Terisa has been taken prisoner, Geraden's brother has been taken prisoner (read the book; I promise it will make sense--there are just too many plot threads to do justice to them here). BUT. . . Terisa has discovered she has talent with mirrors too. And she's left behind the strange attraction to power that was her crush on one of the masters of imagery, an attraction which nearly broke her spirit.Romance fans, this is also a love story. Forget Edward Cullen and his sparkly marble perfection (and his control-freakish possessiveness--see my Twilight reviews); Geraden of Domne is one of my literary hero crushes for life. Terisa's other discovery, finally, is her love for Geraden. I told you I wanted to bitch-slap her the entire first half of The Mirror of Her Dreams for many reasons including ignoring the ideal man standing in front of her. Once their story takes off, Donaldson handles this beautifully, never slopping over into mush or sentimentality. He writes their love scenes differently than the other sex scenes in the book, showing the difference between true love and exploitation, between true love and merely "scratching an itch." And Geraden and Terisa's talents and self-confidence seem to grow exponentially as their love for each other grows. Another of my gripes about the Twilight series is that the happy ending was too pat, too easy. You see, I'd read Mordant's Need first, and Meyer's crap "love story" pales in comparison. Bella's use of her "love shield" (what a stupid name--it sounds more like a brand of condom to me) was actually a small factor in the Cullens' victory, the larger one being, once again, intervention by Alice and Jasper. Nobody has grown up by the end of Meyer's 2000 or however many pages she filled with utter ballocks. By contrast, Terisa and Geraden endure hardship and real danger as they race against time. The horrors being translated into Mordant are becoming more frequent and more dangerous; not only do they have to find out who's behind the attacks, they also have to gather support from the leaders of the seven Cares within the kingdom to help them fight these men who are misusing their power. In other words, Terisa and Geraden actually earn their happy ending, and it wasn't through forty mind-numbing pages trying to be the trial in The Merchant of Venice. There is a battle--a real one, with catapults and armor and arrows and soldiers on horseback. And Imagery. And lasers. Yup, lasers. Read the books. Donaldson keeps all the balls in the air in these two novels. Magic, intrigue, politics, danger, sex, power, humor, love. . . it's all there. The other amazing accomplishment here is Donaldson's ability to write from a female perspective. I don't think he could create a cardboard female character if he tried.Donaldson's prose is more spare than in the Thomas Covenant books, so if you tried to read those and gave up, give these a try. The guy's amazing. His "Gap" series was voiced differently than the "Mordant" books, and his series of detective novels were different from any of his fantasy and science fiction. If the Twilight books are Twinkies, full of fluffy creme and artificial ingredients, then the Mordant books are tarte tropezienne, a French pastry crafted in small artisan bakeries in the charming coastal city of St. Tropez, France. As with the much-imitated-but-never-duplicated Harry Potter series, there are at least a dozen vampire series for young adults out there at the moment, trying to cash in on the current Twilight mania, but nobody has tried to imitate any of Donaldson's work. It's just too difficult to write with that amount of precision and care. Most "authors" are just too lazy or not sufficiently dedicated to their craft. Donaldson agonizes over every word. His ideas are original enough that it would be obvious any other writer was stealing from him. He is currently working on the last four books of the Thomas Covenant series. He had the ideas for them back when he finished the second trilogy but didn't feel that his skills as a writer were equal to the story he wanted to tell. So he waited 20 years and wrote two books of short stories and three other series before going back to The Land. In this "make a fast buck and who cares if it's any good as long as it sells" publishing climate, integrity like Donaldson's is rare.
I felt as if this book completely redeemed any level of complaint I had regarding the first book's long line of characters I was driven to hate, coupled with characters I was disappointed in, followed by characters who were entirely depressing. This book picks up immediately following the events of the first book and in fact even carries the current number of the chapters over as if the two were cleft apart from one enormous tome. In that regard if you haven't read the prior book for some time it may be worth a revisit to The Mirror of Her Dreams before you begin on A Man Rides Through.Without giving anything away that occurs, this book is fairly full of action. The pace is never slow even in the moments that world altering events are occurring. Donaldson shows considerable ability to plan out his novels in elaborate detail from the beginning of a work and while some things will seem fairly predictable as they occur it does little to dissuade admiration for his thoughtfulness. There may be a few holes within which don't make sense or aren't clearly revealed in the light of conclusion, but I didn't find these few instances unpalatable against the backdrop of the action and the fruition of the character building that went on in the first book.I gave this book four stars because it is a unique work set in a unique world with interesting and developed characters. Donaldson has never seemed to be one to follow the pack or work on someone else's previously paved roads. Mordant's Need I and II are yet another example of his preference to forge ahead into unknown territory and create his own worlds with their own rules.
What do You think about A Man Rides Through (2003)?
Read A Man Rides Through ages ago, back when I was still in high school and I loved it. I received it as a Christmas present from one of my closest friends. She'd also given me The Mirror Through Her Dreams as a Christmas present the year before. When I moved to Sweden, I had to leave many of my hardcover books in the US. I ended up donating both books to a local high school library. One day I was in the Science Fiction bookstore in Stockholm's Old Town and I found both books in paperback. I was so happy I bought them immediately. I was a little afraid that I would no longer enjoy the series, but I was sucked in almost immediately. Both books still spoke to me--so much so that I read them both in one weekend, much to my husband's chagrin. I think it may be time to pull them out again and re-read them. I am feeling nostalgic.
—Kim
A worthy end to Donaldson's somewhat uneven yet enjoyable "Mordant's Need" duology. The story of Terisa, a woman from our world shunted into the midst of a fantastic conflict in another realm, and Geraden, the bumbling but good-hearted young man responsible for her arrival, reveals itself to be a story about coming into one's potential and having the courage to use it for good and not ill.The weaknesses of the previous volume are still evident here, most notably the near incomprehensibility of the magic system of Imagery--the translation of beings between worlds through the medium of mirrors--and Donaldson's strenuous efforts to convey it in writing. Also troubling is the gender situation, which no doubt other critics would find more interesting to pursue. Suffice to say that while there are some powerful females here, Donaldson displays a willingness to treat them with a passivity and brutality that some may find distressing.What's improved over book one, though, is this book's sense of scope. "The Mirror of Her Dreams" suffered from its near uninterrupted lodging in a single setting and its environs, while this volume gets some of our characters out into the Cares around Orison. This broadens the world of Mordant and contributes to the sense that there are greater stakes to this conflict than the mere egos of rulers. While this broadening shunts some of the focus away from our heroes, Terisa and Geraden, most of the additions to the status of central cast are positive ones--I'm a particular fan of the corpulent, suffering, but loyal lord of the Tor.There's a lot to like here, especially if you're a fan of Donaldson's somewhat sententious style (as I am). The gradual crystallization of the novels' morals burst vitally as natural progressions of the characters' victories and losses, and had me drawing comparisons to the best and most interesting of the lessons in "A Song of Ice and Fire." What's more, it all wraps up with one of the finest battles I've read in fantasy literature--it's the most 'military' writing I've seen from Donaldson since Hile Troy's campaign in the magnificent "Illearth War." It's exciting, suspenseful, and gives every surviving character something important to do--no mean feat for a set-piece of such size.
—Alex Andrasik
I loved the tension between romance and desparation. The author held a fine line between these two emotions -- something often missing in his Thomas Covenant Chronicles.
—Linda Armbruster
