Product Description

Maerad is a slave in a desperate and unforgiving settlement, taken there as a child when her family is destroyed in war. She is unaware that she possesses a powerful gift, a gift that marks her as a member of the School of Pellinor. It is only when she is discovered by Cadvan, one of the great Bards of Lirigon, that her true heritage and extraordinary destiny unfolds. Now she and her teacher, Cadvan, must survive a punishing and uncertain journey through a time and place where the dark forces they battle with stem from the deepest recesses of other-worldly terror.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #27126 in Books
• Published on: 2004-05-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 496 pages

Customer Reviews

Author's note
I am the author of this book. I hasten to say that I respect anyone's right to dislike my work; that is not, and should not be, any of my business. But the previous review has, to say the least, nettled me, and I would like to defend my work from the charges of plagiarism which I think are being most unjustly levelled here.

I make no secret of the influence of Tolkien - of whom I too have been a longtime fan - in The Gift (readers who persist with The Riddle and The Crow will have a hard time finding such homages; I pays my dues in the first book). But I would like to point out some subtle differences between influence or allusion and outright plagiarism. Jessica points out some similarities between The Lord of the Rings and The Gift, all of which are deliberate - there is even a poem written in Tolkien's invented measure, ann-thennath, which in my book is credited to "the Bard Tulkan", which she fails to mention. But there are very significant differences in how I use the material, and these differences Jessica chooses to ignore entirely. The Elidhu, for example, are very different creatures from Tolkien's Elves, being not the exemplars and originators of civilisation, but deeply ambiguous and unhuman aspects of the natural world: the difference between Ardina's fate and Galadriel's is that Ardina wishes to join her lover in death, but is an Elemental and therefore is not only bound to the natural world but is irredeemably part of it; whereas Galadriel belongs in the Uttermost West, beyond this world, and is banished from her home. The Ice Witch, Arkan, is also an Elemental; I admit to pinching a story from Hans Christian Anderson and adapting it to my own purposes, but he has nothing to do with Narnia or the White Witch. The ideology of my book is several worlds away from Tolkien; the Bards of Edil-Amarandh bear absolutely no resemblance to anything in The Lord of the Rings. And need I point out the total absence of dwarves, hobbits, Ents, magic rings, dragons, orcs or hereditary swords? Or the place that women have in this particular society?

This review ignores the sources from which Tolkien himself drew his stories: he did not simply make them up out of nowhere but used very ancient tales and - as I have with Tolkien's (and many other writings I love) - adapted them for his own purposes. Perhaps Jessica ought to read the epic Norse tales of the Edda, or Beowulf (which features dragons, hoards and a people suspiciously like the Rohirrim without horses) or Milton's Paradise Lost, from which the beginning of the Silmarillion is unashamedly taken; and then perhaps she might be as upset with Tolkien as she is with me.

Perhaps it is petty of me to reply: as I said, I do not expect to please everyone, and believe that people have the right to react as they wish to anything they read. But I do not like being accused of plagiarism, because I think it is not only unfair to the book, but misunderstands something crucial about writing itself.

Amazing
i read this a while ago. At first I was daunted by how big the book was. However, after reading you become so deeply engrossed in this novel that you quickly become afraid you'll finish. Alison Croggan's the gift is anamazing book that I highly recommend. It is well detailed with a facinating story line and great characters. Absolultely loved this novel and can't wait for the next in the series, im sure it will live up to this.

Fine Fantasy!
The Gift is in my opinion one of the finest fantasy novels I've read (and I've read quite a few!) The way Alison Croggon describes the world of Pellinor and its characters is unique, entertaining and enthralling. The action, adventure and passion of the main plot and its many subplots pulls you in and keeps you reading right until the very last page and keeps you gasping for more. It gives you the impression of a personal relationship with each character and whether good or evil you love to read more of them. This book and the two sequels that have been released so far are truly great works of literature and I wait with bated breath for the final instalment of the fantasy filled world of Pellinor.