Heart of Stars by Kate Forsyth
April 25th 2007 09:01
Heart of Stars by Kate Forsyth
Kate Forsyth's Heart of Stars completes the Rhiannon's Ride trilogy, itself a continuation of Witches of Eileanan series. Rhiannon is a half-satyricon, born to a satyricon and a man, who fails to grow a horn. Desperate that the herd will kill her, she kills one of their prisoners, tames a winged horse and escapes. She is caught by Leuwen's family, who find out that the man she killed was a king's soldier, so they decide to take her to the court and Leuwen falls in love with her. Along the way they get stuck in a castle where an evil Lord Malvern is trying to raise his dead sons trhough necromancy. In the second book, Rhiannon is thrown into the prison and Leuwen, under the spell of a love potion concocted by Olwynne, forgets about her. There is lots of court intrigue going on and two malevolent spirits from the past still trying to get their lives back amke deals with disgruntled characters.
The second book was fun because there is so much injustice piled up against Rhiannon, it makes you cheer for her. The first book was strictly alright; even though Rhiannon is entertaining, the rest fo the setup isn't. Necromancy which forms the basis of this series is not terribly exciting and the fantasy world that Forsyth creates is not all that imaginative either.
In Heart of Stars, Lord Malvern has kidnapped Olwynne and her brother, to sacrifice them to an evil spirit called Margrit of Arran, who in turn promised Malvern that she will bring his sons back from the dead. Meanwhile, the spell for resurrection is written in a magic book but an evil spirit called Bran has wrapped that up in such a way that whoever reads it will have to go to the past and resurrect him or else go mad.
Rhiannon was released from her prison at the end of the second book and in this one, she is given the task of rescuing Olwynne and Owein. This track is supposed to be the main plot but Forsyth comes to it only intermittently and in the end, it is resolved without any great heroism on Rhiannon's part. Rhiannon was the only reason this series works even moderately and her less than stellar part is a dampener. A major portion of the novel is about a bunch of people who go back in time to tackle Bran's spell, a pointless exercise since Bran is raised from the dead and killed again in the same chapter. Another major portion is spent on court intrigue and the new queen Bronwyn but Bronwyn is never a compelling a character as Rhiannon is even though in the end she succeeded to arouse my sympathies.
A trilogy is supposed to be a cohesive unit where the final novel provides a satisfying climax. Rather, Heart of Stars reads like those soap operas where after an initial success additional plot lines are extended and spun and resolved without coming to any point, just to continue the series. It is a disappointing end to a rousing middle and an interesting beginning.
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