Product Description

The war to end all wars is coming. The Endlords are preparing themselves for invasion. Now should be the time when city men and clansmen come together to fight the dark forces of destruction, yet they feud amongst themselves, unaware of the danger facing them. Only the Sull are preparing for war against the Endlords. They are an ancient, dwindling race, and they fear this fight might be their last. Sull legend speaks of The One Who Bears Loss, the warrior who will slay the Endlords, and they believe this warrior will be one of their own. Ash March is their most valued and sacred warrior, and it is Mal Naysayer's duty to bring her home to save her people. But thousands of leagues to the north, Raif Severance is learning that he alone can kill Endlords swiftly. An outcast and outlaw, Raif must betray his clan and forsake his beliefs, and raise the Fortress of Grey Ice. Look out for more information on this book and others on the Orbit website at www.orbitbooks.co.uk

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #48020 in Books
• Published on: 2002-11-07
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 752 pages

Review
'J. V. Jones is a striking writer . . . wonderful' - Robert Jordan 'J. V. Jones is quite a find . . . a deliciously intricate tale' - Katherine Kurtz 'Fabulous . a trilogy which is sure to take readers everywhere by storm' SFX on A CAVERN OF BLACK ICE

About the Author
J. V. Jones worked initially for a record label in her native Liverpool, later moving to San Diego, California, where she ran an export business and was marketing director for an interactive software company.

Customer Reviews

An amazing book
This, along with A Cavern of Black Ice (the first book of the series), is definitely one of the best books which I have ever read. Once again J.V. Jones' descriptive style of writing has come to life in this sequel.

A very brief plot summary is needed to really understand much of anything, so here we go. The two most important main characters are Raif Severance and Ash March. In the book, there are great waring clans, and Raif is an outcast clansman from clan Blackhail. In the previous book, he helped Ash escape from her foster father, Penthero Iss. In the beginning of the book Ash and Raif are sepparated, and, having nowhere else to go, Raif goes off in search of the Maimed Men, unwhole men who live on the outside of the clanholds. Meanwhile, Ash travels with two Sull, people who are above the ways of humans, who are wise, brave, and powerful. The Sull need her for an upcoming war with very powerful undead creatures which had been freed from their imprisonment. There are many more important characters, and much more to say, but that really sums up the plot as simply as I can put it.

There is one definite thing in this book which really gives an edge over many other books. The whole story circles around the taiga and tundra, where the clanholds and the Maimed Men are. And so, you need to have complete and utter coldness. The cold is constantly an element of the book which sets a solid image in your head from the first pages and is never left out of the story. It must be the most important part of the setting, because without it, there would be so few challenges for the characters, and the land would seem so much tamer.

The characters are also quite exelent. All characters are perfected for their roles in the story. From clan chiefs to assasins, from city men to Sull, the characters were perfect. They are consistant in personality, though there is still exelent characterization. Changes to the characters are not ever sudden or obvious, which makes it even better.

As I said, this is definitely one of the best books which I have ever read. This is a book which anyone would love to read, and I would certainly recommend it to anyone who can endure the pages of the first book as well as this.

*Please give me feedback-helpful or not?*

Startlingly original - but requires patience
The sequel to J V Jones' _Cavern of Black Ice_ repeats the feats and folly of the first. Her world of icy wastelands and warring clanholds is wonderfully rich in detail, and described in such flowing prose that it's frequently a delight to gorge upon. J V Jones has always been an incredibly gritty fantasy writer, and never more so than here: the reader feels every wound, tastes every morsel, and smells every stench along with her characters.

Add some believable, complex characters (shamed clansman Raif and his 'odd' young sister Effie being the standouts) and an entertainingly twisty plot, and this is a winning combination for anyone tired of doorstep fantasy that expends countless pages on anorexic pseudo-medieval worlds and identikit Tolkien-esque cliches.

The drawbacks are twofold. First, at times it can be all *too* rich, and I imagine the detailed accounts of arduous journeys could grow tedious for some, although for me this was mostly staved off by frequent point-of-view changes. Secondly, as yet the more overtly fantastical elements of the plot (nameless evils from the beneath the ice) are sitting a little uneasily alongside the sheer, breathtaking realism of the world. I certainly found myself far more engaged by the grittier, faster-paced plotlines centred on the clanholds - when, to all intents and purposes, this is a mere preliminary to the main, world-shattering event. It remains to be seen how this will be reconciled in the third - but I will certainly be reading it!

Excellent - a literary fantasy, beautifully written
I read 'Cavern of Black Ice' the first in this trilogy without knowing anything about JV Jones as a writer and proceded to press the book on all of my friends as one of the very few intelligently written, literate, cliché-free fantasy novels on the market. The sequel exceeds it in excellence, the plot flows smoothly with jump cuts to the differing characters in appropriate places, the language is lyrical and exceptionally intelligent for this genre - if it weren't fantasy, someone would have picked this up as genuine literature by now - and the characterisation is lovely. The world inhabited by Raif and Effie Severance is real and believable. Go out and buy one now - it's the best you'll find between now and the next Guy Gavriel Kaye - and possibly better.