The Way Between The Worlds (2002) - Plot & Excerpts
This is a difficult one for me. I definitely enjoyed the plot, the characters and to a certain extend, the conclusion. I think what keeps me from rating this set higher than 3 stars was the writing style. This is a very personal thing (I find Tolkien a hard read for the same reason, so he's in good company), but I just didn't fall in love with the way he told the story.His descriptions were sometimes quite extraordinary and I found myself so astonished at his choice of phrase that I found it detrimental to the immersion I normally feel when reading (i.e. it got in the way of the story for me).I will read other books by him, but I didn't feel it to be a labour of love to read them.I did also find his attempts to give everyone good/evil aspects to thier characters to be a little clumsy (sorry!). I didn't quite believe in those protagonists who hated each other and then worked together, then didn't, etc.Finally, there seemed to be a lot less back story that there initially appeared to be. Ultimately, there were just two real stories. The one that happened X thousand years ago, and one which happens now. The mystery did not torment me in the same way it does Llian, and the resolution did not astonish me either.I apologise if this comes across as an unnecessarily harsh review - I can see that others rate this very highly, but to me whilst some of the ingredients were good, and the tale of interest, it was much too long for such a small tale (and I did enjoy that small tale).
A very good ending to a good series. Mostly a happy ending though, which I wasn't expecting seeing as I accidentally read the second series set in the same world (the Geomancer series) first.So why only four stars? Because I missed... that intangible something, a bit of subtlety, a bit of empathy, a bit of eloquence. You could say that it's my bias as a female reader against a male author but I don't think so, there are plenty of male authors who absolutely master the "impersonal personal touch". It was hard for me to identify with a LOT, if not all, of the characters even though Irvine obviously put a lot of effort into character building. In that sense the second tetralogy is better.Consistency, story and pace-wise, but above all the whole concept of the series is really really good!
What do You think about The Way Between The Worlds (2002)?
I have postponed reading this final book for years. It's the final book in the series and the whole series was really hard to trudge through. The only reason I finished them is because they've been sitting on my shelves for years and I was determined to finish it. However, I wish I hadn't bothered. The ending was very anti-climatic. Everything was solved but in a weird way. Irvine really dragged the ending out too much and just didn't execute the ending well. All four books were only mediocre. I
—Cassy
This book concludes the tale of Karan, Llian, the Mirror and all who have been swept up by the events. And what a series it has been, friends and enemies, love and betrayal, survival and death. The imagination of Ian Irvine is really a thing to celebrate.The plotling has throughout the whole series been original and ever changing, this has not changed. The reader can be sure of nothing until those two amazing words "The End" stops it all. Until then everything is in flux and the unsuspecting reader can do nothing but try to keep up.I would definetly recomend this book (and of course the entire series) to any who is a fan of the genre.
—Iben
