The Pillars of the World by Anne Bishop
Reviewer: AmazonBombshell
Compared to some of the fantasy I've been reading lately, THE PILLARS OF THE WORLD, while a fun distraction from your everyday life, reads like a very green writer's first attempt.
The basic plot is a redux of the burning times: witches and suspected witches quickly disappearing as power-hungry male inquisitors systematically find and destroy them for gold and revenge. Of course, it's set in a different world, and it turns out that the disappearance of the witches is connected with the disappearance of a hidden world (shades of Avalon?) inhabited by semi-divine beings called the Fae, all of whom bear striking resemblances to old Greek and Celtic dieties. This is all fine, and in fact it's all interesting, but the fact remains that it's been done before, and done better.
THE PILLARS OF THE WORLD doesn't grab you and hold on tight, doesn't pack any
sort of emotional punch, doesn't push you to the edge of your seat even once.
Its characters are mildly interesting -- particularly Morag, who is the mistress
of Death and one of the Fae -- but its story is predictable and ultimately it's
not what I expected from the celebrated Anne Bishop. It's worth a read, but for
a really powerful (historical) fantasy experience, I'd recommend Juliet
Marillier's Sevenwaters Trilogy, and anything by Guy Gavriel Kay. Kate Forsyth's
Witches of Eileanan series is also fun, not so predictable, and very well
written.
