The Tower on the Rift

The View from the Mirror #2

by Ian Irvine

Thurkad has fallen and Karan, driven into madness by a forbidden spell, is left for dead.

Her dearest friend, Llian the Tale-spinner, is abducted by the renegade Aachim leader, Tensor, who plans to use the Twisted Mirror for an act of millennial vengeance. And he knows how to take advantage of Llian’s fatal weakness – his hunger for his own Great Tale.

But Karan is determined to recover and rescue Llian, and the stolen mirror must be retaken. Allies and enemies pursue Tensor across the pitiless desert of the Dry Sea to Katazza, a lost fortress of power built over the earth-shattering Rift. There, proscribed magics will drive a desperate man to a monumental folly – and the Twisted Mirror will unleash forces that could change the fate of three worlds.

Now the allies’ only hope lies in Karan pulling off one of the greatest feats of all time – assuming she can fight off the madness that curses her family.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Epic Fantasy, Science Fiction Fantasy, High Fantasy, Science Fiction, Audiobook

664 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

I'm an Australian author of 34 novels, mainly fantasy. They include the bestselling Three Worlds epic fantasy sequence, which has sold over a million print copies. It comprises The View from the Mirror quartet, The Well of Echoes quartet and The Song of the Tears trilogy. I’ve just finished The Gates of Good and Evil quartet, the long-awaited sequel to The View from the Mirror. Book 3, The Perilous Tower, was published recently and the final book, The Sapphire Portal, will be published on November 1, 2020.
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WHY I WRITE
Funny thing is, I never wanted to be a writer. From an early age my ambition was to be a scientist. I’m an expert in pollution and I’ve spent my professional life studying it in far-flung places like Mauritius, Sumatra, Mongolia, South Korea, the Philippines, Papua-New Guinea and Western Samoa, as well as all over Australia. Often scuba diving to the bottom of foul, smelly harbours and hammering tubes deep into the polluted mud to collect samples for chemical analysis. Now that’s living!

I was a small, quiet kid who devoured books from the moment I learned to read. When I was naughty, Mum wouldn’t let me read anything for a week – talk about a cruel and unusual punishment.

I discovered fantasy in the early 70’s, with The Lord of the Rings and the Earthsea trilogy, and was immediately hooked. But there wasn’t much fantasy in those days; within a couple of years I’d read everything available. I wanted more and bigger tales, on vaster canvases, but they didn’t exist. That’s why I had to become a writer – to write the kind of stories I wanted to read.

WHAT I WRITE
I’ve never wanted to write about superheroes or huge, reckless warriors who know no fear. I write epic fantasy about underdogs and ordinary people who, in pursuit of their goals, are put to the limit of human endurance. My characters aren’t fantasy stereotypes, they’re real people with believable motivations and unfortunate flaws. I’m well known for strong female characters who have as many adventures as the men, and frequently get them out of trouble (I have five sisters). My characters are often small or clumsy or inexperienced or handicapped in some way, yet they make up for it with cleverness, ingenuity or sheer, low cunning. My antagonists are real, complex people who do bad things for strong and deeply-held reasons – never ‘just because they’re evil’.

Though my characters suffer every kind of torment imaginable, at their lowest point they discover the truest form of courage – they keep fighting because the fate of the people they care for, and the world they love, depends on them never giving up.

SOME RECENT REVIEWS
"Irvine is a veteran storyteller who excels in sustaining complex plots with well-rounded characters. Here, he delivers a compelling tale of vengeance, loyalty, and the search for a place in the world." Starred review, Library Journal (US)

"That Grand Master of the vast epic is with us again! The first gripping volume of what promises to be a vintage Irvine treat. More please!" Crisetta MacLeod, Aurealis Express

"Incredibly exciting. The end will have you eagerly anticipating the next book." Good Reading (Aus)

"He knows how to spin an epic yarn and tell it with real gusto ... ambitious in scope and tirelessly action-stuffed." SFX

Reviews

[Dani · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is terrible. I would go into detail about why this book is terrible but then I would have to think about this book. Which I refuse to do. Because it's terrible.

I lied

I read through some other Reviews of This Book and none of them even come close to touching how fucking terrible this book really is so I am going to actually go into depth about it because fuck this book fuck the people who thought it was good just fuck it I hate it all.

So let's start by getting into how the characters actually talk to each other. None of it feels natural none of it. So for an example I will just flip to a random page here and bring up something that someone has said.

"It is profaned. Faelamor had another shock for me. Surely she planned it."

"She is a cunning one."

"Her lieutenant suddenly appeared on the balcony. How arrogantly she stated down at me. I felt she sneered at my agony. And her eyes were Charon eyes, that I had never thought to see again. I could not bear it. All the world was against me."

"It struck her down! That was a bold stroke,"

"Ahh! If only I had."

Nobody talks like this to each other. Nobody. This conversation doesn't flow and because it doesn't flow naturally like someone is actually saying it it doesn't read naturally like someone is actually saying it. It's hard to read, it's clunky, it's cluttered. Apart from just the stinted and formal way that he has of making his characters talk his characters are also bland.

Let's talk about Karen. It's going to spell the name Karen wrong constantly in this review because I am speaking it so I apologize for that. It's almost like the author has this idea of a woman as a shrill vain confusing thing. Karen is arrogant about her hair. She goes from Joy to fits of Rage for no reason. She is supposed to be well-traveled and well-versed in the world and yet she is incredibly naive when it comes to everything. She is described to be distrustful and is distrustful of people willing to help her but in one instance of a shopkeeper immediately closing the doors, turning the closed sign, and leaving through the back after she has just been in the shop, and may I add is being hunted, she has no suspicion of this person whatsoever and acts as though her companion is overreacting. It's just ridiculous to have a character that has no solid foundation to her at all. Apart from her red hair. When she's on the run her red hair is the most noticeable thing about her and her companion dyes it Black; Jesus Christ finally. It is the most sensible thing anyone has done in these books. Karen is pissed. Absolutely fucking angry about this. Even though it has saved her life. And helped her Escape. It's just such a ridiculous comparison. I don't even know, we're done with this, this is annoying, moving on to the next terrible garbage crap thing about this book.

The descriptions. They go on forever. Things that were addressed,and readdressed, over and over, keep being brought up. Constantly. It's as though the reader is not intelligent enough to retain this information. It makes the books drag. Which brings us to my next Point.

The book drags. I got to a point where I was only reading the first couple sentences or even just the first sentence of every paragraph because everything was just so convoluted and full of unnecessary detail that it was just a pain to read. Books should be fun. On some level they should be entertaining, engaging, retain your interest even. This book does not do that. Anytime anything happens it is the same formula. Karen gets in trouble, kidnapped, what have you. She sends out a cry for help. Someone comes and saves her. She is happy. The next moment she's pissed off. That's it. That's literally the entire book that follows Karen's perspective. It doesn't change much for the other characters. The basic idea is always the same. Character sets off. Character encounters trouble. Trouble usually following the same pattern as person is looking for them almost finds them. Even the way they escape and get out of these problems is not interesting. It's the same thing every time. Every character has the same way of getting out of every situation they ever encounter. In fact, most situations don't even play that big of a role in the book. Most can be trimmed out entirely and you can still have the meat of the book here. However that meat is stingy and full fat and when you actually get down to what it's saying there's nothing really there.

Another issue is the magic. There are no rules. There's one point where character asks if another used magic. To which the reply is no it's not a spell it was a suggestion. But there's no real difference between those things we don't know as readers what the difference is. In fact the way the book describes it seems as though yes it actually was magic. Mage watches from the bushes to cast spell on enemies to make them think something is different than what it actually is. That seems like a spell to me. However it's called a suggestion in the book. Since everyone keeps saying how big of a deal magic is and how it's not normally used in these types of situations, it's only used sparingly, nothing is ever really explained what is Magic, what isn't Magic, when magic applies, and when it's something else entirely, and even what that something else actually is. There are no rules. Which means that characters can get out of any situation by just having the author make up something new. It also means that they can get into trouble by having the author just decide that their magic doesn't work now. Why? We as readers have no idea. It's frustrating. It also means that you know the outcome of every situation before it even unfolds. Most of the time magic will fail for a certain amount of time just long enough for the character to seem like they are in trouble and then somehow with just a little bit of their magic they get out of it. Even the final climax it dragged on it was boring.

It. Was. Boring. That's as simply as I can put it. The book drags on forever and nothing happens. You can get the main idea of the entire book by skimming it. Most of the time you can skip entire sections of it as long as you follow along enough to know where the characters are at any given moment.

Run far away from these books.

[Steven Poore · Rating 2 out of 5]

The epic re-read of Ian Irvine's first series continues with even more slogging through inhospitable landscapes in multiple viewpoints, towards another high-powered confrontation between the long-lived Mendark, Tensor, Faelamor, and Yggur on one side and the mounting menace of long-imprisoned Rulke.

Not a tremendous lot happens across the viewpoints all told, once you strip out the long journeys. Both Llian and Karan suffer further, Tensor and Mendark bewail their ineffectiveness, Maigraith embarks on a stilted and uncomfortable relationship with Yggur, the promising subplot of Lilis and her missing father gets shelved with short shrift.

Irvine's writing is a little better in this second book, but it still tends overmuch to the portentous and declamatory. Characters don't just do things, they have to act dramatically, with over-exaggerated expressions and dialogue that even George Lucas would cringe at. Irvine has gone for a mythic quality, something to elevate the Mancers above their shorter-lived sidekicks, but a lot of the times it feels misplaced. A long sequence where Karan climbs the outside of a tower to rescue Llian, a mirror reversal of Rapunzel, is amusing but still far longer than it should have been.

Probably time to move on and come back to the series later in the year.

[Karen Field · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book 2 in the series. Again, I could not "read" the book, but as an audiobook, it was quite good. In fact, this volume of the series saw some action and movement in the storyline. We live in an instant world these days, and the plot for some fantasy books can be painful.

Llian and Karan's relationship is one of those stop and go situations. Sometimes it is one of them doing the stoping. And other times it is what is happening around them. I can't accept their relationship as being real though. Or perhaps "deep" is the word, I should have used. It feels superficial. That may be intended or not. I don't know, but I suspect not at this stage of the story.

Thankfully, the world's history is no longer a problem. It is assumed we know that after book one and I'm pleased to say that we do not have to read it again.

Reading over what I've written makes me think I've given the wrong star rating as it sounds like I don't like the story or characters at all. Yet, despite all I've said, I have gone on and listened to book 3 and I'm halfway through book 4 so something must have kept my attention.

[V. · Rating 2 out of 5]

As the plot gets more and more involved in this series, a real problem in Irvine's writing style emerges- and that's a lack of in-depth detail about the 'rules' that apply to the Three Worlds.

There's all kinds of magic flying around, and it plays a really central role in the climax of the novel and yet I feel like I don't really understand the basic laws that govern each characters' use of it. The plot sort of feels vague and loose, because everytime a character is able to swoop in and come to the rescue, the reader just has to sort of suspend their disbelief and go with it, without really knowing why.

Hopefully things will be more thoroughly explained in te next installment.

[Kathi · Rating 3 out of 5]

7/10 for book 2 in The View From the Mirror quartet.

What I liked: the characters are more complete and we learn more backstory as well. Some parts are very exciting and there are unexpected developments and twists and turns in the plot. Pender the boatman is a joy of a character.

What bugged me: still a lot of unanswered questions, which i hope will be answered in the final two books.The maps are not detailed enough to show the reader where the action is taking place. Endless traveling interrupted by excitement, revelations, confrontations of all sorts, close calls and escapes.

[Patrick Harrison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Master of the art

I had forgotten how much this book influenced me; the crossing of the dry sea and Karen's climb are some of the most gripping story that I have ever read. This is epic fantasy done right.

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Boring in places but characters are engaging enough to make you keep reading.

[Douglas Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are a few pros and cons to the second installment.
Pros
- In this series, the characters are three-dimensional, more in-depth than the first installment.
- The plot takes unexpected developments and twists
- Fantastic world development

Cons

- At over six-hundred pages, it was too long for the amount of action that took place, a lot of it could have been either trimmed down or skipped.
- The laws of 'magic' in the Three Worlds was never explained and referred to as a 'Secret Art' – more time developing those rules would have clarified some action scenes.
- A continuing problem was the undetailed map. With the fantasy genre, maps play a crucial part in unraveling the plot but in this book, it is not visibly clear where the action is taking place.
- There is endless traveling
- The descriptions for the world-building and information dumping are too long. There is a lack of trust with author/ reader thus that constant reminders of previous information.


In all, Ian Irvine is an Australian Fantasy Author and I would still recommend for fans of the genre. I will be reading books three and four.

[Ross · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ok, I’ve now read the first two books (A Shadow on the Glass & The Tower on the Rift) out of the set of 4 that I bought together. The idea was that anyone who trundled out that many stories would be good.

Yeah, na.

They are chase scenes from one end to the other. They get chased across country (a lot), up and down towers always almost losing the chasers then suddenly being ambushed, but alluding them just the same.

Two of the most unappealing, selfish, and rude protagonists surrounded by the most useless bunch of hero support I’ve ever read about . There is no-one to bond with, everyone is flawed & not just a little bit. The only hero-like character is The Bad Guy. He’s got the whole massive body, appealing character, haunting good looks and secret magic skills that everybody else wished they’d had.

I started the first couple of chapters of the third book, as it’s added to the end of the second, and gave up - it’s more of the same.

Must say, the world building was pretty good, shame about the listless characters.

It’s taken me weeks to read instead of my usual few days, it’s just that much hard work.

The books are OK, but only ok, so 2/5

[Greg Sheppard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Same problem as the last one. There's a core of a really good well written fantasy series with interesting ideas and good characters.

The problem is the two thirds of the book that can best be described as needlessly perilous and eventful journeys to the point it's just boring as every danger is at 11 and happening all the time. its boring as sin and annoying. And so little is relevant to the plot.

I was told this series was original written as one massive book and then divided into 4. I would imagine much of what I have issue with is bulking it out to standard fantasy door stopper length

You could fix this book into a great short novel by cutting all the journeys and then and remaining peril or handship toning down by at least half the danger action etc. Just keep the places they go to and the characters and their interactions.

[Cody Ray · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book continued to bring into focus some of the characters that were previously only mentioned or "thought about" during the world building or historical bits. So that was kind of cool.

But a whole lot of this book was chase and travel. It definitely describes the toils of primitive travel well, with many chapters that are little more than "wake up, walk all day, bandage your blisters and treat your other wounds, eat a bowl of gruel, sleep, repeat".

Right at the end of the book, the plot starts to get somewhere and then advances a bit too quickly (or maybe it just felt that way compared to the rest of the bookie). And then it goes straight into another unexplained cliff-hanger.

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

longer than it really needed to be. And whenever a character or event from the previous book is mentioned for the first time, Irvine unfortunately feels the need to pause whatever's happening so that he can write a paragraph reminding us who the character is, what they did in the previous book, what they look like, etc.

The Tower on the Rift feels like one giant set up for things to come.

[Dante Carlisle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book definitely delivers. After a slow start and a massive amount of world building, this is where the meat and potatoes of the story begins to come through. I love how Irvine brings so many different tales and storylines together seamlessly, and to somehow make it believable. I can't wait to delve into the third of this series.

[Dan Mowbray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book 2 in this Quartet ups the adventure and action. Enjoy the viewpoint of each different character and the multitude of characters in this book. A long fantasy epic that just keeps getting better and intriguing as it gets along.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

Continue the story from the first book, but it can stand alone (there is enough exposition to cover those who may not have read the first book).

Unlike many second books of a trilogy, this one actually has its own, important, content.

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wow. I laboured through the first book and hoped the second would pick up. It didn’t. I simply don’t care enough about the characters, the plot or the awkward writing style to continue this series.

[Nadia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great fun

[Roy Phillips · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some what boring and long winded
With continued boasting and moaning

[Tim Caird · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another solid read in the series 🙂 Cracking ending too!

[Fiona Watson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid 4. Much better than the first one (better character development) but still a lot of unnecessary content (in my opinion).

[Sancho · Rating 3 out of 5]

***1/2

[Morgan Hood · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much like the first book. Still enjoying the slow reveal of characters powers/backstory/motives, As well as how they interact with each other.
Little bit too similar to the first book- there was another long travel scene which culminated in a climatic finale again. However, I still found the ending dramatic enough to keep me engaged.
Wish the magic system was explained more- it seems like there is little rules at time and can be used a plot armour.

[Bree Pearson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book because a little tedious at some points, but the pay off was a cliff hanger of an ending.

[Ward Bond · Rating 5 out of 5]

About the Author

Ian Irvine lives in the mountains of NSW, Australia.

Excerpted from The Tower on the Rift by Ian Irvine. Copyright © 2000. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

The Great Hall was dark. The glow from the burning city did not penetrate the velvet drapes. The shouts, the screams, the clash of weapons up the hill – all just a murmur from far away. In the room there was no conscious being, no intelligent life. The broken door banged in the wind, the hinges bawled, striking a dreadful lament, crying to the dead to rise. The members of the Conclave lay silent.
Hours passed. In the darkness one man dreamed. Dreamed that he lay cast down and senseless while the army of his mortal enemy poured through the gates of Thurkad. Get up! He screamed. Only you can save your city. But he could not wake.

The tramp of marching feet echoed in his dreams – they were hunting him! He gave a wrenching groan that tore through the fog in his brain and and woke, bolt upright in the dark. His heart was racing. Where was he? Hardly knowing his own name, aware of little more than a growing terror, he felt around him. The things he touched were blank pieces. He could not put a name to the least of them.

A horn blasted, not far away. Panicking, the man clawed himself to all-fours, sagging across the room like a rubber-kneed crab, tripping over bodies, cracking his head against a table leg. Something smashed under his weight, the shards stabbing into the palm of his hand. He picked out pieces of curved glass, feeling the blood run down his arm. Smelling spilled oil on the floor, he felt around for the lantern but his numb fingers snapped the flint a dozen times before it lit. He lurched in swaying arcs back and forth along the rows of benches, then fell down in front of a tall woman who lay on the floor like a fallen statue. Yellow light bathed long limbs, dark hair, skin as rich and smooth as glazed chocolate. Her eyes were open and her lips wet, but the woman made no sound, gave no sign that she saw anything.

With shaking hands, he brought the lamp down to her eyes. It registered nothing. The light showed him clearly – a slim man of average height and uncertain age, with blue eyes and thin, wild hair. His sallow skin was sunk into deep creases; his scanty beard was lank.

The man’s face was wracked. ‘Tallia!’ he sang out, a wail of pain. ‘For pity’s sake, wake!’ He rocked on his haunches, overcome by the magnitude of the disaster, shuddered and bent over her again. Putting his bloody hands around her head, front and back, he tried to force open the blocked channels of her brain, straining so hard that his breath came out as a series of little groans.

In his head the tramping grew so loud that it blocked out all thought. He closed his eyes but the images shone out brighter than before, row after row of soldiers. The mind that directed them – his enemy – was as cold and unstoppable as a machine.

‘Tallia,’ he screamed. ‘Help! Yggur’s coming for me.’

Tallia’s pupils, which had imperceptibly contracted to points of darkness, expanded in a rush and she knew him. ‘Mendark!’ she whispered.

Mendark threw his arms around her. Tears starred his eyelashes. They struggled to their feet, swaying together, then Tallia’s eyes rolled and the room tilted in slow-motion confusion. He clung to her until she was steady again.

‘What happened?’ she asked. ‘I don’t remember anything.’

[Wide Eyes, Big Ears! · Rating 2 out of 5]

On its own, I'd probably give this 3 stars, but having read the 2nd series, this 1st series seems too similar. In each series, Irvine lets his main characters meet, then scatters and separates them due to kidnapping or giving them quests. Most of the books are then spent traversing the world and occasionally bumping into each other. Maybe a series where people stay in the one place? I'm over all the travel!

[Richard Barrow · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don’t feel this book lives up to the potential created in the first novel in the series. At least it seems to lose something of the sense the first book gave me of a unique and must-experience adventure story. I did like the imagery of the tower that features towards the end of the book and in its title. Although I would have struggled to picture it with much accuracy without the illustration on the front cover.

There starts to feel like too many characters with their own little stories, and I basically just refused to take an interest in them and nothing was presented that changed my mind. Pender and Lilis are examples. There is tension and a sense of growing expectation with Llian and Karan, what part the antagonist Rulke is going to play, and the various struggles the characters have with their own past and each other. I just feel the books good parts are watered down with too much other stuff that didn’t need to be there.

[Angelika Belko · Rating 3 out of 5]

Generally I enjoyed this book, even though it seemed to be a little longer than was necessary. Great worldbuilding, lots of interesting characters. But magic in this series is totally confusing... There are specific kinds of people who have certain powers and it is just a part of their heritage, however ordinary humans don't have any kind of magic abilities, yet some of them display such talents, and there's no explanation how whatsoever. And every time when someone uses magic its hardly explained. So when you are in the middle of a fight scene for example, you have no idea what is actually happening and who is using what kind of magic against whom. And most of the time magic is mentioned as this "Secret Art" like this is suppossed to make up for no further explanation. Maybe its just me, but this sounds more like Kung Fu than magic. And finally the worst bit of this book. There is a scene, that is suppossed to bring a bit of romance into the story. The author tried to write a first night for lovers that I guess was meant to be awkward, however it was beyond that. I want to erase it from my memory, but I'm afraid it is gonna stay in there forever. This scene was like 2-3 pages long and after each sentence I was rolling my eyes and hoping to be struck by lightning rather than having to get through that "lovemaking". God such a scene could've been written only by a man. All in all, except for few small issues this is still a good fantasy to read.

[Matisse · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm uncertain how I feel about this series.

Everything I hated about reading the sophomore chapter of Irvine's 'The View From The Mirror' saga, such as the obscene page count, almost slice-of-life pacing, the way some things are so detailed that you'd think Irvine had no editor, and the adherence to lengthy travel passages in lieu of quick cuts between events, are staples of the fantasy genre. The parts of the series I'm in love with, ie. the unbearably human characters, the way everyone seems to amble and yet somehow be moved by a larger force, the way Karan and Llian's romance very clearly *is* that underlying force, and the almost fairy-tale-esque dialogue, are to Irvine's credit. He's also a mighty poet, just in general.

'The Tower on the Rift' took me months to get through, and I had to read a bunch of other books when my interest waned. This wasn't always fun, but I'm thinking it's because I'm unused to the fantasy format. I'll save my overall opinions for when I've finished the quartet. For the moment, I'll say both volumes of the series thus far are engaging, and I don't regret having read them in the slightest. =)

[Moosh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Let's see, what can I say about the second installment to this obscure fantasy? Perhaps obscure isn't quite the word, but it is different to your average 'there and back again' kind of fantasy. Although I picked this one up almost a year after reading the first, I was able to recap myself and slowly get familiar with the characters again. The only real problem I had was the sharing of the characters and it would go from one to the other each chapter, coming back to wherever they were and what they were doing, all linked. Which I enjoyed, just did not like the gaps between some characters, in which it would switch to one it had not in ages and I forgot what they were doing. But I digress, Irvine has managed to get my involved again even more so than the last time, painting a much bigger picture that will come later, teasing the reader 'tell us more please'....

[W.H. Cann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, this was more enjoyable and engrosing than the first book in the series, so why only 3 stars?

At over 600 pages, it was a little too long despite being filled with lots of activity, intrigue and an essence of 'what's going to happen next'. For me, there were several areas where the story seemed to drag on slowly with little being achieved. I think a little more time developing or explaining some of the 'magical' principles would have been helpful, if just to understand why and how certain things or events happened, as well as the limitations some characters seemed to be subject to.

However, it is still an engaging fantasy story that, despite my previous comments, held my interest until the end, and will be reading books three and four. It is certainly a series I would recommend for fans of the fantasy genre.