, rebirth, and empowerment.
—Lolly's Library
Continuing from the very surprising ending of the previous book, this one appears to go off in another direction entirely, but I highly recommend you stick with it. The feelings of love and loss and loneliness in this book are palpable, and the setting and plot continue their strange and mystical path. The emotions are complex, and very real, and the plot just gets more and more intriguing. This book does suffer a bit, I find the second entries in triologies to be rather difficult to read, just in general, but while it meanders in the middle, it has your full attention by the end of the book. I loved this book, but it was in hindsight. Once you read the third one, you really appreciate the character development that was set up in this book. But make sure you have the third book ready when you finish this one. You're going to want to start reading it right away
—Robyn
An excellent sequel to The Darkangel and a solid precursor to the third book of the trilogy. We learn some more history of Irrylath's enchantment, bring in a host of new characters, and awarded plenty of riveting plot twists along the way. We get a much broader picture of Aeriel's world in this installment, as she traverses half the nations and encounters different cultures and colorful people. I really enjoyed that aspect of it, and in some ways it had a "fuller" feel than the first book, as if it's expanding on the world we only glimpsed one detailed corner of in the first book. Pierce does a good job of hinting at certain things, giving the reader enough clues to foreshadow that there's something really important about certain events or objects, but without revealing enough to give it away before the time is ripe. It very subtly adds to the suspense and holds the reader's attention without frustrating them. Aeriel is still a solid heroine, well-balanced between human and an unknown variable. I was really impressed with the way the author hints at her "strangeness" without ever really giving away if it's due to some innate power of Aeriel's or merely a result of her circumstances. I thought it was a very unique novel in many respects. Overall, I thought it was an unusually solid second book; it's written as if it's really worth your time as a novel of its own and not just to fill in the middle of a trilogy.
—Kiersten
