Juliet Marillier

Tower of Thorns, by Juliet Marillier

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A wailing monster, a cursed land and a lady with secrets.

Add a bristling healer and her hulky companion with pasts that haunt them, and you have an enthralling story that sweeps you into its world of fey and mystery.

22567177Blackthorn is a healer and wise woman who was rescued from a death sentence by one of the fey. The conditions of her reprieve included not seeking vengeance against the chieftain who unjustly imprisoned her. With another of the prisoners, Grim, as friend and companion, she has built a new life in Dalraida.

When the Lady Geiléis arrives seeking help from the Dalraidan prince, it is to Blackthorn they turn. A monster has taken up residence in an old tower surrounded by impenetrable thorns on the lady’s lands. It howls from dawn to dusk and has cast a blight upon the whole land.

At the same time an old friend emerges with a tempting offer for Blackthorn, to bring her old tormentor, Mathuin the chieftain, to justice. She plans to go the lady’s lands and deal with the monster, then slip away from Grim and travel south to help in Mathuin’s trial. Once at Lady Geiléis’ lands, though, it becomes clear the lady and her servants are hiding something.

Tower of Thorns works as a stand-alone novel, but readers of the first book in the Blackthorn & Grim series, Dreamer’s Pool, will be eager for this second offering.

One of the strengths of these novels is the complexity
of the title characters.

They are defined by the things they have in common; their traumatic pasts that are being slowly revealed to each other and the reader, their time in Mathuin’s prison where they occupied opposite cells while enduring deprivation and abuse, and their understanding of the brokenness of one another.  Yet they also provide a contrast for one another.

Blackthorn is well-named. She’s prickly, bitter and prone to fits of temper, finding it difficult to be around other people for long periods. She’s also assertive,  as Lady Geiléis discovers once they are back on her land.

“Once Blackthorn decided to take the reins, it seemed she was blind to anything that might stand in her way.”

However, even though she finds the caring side of her healing work exhausting, she does it well. She sees herself with little to give emotionally but is so attuned to others that she can’t help empathizing and supporting them when they’re in need. Though she’s been scarred by her life, at the core she’s decent and good and does what she believes is right.

Grim sees himself with little to give in general, in spite of being able to turn his hand to anything from thatching and growing vegetables to training others in use of weapons. Though they conduct their relationship as companions, his devotion to Blackthorn never wavers. Where her focus stays on making Mathuin pay for his crimes, Grim’s is on Blackthorn and doing all his power to protect and provide for her. Discovering more of his story and who he his in Tower of Thorns was especially welcome.

17305016It isn’t easy to get stories about people with post-traumatic stress right, let alone in the context of medieval Ireland where old magic and the fey are forces to be reckoned with. Blackthorn and Grim have different ways of dealing with the traumas of their pasts, but each is authentic and rings true in the context of the time. The descriptions of Grim’s flashbacks and physical symptoms are particularly well done.

Tower of Thorns is told from three points of view; Blackthorn’s and Grim’s, both using first person, and the third from the perspective of Lady Geiléis in third person. Though the narrative style changes, it works well. Marillier’s prose flows, often lyrical, always grounded.

Not only does it feel as though this medieval Ireland of fey magic is real, but it should be real.

Though evil is there just as it is in our world, there is also a beauty and wonder in creation that has been lost for most of us. Perhaps books like this can challenge us to appreciate what we have and strive to preserve the beauty and natural wonders around us.

As I said when reviewing Raven Flight, I’ve been a keen reader of Juliet Marillier’s books since her first book, Daughter of the Forest, was published, so I tend to be well-disposed towards her books when I pick them up. So far I haven’t been disappointed. I’m already looking forward to the next in the Blackthorn & Grim series.

* I received an ARC from the author for review.

 Details
Tower of Thorns  by Juliet Marillier
Pan Macmillan Australia
ISBN: 9780451466990
Published: 3 October, 2015

Links
Juliet Marillier’s Website
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Shadowfell – in the Dark: Juliet Marillier

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What do we take for granted?

Like others, my house had no electricity for four days after recent storms across New South Wales, and we had to get creative about the basics like lights and meals. (Internet? Hah!). In the middle of those four days, we had a plumbing emergency. Not pretty. Fortunately for us, we were able to get a plumber and it was fixed the same day.

15709129Those four days, I thought a lot about how many people in the world live without power and plumbing. I also spent a lot of time reading, much of it by candlelight. One book I read was Raven Flight, the second book in Juliet Marillier’s Shadowfell trilogy. Already being in a thoughtful frame of mind, this book had me thinking along disquieting lines.

The first book of the series, Shadowfell, follows Neryn, alone and hiding from the agents of the tyrannical king of Alban. Her young life has been one of tragedy, but her one hope is to find the rumoured base of a rebellion, Shadowfell. Her affinity with the Good Folk, the fey of the land, would mark her for death or enslavement at the hands of the king’s elite troops, but the Folk also prophesy of her importance to the land. She receives aid from a stranger, but the question is, can she trust him?

The second boo17847892k, Raven Flight, continues Neryn’s story after she arrives at Shadowfell. First she must become stronger in body, and then in order to truly help the rebellion she needs to be trained to use her gift. Eventually she sets out with one companion to find the Guardians who can teach her.

I have to make a disclosure. I love Juliet Marillier’s books, so I was well disposed towards this series at the outset. Her writing combines strong stories based on elements of history and folklore woven with romance. This is her first series written for a young adult audience, but I’ve never let the YA tag put me off. I’d miss out on too many good books that way.

So far I’ve found that, while still having a strong romantic element at the core, there is less emphasis on the romantic relationship in the Shadowfell books than in most of her others. The protagonist, Neryn, is a strong character – not physically, as she is weak and unwell for a significant part of the first book, but she has courage and strength of will in the face of danger and hardship. She spends a much of the first book traveling alone or in the company of the fey, so while there is sufficient time for the romance to develop, the focus is on her endurance and spirit. The main issue in the relationship between Neryn and her love interest, Flint, is the same as the main question of the book: Do I trust, and risk being vulnerable?

In the second book, Raven Flight, though Flint is often in Neryn’s thoughts they are only together for a short time. The emphasis in this book is on sacrifice for the greater good. They both have crucial roles to play in the coming rebellion which necessitate not only that they be separated, but also that they be willing to give the other up. Flint’s actions when worried about her threaten his position, and thus the rebellion. The question is asked again and again in this book: What will you give up for the cause, for the greater good?

Candlesbook60It was this question which had me thinking as I read by candlelight. I read a fantasy book set in a land with a despotic king, who ruthlessly cut down anyone who dared to breathe the slightest opposition. The sad part is that such things are not confined to fantasy, and we don’t have to look far to find examples either in history or in today’s world.

In Australia and other democracies we take so much for granted, just like our electricity supply. There are problems here, certainly, and there have been changes to legislation in the past twenty years, especially recently, which have been unhealthy and curbed freedoms. Perhaps it has happened with little outcry because we have taken so much for granted. I wondered while reading by candlelight: What would I give up for the greater good?

I wonder what questions the third book of the trilogy, The Caller, will ask?

Links: Juliet Marilliers Webpage

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