Shapechangers

Chronicles of the Cheysuli #1

by Jennifer Roberson

The first book in the Chronicles of the Cheysuli spins a tale of magical warriors and shapeshifters as they battle the sorcerers that threaten their existence

They were the Cheysuli, a race of magical warriors gifted with the ability to assume animal shape at will. For centuries, they had been allies to the King of Homana, treasured champions of the realm. Until a king's daughter ran away with a Cheysuli liege man and caused a war of annihilation against the Cheysuli race.

Twenty-five years later the Cheysuli were hunted exiles in their own land, feared for their sorcery, their shapeshifting.

This is the story of Alix, the daughter of that ill-fated union between Homanan princess and Cheysuli warrior, and her struggle to master the call of magic in her blood, and accept her place in an ancient prophecy she cannot deny,

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, High Fantasy, Science Fiction Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, Shapeshifters, Romance

224 pages, Paperback

First published February 7, 1984

About the author

Over a 40-year career (so far), Jennifer Roberson has published four fantasy series, including the Sword-Dancer Saga, Chronicles of the Cheysuli, the Karavans universe, and urban fantasy series Blood & Bone. Other novels include historicals LADY OF THE GLEN, plus two Robin Hood novels, LADY OF THE FOREST, and LADY OF SHERWOOD.

New novels are percolating in her always-active imagination.

Hobbies include showing dogs, and creating mosaic and resin artwork and jewelry.  She lives in Arizona with a collection of cats and Cardigan Welsh Corgis.

Reviews

[JG · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can't even finish it! The heroine annoyed the hell out of me. Why can't anyone write a heroine who's as smart as I am! Looking at my grades I'm not asking much so why is it so hard to write a smart heroine now adays!?

I'm soo tired of heroines who find that they have magical powers then started acting like it's a damn curse! The girl can freaking shift into an animal, why can't she be like a normal teenager and start jumping up and down yelling AMEN! but noooo! God forbid a heroine that's actually excited by the prospect of having magical powers. They just dive in to self pity because you know- making good fusses about it robs the heroine a chance of playing the 'buhuhuh I'm the victim, my life is ruined' Oh shut up!!!

She starts by acting like a love struck teen which is disgusting. Romance is fine by me. I adore romance but do you have to lose your head too?. She defends something 'That's unfair! Don't judge!blah blah blah then suddenly loses conviction and abandons all her cries of justice and fairness when it face to face with the real deal . Where's your conviction now you little hypocrite?

She spends half of the entire book hating, then denying, then submerging into self pity, and being stupid all over again.


This has so much potential. The plot is fantastic and very interesting. Why ruin it with a bitchy heroine!? Why?

[Michelle · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book might have been decent if the protagonist hadn't been such a raging, irritable bitch.

[Robin · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a re-read of the first book in a series I absolutely love. Unfortunately, I do not like this book. I'm not sure if this is Roberson's first book (and subject to the First Novel uneven-ness that can happen) or if I'm just reading it again with older eyes. After all, this book was first published in 1984. I've read many, MANY books since 1984 so I have more to compare it to. A lot of life has been lived between 1984 and now too, so a person's entire frame of reference can switch focus. It isn't so much when the book was written but the experience of the person reading it at that time. I was a tween (just barely) and in love with fantasy novels. I'm sure there was much I didn't get at the time, but I understood most of it and it fascinated me. Now, I focus less on the story and more on the words used to tell it; on characterization, and they both fall flat. Maybe, if this book were released today, it wouldn't be classified as an adult novel. Maybe the magic of it is at the YA level.

I hated the heroine. She was spoiled and stubborn and incredibly ill suited to heroine-ism. She wanted what she wanted and to hell with the very real consequences. The hero was marginally better, even though he was supposed to be older and wiser than her. Secondary characters (who star in Book 2) were better, but don't quite reach three dimensional status until The Song of Homana (book 2 in the series) The plot? Not as thin as the characters, but this is really a set up book. There is A LOT of world building to do, and if anything about this book is excellent, that is it.

Because, even though I don't have much good to say about this book, the fact is that it has been with me for over 20 yrs. Roberson created an entire world that has lived in the back of my mind; especially the language. I've always liked languages. It isn't to the point where I've translated Hamlet into Cheysuli, but a few words do stick out. Favorite characters from the series remain as well. The series is great, it just needed a better start.

[Shaitarn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was one of the first fantasy books I ever read, so though by today's standards it probably doesn't deserve much of a score, it retains a nostalgic fondness for me. I loved the original cover, which sadly GR doesn't have on its database and as my ability to do anything with my laptop is laughably low, the best I've been able to do is provide a picture of the original 6 books (plus later editions of the last two) in my profile pictures. Go and take a squint if you're curious. They range from meh to pretty dire (number 5 is the worst; seriously, WTF?) but I liked this one: a girl on a horse, fully clad in decent clothing (although barefoot for some reason) with what looks like a sword hilt in her right hand with a wolf and a bird of prey - I mean, what teenage girl wouldn't be interested in this book?! Now I'm an adult I can see the problems: namely, the horse has no bridle, much less reins, and her saddle doesn't appear to be fastened onto the horse at all; the minute that horse starts running, she and that saddle are going to be lying on the ground wondering what happened.

And perhaps that's a decent metaphor: as a teen, the problems in this book weren't so apparent.

The basic plot: the Cheysuli are a race of magical shapechangers; originally living in relative peace with the other people of the land, the Homanas (normal humans like you and me), who arrived much later. But twenty five years ago the king's daughter fled a marriage she didn't want with her father's Cheysuli liege man and in revenge the king ordered the Cheysuli wiped out. Now the Cheysuli are regarded as demons, hated and feared in their own land, on the brink of annihilation. Our main character, Alix, is apparently a humble crofter's daughter who's kidnapped by a Cheysuli warrior along with the prince, and forced to deal with the shocking revelation of her own true heritage and her place in an ancient prophecy.

The back of the book will tell you more than that, but maybe you have a different copy and don't want any surprises spoiled. I want to start with the things I liked about this book:

The Cheysuli. I loved, and still love, the Cheysuli race. They are described as a tan skinned race, with black hair and yellow eyes ('beast eyes' they are often called) and live in tents in the forest. The men, who all seem to be trained as warriors, wear leathers and gold - an armring and an earring which shows their lir beast. So they may have an obvious Native American vibe, and the story has a distinct 'how the west was won brutalized' slant, but I find it none the worse for that.
The lir. Every Cheysuli warrior has a 'coming of age' moment when they wander off into the wilderness and acquire a lir beast. This is an animal they can talk to mentally and shows the beast shape they can transform into - usually this seems to be a bird of prey or a wolf, fox or mountain cat. This beast is the other half of themselves; a man without a lir is regarded as only half alive and shunned. If a lir is ever killed, the warrior seeks death in a ritual suicide. Only men can have a lir (boo!); women are neither warriors nor lir bound.

What I didn't like:
Alix. Poor Alix; I'm sure if she was written today she'd be a feisty fantasy heroine who would discover her abilities and follow her own path, but this book was written in 1987, and as it has a heavy romantic vibe (as romance was written back then) Alix is stuck between three men, two of whom are a bit dodgy for various reasons (one of whom was planning outright kidnap and rape, so yay, romance!). Thankfully she ends up with the least rape-y of them, but the way she has her choices curtailed by the men around her and her reaction to her circumstances are incredibly frustrating and I can understand why a lot of readers find her whiny and annoying.

The worldbuilding is also pretty poor, with only brief mentions of other countries and no clear idea of what's where. I think this improves throughout the series, though (including a map in the next book).

If you are curious about this series but are finding the main characters in this book annoying, my advice is push through it quickly and move on to the next book in the series before deciding to ditch it.

[Sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had a lot of issues with this book, and I'm not really sure where to start. I bought most of the books in this series for really cheap at a used bookstore, but it was definitely not worth even that much money. The series did not age well at all, and I will not be continuing with it. (Full disclosure, I did not finish the book, but what I read was so bad that I decided to leave a review anyway--I don't think anything that happened later could redeem it for me at this point.)

The writing was weird, like it was trying really hard (too hard) to be old-timey. Characters were constantly doing things like using "ever" in place of always, and it just made everything sound stilted and odd.

Also, a lot of problematic content that I found really hard to stomach.

Firstly, the men were generally very rapey, even the ones I think we were supposed to like. The main character is literally almost raped, and we get to hear all kinds of lovely justifications about why this is a necessary practice. And, to make matters worse, the rapey attitudes are treated as if they're something to be taken lightly. For example, there's this gem:

"'You would have me think you no better than [my attempted rapist]--ordering me this way and that!'

He grinned at her. 'Then perhaps he has the right of it. What else can a man do when a woman defies him, save force her?'"

And then the main character does what he told her to. And her father is sitting right there yet says nothing about her going off with a man who had just said that nonsense. SMH.

It was also really gross that the main character and her almost-rapist were brother and sister, and after he learns this, he still makes unwelcome sexual advances toward her and calls her his "mistress." And then this is justified by his brother (not related to the main character, thankfully), who also constantly minimizes his brother's rape-y actions.

Finally, I'm pretty sure the Cheysuli were supposed to be Native Americans, and their portrayal was kind of questionable on several levels, but especially in the emphasis the author seemed to want to put on their practice of kidnapping and raping women in order to impregnate them.

I feel like the story had potential, but I just can't stand pretty much everything else about it.

[Evanna · Rating 2 out of 5]

When I was a teenager, I found all four omnibus editions at a used bookstore and snapped ‘em up bc I liked the covers. I loved this series from beginning to end and remembered crying with Alix. God, how embarrassing. This is awful. Alix is a spoiled self-righteous brat who flips allegiances like pancakes. There are all sorts of colloquialisms like “What do you say?” (Whaddaya mean?) and “I have ever loved him.” (I’ve always loved him.) that sound like lines from a bad ren fair scene. Not to mention the allusions to Cheysuli as Native Americans are so thinly veiled it’s actually kind of gross. Let’s also romanticize attempted rape while we’re at it and using a pregnancy to trap a man into marriage. Both of these things are positive(!) preludes to the star relationship of the book. I’d give the whole thing up as a bad rap, but all the reviews say the rest of the books are better. I sure hope so. I’m so mad at my teenage self right now. But those omnibus covers sure were purty.

[Mir · Rating 3 out of 5]

Alix has been raised as an ordinary country girl, but after she coincidentally becomes friends with a prince she is kidnapped by exiled shapeshifters and drawn into their struggle against oppression.

I enjoyed the adventure/magic aspects of the story but had some serious problems with the attitudes toward women and sexuality presented in Roberson's world-building. I couldn't feel too indignant on behalf of the shapechangers expulsion from the kingdom since they themselves were kidnapping women and forcing them to bear their children. The couple later books in the series that I tried had even more rape and oppression so I gave up on it.

[Solseit · Rating 3 out of 5]

With full review: https://www.solseit.com/blog-2-2/7gh3...

The rating system is a bit off here; while the story has all the stuff that I traditionally love (from the world building to the magic system to a strong lead character), I had also to mud through very odd pages with Finn and his behavior. Not sure how I feel about that and I believe this should take the book down at least one star. So the story works for me but there is too much oddity in this book (including some form of justification of sexual harassment) that the rating should reflect that.
Will I continue? Absolutely yes.

[River · Rating 1 out of 5]

Let me begin this review with a little bit of a ramble, I promise it'll be short. In the back of my mind I'm fairly sure I had this book at some point... but I don't remember what happened to it... I certainly didn't read it - that is until today when I picked it up at a used bookstore and thought the premise was interesting. Ramble over.

Rant Begin.
This has got to be the dumbest, mildly frustrating, waste of time, "what does no mean? I just want to make sweet unwanted love with her", "what do you mean she's my half sister?", "What do you mean he's my half cousin?", time for kidnapping seventy-six, hundred pages of nothing but WHAT?! book I've read.

From page one, we see a stupid, spoiled, frustrating girl flip flop between being kidnapped, forcefully pursued for the R word by several people, two of which she is partly RELATED TO - and all parties KNOW that they are PARTLY RELATED but don't seem to care in the least, to falling in love with the only one NOT related to her to hating the same dude in the next sentence.

None of the characters are even remotely likeable. Okay, maybe there is a slight gray area to that, the wolf and hawk are not awful at least. The writing is very repetitive and clumsy, very ham-fisted, and expects the reader to forgive A LOT of things. If not for there being multiple copies on the shelf where I found it, I'd think this was one persons private fantasy self-insert fanfic that I'd accidentally read.

Okay, I get that it's from the 80's, but do you know what else is from the 80's in Fantasy? Howl's Moving Castle, Redwall, The Woman who Rides Like a Man/Alanna. You can't tell me the 80s justifies this when there's swathes of other novels that break this.

I will give this book some credit though. The premise of the story; a halfling shapeshifter with old blood during a war/feud is very interesting, and if you took out the excessive amounts of "romance" (the airquotes on this are as big as the Eiffel Tower) it would be really cool. Also, another bit of credit. With this book it begins at a slow simmer of blegh, and doesn't let up. You aren't given any hope it'll get better. Safe to say, I'll be leaving this book and series (seriously what!?) unfinished.

[Thomas · Rating 1 out of 5]

There may have been some good plot underlying this book (and by good I mean a slight variation of most other sci-fi fantasy series I have read, one that over-uses the term prophecy and references to dualing factions of gods), but overall, this read to much as General Hospital with swords and magic than an actual science fiction fantasy book. The phrase "but I am carrying his child" was used by all three female characters in the book, often multiple times.

I thought the author chose to dwell on some un-exciting aspects (the first 140 pages or so repeats the same conversation several times over, and would have had me putting down the book were it not recommended to me by someone I know), while then skipping years and months at a time and glancing over nations won in a matter of a few paragraphs. Not that I want the book to read like a list of military conquests one after the other (this would be boring), just that there was superfluous detail in some sections and an utter lack of detail in others.

[Peyton · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF at 10% when the main character Alix gets sexually assaulted by her kidnapper, and the guy, obviously an eventual love interest, only stops when a wolf tells him to… No thanks!

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, I would call this a fairly good fantasy, but I do not feel committed to following up the series it begins. While there is a certain amount of hard fighting, the basic plot is more concerned with the romantic competition for the heroine among three men; unusually for that sort of situation in adventure romances, all three of the men turn out to be a) reasonably sympathetic b) alive at the end. One aspect I found testing my suspension of disbelief is that twice the heroine encountered a powerful evil mage who twice let her go free and unhurt; the first time, he did at least explain that she was not important enough to be worth killing, bt the second time he explicitly revokes that excuse (since she has just taken out one of his chief allies) but still lets her and her friends go for no reason at all (except, I suppose, that they all needed to be around for the sequels). One point in favor of the book: the heroine and two of her three men are shapechangers, and the author does go to the trouble of explaining that they are magically able to change to beast form
with their clothing conveniently vanishing, and change back with it conveniently reappearing, thereby eliminating a problem that has troubled lycanthropes since Marie de France's Bisclavaret.

[Mark Cameron · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have been revisiting some of my old favorites and this series was one of them. While re-reading this first book, I remember that the series got much better starting with the second book. This isn't a bad book, but I think that this was the author's first book and it shows. She keeps reminding you of the same things over and over.

If anyone has read this book and found it a bit lackluster, I would suggest that you give the second book a try regardless. This book was written in the period when the whole "people form magical bond with an animal" thing was popular. If you really hate that kind of thing then you might want to avoid this series.

[Brenyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book will always be one of my favourites, and I will always revisit the world of the Cheysuli again and again and again.
It may not be the best book, but it’s the first book in one of the best fantasy series’ I’ve ever read.
Alix can come across as annoying & immature to begin with, but I love watching her grow into herself over the course of the book to become the strong female leader she is in the series.
And the beginning of Finn & Carillon’s unbreakable bond.

I will always recommend this series to people with the reminder to not judge the series based on the first book, just like you shouldn’t judge a tv show solely on the pilot.

[Anthony Emmel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd probably give this one closer to 4 stars, but there are parts that are uncomfortable and cringey. Bride abduction ("It's fate!"), and while no sexual assault takes place...yeah. And the abductor is the the abductee's half-brother, and it's not really incest if you didn't grow up together and didn't know....

I'm going to continue the series. Hopefully it gets better.

[Charmy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed the growing storyline. The main female character is overtly selfish but everything else is great. Too few pages to develop a good supporting cast but I hope the rest of the series open the descriptive capabilities.

[Julie G · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yikes.

[Aelvana · Rating 2 out of 5]

Alix is young, naive, and in love---with Carillon, heir to the throne. She's aware that he's destined to marry a princess to forge alliances between nations, and a commoner girl like herself can't hope for more than a position of mistress. Still, she can dream. Until the Cheysuli come, and drag her forcibly into their world. They insist she is one of them and refuse to let her go back to her home. Is she? And what of Carillon, whose uncle has sworn to eradicate every Cheysuli?

The book is, in large part, more about who Alix will sleep with and whether or not that will be her choice than the eventual struggles between Cheysuli and the majority Homana populace and the war between Homana and a neighboring nation. And after she joins the Cheysuli the tribe still insists the best way she can help them is by bearing a lot of children. I can commend Alix for pushing for a position as wife, not mistress, and for demanding her husband's fidelity to her alone. I am less convinced by the very open marriages common to the Cheysuli; it's an idealized society where everyone can have the freedom to come or go in these relationships without issues like rejection or jealousy coming into play. Or at least that's what's said, and then there are hints that marriage is kind of a "until death do us part" deal after all, and it gets a little muddled.

The book felt a bit lopsided to me. Alix gets virtually no backstory other than a few sketchy details; the city of Homana-Mujhar in particular has very little description; there are more than two warriors but we don't even get to see what kinds of animals other Cheysuli have taken as lir. Nor, for that matter, do we ever get more than four or five of them named.

Once Alix settles down the book does get a lot more interesting, as it shows the disastrous consequences to the genocide against the Cheysuli. Finn gets props for moving out of the stereotypes he starts in. It's a pretty quick read, and relatively engaging, but I'm not totally sold on reading more of the series. I rate this book Neutral.

[Bryn · Rating 1 out of 5]

I loved this series back in the late 80s/early 90s, but trying to reread it now was incredibly painful -- it is SO RAPEY. Roberson uses a mix of Sheik-style romance tropes (female protagonist kidnapped by rapey attractive man) and fantasy tropes (magical shapeshifters, imaginary kingdoms, evil sorcerers) and leavens it with a ton of doubtless unconscious misogyny and racism. There is some deeply awful worldbuilding that today reads as white supremacist, with the minority group -- the Cheysuli -- being the original bringers of civilisation and everything good, but since they are now being genocided they need to go around raping women so that there are Enough Cheysuli and their culture doesn't die out. Ugh, ugh, ugh. Will I try any more of these to see if they get better? Probably not, but I might eventually reread the one Roberson I remember adoring, Lady of the Forest, although if it is this awful I'm not sure I want to ruin my memory of it. [Jan/Feb 2022]

[greeneyes9999 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pure joy and wonderment!

35 years ago I discovered this book in paperback as a freshman in high school as the clerk was putting them onto the shelf for the first time. I returned there many times to the same spot with different clerks waiting to get my hands on the next book in the series!
This book and series enhances you and draws you in so quickly that next thing you know you are on the last page screaming for more!
Strong feminine characters back then were rare but Alix fit the bill and gave girls a dream that they could follow a dream with determination and stubbornness. Add in gorgeous men, teasing brothers and a dashing prince and the beautiful lit, how can a girl resist? I highly recommend this author and series for all. It’s everything you’ll desire in a book to whisk you away to another world.
I’m very thankful to Bookbub to have had this pop up or I’d never have rediscovered a first love a second time around!

[Welwyn Wilton Katz · Rating 1 out of 5]

I started this book at least three times, and finally gave it up. I felt the writing was awkward, uncertain, and the characters rather unpleasant. Because of this I didn't finish any of the Cheysuli books, though I have them all. What a waste. Sadly, I enjoyed Roberson's Tiger and Del series so much. I have since learned that the Cheysuli books were her first, or at least the first of her books to gain her some prominence. I have a first book; we all do. But I just couldn't find any life in this first book, and so I couldn't finish it. It's a pity, because no doubt she grew as a writer all the way through the series, given the quality of her writing in the Tiger and Del books.

[Merilee · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first fantasy series I ever read. I loved them!

Looking back, I see how crudely they were written, Jennifer Roberson has definitely refined her writing style since then; but, all in all, it's a great series!

It's been 15 years since I first read the series... I still remember it fondly.



PG-13 : Overall Rating
PG-13 : Violence
PG-13 : Language
PG-13 : Sexual Content **

** Other potential parental warnings:
- There is premarital sex involved (but not in young teens; in adults)

[Sunsy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Als ich das Buch zum ersten Mal las, fand ich es herausragend. Dann kam ich aber irgendwie doch davon ab, die Reihe weiter zu lesen. Nun rücke ich meinem SuB zu Leibe und habe das Buch erneut gelesen. Dieses Mal bin ich kritischer, mag die Idee aber trotzdem und habe das Buch verschlungen. 08/10 Punkte und hier könnt ihr meine Meinung nachlesen: http://sunsys-blog.blogspot.de/2015/0... .

[Andria Potter · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a reread for the Read What You Own Challenge so I can hopefully continue the series as I'm very bad about finishing series. I liked this quite a bit, though it was a bit slow a little past the midsection. But it was still a good read, and I'll have a more detailed review tonight! 4.5 ⭐

[Amelia A · Rating 1 out of 5]

The text read well enough, but BOY are these outdated values.

[Charles · Rating 2 out of 5]

Is it too late to change my mind about book burning.

carillon
- a set of bells played using a keyboard or by an automatic mechanism similar to a piano roll.
• a tune played on a carillon.
Origin late 18th century: from French, from Old French quarregnon ‘peal of four bells’, based on Latin quattuor ‘four’


croft
- a small rented farm, especially one in Scotland, comprising a plot of arable land attached to a house and with a right of pasturage held in common with other such farms.
• an enclosed field used for tillage or pasture, typically attached to a house and worked by the occupier.

Verb
- farm (land) as a croft or crofts.

Cabochon - A cabochon is a gemstone that has been shaped and polished, as opposed to faceted. The resulting form is usually a convex obverse with a flat reverse. Cabochon was the default method of preparing gemstones before gemstone cutting developed.

> saddle tree (plural saddle trees) The base on which the rest of the saddle is built. Usually based on wood or a similar synthetic material, it is eventually covered in leather or a leatherlike synthetic. The tree size determines its fit on the horse's back as well as the size of the seat for the rider.

cantle - the raised curved part at the back of a horse's saddle.

fkn smeerp bih

If you're gonna smeerp then fkn smeerp don't half-ass it

'"I will go to my grandsire," she said softly. "But first I will hear the truth of my begetting."' pp106-7 XD XD XD
Drax : Why? My father would tell the story of impregnating my mother every winter solstice.
Peter Quill : That's disgusting.
Drax : It was beautiful. You earthers have hang-ups.

Can we stop using the term halfling to mean bi-racial or bi-ethnic or whatever.

there are 150 more pages kill me already

haaaaaa I don't wanna read this (100 pages to go)

tumbril
- an open cart that tilted backwards to empty out its load, in particular one used to convey condemned prisoners to the guillotine during the French Revolution.
• a two-wheeled covered cart which carried tools or ammunition for an army.
Origin Middle English (originally denoting a type of cucking-stool): from Old French tomberel, from tomber ‘to fall’

> Ducking stools or cucking stools were chairs formerly used for punishment of disorderly women, scolds, and dishonest tradesmen in medieval Europe and elsewhere at later times. The cucking-stool was a form of wymen pine, or "women's punishment", as referred to in Langland's Piers Plowman (1378). They were instruments of public humiliation and censure both primarily for the offense of scolding or backbiting and less often for sexual offences like bearing an illegitimate child or prostitution.

precipitate
1. cause (an event or situation, typically one that is undesirable) to happen suddenly, unexpectedly, or prematurely.
• cause to move suddenly and with force.
- send someone or something suddenly into a particular state or condition.
- done, made, or acting suddenly or without careful consideration.
• occurring suddenly or abruptly.
Origin early 16th century: from Latin praecipitat- ‘thrown headlong’, from the verb praecipitare, from praeceps, praecip(it)- ‘headlong’, from prae ‘before’ + caput ‘head’. The original sense of the verb was ‘hurl down, send violently’; hence ‘cause to move rapidly’, which gave rise to sense 1 (early 17th century)

Probably could cut a third of the book unnecessary dialogue and general whining.

The Moral of the Story is: be a spoiled but ignorant child and do as you like and the various men vying for your womb will clean up after you, or your magical powers will help you out despite you not having learned how to use them, and the gods/fate will decree that what you did was exactly right after the fact and none of the named characters will die.

[Eugenia aka Cinnea · Rating 2 out of 5]

I actually first read this back in the 80's, but never finished the series thanks to no time and no money as a student. So, I'm going back and finally finishing the series.

The basic plot is this: Young farm girl gets kidnapped by a shapechanger (one of the Cheysuli) and then learns that she's one of them, and has all kinds of superduper special powers. The problem is, they Cheysuli are being hunted to extinction by the Homanans (the people in the land where they used to live) and the people who raised her.

The world is interesting, the plot's pretty simple and straightforward, and I defnitely can see why I liked it when I was younger. The protagonist is a young woman! She isn't just a doormat for the men (well, sort of)! I'd have rated it higher then. But as an adult, I can only give it an "it's okay" rating.

Re-reading it now, as a grown woman, I can't ignore all the really problematic bits which I apparently wasn't as bothered by back in the day. I suspect it's because it was pretty standard fare for 1980's fantasy. It's definitely got a lot of Old Skool rapeyness going on, even though no one actually gets raped. There's a lot of threatening it, but it doesn't actually happen. And our heroine, Alix, calls them on it, which is great - at least for a while, then she decides she's in love with the hero (Duncan) and it's all good, even when he's a jackass. Which is most of the book. And she makes some pretty rash decisions, which endanger a lot of people she now claims to love.

By the end, the only person I was really still rooting for was Carillon, the young Homanan prince. He seems like a sensible fellow, and not rapey. I'm afraid it'll go horribly wrong as the series goes on - I just cannot remember how.

[Eskana · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ouch. I enjoyed Roberson's "Tiger and Del" series, but this is a real miss for me and I don't plan on continuing this series. And I don't think anyone should.
The plot of this novel is very basic, which isn't really a negative thing; many authors starting out a new series about a new world would keep it to basics in the first novel. So, the plot is just a neutral factor.
The annoying thing is that at least 75% of this novel is just the MC, Alix, fighting against being forced to marry or be a mistress to three different guys. she just floats from one, to another, to another... and it turns out that TWO of them are blood related to her!!! One is a halfbrother!! And they all just shrug and go "Well, you weren't raised together, so..." as if that makes it better! They actually think it's a net positive since it will strengthen their bloodlines! So, that's 75% of the book. Alix fighting against being forced into marriage after being kidnapped by Guy #1. And two of these guys try to force herself on her... including the guy she finally decides to marry. Also, I should point out that almost all of these guys are very clear that they do not plan on being faithful to just her, and that this isn't about love, it's about her producing heirs for them.
Like. WOW.
But we're supposed to for some reason root for the guy she married.

And the other 25% of the story is Alix refusing to do what anyone tells her, then using her mysterious-chosen-one-girl-powers to do whatever she wants with no consequence, resulting in everyone shaking their heads and going, "Wow, she sure is stubborn!"

Please, no. Don't read it. Skip.

[Mike Newberry · Rating 3 out of 5]

I went into this having absolutely no idea what I was in for. I remember seeing this on the shelves at my local B&N (back before they carried more than Sarah J Maas and George RR Martin), and being turned off by the cover. I'm not sure I can explain why, it just seemed corny to me. Whatever the case, I finally got around to it.

Things I like:

The magic system is pretty good. I like the idea of Lir and Lir-shape. The rest of the magic isn't explained very well, but that's ok because the story doesn't rely on it.

The overarching story of a race on the verge of extinction is ok. The motivation for it seemed a bit forced though.

Things I didn't like:

There is not a single likeable character in this whole book. I think we're supposed to feel sympathy for Alix, but she turns out to be a whiny child who doesn't know when to keep her mouth shut and when to stay put. She puts herself in needless danger on nearly every page. It becomes a bit tedious.

There are a lot of really rape-y vibes in here. If you're triggered by such things, move on. I'm not, but it was still not entirely pleasant to read. One certain character basically stated it as his intent. Over and over again.

The writing style is...clunky at best. The book was published in 1984, but I'm not going to say "it was a different time." Because I've read plenty that came out at the same time or earlier that is far easier to read and enjoy.


All in all, I didn't hate this. It's only about 220 pages, so it's a quick read. Had it been much longer than that, I may not have finished.

[Rolaka Pisarka · Rating 2 out of 5]

Książkę przeczytałam po raz pierwszy chyba z 10 lat temu. wtedy naprawdę byłam nią zachwycona przez fantasy, romans, motyw zmiennokształtnych. Teraz wszystko się zmieniło... Zauważałam wady, których wczesniej nie dostrzegałam. Jestem świadoma, żę książka ma swoje lata i ma prawo posiadać cechy, które dzisiaj zniekształcają odbiór, ale kurcze... Książka jest pełna bubli, okropnych i niemal żałosnych zbiegów okoliczności (jesli książę spotyka się z jakąś wieśniaczką to na 100% musi być ona 1. zaginioną księżniczną 2. jego siotrą, no kurcze! Ale przypadek). Bohaterowie są nudni, ich rozmowy są nudne. Przez wiele stron przewijają się niemal te same zdania "ja nic nie wiem, ja nic nie rozumiem", "nie wiem, co robić" itd. Zaczyna, rozwija i kończy w sposób, który można przewidzieć po przeczytaniu pierwszych 50 stron. Slabe, naprawdę slabe. To jest książka jedynie dla osób, które chciałyby poznać klasykę, podstawy fantasy, może zaczynają dopiero z tym gatunkiem i chcą na początek coś lekkiego, bardzo bliskiego współczesnym książkom dla młodzieży... Ale na 100% nie dla fanów fantrastyki, bo ci się tylko wynudzą!