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A review by amiascah
Child of the Prophecy by Juliet Marillier
challenging
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
While not my favourite in the series I love revisiting this book almost as much as the first two.
'Child of the Prophecy' is the conclusion or at least it was to Juliet Marillier's 'Sevenwater's Trilogy'. Since first reading this book 3 more books following the same family have been added. This one centres around Fainne. She is the daughter of Niamh and Ciaran, raised in relative solitude in the ways of the druids learning her craft next to the ocean. As she is nearly a woman Ciaran decides it is time to send her to Sevenwaters where her family is, he is vague in his reasoning but quickly his mother, sorceress Oonagh, steps in to 'help Fainne' fit in better at Sevenwaters and while teaching her to become a lady she also teaches her how to carry out her plan, Oonagh plan is 3 generations long by now but in her granddaughter Fainne she she finally sees the end and her triumph over the family of sevenwaters.
Spoilers
I have so many problems with this book and with Fainne in particular, but I love the setting and the writing and all the characters I fell in love with before so I can't hate the book but man does a lot of this make me angry.
Beginning with Fainne, it's not that I don't like her, it's that I don't believe her, the actions at more than one point don't make sense. She is presented over and over as bumbling and naive and scared of people but first we have that dancing scene when she's at the Fair and Darragh. That seemed out of character, and I didnt get how she went from petrified to be around that many people to happily dancing suggestively, I understand that she as in glamour and felt she was someone else but the enjoying those things even playing a part don't match up with the Fainne I thought I was getting to know. After the fire she never uses the glamour again but she still has a completely out of character moment. When she propositions Eammon even her pattern of speech of nothing like her, she's strong confident, bossy, telling him to sit there and read and she will do her work and to shush they won't talk to later. Nothing about that matches Fainne, maybe Liadan, she spoke like that with a quiet authority, even when she was faking it. But not Fainne and she doesn't do that at any other part of the book, which made it stand out more for me.
I get being naive but she takes it to a whole new level. She never questions if what her grandmother is telling her or showing her is true. The amount of things she's willing to do for her father don't fully match up for me. What happened to 'the wheel turns and returns'? This is a world where death is common, people don't live long and she was said to be brought up in her fathers mold who definitely learned that death is not the end but the beginning of a new path. We see this quite a bit in the first and second books but not a mention of it here. Also Ciaran is a decent guy I can't see him raising his daughter to pride his life above all others. We hear of his selfless acts. After the fire that hurts her cousins and kills druids. After she is aware that the amulet is influencing her I don't understand how she can continue on naively It goes beyond naivety and is kinda idiotic of her. It also doesn't match with the series which has shown strong women figuring out life and who they are and carving their one paths against some pretty stacked odds. Fainne just feels so lacking, mostly in a backbone but also in general character compared to them.
Then theres the plot. Why so vague on sending her away, it's alluded to, mostly by other characters but I've come to accept in my mind that Ciaran sent her to Sevenwaters under the guise of a good marriage. In the end he mentions that he began to suspect that she was the child of the prophecy and I believe he sent her there to play her part. He makes a comment about things unfolding as they must (which furthers my belief that he wouldn't have wanted Fainne to do all that she did to save him if he was dying). I don't fully understand why Oonagh was brought in, did he call for her to make Fainne a lady? really? I get the whole we can't live in the same house together but he I would hope has some grasp on who his mother is by now and I would hope wouldn't want her influencing his only child but maybe he does it cause he thinks things have to unfold as they will. Why would Oonagh think that Ciaran is suddenly giving her his daughter to fudge with and make into a weapon? Or is she just there to make Fainne into a lady and thinks Ciaran won't know?
Why can't she just do it herself? She's supposed to be waining in power..... other than looking older she still seems to be kicking butt. Her test with Johnny, why not just knock the kid out right there? Theres never any good reason given as to why she needs essentially a proxy to do it for her. Why involve Fainne as well, she shows she can still get around things when we discover that someone Oonagh gave Eammon the message about the night swim. It completely baffles me how she does so much and sets so much up, is so menacing and threatening to Fainne yet can't just take out one man? Because that's all her goal is now, to end Johnny and ensure the prophecy doesn't come to pass. I could get over any issues I had with Fainne, I still enjoy reading this book for her but I had a huge issue with how flat Oonagh got to be in the end, I found her somewhat sinister while teaching Fainne and I felt the fear but the big battle in the end just didnt do it for me.
'Child of the Prophecy' is the conclusion or at least it was to Juliet Marillier's 'Sevenwater's Trilogy'. Since first reading this book 3 more books following the same family have been added. This one centres around Fainne. She is the daughter of Niamh and Ciaran, raised in relative solitude in the ways of the druids learning her craft next to the ocean. As she is nearly a woman Ciaran decides it is time to send her to Sevenwaters where her family is, he is vague in his reasoning but quickly his mother, sorceress Oonagh, steps in to 'help Fainne' fit in better at Sevenwaters and while teaching her to become a lady she also teaches her how to carry out her plan, Oonagh plan is 3 generations long by now but in her granddaughter Fainne she she finally sees the end and her triumph over the family of sevenwaters.
Spoilers
I have so many problems with this book and with Fainne in particular, but I love the setting and the writing and all the characters I fell in love with before so I can't hate the book but man does a lot of this make me angry.
Beginning with Fainne, it's not that I don't like her, it's that I don't believe her, the actions at more than one point don't make sense. She is presented over and over as bumbling and naive and scared of people but first we have that dancing scene when she's at the Fair and Darragh. That seemed out of character, and I didnt get how she went from petrified to be around that many people to happily dancing suggestively, I understand that she as in glamour and felt she was someone else but the enjoying those things even playing a part don't match up with the Fainne I thought I was getting to know. After the fire she never uses the glamour again but she still has a completely out of character moment. When she propositions Eammon even her pattern of speech of nothing like her, she's strong confident, bossy, telling him to sit there and read and she will do her work and to shush they won't talk to later. Nothing about that matches Fainne, maybe Liadan, she spoke like that with a quiet authority, even when she was faking it. But not Fainne and she doesn't do that at any other part of the book, which made it stand out more for me.
I get being naive but she takes it to a whole new level. She never questions if what her grandmother is telling her or showing her is true. The amount of things she's willing to do for her father don't fully match up for me. What happened to 'the wheel turns and returns'? This is a world where death is common, people don't live long and she was said to be brought up in her fathers mold who definitely learned that death is not the end but the beginning of a new path. We see this quite a bit in the first and second books but not a mention of it here. Also Ciaran is a decent guy I can't see him raising his daughter to pride his life above all others. We hear of his selfless acts. After the fire that hurts her cousins and kills druids. After she is aware that the amulet is influencing her I don't understand how she can continue on naively It goes beyond naivety and is kinda idiotic of her. It also doesn't match with the series which has shown strong women figuring out life and who they are and carving their one paths against some pretty stacked odds. Fainne just feels so lacking, mostly in a backbone but also in general character compared to them.
Then theres the plot. Why so vague on sending her away, it's alluded to, mostly by other characters but I've come to accept in my mind that Ciaran sent her to Sevenwaters under the guise of a good marriage. In the end he mentions that he began to suspect that she was the child of the prophecy and I believe he sent her there to play her part. He makes a comment about things unfolding as they must (which furthers my belief that he wouldn't have wanted Fainne to do all that she did to save him if he was dying). I don't fully understand why Oonagh was brought in, did he call for her to make Fainne a lady? really? I get the whole we can't live in the same house together but he I would hope has some grasp on who his mother is by now and I would hope wouldn't want her influencing his only child but maybe he does it cause he thinks things have to unfold as they will. Why would Oonagh think that Ciaran is suddenly giving her his daughter to fudge with and make into a weapon? Or is she just there to make Fainne into a lady and thinks Ciaran won't know?
Why can't she just do it herself? She's supposed to be waining in power..... other than looking older she still seems to be kicking butt. Her test with Johnny, why not just knock the kid out right there? Theres never any good reason given as to why she needs essentially a proxy to do it for her. Why involve Fainne as well, she shows she can still get around things when we discover that someone Oonagh gave Eammon the message about the night swim. It completely baffles me how she does so much and sets so much up, is so menacing and threatening to Fainne yet can't just take out one man? Because that's all her goal is now, to end Johnny and ensure the prophecy doesn't come to pass. I could get over any issues I had with Fainne, I still enjoy reading this book for her but I had a huge issue with how flat Oonagh got to be in the end, I found her somewhat sinister while teaching Fainne and I felt the fear but the big battle in the end just didnt do it for me.