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Read The Margrave (2011)

The Margrave (2011)

Online Book

Genre
Series
Rating
3.96 of 5 Votes: 5
Your rating
ISBN
0803736762 (ISBN13: 9780803736764)
Language
English
Publisher
dial books

The Margrave (2011) - Plot & Excerpts

"I get one down in a second if you wait."Disclaimer: Due to circumstances, I'll keep this one short. The Margrave is the last of the Catherine Fisher's Relic Master Series that was rapidly released during the summer of 2011. It's been a while since I've actually had the time to pick up the series again....Plot (3/5) - I took a point off because I felt that within this 450+page book, Fisher attempted a tad bit too much. She tried to wrap up everything as fast as possible and bring it all to a culminating end. As such, I couldn't help but find a fair amount of plot-holes, theorize at what the heck was going on, and wonder to myself if a 5th book would have been worth writing. It was this attempt at tackling so much of the world that damaged the Pacing component of the book. I hated the ending:*SPOILER*"Let's all be friends!" - Everybody (Margrave included)"I think not!" -The Sekoi as he fires a Lazor Cannon to the Badguy's face!-Insert culminating 20 page conclusion here-Prose (5/5) - Saving grace of the book, Fisher knows how to write and to write vividly. Her words were crisp and heavily flavored, that left a pleasant sensation in my mind.Pacing: (3/5) - The End Suffered from trying too much. It really, really suffered. Ultimately, while the world was fixed, I felt as if there was no ultimate climax at all.Characters (4/5) - Yay verily was alright I suppose. Galen stayed Galen, but admitted to his faults. Carys was Carys, as loveable and awesome as ever. Regarding Raffi, I feel as if the story ended with him being even more depressed than the start of the novels. I feel sorry for the lad. Alberic comes back for the lulz. And last but not least is the Sekoi. <-Who to the very end is a damn enigma.....World (4/5) - Don't get me wrong, the world is pretty epic. The only reason I took off a point was that I felt a fair amount of it suffered due to this being the end of the story itself. There are layers and layers of the world which we, the readers, will probably never know and it is because of the fact that we are left in the dark at the very end that I was slightly peeved at finishing the novel.And just like that, the Relic Master Series is finished.Total: 3+3+4+5+4 = 19/5 = 3.8 -> Rounding it to 4. All in all, I applaud Fisher for a job well done.

I gave this final book in the Relic Master series a solid 4. It's difficult to even review it without giving away the plot. It nicely concludes all of the loose ends and I now have more of a sense of the events that led up to this futuristic story set in another world- the planet Anara that has 7 moons. Galen, the Relic Master wants Raffi, his apprentice, to take the final Journey and become a Relic Master. However, there is something evil waiting in the depths of the Pits of Maar that wants Raffi. Galen refuses to believe this and urges that they travel there with various companions to free Anara from the evil overtaking it. I never grew to like Galen, a hard and bitter man, through the series. I like Raffi, who is very human (they are the descendants of earthlings) and I like Carys, a girl who started out in the series as a member of the dreaded Watch but was quite a rebel. This is one series that did end when it should have, despite the fact that I liked it. There was nothing more to say.

What do You think about The Margrave (2011)?

The Relic Master/Book of the Crow series ends well, mainly because the arch-bad-guy gets quite a bit of on-stage time; a rarity in high fantasy. It's interesting to get a glimpse of his motivations and character. An alternative (eye-witness) version of events in the era of the Makers is presented - but how reliable is it? In fact it seems much more believable than the legends that have been handed down by the Order for many generations. This change of perspective on events reminds me of what happens multiple times in Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea books, where different view points and revelations about the past alter the reader's views on what has been going on, making everything much less black & white. Catherine Fisher does not reach the level of sophistication LeGuin achieves, but it adds a lot of depth to a world that is already realised in greater detail than many of her earlier efforts. Further revelations about the Sekoi also contribute to this.The denouement is rather predictable in general terms and the aftermath is glossed over, which is a shame, because the aftermath is rarely examined in quest style stories even though it often presents challenges to the characters that are different and possibly more demanding than those of the quest itself. The state of the world at the end of many quests is dire and frequently a power-vacuum prevails. What happens then? The Scouring of the Shire in The Return of the King is the only example that springs to mind of trying to deal with this in a serious way. Since the entire primary plotline of the second book in this series is redundant, getting rid of it and having a book that follows on from the situation at the end of this book would have been much more interesting, with great opportunity for further character development in the two young protagonists.Over all, this is one of Fisher's better series but none of the books individually is a match for her best books, such as The Oracle and Incarceron.
—Robert

This fourth and final book in the tetralogy The Book of the Crow, again splits view points between Raffi and Carys, in more or less parallel events that lead to a conclusion as unsurprising as a stomachache after Trick or Treat. This series continues to a conclusion without ever really building a complete world picture, or giving us a reason for the existence of the Makers, a group of people revered as gods by the humans of the world. The author at one point alluded to the fact that the people are lost colonists, but nothing more is really said, although there are points which could have been strongly built on (view spoiler)[. I felt that the story, except for the annoying and unlikable Master Galen, has some strong characters that were oddly intriguing. The strongest point of the story is that you are left with impressions that things will get better for all.Altogether, not a strong finish to this series. (hide spoiler)]
—Doris

Raffi undergoes his final test to be a Relic Master, as the conflict between the Crow and the Margrave reaches its final end. Secrets about the characters' pasts, the gods and the foundation of Anara are revealed. Will Raffi break in his final test, or can he save his friends?After the dramatic ramp-up of the third volume, I found this book a little anti-climactic, probably because the author was tying up the many loose ends of the plot line. If I had read it immediately after "The Hidden Coronet," I think I would have liked it more. Still, my overall impression of the series is that it is a very unique fantasy world, well-realized, and beautifully depicted. And the characters are all very real -- flawed yet determined. Well worth reading.
—Maria Kramer

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