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charlotekerstenauthor's review against another edition
“A Wizard from the Ends of the Earth is no more than a walnut tree; a human birth is no more or less than a blossoming flower, an Astronomer studying the stars is no more and no less than a fish spawning. The hunter is no more or less than the prey he hunts in order to live; a man no less and no more than the corn he needs to feed him. That is what Zabralkán was telling us; and that is what is most vital. Creation is a perfect weave. Everything in it has its proper size and place. Everything is linked together in an immense tapestry that not even my beloved weavers of the south could reproduce. Shame on us if we forget we are on a loom.”
I think this review is going to be relatively short, but I’ll start by saying that this is easily one of the most unique books I’ve read for quite some time. It’s a classic battle between forces of good and mythic evil in the vein of old school epic fantasy, but the world is based on the indigenous Americas and the whole thing is told in an elegant and spare style that feels closer to Ursula Le Guin’s prose than anything else I can think of. As a neat side note, Le Guin was actually quite a fan of Bodoc’s work.
The story is one of evil arriving to the shores of the land and bringing cataclysm with it. This, along with the world centered upon thriving and varied indigenous cultures, is primarily what attracted my interest to this book, and I wasn’t disappointed at all. The forces of invasion are reimagined, as I said before, into forces of primeval and mythical evil. There are a number of other magical aspects to the story including wizards, wise talking animals, prophesies and different kinds of magic including a land that exists in what seems to be a different plane or reality of some kind. The story also touches on the ways that different societies may be structured hierarchically and non-hierarchically using different kinds of magic as a metaphor.
One of the most interesting aspects of the story as one of invasion is the way that invaded peoples may turn against their own and fragment a resistance in the face of an encroaching power. Interestingly, there is also a white-European-equivalent group of people in the story called Northmen, but they are actually allies in this story and arrived from across the sea long ago to help the continent’s leaders and warn them about the coming evil after being invaded by it and overrun themselves. While almost all of them left, some of their descendants remained to integrate into the local communities.
When I marked the book as “currently reading” on Goodreads, I got a comment from someone who said that the book felt outdated in some ways, and I think the main way that this rings true for me is that there are no female characters as main players. There is one woman on the council of war leaders, but she is constantly described in terms of how tiny and attractive she looks and is only mentioned a few times. There’s also a romance between one of the main characters, Cucub, and a girl named Kuy-Kuyen - but this felt pretty random to me and I’m not really sure why it was included in the story.
A lot of the reviews on Goodreads describe this book as incredibly slow and boring but I didn’t find that to be the case any more than I’d find it to be the case with any work of classic fantasy that’s relayed with a somewhat formal and distant tone that gives it the feel of an ancient myth being told. To each their own, of course, but as for me I genuinely wish the rest of the trilogy had been translated into English so that I might finish it off. For those who are wondering, though, I think it works well on its own and is still absolutely worth reading by itself.
I think this review is going to be relatively short, but I’ll start by saying that this is easily one of the most unique books I’ve read for quite some time. It’s a classic battle between forces of good and mythic evil in the vein of old school epic fantasy, but the world is based on the indigenous Americas and the whole thing is told in an elegant and spare style that feels closer to Ursula Le Guin’s prose than anything else I can think of. As a neat side note, Le Guin was actually quite a fan of Bodoc’s work.
The story is one of evil arriving to the shores of the land and bringing cataclysm with it. This, along with the world centered upon thriving and varied indigenous cultures, is primarily what attracted my interest to this book, and I wasn’t disappointed at all. The forces of invasion are reimagined, as I said before, into forces of primeval and mythical evil. There are a number of other magical aspects to the story including wizards, wise talking animals, prophesies and different kinds of magic including a land that exists in what seems to be a different plane or reality of some kind. The story also touches on the ways that different societies may be structured hierarchically and non-hierarchically using different kinds of magic as a metaphor.
One of the most interesting aspects of the story as one of invasion is the way that invaded peoples may turn against their own and fragment a resistance in the face of an encroaching power. Interestingly, there is also a white-European-equivalent group of people in the story called Northmen, but they are actually allies in this story and arrived from across the sea long ago to help the continent’s leaders and warn them about the coming evil after being invaded by it and overrun themselves. While almost all of them left, some of their descendants remained to integrate into the local communities.
When I marked the book as “currently reading” on Goodreads, I got a comment from someone who said that the book felt outdated in some ways, and I think the main way that this rings true for me is that there are no female characters as main players. There is one woman on the council of war leaders, but she is constantly described in terms of how tiny and attractive she looks and is only mentioned a few times. There’s also a romance between one of the main characters, Cucub, and a girl named Kuy-Kuyen - but this felt pretty random to me and I’m not really sure why it was included in the story.
A lot of the reviews on Goodreads describe this book as incredibly slow and boring but I didn’t find that to be the case any more than I’d find it to be the case with any work of classic fantasy that’s relayed with a somewhat formal and distant tone that gives it the feel of an ancient myth being told. To each their own, of course, but as for me I genuinely wish the rest of the trilogy had been translated into English so that I might finish it off. For those who are wondering, though, I think it works well on its own and is still absolutely worth reading by itself.
medianoche's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.0
jpmedina's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
lazybear's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
por favor lean este libro es hermoso y está escrito de una manera muy bonita
jmh312's review against another edition
4.0
La verdad que este, el primer libro de la Saga de los Confines, es un muy buen libro de fantasía épica con un tinte muy americano.
El ambiente recuerda a nuestro territorio americano, la gente a nuestras tribus, la situación principal a la conquista sufrida a fines del Siglo XV. Todo nos refiere a esa conquista, pero es como si hubiese ocurrido en un mundo fantástico diferente al nuestro. La historia es atrapante, está bien hilada y cuenta con personajes de los que te hacés amigo, de otros enemigo, otros no los entendés del todo y otros son lo que no esperabas, además de las distintas criaturas y razas que habitan Los Confines. Tiene todo lo que necesita un libro para ser épico.
El ambiente recuerda a nuestro territorio americano, la gente a nuestras tribus, la situación principal a la conquista sufrida a fines del Siglo XV. Todo nos refiere a esa conquista, pero es como si hubiese ocurrido en un mundo fantástico diferente al nuestro. La historia es atrapante, está bien hilada y cuenta con personajes de los que te hacés amigo, de otros enemigo, otros no los entendés del todo y otros son lo que no esperabas, además de las distintas criaturas y razas que habitan Los Confines. Tiene todo lo que necesita un libro para ser épico.
caitatoes's review against another edition
5.0
I loved this book so much - it reads both like a fantasy and a historic tale, like I had a bard telling me the story. It's a very well told story and very well written.
joa_carg's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.75
paracyclops's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
This book, sadly the only volume of this trilogy available in English translation, is a fantasy retelling of the Conquista. It's told in a style that owes more to folktale than to epic fantasy in English, and draws heavily on indigenous mythology. For me, its language is beautiful, but I can also tell that it probably won't be to everybody's taste—it has a simplicity that sometimes seems to verge on the simplistic. As an exercise in worldbuilding it's a striking departure from the fantasy norm: I can only think of Daniel Heath Justice's 'The Way of Thorn and Thunder' by way of comparison. I hope that the other volumes are eventually translated, as I found this one absolutely outstanding.
marinapalacio's review against another edition
3.0
Se me hizo infinito. Realmente no me atrapó. Espere algún giro de la trama que nunca llego.