Product Description

A powerful and entracing romance, set in the Celtic twilight of 10th century Ireland: a new MISTS OF AVALON for readers of historical fantasy. The forests of Sevenwaters have cast their spell over Sorcha's daughter Liadan, who, like her mother, has inherited the talent to heal and to see into the spirit world. The forest spirits warn Liadan that she must remain for ever at Sevenwaters if the sacred isles are to be won back from the Britons who took them by force. For the Lord and Lady of the forest spirits have seen in Liadan's future a doomed romance, death; a child; and a terrible choice to be made. Liadan is taken captive by the Painted Man, who is revealed to be a man quite unlike his legend. Liadan is drawn to him, despite the ancient prophesy of doom, but can she reclaim her life and defy the spirits, or will a curse fall upon Sevenwaters because of her forbidden love? Will the fight for the sacred isles end in tragedy? History and fantasy, myth and magic, legend and love come together in this magical story.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #26295 in Books
• Published on: 2002-01-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 560 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Second of the Sevenwaters trilogy of novels about the last days of heroic Ireland, Son of the Shadows takes up the story of the children of Sorcha, who saved her brothers whom a sorceress had enchanted into swans, and Hugh, the Briton she married. Her daughter Liadan is a gifted seer and healer who thinks, in spite of her visions, that she knows what the future has in store for her--caring for her dying mother and then an alliance marriage to Eamonn. A chance meeting on the road carries her off to care for a dying man--one of the mercenaries of the sinister Painted Man, Eamonn's arch-enemy and a killer for hire. Liadan discovers that she cannot choose where she loves and that she and the Painted Man are as bound up in destiny as her mother and father were before her.

This is an intelligent historical romance in which the supernatural is a part of the character's everyday lives to an extent that makes it hard to think of the book as specifically a fantasy--these are people to whom the beings of forest speak on a regular basis and to whom sorcery is real. --Roz Kaveney

Review
'I enjoyed it enormously. It is a fantasy, full of the magic of the Celtic night, but it has that wonderful all-important feel of reality! a wonderful, riveting story' Barbara Erskine 'This hugely enjoyable, romantic Celtic fantasy is a terrific book, well written and unputdownable' Bookwatch 'Filled with the powers of earth and sky, lake and forest! sweet and strong as the note of a harp, and painful as a sword thrust deep! a strong sense of realism! a nicely wrought and well-detailed historical fantasy' Locus

About the Author
Juliet Marillier was born in New Zealand and brought up in Dunedin, the 'Edinburgh of the South'. She has a passionate interest in Celtic music and Irish folklore. A mother of two daughters and two sons, she lives in a rural area outside Perth in Western Australia.

Customer Reviews

Son of the Shadows
Son of the Shadows

The 2nd book in the Sevenwaters trilogy takes on the story of Sorcha's daughter (Liaidan). She is a twin to her brother and has an elder sister Niamh.
Like her mother she has immense knowledge of herblore, one day while she is out in the forest she catches her sister in the lake with a druid one that her uncle Conor (one of Sorcha's brothers) has taken under his wing (no pun intended), the young Druid is sent away whilst Niamh is forced to marry a man while she craves and misses her young druid.
While Niamh goes to live with her new husband Liaidan goes to the edge of the forest to accompany her sister, when she leaves Niamh she is asked by a woman from a village to help because her son has been taken poorly. She has 2 guards from Sevenwaters who advise her not to go, needless to say she goes and she is taken hostage by some Britons who need her help to heal their friend.
She ends up falling in love with 'The Chief' and the story flows through l;inking characters from The Daughter Of The Forest.
I felt this was the weakest book of the three but, having said that it was still a very good read.

Enjoyable and enthralling read
A love story between the herione Liadan and the leader of outlaws & mercenaries, known as the 'Painted Man' but to those closest to him, 'The Chief'.

Without his knowledge, his gang kidnap Liadan, hoping she could heal a wounded comerade, after she sees off her sister Niamh who was married off forcibly by their family when she is denied the man she loves.

Liadan falls in love with the Chief who she calls Bran. She eventually rides home through the forest alone, worried that she faces the same fate as her sister's, because she carries his child - and Niamh wasn't even pregnant but caught in the act. But Liadan is a stronger personality than Niamh, determined to stand up for herself although she knows that Bran will never be hers because he will not settle.

Her parents though, aware of the wrong they did to her sister, do not repeat the same mistake. However, Liadan faces a bigger challenge from the inscrupulous Lord Emmaonn who wants no other woman but her and another man's child doesn't put him off either...

This second instalment to the Sevenwaters Trilogy can be enjoyed on its own but after reading it, you will want to read the first one, Daughter of the Forest.

Wonderfully written book. Awesome sequel.
I absolutely loved this book! Sorcha has 3 children. Niamh, Sean, and Liadan. Sean and Liadan are twins and they have the same special bond that Sorcha had with her brother. The story follows Liadans life. She grows up in a very loving family, but when she starts to come of age, everything tumbles down. The man she thought Niamh would marry falls in love with Liadan. Her sister falls in love with some she isn't supposed to, and is married off. As a final request, Niamh asks that Liadan accompanies her to her new home. On the way back she is kidnapped by a band of hired murderers. The rest of the story is too good to tell. It is a must read. The whole story it. Buy it today!