Depois dos acontecimentos decorridos em O Espelho Negro, este livro apresenta-nos uma história diferente. Cinco anos passados desde os acontecimentos anteriores, A Espada de Fortriu não só nos dá a conhecer a nova vida de Bridei e Tuala como se centra em duas das anteriores personagens secundárias que me suscitaram mais curiosidade: Ana e Faolan. Num espaço diferente e com uma narrativa ainda mais forte e introspectiva, Marillier volta a surpreender e a mostrar que não é só Sevenwaters que ela sabe escrever.Após o fantástico primeiro volume de As Crónicas de Bridei, foi quase com desespero que me agarrei imediatamente a este segundo volume. A curiosidade espicaçou-me de tal maneira que não descansei enquanto não dei esta leitura por terminada. Se não me engano, li-o em dois dias!Mais uma vez reencontrámos todas as personagens que me conquistaram no livro anterior numa nova fase das suas vidas. Está na altura de colocar os sonhos em funcionamento e pôr finalmente em prática tudo aquilo porque lutaram. O crescimento de algumas personagens é um dos factores interessantes deste livro. Ver finalmente o rei Bridei em acção, observar o resultado final de todo o ensinamento de Broichan é como chegarmos, por fim, aquilo que todos ambicionámos. E perceber que por isso as coisas não vão ficar mais fáceis e novos desafios espreitam no horizonte torna toda a profecia em redor do jovem, ainda mais interessante. Observámos não só o rei, o guerreiro e o apaixonado dos deuses mas também o marido e pai. Marillier mostra todos os lados do poder com a sua mestria e não se esqueceu de nos dar um vislumbre não só sobre este mas também de todos os que o rodeiam.Mas o ponto alto é bem capaz de ser a viagem de Ana e Faolan e tudo o que decorre daí. Conhecer melhor estas duas personagens secundárias foi o que mais me entusiasmou. Todos os detalhes da viagem, as mudanças pessoais que ocorrem daí, envolvem alterações muito preciosas para o futuro e transformaram esta leitura em algo mais profundo e humano, do que seria de esperar. Faolan foi a surpresa deste livro, o que eu agradeço imenso, e acabou por merecer um lugar especial pois a sua complexidade está magnífica e foi uma das razões porque eu adorei este livro. Quanto as novas personagens, adoro a maneira como a autora entrelaça tudo e todos de forma a criar ligações especiais e, claro, a sua forma de criar histórias de amor verdadeiramente românticas. O enredo está dividido em três espaços: a viagem, a corte e a batalha. Todos eles se interligam de uma forma consistente, criando momentos tão activos quanto emotivos em todos os cenários. Com o Juliet a acção não paralisa. Ela está sempre a tecer os fios do destino e há sempre uma razão para tudo. Este livro está cheio de pontos altos mas uns quantos em especial que me emocionaram de uma maneira que já não acontecia à algum tempo.Posso dizer-vos que vale a pena enredarem-se nesta trilogia, há pouca coisa assim por aí.http://girlinchaiselongue.blogspot.co...
It's been five years since Bridei became king and he's anxious to banish the Christian Gaels from Fortriu's western shores. Success depends upon many carefully planned and executed offenses such as false intelligence, surprise, and an alliance or at least a vow of neutrality from the wild Caitt. The only way to do so seems through a strategic marriage between the princess of the Light Isles and the Caitt chieftain Alpin. Although Ana's been a royal hostage most of her life, she is loyal to Bridei and will fulfill her duty with dignity even if it means traveling far away and marrying a man she's never seen. With cold and methodical Faolan, Bridei's most trusted adviser and spy by her side, she couldn't be more tense. That is until her journey is far from smooth sailing and she arrives at Briar Wood to find Alpin a big, crude, and secretive man who keeps both Ana and Faolan guessing as to his true motives. Meanwhile Bridei's forces begin their attack, Briochan is not himself and Tuala sees a vision that may shed life on her parentage but spells death for Bridei. With a little luck and the endorsement of the Shining One their efforts just may be enough to avert the mounting obstacles and drive out the Gaels.After finishing The Dark Mirror I felt rewarded by the amount of closure but also left eagerly anticipating another new beginning for Bridei, now as king, and the future of Fortriu, both in borders and in belief. In both cases Bride of Fortriu satisfied but what surprised me was the overall improvement in the writing and how attached I became to the characters and gripped by the story. I haven't lost this much sleep for a book in awhile. Ana's in a tough and potentially deadly situation and as you can imagine I was very sympathetic to her plight. There was no way she could marry the replusive Alpin. There's also no way she could betray Bridei, who has become both her king and her friend, and the whole of Fortriu by failing to secure the treaty. With Faolan, her only hope, just as trapped physically and torn emotionally, I was very on edge and seriously worried for them and their small window of opportunity for escape. Add this emotional vulnerability to the unpredictable love triangle and my absorption in their story was complete. All I can say is hats off to Marillier. She risked alienating readers with both a love triangle and a thwarted happily-ever-after for some of the characters most dear to us but it paid off. She took a delicate situation and handled it with the extreme care required, so after the killer suspense of who will die and who will live to see their love requited or their heart broken I still wouldn't have wanted anything to happen differently or changed a thing about the ending. I have high hopes for the next book, The Well of Shades.
What do You think about Blade Of Fortriu (2006)?
WOW what an adventure! King Bridei embarks on a campaign to rid Fortriu of the Christian Gael's. This is a major undertaking involving all the chieftains of Fortriu. One of his ploys for success is to get the chieftain of Briar Wood (Alpin) and his huge fighting force to stand against the Gael's. To do this he offers marraige to his ward (hostage), Ana. The journey to Briar Wood is a major focus of the book. Ana and Faolan (King's assassin) set off with a guard in hopes of a treaty which would basically prevent Alpin from entering the war on either side. Alpin is a savage and an abusive ruler. Ana and Faolan (who have become great friends over the months of treacherous travel) enter a dangerous court and must play the game very carefully. Ana stumbles upon Alpin's brother, Drustan, who has been Alpin's prisoner for seven years, under mysterious circumstances. After getting to know Drustan, Ana cannot help but try to find out the truth about his imprisonment. This puts Alpin on alert and suddenly Ana and Faolan, not to mention Drustan, are fighting for their lives and freedom.A superbly written sage of love, friendship, betrayal and war. A slow read due to the many characters, plots and minute details. Absolutely wonderful.
—Barbara ★
Please find more (and up-to-date) reviews on my blog, www.TheCosyDragon.com Ana, a princess of the Light Isles, is being sent to make a strategic marriage for her King Bridei. Little does she know that her party will be changed, and that the self she presents will need to be ripped apart before life can proceed.Ana's character development is particularly convincing, as is Faolin's. Drunstan is a bit more of an unknown element, but I think it suits him. Faolan is enigmatic, and it's nice to see that shell finally crack a bit, even if it's painful for it to do so.The action in this novel is almost too powerful to read. I was gripped from start to finish. I couldn't bear for Ana to end up with the horrible Alvin oaf. Something I did have difficulty reconciling with what I knew of him was that he actually was waiting for the wedding night to take her. It seemed to me like they were in a little isolated pocket and that they could have gotten away with anything they pleased.Once again, I let this book go by without reviewing it promptly, and I've forgotten a lot of the good things I wanted to say about it. It's entirely worth your time to read it though.
—TheCosyDragon
So much better than the first book in "The Bridei Chronicles" but honestly still sub-par. Truly considering not even reading the next one, which is sad because I know this author can do better. I can't pinpoint whether it's the writing/pacing or the characters themselves losing focus and becoming completely two dimensional and unrelatable halfway through. It started out really well with a typical boy-underestimates-girl-then-falls-in-love-with-girl formula. Faolan himself is a really good character and I'm glad Marillier chose to focus on him; I am very invested in his personal history and the reunion with his family that is promised in book three. However, I'm very, very afraid that it will get stuffed, just like the middle/ending to this.My problems with this book started about halfway with the return to White Hall. Where I expected delicacy and affection, there was none, there was only mopey sadness and whingeing in a stupid love triangle that WASN'T EVEN EROTIC IN THE SLIGHTEST and things that made me hate the characters I had thus far liked, including Faolan, who up to this point was fine. Like, damn, if you want to write a love triangle can't you even try to make it... interesting? Not selfish and unfulfilled and serving only to interrupt the main plot. There wasn't enough action. I felt like to make things interesting, Faolan should have discovered Alpin's motives earlier and shadowdanced around his castle. Ana should have had her subplot with Drustan and Faolan should have really focussed on Deord. Instead, he only really found anything out towards the end when it was obvious and too late and was a bit like the bare minimum for the plot to advance. There was literally NOTHING for about 200 pages. The love triangle was more like a wet rag than a scintillating conflict of emotions. Most of the talking about it happened after Ana had openly chosen! There was no vying for her attention, no doubts or regrets on her part, just her feeling sorry. No romance at all. Great set-up, but really disappointing delivery. I drudged through this because of the promising beginning but the ending did not warrant this much investment. Maybe I am too formulaic in my expectations of writing about love and war, but the fact remains this had no hold over me. The most interesting characters got too little screen time (ie, Deord), and the action was sorely missing for large boring chunks.
—Sofiya
