| Title | : | Wit'ch War (The Banned and the Banished, #3) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0345417100 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780345417107 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 542 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 2000 |
Now, with the aid of the ocean-dwelling Sy-wen and her great dragon, Elena prepares a desperate invasion of A'loa Glen. At her side stands the one-armed warrior Er'ril, her faithful protector and the only man who knows how to unlock the wards surrounding the Blood Diary--a man who also happens to be the brother of the dreaded Shorkan.
Meanwhile, Elena's brother, whose magick brings him prophetic dreams, has glimpsed a future in which Elena falls by the deadly sword of . . . Er'ril. But his visions do not always come true. How can he act against his sister's trusted guardian on the basis of a future betrayal that may never happen? For Elena's sake, and for the sake of all Alasea, how can he afford not to?
Wit'ch War (The Banned and the Banished, #3) Reviews
-
Yes, the story does drag at times but the world building and the development of the characters are above par.
These characters and the stories that weave around them are phenomenal.
I so give this author top ranking for putting this all together as effortlessly as he did. I find it amazing how over a period of 5 books that even the littlest details come into play in future books. Spectacular! -
Wit'ch War (The Banned and the Banished #3), James Clemens
In her hands, the young wit'ch Elena holds the awesome energies of blood magick--and more. For the fate of all Alasea hinges on her recovery of the Blood Diary, a potent talisman forged five hundred years ago, then locked away behind wards too strong for any mage to break. But only with the secrets recorded in its pages can Elena defeat the evil magicks of the Dark Lord. The challenge? The Diary lies hidden in A'loa Glen, the fabled city that belongs to Shorkan, chief lieutenant of the Dark Lord, and his fearsome army. -
Objectively, this story is heading in an entertaining direction, but I would really appreciate it if adult male characters would stop getting in their feels for female minors thanks.
-
4,25 stars - English paperback
In the third installment of The Banned and the Banished series, the action reaches a climax of sorts. Finally we get a direct confrontation between Elena and the powers of the Dark Lord. We also get the long-anticipated match-up between Er’ril and his doomed brother Sorkhan. A lot of the groundwork for this book was laid in the first two novels, and Clemens does not waste space with unnecessary details here. It is all action and it is presented at a break-neck pace. That is not to say that the scope of the story doesn’t continue to expand. On the contrary, we continue to be introduced to new characters and new plot-lines, some of which seem almost unrelated to the central story of Elena and company. Mycelle’s being diverted by a prince-in-need seemed out of left field, and could have just as well been left out. The compelling cast of characters continues to mature here, especially Elena, who is becoming more willing to accept her role and showing less hesitation in her decisions. The relationship between her and Er’ril is perhaps the best aspect of these books, and continues to develop in compelling ways. This is a solid installment in the series. -
will th'ink later;
sle'ep beckons
*
ok, so i've procrastinated long enough;
the goodreads title of the edition i've got just plain sucks;
since i'm in no position to rectify it, it will continue to suck, or should i say su'ck
p160: it popped through the material, and for a heart-shuddering moment it almost fumbled from his frantic fingers.
p226: "...he was part dragon now."
p500: she passed it through the window's casement and slipped teh latch. -
C'est toujours un plaisir de retrouver Elena, Er'ril et l'ensemble de la saga de la Sor'Cière...
Cependant j'ai moins apprécié ce tome que le précédent, le 2 restant pour l'instant mon preféré. Cette reserve tient notamment au rythme particulièrement ralenti dans la premiere partie du livre.
:::::SPOILERS::::: l faut attendre in bon moment avant que l'intrigue se décante à nouveau et certains fils sont assez grossiers (la soudaine maturité d'Elena visant seulement à rendre son attirance pour Er'ril plus acceptable par exemple) et d'autres aspects passés sous silence à peine amorcés (la transformation de Krak en Legion) :::: SPOILER
Je trouve aussi que l'intrigue n'a pas considerablement évoluée à la fin de ce tome.
Ceci dit Les personnages que j'aimais sont mis en avant (Krak, Sywen, Rag'nark, Joach) et les nouveaux venus sont satisfaisant! Le fil conducteur Des Tissages de Joach permets à l'intrigue de se suivre et l'explosion finale à la hauteur! -
Ik vond dit echt een erg leuk deel in de serie en ga ook gelijk maar door in het volgende deel. Er gebeurt heel veel vooral rond Elena, die de hoofdpersoon is. Veel gevechten en zo, Typisch epische fantasy. Maar ook de andere personen zijn heel aantrekkelijk om over te lezen, onder andere Erril, Tolchuk (de trol) en Joach, Elena's broer. De schrijfstijl is ook prettig leesbaar en als er geen andere dingen waren die gebeuren moeten was het vast al veel eerder uit geweest.
-
Ok das war das dickste Buch der Reihe und das mittlere jetzt bin ich so zu sagen über dem Berg.
Die Charaktere gefallen mir immer noch sehr gut, die Geschichte ist jetzt nicht so mega ausgefallen für Highfantasy, ein paar kleinere Überraschungen gab es zwar und die Geschichte kommt auch voran aber das Mega Highlight ist es leider nicht geworden. Werde aber die letzten zwei Bände auch noch lesen damit ich die Reihe abgeschlossen habe. -
I will not remember the names of these books. I barely remember the names of the characters - even the main ones. However, no matter what, I'll never forget the name I've come to think of the entire series by:
Sudden'ly
As I've mentioned in a previous review of most likely the first book of the Banned and the Banished, I can't help but think that Alasea is the safe haven for all of those apostrophes that professional and budding authors considered too excessive and erased from their projects. They are everywhere - just when you think you've wandered into a realm of relatively normal-looking words (as normal as fantasy can get, that is), a pack of sharp hissing little apostrophes hop out of out nowhere and bite you in the ass. It really is too much I feel, and there really seems to be no reason for them.
The writing itself is, for the most part, quite dry and mechanical, with occasional spurts of the flavour that this story sorely needs. At times it felt more like I was reading a timeline of events, rather than a story. ('This happened. He parried it like a light shining from the blackest darkest inkiest night. Suddenly the world exploded. Suddenly this happened. A single tear rolled down his cheek. SUDDENLY.') Normally the quality of writing isn't hugely important to me, but as the characters were lacking I really couldn't help but focus on it more than I would've liked.
The characters, as mentioned, do not grab me. Honestly, thinking back now over the three books I've read so far, I can only recall a few names and fewer threads of back-story. The only character that truly caught my interest wasn't around for very long (more on that one under the spoiler). Very few of the characters get any time to grow and develop; too much of the book is devoted to random bouts of action which really didn't do anything for either me or the story. They needed more time to themselves, more time for them to ponder and react and make mistakes and learn from them (or not). They just don't have that - things either happen in the blink of an eye, or not at all.
Mainly things that sort of pissed me off in the story under the spoiler tag, but hopefully there are some actual good points of constructive criticism.
Don't read ahead if you want to remain spoiler-free, please! ♥
Clemens has potential to be a much better writer than he was while writing Banned and the Banished. These aren't particularly recent books, and if he has written anything within the past few years, I'd jump at the chance to read it and see how much he's improved. However, even without reading any other work of his, I feel that the Wit'ch series was not the work that really defined him as an author.
I've enjoyed the series so far from a practical point of view, rather than an imaginative one. Some of the concepts are interesting and should've been fleshed out more (like the various races and their relations) and some needed to be refined, honed and simplified (like the magic systems). On one hand, I'm looking forward to reading the final two books to see how they tie off all the loose ends, but on the other, I'm eager to get through them so I can move onto to other books. -
3 stars.
It was okay, a fairly quick read, but a bit 'meh' at times when I felt that the author had added too many characters; when he split them into two groups it hit the problem of one groups travels and adventures being far more interesting than the others.
The adventures of Elena, Joach and Co, going to find the Blood Diary and meeting up with Sy-wen, Kast and the mer'ai/dragon war, was interesting with its heavy action scenes, but the journey of the other group (Mycelle, Mogwood, Fardale and Kral) was far more boring - so much so that when they were mentioned briefly towards the end of the book I could barely recall what they were doing.
So there were a few things I didn't like about this book; I'm hoping a few of the characters will be killed off in the next volume to make it a more streamlined read . And I started wondering about how the world worked which started bothering me.
It's okay - it's very old-fashioned and trope-y, but if you like that you might enjoy this one. I'm going to finish the series, but at this moment in time I don't think I'll be reading it again in the future. -
Zum zweiten Mal gelesen. Ich bin immer noch sehr begeistert, auch wenn es diesmal mit Unterbrechung gelesen habe.
-
Alors que le précédent volet laissait entrevoir toute l’évolution d’Elena notre sor’cière maintenant dotée d’une magie élémentale aussi puissante que dangereuse, j’étais plus qu’impatient de partir en compagnie de sa bande de mercenaires à la conquête du livre sanglant dont la création est à l’origine de toute cette magistrale épopée.
Indéniablement, James Clemens place la barre plus que haut cette fois-ci. Avec ses pas moins de huit cents pages, nul doute que La Guerre de la Sor’cière porte bien son nom. L’action déborde et rythme totalement ce récit. Ce dernier n’offre que très peu de moments de répits à ses lecteurs et j’ai tout simplement dévoré ce nouveau pan de cette palpitante aventure fantastique toujours aussi maîtrisée et bien moins basique qu’à l’accoutumé. J’ai adoré me laisser berner par la plume de ce dernier qui cette fois-ci nous dévoile un nouveau monde maritime des plus enchanteur et attrayant qu’il soit. Une majeure partie de l’intrigue se déroule ainsi en mer et j’ai adoré les nouvelles horizons dévoilées ainsi que les nouveaux peuples présentés. Ces voyages en ces eaux aussi dangereuses que houleuses m’ont conduit tout droit au cœur de Val’loa, une cité qui se dessine une nouvelle fois des plus sombre et hostile à découvrir. Je me réjouis à chaque fois de me languir des merveilleuses descriptions apportées par James Clemens qui lui permettent de peindre d’éloquents paysages immersifs. Mieux encore, ce troisième chapitre apporte un certain renouveau quand à son style et alors que précédemment la limite entre le bien et le mal était nettement dessinée et distincte, c’est tout l’inverse cette fois-ci tant ce dernier n’a cessé de me faire douter de tout et surtout de tous.
Ainsi, les nombreux personnages toujours présents dans cette haletante quête entourant l’étrange prophétie se sont démontrés bien plus profonds que par le passé. A commencer par Er’ril et Joach – dont ce dernier annonce une véritable tragédie grâce à sa prémonition issue de ses nouveaux dons de tisseur de rêves – que j’ai eu bien des difficultés à réellement cerner. J’ai été séduit par cette confusion et ce flou constant qui permet à l’auteur de redistribuer ses cartes plus d’une fois au cours de l’aventure. Grâce à ses nombreuses révélations et autres retournements de situations, même Elena est parvenue à me faire douter de ses convictions et c’est avec une certaine et plaisante tension que j’ai suivi, une fois de plus, son incroyable évolution. Que j’adore découvrir cette jeune femme devenir une véritable affranchie. Cette dernière ne souffre nullement de passivité et compte bien démontrer toute sa détermination dans sa quête de vengeance. Surtout que celle-ci se met plus d’une fois à nu tant son cœur sera mis à rudes épreuves. Il est donc naturellement que je m’attache de plus en plus à celle-ci ainsi qu’à ses fidèles compagnons quand bien même leur grand nombre peut parfois rebuter. Néanmoins et grâce à cette large fresque, plusieurs points de vue sont dévoilés et malgré la large vision que permet ce procédé, j’admets que j’apprécierais que l’auteur se concentre davantage sur les protagonistes présents depuis le premier tome qui parfois font seulement preuve de figuration. Fort heureusement cela reste un détail et c’est avec entrain que je parcourrai très prochainement la suite de sa série.
Ainsi et bien que déjà palpitants et captivants, les nouveaux chapitres dévoilés le sont encore bien davantage. James Clemens dévoile de nouvelles horizons ainsi que de nouvelles tribus, venant gonfler les rangs de nos mercenaires favoris et insuffle un nouveau souffle à son intrigue qui ne m’a jamais parue aussi complexe et nuancée. Les limites entre le bien et le mal s’atténuent et offrent de délicieux et haletants moments de doutes auxquels je n’ai pu souffler qu’une fois la vérité dévoilée. -
I first read this series many years ago when I first got into digital reading and was the proud possessor of a Palm VIIx with, if I recall correctly a 256mb Compact Flash card in it that I stored apps and books on. Damn those were the days! In any case to show you just how compelling these books were, I read all five of the quite lengthy tomes on the minuscule screen of that Palm Pilot device. They were in the Palm .PDB format and were acquired from the then fledgling, now departed (it has since been bought out by B&N) Fictionwise.com. Enough meandering however and on to the story.
This is the story of Elena and her brother and their incredible journey from mediocrity as s poor farmers children to become the salvation of their country. It is not your garden variety bildugsroman tale however as this one is imbued with magic, trolls, giants, and all manner of evil doers out to stop Elena from discovering just who and what she is. Along the way she will travel the length and breadth of Alasea encountering many interesting people some friends some foes but all with an integral part to play in the final outcome.
This is an epic, sweeping tale that should be told on the big screen in a series of movies because like The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter it is a story too big to be reduced down to one or even two stories, way too much would have to be left out. You don't have the case of thousands like Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series but there are many many characters to keep track of. And, like Martin's SOIFA each one seems to have an agenda of his or her own.
There is so much great fantasy around today it's hard to decide which to read and which to pass on because there is only so much time one can put aside for reading in any given day, but this is one that should be on your list. Other "must reads" I would suggest are: David Eddings Belgariad and it's sequel Malloreon series; Martin's ongoing SOIFA series: and of course Terry Brooks sprawling Shannara saga, around 28 books so far.. Those should keep you busy through the rest of the year at least. -
Elena commence à mieux comprendre ses pouvoirs dans ce tome, elle apprend à maitriser les différents types de magie et à les contrôler. Pendant ce temps, son frère apprend lui aussi la force de la magie et trouve sa place au milieu de tous ces personnages. On est partagés entre les différents groupes qui se forment et toutes les actions qui sont en cours. On en apprend aussi plus sur Rockingham, méchant qu’on connait depuis le début du premier tome, mais le connaissait-on vraiment ?
En somme j’ai été emporté dans toutes ses histoires et je suis plongée dans Alaséa et toutes ses péripéties. J’ai beaucoup aimé le personnage de Mama Freda dans ce tome, très différent et plein de surprises. J’ai aussi hâte de retrouver Mycelle dans son aventure dans le prochain tome et de voir ce que Kral & Mogweed vont donner… Mais bon 600 pages à chaque fois, ça fait des sacrés pavés ! -
This is my second favourite of the five books in this series (the fifth is my favourite). I ended up listening to the Avatar soundtrack while reading the final chapters, which was brilliant. It enhanced the drama of the battle scenes in particular. Still really enjoying this re-read.
-
Whereas volume 2 was a three-star book for me, volume 3 has restored some of excitement of volume 1 that I'd felt volume 2 was missing. Gone were the rote battles fought between Elena's cohort and some random, horrific spawn of the Dark Lord. And as in the first two books, James Clemens expands his cast of characters and, with this, the scope of his tale. His characters continue to change: some for the better (Er'ril), some for the worse (Kral), and some in ambiguous ways (Elena herself, whose wit'ch power grows in strength but also in dominance of her mind--not to mention the dubious physical changes she undergoes).
I have noticed that some of Clemens's descriptions of romantic scenes are a bit too, I don't know, romance-novelesque for my tastes, and he also uses sexual similes for decidedly unsexual events (he described something, I don't even remember what, as being "like a spent lover"), but that's a minor complaint. More seriously off-putting is the romantic entanglement between a 500-year-old man in a 30-year-old's body and his student/ward/whatever, who is an 18-year-old woman in a 25-year-old's body (and honestly, I'm not even sure if I have all four of those ages right, so it could be even worse than I imply here). This is not the kind of sexual politics that holds up so well in 2023.
Anyway, not a series without its flaws, but I enjoyed this volume fairly well. -
This book went so much slower than I remember. I enjoyed it far less than the previous installments. It dragged in part because of the increasingly vast cast of characters. I'm all for putting together a story with people's fates intertwined but it got overloaded here.
A lot of "let's couple off these people!" Happening as well. Listen, just because you've got a woman and a man, doesn't mean you have to stick them together as romantic partners. It just KEPT HAPPENING. Bothered me the most with Sy-wen and Kast because the age disparity was unnerving, and also they had nothing in common when they first met? Super random love. Also Elena aging to an adult woman and she and Er'ril starting to be a thing was extra weird because yes, her body may be adult, but her mind and life experiences? Still...fourteen I presume? Ugh. Do not want.
Liked how Rockingham finally found his answers and a peaceful end to his life. Also, am I here for people bonded to dragons? I am *always* here for that.
Also there was so much Gore and Melodrama and Exclamation Marks! Super extra. -
In this third book of the Banned and Banished series, the wit'ch Elena along with her rag-tag band of companions, work their way to the famed isle of A'loa Glen. It is there that the Blood Diary is located, the only tool left which could finally rid the land of the evil Dark Lord. However, the journey isn't simple. The path to A'loa Glen is full of traps set forth by the minions of the Dark Lord. On top of that, the isle itself is under the control of Shorkan, one of the Dark Lord's chief lieutenants, and his army. Elena will not only need the help of friends but the Mer'ai and the Bloodriders if she is to succeed.
Once again, Clemens keeps the reader drawn into the story. I really enjoyed this book and am looking forward to the fourth book in the series. -
Jesus fucking christ I love this series so much! I don't really have much more to say than that. These characters are like my family and I would read about them doing anything forever. I love this series. And it just gets better and better with each book! I might come back to this review later, but right now my brain is on fire from so much reading and I gotta take a break from words. Love this series. Love it!
P.S. Tol'chuck is the absolute sweetest <3 -
Clemens continues to weave an intriguing story, with characters who are a little predictable and some of whom are just role-players. But the world and the magic are fully developed. Clemens keeps the plot twists and surprises coming, while laying enough groundwork that they are not totally out of the blue. Two books left in this series and the scope is widening.
-
I am hooked on this series. This one has ghosts and flying Elvish ships that shoot lightning. The Mer girl and her dragon develop an even closer relationship. I don't think that is a surprise to anyone so I am not counting it as a spoiler. I have the next two books of this series on my nightstand!
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Dans la même lignée que les deux tomes précédents, toujours aussi excellent. Les personnages sont toujours plus fouillés et profonds.
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Toujours aussi prenant!
Je me réjouis de découvrir la suite!
