Daughter of Ancients is book 4 of Carol Berg's The Bridge of D'Arnath series. It's a really rich fantasy series with books that are of a good size to really get into.

It's impossible to talk about this book without spoiling you for the earlier ones, so as soon as this review interests you in the series, you should stop reading and go buy the books. Not exactly the best advice to get myself readers, but I don't like the idea of spoiling people.

The Series

As I recall, we start off the series with Seriana, a woman who lost her husband and child in a really dreadful way just because he exhibited magic, which is forbidden in their land. Seriana's a great main character. She doesn't have any magic herself and she's a widow and a mother, which are quite atypical character traits for a protagonist in a fantasy series.

In the course of the series, we discover not one world, but two. One is the world of mundanes, where magic is illegal on pain of death. The other is a world of magic and the Bridge is the link between these two worlds. The fates of both are linked together and both are in danger. Amongst all of the characters with abilities magical and otherwise, it's Seriana, the magicless and seemingly average woman who is the key to everything.

The characters are interesting, the plot is compelling, and the intrigues and magic and everything are just great. If you're a fantasy reader, this is a series you should definitely read.

This Book

This is your last chance to bail before getting heavier spoilers for the earlier books.

Seriana's husband is dying (yes, thought he was dead already, didn't you?). But more importantly for her world and the worlds of her family and friends, D'Arnath's daughter returns after a thousand years and starts performing miraculous magics, above and beyond those everyone else can do. But the soulless Zhid are also resuming their attacks, even though the Lords who once led them were destroyed. Should D'Arnath's daugher be confirmed ruler so she can deal with these attacks? Or is she not everything she appears to be?

How will Seriana's son come to grips with the horrors of his past in order to suss out the truth about D'Arnath's daughter and help save the three worlds from complete destruction? What if he falls in love with her along the way?

My Thoughts

I would not say that each of the books in this series are self-contained, but they are, in a way, complete. Each one seems like the perfect stopping point for the series. The characters face evils and come out changed and the world is saved and everything reaches a conclusion and an equilibrium. But then with the next successive book, they're all embroiled right back into it again and you find out not everything was as resolved as it appeared to be. It's quite unlike series where they're designed to be trilogies or whatever and you have to keep reading to tie up the loose threads left in earlier books. And it's quite unlike series where the characters are just hauled out to perform more tricks for the audience. I think it's perhaps the best of both of those.

Bottom Line

Fantasy lovers should find plenty familiar in these books to enjoy, yet enough differences from the standard fare to keep them interested. If you've read the other Bridge of D'Arnath books, then feel secure in the knowledge that this one is of the same standard as the previous ones. You just have to see what everyone's been up to, don't you?

The other books in the series are: Son of Avonar, Guardians of the Keep, and The Soul Weaver.

Details

I read a paperback of 530 pages. It's ISBN 0451460421. Cover price is $7.99 US.


Recommended: Yes