It's hard to overstate how disappointing this book was. Long. Dull. Uninspired. Anticlimactic. A pale, passionless shadow of the way the series started out.I'm glad all the loose ends got tied up and the story all sorted itself out, but boy was it a slog to get here. Unlike the others, this book takes place in a single time period, which makes it even more obvious that Kerr has given up on the one truly original and interesting aspect of Daggerspell -- the reincarnation and Wyrd.Minus the interesting echoes of past lives, we're down to your basic fantasy novel, and a mediocre one at that. The plot is repetitious and meandering, the characters are kind of dumb, the bad guys are a complete joke, and 300+ pages of tension and plotting lead up to a complete non-event of a final showdown.For others who have read the first three and want to read this one just to see how it all pans out: (view spoiler)[Rhodry is un-exiled and appointed the heir, but has meantime gotten himself kidnapped and sold into slavery in Bardek. Jill and Salamander go chasing after him, eventually finding him and disposing of the bad guys, who turn out to be incompetent cowards who can't match Nevyn's power. They take Rhodry back to Deverry, where Jill predictably realizes she wants/needs to study dweomer more than she wants to be trapped into the courtly life of a queen. After some agonizing, she leaves Rhodry and goes off to become Nevyn's apprentice. This decision made, she almost immediately remembers all the details of her former life, and tells Nevyn she (Brangwen) forgives him. (hide spoiler)]
This is the fourth novel in the "Deverry" series and the last of the first quartet therein. It's also the first book in the series that stays all in the same timeframe, not jumping back and forth among different timeframes as the previous books do. If I had known that prior to reading this novel, I might have been worried because, frankly, having multiple timeframes with many characters that are reincarnations of themselves was one of the coolest ideas I've ever come across in fantasy fiction. But this novel does not suffer for that at all and, in fact, is tightly woven.Being the final novel in the first quartet of this series, the novel does draw things to a close in most aspects but does certainly leave open the prospect for future novels, of which there at least 9 or 10 more to come. It was nice to see Jill finally come to terms with her budding skills with the dweomer as well as to read about the conclusion to Rhodry's cliffhanger ending from the last book. And of course the ever present Nevyn provides the sturdy anchor for the characters as well as us readers.Really looking forward to follow on novels in this series.
What do You think about The Dragon Revenant (1991)?
Kerr's Deverry series is broken up into four "scenes", each of which is subdivided into tetralogies (and one trilogy), and The Dragon Revenant wraps up the first one. Unlike the previous novels, this one remains in one time period, namely the established "present", where it manages to tie up enough plot threads to make for a satisfying and distinct conclusion of sorts, while still leaving just enough to make it clear that the overall story isn't over. Kerr also shows a good grasp of realistic character development, and, considering how relatively short these novels tend to be, it speaks to her skill as a storyteller that she can make such drastic development believable. Kerr has definitely hit her stride by this point, so I will gladly continue to re-read this series (which was not at all an obvious conclusion, considering the series' rocky start).
—Broodingferret
It has been 16 years since I first picked up the first Deverry novel, DaggerSpell, and here in am, 16 years later, about to finish the fifteenth and final one.Has the journey been worth it? Yes. Was the wait too long? Yes.I would not recommend anyone starts reading the Deverry cycle unless they intend to read them all, as the macroscopic story is at least as important as the microscopic ones, and as such I am reviewing the books as a set.I almost give them 4 stars (excellent) but in the end I am not enjoying them quite as much as I did in my early 20's and so I settled on 3 stars (good). As fantasy novels go the concepts and the writing are really excellent but for me the last couple of books haven't been as enjoyable as the early ones and it's a lot to expect people to read fifteen novels. That said I don't regret a single minute of the time I spent in Deverry. I even used to own a 'deverry' domain and use the handle of 'Rhodry' when t'internet was young. Highly recommended IF you have the stomach for a lot of reading.
—Mark
In questo libro Salamander si conferma senza dubbio il più bel personaggio della saga. Ancora troppe lacrime negli occhi degli uomini, ma soprattutto troppe cose lasciate irrisolte. Avevo sperato che alla fine Jill potesse trovare il modo di avere sia Rhodry che il dweomer ma è evidente che l'autrice abbia scelto diversamente. Però molte domande rimangono...chi, o meglio cosa, è Perryn? forse lo scopriremo nella prossima trilogia. A cosa serve l'anello che Salamander dà a Rhodry? Anche questo pr
—Grianne
