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4.05 AVERAGE
4.05 AVERAGE
adventurous
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexism, Murder
Moderate: Death, Gun violence, Medical content
I love the way the three prior stories come together. super glad I revisited the series.
My review of the series, taken from my blog: http://gamwyn.blogspot.com/2016/01/book-review-dalemark-quartet.html
The Dalemark Quartet is comprised of CART AND CWIDDER, DROWNED AMMET, THE SPELLCOATS, and THE CROWN OF DALEMARK.
The genius of these books is that the first three are set in the same world and reference the same landscapes and mythology, mostly centering around the god-like figures known as the Undying. CART AND CWIDDER and DROWNED AMMET are set in the same time but follow two completely different heroes. THE SPELLCOATS dips back into Dalemark's prehistory. THE CROWN OF DALEMARK brilliantly ties the threads of the previous three stories together, whilst adding the additional element of time travel. You guys, it's NUTS. Amazingly, marvelously, beautifully NUTS.
But I'll try and make more sense here.
CART AND CWIDDER follows Moril, the youngest son of a family of traveling Singers. He inherits his father's cwidder (a lute-like instrument), which is supposed to have belonged to one of the Undying, a famous ancestor who used the cwidder to move mountains (among other things). Moril finds himself caught up in the North/South conflict that plagues the country of Dalemark. Includes: siblings. music. tragedy. magic.
DROWNED AMMET follows a new character, Mitt, who lives in the South and throws his lot in with a bunch of misguided wannabe revolutionaries who are unhappy under the rule of the (admittedly extremely terrible) Earl Hadd. He winds up in a boat with two grandchildren of that very Earl, and the three have adventures at sea including encounters with two of the mysterious Undying: Old Ammet and Libby Beer.
THE SPELLCOATS, as previously mentioned, takes us into Dalemark's prehistory, and is told using a super interesting story-device: the protagonist, Tanaqui, is weaving the story into two rugcoats. This book follows a rambunctious and stunningly-characterized group of five siblings on their journey down an ancient river. It sheds more light on the mysterious Undying—even explaining a few of their origins—and introduces the evil, undead mage Krankredin. This is the only book written in first person and it definitely feels very different from the first two.
THE CROWN OF DALEMARK is the culmination of the first three books. It rejoins Mitt, who eventually meets up with Moril (hooray!!) as they journey with a group of people following Noreth, a young lady who claims to be the daughter of the oldest of the Undying, the One, and therefore the rightful heir to the long-absent crown. Flash-forward to two hundred years later, and we're introduced to Maewen, a lovely freckled and thoughtful heroine who gets sent back in time to take Noreth's place on the journey to find the crown. There's a twist near the end that for some reason I wasn't expecting but I dearly, dearly loved (and found was completely perfect when I thought back on the story). The way DWJ ties everything together is brilliant and satisfying. It makes you go oh!!!! and want to scramble back to the beginning of the series with your pencil so you can underline everything that you didn't know was important!
This series probably isn't for everyone. DWJ definitely doesn't spell everything out for you—it gets confusing at times, and you have to sit and ponder for a bit to reconcile all her threads you think at first she's left to dangle. As I've grown used to with her books, her endings are never quite ENOUGH. She seems to end two scenes too soon, which make her stories linger on in your mind in a way I don't think they would if she gave her readers just a little more. CROWN definitely had more of an ending than the first three, but it still left me desperate for a fifth volume that doesn't exist. The world she created in Dalemark is so rich and deep—so much only hinted at, so much life teeming under the surface. These books are brilliant and thought-provoking, tragic and deep and funny too. Highly recommended if you don't mind a bit of a think!
The Dalemark Quartet is comprised of CART AND CWIDDER, DROWNED AMMET, THE SPELLCOATS, and THE CROWN OF DALEMARK.
The genius of these books is that the first three are set in the same world and reference the same landscapes and mythology, mostly centering around the god-like figures known as the Undying. CART AND CWIDDER and DROWNED AMMET are set in the same time but follow two completely different heroes. THE SPELLCOATS dips back into Dalemark's prehistory. THE CROWN OF DALEMARK brilliantly ties the threads of the previous three stories together, whilst adding the additional element of time travel. You guys, it's NUTS. Amazingly, marvelously, beautifully NUTS.
But I'll try and make more sense here.
CART AND CWIDDER follows Moril, the youngest son of a family of traveling Singers. He inherits his father's cwidder (a lute-like instrument), which is supposed to have belonged to one of the Undying, a famous ancestor who used the cwidder to move mountains (among other things). Moril finds himself caught up in the North/South conflict that plagues the country of Dalemark. Includes: siblings. music. tragedy. magic.
DROWNED AMMET follows a new character, Mitt, who lives in the South and throws his lot in with a bunch of misguided wannabe revolutionaries who are unhappy under the rule of the (admittedly extremely terrible) Earl Hadd. He winds up in a boat with two grandchildren of that very Earl, and the three have adventures at sea including encounters with two of the mysterious Undying: Old Ammet and Libby Beer.
THE SPELLCOATS, as previously mentioned, takes us into Dalemark's prehistory, and is told using a super interesting story-device: the protagonist, Tanaqui, is weaving the story into two rugcoats. This book follows a rambunctious and stunningly-characterized group of five siblings on their journey down an ancient river. It sheds more light on the mysterious Undying—even explaining a few of their origins—and introduces the evil, undead mage Krankredin. This is the only book written in first person and it definitely feels very different from the first two.
THE CROWN OF DALEMARK is the culmination of the first three books. It rejoins Mitt, who eventually meets up with Moril (hooray!!) as they journey with a group of people following Noreth, a young lady who claims to be the daughter of the oldest of the Undying, the One, and therefore the rightful heir to the long-absent crown. Flash-forward to two hundred years later, and we're introduced to Maewen, a lovely freckled and thoughtful heroine who gets sent back in time to take Noreth's place on the journey to find the crown. There's a twist near the end that for some reason I wasn't expecting but I dearly, dearly loved (and found was completely perfect when I thought back on the story). The way DWJ ties everything together is brilliant and satisfying. It makes you go oh!!!! and want to scramble back to the beginning of the series with your pencil so you can underline everything that you didn't know was important!
This series probably isn't for everyone. DWJ definitely doesn't spell everything out for you—it gets confusing at times, and you have to sit and ponder for a bit to reconcile all her threads you think at first she's left to dangle. As I've grown used to with her books, her endings are never quite ENOUGH. She seems to end two scenes too soon, which make her stories linger on in your mind in a way I don't think they would if she gave her readers just a little more. CROWN definitely had more of an ending than the first three, but it still left me desperate for a fifth volume that doesn't exist. The world she created in Dalemark is so rich and deep—so much only hinted at, so much life teeming under the surface. These books are brilliant and thought-provoking, tragic and deep and funny too. Highly recommended if you don't mind a bit of a think!
adventurous
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
adventurous
medium-paced
skipping spellcoats and reading this first, cause Beth said so!! :) and i need something good right now
read spellcoats first, which was a very good idea and thanks beth and katie. really, really liked alot of it, maybe just not the parts when the one got involved, the other undying i really liked, the one was too concrete and all powerful and not human this time.
all in all though really liked all four books in the series and super happy that i've read them, super sad that this is the last one.
read spellcoats first, which was a very good idea and thanks beth and katie. really, really liked alot of it, maybe just not the parts when the one got involved, the other undying i really liked, the one was too concrete and all powerful and not human this time.
all in all though really liked all four books in the series and super happy that i've read them, super sad that this is the last one.
WELL. That was an adventure.
While I haven't managed to put my Drowned Ammet feels down in writing yet, at the close of that book Mitt was one of my least favorite protagonists. Possibly ever. (Well. Second to Holden Caulfield.) It was so terrible that when I opened Crown of Dalemark and saw his POV, I almost wrote the book off as a lost cause. BUT THEN. Maewen appears like a glorious freckled breath of fresh air. Time travel is one of my most very favorite tropes in fiction, so as soon as I realized that was where the plot was headed, I just had this huge grin on my face and was swept away from there.
The presence of an encyclopedia in this volume was much appreciated and made the reading experience so much more pleasant than in the previous works. Trying to keep all the earls straight is tricky business.
But yes! Loved loved loved just about everything about this book. Even Mitt. I was downright fond of him by the last pages.
While I haven't managed to put my Drowned Ammet feels down in writing yet, at the close of that book Mitt was one of my least favorite protagonists. Possibly ever. (Well. Second to Holden Caulfield.) It was so terrible that when I opened Crown of Dalemark and saw his POV, I almost wrote the book off as a lost cause. BUT THEN. Maewen appears like a glorious freckled breath of fresh air. Time travel is one of my most very favorite tropes in fiction, so as soon as I realized that was where the plot was headed, I just had this huge grin on my face and was swept away from there.
The presence of an encyclopedia in this volume was much appreciated and made the reading experience so much more pleasant than in the previous works. Trying to keep all the earls straight is tricky business.
But yes! Loved loved loved just about everything about this book. Even Mitt. I was downright fond of him by the last pages.
Don't do what I did the first time I read this book - that is, read it in isolation. It makes a lot more sense if you read the other books in the series first!
In this much longer conclusion to the Dalemark Quartet, I was thrown for a loop and left dissatisfied. Suddenly time-travel ?!
I got the impression that this story was the goal all along and the first three books were honestly quite-needed set up. Without them, The Crown would merely be a sort of weak example of a well-utilized fantasy trope that even DWJ herself does better in other works. Even reading all of them pretty well one after another, I still wished for a wiki to keep track of it all.
Plotwise, I fell hard for Mitt and Maewyn's shy romance and was really rooting for them, but the ending... woof. Same old Maewyn, 13 and contemporary, just watched Mitt defeat Kankredin??? She didn't get to have any part in it at all???? I have not read the [b:The Time Traveler's Wife|18619684|The Time Traveler's Wife|Audrey Niffenegger|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1380660571l/18619684._SX50_.jpg|2153746], nor do I intend to! I get the sort of fill-in-the-blanks emotional impact of the moment, but I still didn't like it when the rest of the series was so much better about endings.
Anyway, this is the first time in a decade I've felt the urge to write fan-fiction, but boy do I want to fix the way this all wrapped for my own satisfaction.
I got the impression that this story was the goal all along and the first three books were honestly quite-needed set up. Without them, The Crown would merely be a sort of weak example of a well-utilized fantasy trope that even DWJ herself does better in other works. Even reading all of them pretty well one after another, I still wished for a wiki to keep track of it all.
Plotwise, I fell hard for
Anyway, this is the first time in a decade I've felt the urge to write fan-fiction, but boy do I want to fix the way this all wrapped for my own satisfaction.