Mild spoilers implied, be warned. This book was tricky. Of all Elliott's works (so far), this one took me the longest to get into. The character introduced at the beginning turns out to be a fake-out lead, time skips and switching between numerous POVs until it finally gets settled a little after we meet the characters Shai, Mai, and Anji. I'm glad I stuck through it, however long it took me, but there came a point when I realized I didn't want to put it down, because then I wanted all of them to meet! And meet they did, and how satisfying it was.It suffers from some really bad inertia at the beginning for the first few chapters, so that might throw people off. If you can get through it, though, most of the characters are extremely likable. Mai and Anji steal the show, they're darling. Though Joss took me a while to warm up to, I ended up cheering for him most of all. Zubaidit is hilarious and cheeky and wonderful, I hope I see her in later books. I will admit I don't really have any love for Keshad - I understand where he's coming from, don't like him. Shai is in a weird place for me, because I understand his necessity to the plot, but his necessity to the plot is hidden and his importance is only implied. At first I was frustrated because it seemed he was an entirely superfluous character, but it shows up at the end.In terms of pacing, style, etc. this is not Elliott's strongest work. I would definitely still recommend it, as the story goes from tragedy to slow building thriller really nicely, and I at least came to care for the characters a lot. There is a budding mystery coming out and I'm extremely excited to start the next one, Shadow Gate, and see where that leads.Some warnings: (this book is really not for everyone)This book was also really graphic.Sex: Some offscreen implied sex, some a bit explicit. It's nothing so shocking, you'll have seen more titillating stuff in fanfiction. If this is your first experience with sex in a fantasy novel, I guess?Sexual violence: Some characters make verbal threats to do it or in their pov, say that they will. Specific descriptions of post-rape injuries. One minor villainous character is known to violate dead bodies and talks about it often. Offshoot of that: Sex with slaves: Many characters have sex with slaves, talked about/implied in the narrative (sex with slaves, I would have to label it sexual abuse/sexual assault as there is not even a lick of consent present in these situations). One particular slave girl is "rented out" by her owner - when another character is angry and stops this, we see a small snapshot of the event itself before it stops.Violence: The usual battles and gore, normal for adult fantasy. There is one scene in particular that stood out to me, though, roughly halfway through the book. Two characters are walking down a road and come across a scene of carnage where a small village was attacked. The character whose pov we are in includes some graphic descriptions of the dead bodies and the injuries the people must have sustained before/after they died. All that to say, this is far from the worst book I've read for sexual violence, violence, sex, etc. I personally wasn't bothered too much, Elliott wasn't gross/gratuitous about it and very little was depicted in the act, but I expect others may disagree on that. This is a strong YMMV.
The great news is that I saved a lot of money while reading this book! I typically buy 2 or 3 books a week because I just can't put them down, it adds up quickly. However, with Spirit Gate it took me 2-3 weeks to get through this book. In fact, my house doesn't have a lick of dust in it because I deep cleaned everything just to avoid Spirit Gate. I've taken up artwork, color coded my calenders and to do lists, and even finished my financial budget. I spent my free time avoiding picking up this book. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't terrible. I loved the eagles, but found the characters hard to get into. I found myself WANTING to learn more about them and was intrigued, but so far my greatest interest in the characters is that I'm waiting for something to happen. Where Elliot went on and on in great detail, she left a lot to be desired. I will read this trilogy because I'm hoping that book one was perhaps just an extra long character build and we'll get some explanations and real story in the other novels. Worst comes to worst, I'll have a mildly interesting series about eagle riders and I'll have an exceptionally productive month in other regards. I'm not sure if anyone has touched on the subject, but the naming of the characters, places, and religions is just ridiculous. It's hard enough to grasp the multiple cultures, politics, and religions; but the names Mai, Shai, Bai, Mei....was Elliot grabbing inspiration from a baby learning to speak? Everyone is a shade of brown, with brown eyes and brown hair and are either attractive or have crooked noses from not being set properly (apparently this is a common problem in her world) except for the blonde hair, blue eyed demon slave. This made it very difficult to distinguish characters apart. Lastly, if the character distinguishing wasn't difficult enough; the character changes had no consistency. Sometimes a section would stop and pick up again with the same character, sometimes Elliot changed the POV with no clear changes. I found myself reading a page or two until I realized she changed the POV of characters like Mai and Shai who happen to be following a very similar storyline. Lets hope explanations won't end up being anticlimactic and she follows through with this build up of ominous shadows. So I bought book 2 and am hoping this series will pick up
What do You think about Spirit Gate (2006)?
Once The Hundred was a place of peace and safety. The Guardians delivered justice and the reeves flew in answer to them. But no one has seen the Guardians in generations. The reeves still patrol but their authority has been on the wane for quite a while, and now there are reports of attacks on villages. Reeves and their eagles have been murdered. Something dark and troubling is on the rise.Okay, so that blurb is fairly standard for an epic fantasy, but don’t dismiss this book as a by the numbers story because it is so much more than that.First off, the world-building is excellent. There are a number of different countries and histories that we are introduced to. The Hundred is where the majority of the characters come from, where most of the action takes place, but there is also the Sirniakan Empire where the genders are sequestered from one another, and there is the land where Mei comes from, now ruled over by Qin warriors, where the family is ruled by the male head.Full review with spoilers hidden here : http://www.susanhatedliterature.net/2...
—Fence
I don't know. I found that it was a little bit hard to get in to at first because it's slow and the story line tends to drag on for a bit then suddenly jump through time without letting the reader get a feel for the story properly. I also really hoped that I would get to know more about some characters like Marit who you barely hear about, so I was a bit disappointed in that respect.But, I found that reading the next books made the first book make more sense. So when I went back to the first book I enjoyed it much more.Some things I did like was the whole guardian mystery that they have introduced and the idea of 'reeves', because honestly, who doesn't want a giant eagle protecting them. I also liked how she portrayed Anji and Mai's relationship. The interaction between the two is sweet. No author can be amazing and write awesome things all the time.I did enjoy this book the second time I am reading it, so I encourage those that didn't get in to it the first time, to read it again so they can fully enjoy it as I did.r
—Josie
Love the eagles (at last Tokien's eagles find a place), the touches of language (sheh! etc), the depth of world and the female characters... but much of the book feels repetitious, while the opening is incredibly slow. This is a book (and the two which came after it) crying out for a really strong editor. Huge swathes could have been cut without anyone missing yet more of Josh's repetitive banter ("Don't you ever stop?" No, really. Don't you?) or yet more of how evil the evil characters are (when you find yourself thinking 'oh not another child rape' you know something is very wrong).So if you have a holiday where you can get through all three books, then this is an enjoyable read. Otherwise... sheh.
—Helen Walton
