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A review by elusivity
The Pearl of the Soul of the World by Meredith Ann Pierce
3.0
I remember waiting ages for the library to get this to me via inter-library order, very many years ago. I was obsessed to the point of being able to quote that awkward "prophecy" poem. And I remember how utterly disappointing the final 20 pages were, which I read and re-read, trying to find some trace, any trace, of a resolution to this essentially 3-volume romance between Irrylath and Aeriel. After ALL THIS TIME, and ALL THIS SACRIFICE, she gets to sleep with him ONCE and finds that she has to go away FOREVER. Worse, there is this other chick, basically a female version of him, a bandit queen and therefore wild and confident and free as Aeriel hadn't been as a servant, waiting with hands out-stretched to take over.
WHY????????
It's not as though this series was written in the vein of -- personal love lessens in the face of saving the world; duty trumps feelings, etc. -- it began and continued as this chick trying heroically to SAVE her CURSED dark angel man. And THIS is how Pierce fulfill the unspoken contract with her readers?! One night in the sack, one declaration of love... separation forever ... THE END??
I am not saying I expected some simplistic HEA, as Aeriel has indeed grown and seen much since her humble beginnings -- but this conclusion came out of no where. As others have mentioned, Aeriel ended up once more a slave, except now to a greater Mistress, with even less freedom than before. If she had to go save the world, why can she not bring Irrylath? If his oath was so binding and her duties so pressing, why can they not work out some kind of compromise? She could travel off to do what she must do for 9 months of the year, and stay with him for the remaining 3, and this would still be a subversion of fairy tale tropes...
I have never been interested in another Pierce book since.
WHY????????
It's not as though this series was written in the vein of -- personal love lessens in the face of saving the world; duty trumps feelings, etc. -- it began and continued as this chick trying heroically to SAVE her CURSED dark angel man. And THIS is how Pierce fulfill the unspoken contract with her readers?! One night in the sack, one declaration of love... separation forever ... THE END??
I am not saying I expected some simplistic HEA, as Aeriel has indeed grown and seen much since her humble beginnings -- but this conclusion came out of no where. As others have mentioned, Aeriel ended up once more a slave, except now to a greater Mistress, with even less freedom than before. If she had to go save the world, why can she not bring Irrylath? If his oath was so binding and her duties so pressing, why can they not work out some kind of compromise? She could travel off to do what she must do for 9 months of the year, and stay with him for the remaining 3, and this would still be a subversion of fairy tale tropes...
I have never been interested in another Pierce book since.