The Veil of a Thousand Tears

Pearl Saga #2

by Eric Van Lustbader

The second volume in this huge new fantasy in the tradition of Frank Herbert's phenomenal DUNE series. Ever since the V'ornn invasion the oppressed Kundalan have been dwindling in strength. Their religion is dying, their magic fading and their goddess all but forgotten. Only the fabled and long-awaited Dar Sala-at can find the long-lost, all-powerful Pearl and save them from extinction. Against incredible odds Riane, the Dar Sala-at, has recovered the Ring of Five Dragons and fitted it into the Storehouse Door, behind which the Pearl should be found. But despite the prophecy the door will not open. Riane's protector, Giyan, explains that daemons must have escaped from the sorcerous abyss where they were locked away by the Goddess Miina aeons ago. What Giyan doesn't know is that one of those daemons is about to possess her body. In order to retrieve Giyan before the daemon kills her, Riane must find the fabled Veil of a Thousand Tears, said to have been created from the tears of the Five Sacred Dragons of Miina and to hold the key to the secrets of Za Hara-at, the legendary city that will one day bring Kundalan and V'ornn together in peace. For this reason she is not the only one who seeks the Veil. The evil Gyrgon, Nith Batoxxx, is also on its trail, and soon Riane will be fighting him for her life. In this fast-paced and compelling saga, best-selling author Eric Van Lustbader explores the conflicts that have driven civilizations since the dawn of between good and evil, technology and spirituality, faith and despair.

Genres: Fantasy, Science Fiction, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Speculative Fiction

629 pages, Paperback

First published May 7, 2002

About the author

Eric Van Lustbader was born and raised in Greenwich Village. He is the author of more than twenty-five best-selling novels, including The Ninja, in which he introduced Nicholas Linnear, one of modern fiction's most beloved and enduring heroes. The Ninja was sold to 20th CenturyFox, to be made into a major motion picture. His novels have been translated into over twenty languages.

Mr. Lustbader is a graduate of Columbia College, with a degree in Sociology. Before turning to writing full time, he enjoyed highly successful careers in the New York City public school system, where he holds licenses in both elementary and early childhood education, and in the music business, where he worked for Elektra Records and CBS Records, among other companies.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/ericva...

Reviews

[Marie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm going to stop pretending that I am actually reading this book and that I intend to finish it. I read a few chapters, and here are the reasons why, based on the small amount I've read, I am allowed to hate it:

1) Everything (or half of the things) is "crystalline", and that's annoying. Generally, the whole focus on how pretty everything is, is really dull for me in all genres.
2) I didn't really care about or like any of the characters. Apart from their aesthetics they didn't really have any obvious personalities except for 'good' and 'evil', which aren't even really personalities. The story sets it up so I know from the get-go who I'm supposed to like and who I'm supposed to hate. As much time as I've spent bitching to people about how much I hate other fictional characters (David Lurie, Pella Affenlight, fucking everyone in Love in the Time of Cholera, etc), at least I'm allowed to dislike them for my own reasons. The problem with a lot of fantasy is that I'm told who to like and who to dislike like they do in soap operas; it's pretty much just Days of Our Lives with magical shit.
3) I was loaned the second book only, which was generally a dick move, as when I started to read it I realised I just did not know any of what they were talking about. However, some sequel books, quite a lot of them in fact, are able to start off without having to explain everything. This is not one of those books.
4) It makes up it's own language, which is k, but it also makes up the pronunciation of the language, which I consider pretty cocky from the author - you want us to not only read your book, but you want to tell us how to read it. Fuck off.
(Note: I may have an aversion to this because I once dated a guy who had invented his own fantasy language, and pronunciation and even script. I thought was pretty inventive at the time, until he revealed he actually believed he hadn't invented the language, but had transcribed it in 'this' world, and apparently he was the omnipotent master of the alternate fantasy reality where they spoke this language. It was not only insane but completely megalomaniacal and when I dumped him he web-stalked me for like a year, which was crazy... but anyway back to the story...)
5) My mum's boyfriend loaned it to me and I secretly abhor him and everything he represents.

So, basically, there are a lot of reasons why I don't like this book, and some, I am willing to admit, have nothing to do with the books merit on it's own... but the ones that did were really good at bringing me out of the story and saying 'wtf, why are you doing this?' and it generally wasn't great. I'd recommend you read this if you like fantasy shit just because it's fantasy.

/rantrantrant

[Kristjan · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is a book I should never have started; since I didn't really like the first one of the series either (except that the last part of the first book was actually okay and it had a cliff-hanger ending). The story itself would be two stars; however, the authors schtick of throwing together a basket of random letters into barely pronouncable combination just to give it an alien feel grew old fast ... and it never let up for the entire book. Simply put, there were so many made up words that the story was difficult to visualize and I ended up doing more skimming then I like just to get past each new word (to make matters worse, most of the words could have been 'translated' just fine ... and there was no reason not too).

Finally ... I thought the ending here was just too fantastic with the author pulling way to many tricks out to actually wrap things up (which he actually did for the most part).

[MadMaxx · Rating 3 out of 5]

This review won't be like the first book, i say pretty much what i have to say, but some part of me still wants to acknowledge this story. Maybe when i have more time and a large pot of coffee will i pick this back up, or when i suffer from insomnia and need to fall asleep. No that was cruel, it's just that this book is rather wordy, and not in the Lord of the Rings way where you deal with it cuz the rest of the book is great, but in a "I had to fill up this many pages so let me thing of a lot of words" but like always that's just my opinion, how ever i did think the story was unique and could have been more fun and awesome, if shorter, which is why i will pick up this series again. i just don't know when. I guess i feel a little special cuz mine is the cover of the 6 legged horse or something like that, but i like this one better.

[Sharon Ryan · Rating 1 out of 5]

No, just no. Every name is like the author randomly smacked his fingers around on the keyboard and made every instance of what, in normal English, would be a single or double consonant into a triple (e.g. "ggg" or "nnn"), really annoying to try to read. Way too much detail, "scenes" just drag on and on. Only on page 50 and I am giving up, it is just too exhausting to try to trudge through 655 of this. I'm stopping now and just putting this thing on the pile of books I don't need to take down to sell at the used book store. *sigh sigh sigh*

[Leo Barrio · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good follow-up to the first novel. However, this book suffers the same problem with the first one, the world the author has created is overly detailed, the names and terms would give you a headache which can ultimately affect your reading experience.

[Suzy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Took me a while to get through this, the second in the Pearl Saga series, but it continues the rich worldbuilding and adventures and trials of various characters. I find myself wanting to know what happens to them, and caring about them.

[Tyoung221 · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wanted more and hope that the story will continue one day.

[Caspian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this when I was twelve.

[Mounir Bashour · Rating 3 out of 5]

OK still go with my thought that this is a poor man's Dune trilogy.