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Title: The Northern Girl (The Chronicles of Tornor Book 3)
Author: Elizabeth A. Lynn
Published: New York: Ace Books, 2000 (1980)
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 470
Total Page Count: 126,490
Text Number: 367
Read Because: continuing the series, borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Tall and pale, Sorren looks like a Northerner and seems out of place in the southern city of Kendra-on-the-Delta. Bondservant to the Med house, she's pulled deep into the city's politics—but visions of Tornor Keep draw her to the north. The Northern Girl is at once a fitting conclusion to and the most disparate volume in the Chronicles of Tornor. Where the other two books are driven by character, not plot, this a tale more political than personal. The characters are still strong—there's a particular bevy of diverse, empowered women—and relationships between them may be sympathetic, but there's much more at play. Numerous nods to characters and themes from previous books mean that, while it does stand alone, this book works best as a conclusion to the series; as the most substantial (and best written) book in that series, it ends it on a strong note—not neatly, but by charting the storied past into an uncertain but changed future. That said, because Lynn deviates from her strong and compelling focus on character relationships, The Northern Girl feels like something of a disappointment; it's fine in its own right, but it's not what I expected or hoped for from the series. If you read the other two, by all means conclude with this volume; however, I don't recommend it as a standalone novel.
Review posted here on Amazon.com.
Author: Elizabeth A. Lynn
Published: New York: Ace Books, 2000 (1980)
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 470
Total Page Count: 126,490
Text Number: 367
Read Because: continuing the series, borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Tall and pale, Sorren looks like a Northerner and seems out of place in the southern city of Kendra-on-the-Delta. Bondservant to the Med house, she's pulled deep into the city's politics—but visions of Tornor Keep draw her to the north. The Northern Girl is at once a fitting conclusion to and the most disparate volume in the Chronicles of Tornor. Where the other two books are driven by character, not plot, this a tale more political than personal. The characters are still strong—there's a particular bevy of diverse, empowered women—and relationships between them may be sympathetic, but there's much more at play. Numerous nods to characters and themes from previous books mean that, while it does stand alone, this book works best as a conclusion to the series; as the most substantial (and best written) book in that series, it ends it on a strong note—not neatly, but by charting the storied past into an uncertain but changed future. That said, because Lynn deviates from her strong and compelling focus on character relationships, The Northern Girl feels like something of a disappointment; it's fine in its own right, but it's not what I expected or hoped for from the series. If you read the other two, by all means conclude with this volume; however, I don't recommend it as a standalone novel.
Review posted here on Amazon.com.
