Helpful Score: 2
I really enjoyed this book. It was well written. The characters were believable, grew, and had depth that was revealed as the story continued. It is the first of two which I didn't realize and sent me on a mad dash looking for the conclusion when I finished this one.
Unfortunately, while this book is one of my favorites, the second half made me not want to ever read anything by this author again. The chance it was as good as this one was not worth the chance it was like the second.
There are the barest hints of sexual violence in this book--well within the story, and not shoved in your face, just enough to provide background, setting, and here and there plot movement. They are brought out significantly more in the sequel, in ways I did not think were needed for the story (certainly not as much as was there or as emphasized) and that highly distracted from it. This was a great book to read--that one was unpleasant. If you don't mind that sort of thing--this is a good series, though the second is still not nearly as well written. If like me you dislike reading such things--do yourself a favor and don't start the series. This book will make it very hard to not pick up the next--and I wish I hadn't.
Unfortunately, while this book is one of my favorites, the second half made me not want to ever read anything by this author again. The chance it was as good as this one was not worth the chance it was like the second.
There are the barest hints of sexual violence in this book--well within the story, and not shoved in your face, just enough to provide background, setting, and here and there plot movement. They are brought out significantly more in the sequel, in ways I did not think were needed for the story (certainly not as much as was there or as emphasized) and that highly distracted from it. This was a great book to read--that one was unpleasant. If you don't mind that sort of thing--this is a good series, though the second is still not nearly as well written. If like me you dislike reading such things--do yourself a favor and don't start the series. This book will make it very hard to not pick up the next--and I wish I hadn't.
Helpful Score: 1
Teresa feels invisible to everyone who is in her life including her dad. She has surrounded herself with mirrors to make sure she doesn't fade away completely. Until a man from the past steps through her mirror and takes her to a land where mirrors are forbidden. Up until about 6 months ago this was the only book that I had ever read twice and that includes its sequel "A Man Rides Through". If you like wizards in far away places you will love this book.
Susan S. (MoonLily) - , reviewed Mirror of Her Dreams (Mordant's Need, Bk 1) on + 72 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
There are so many characters besides Terisa and Geraden that are a valuable part of the story. This book is part soap opera, part fantasy, part study of human nature. There are some dark moments and some funny ones. You really feel for the characters and their struggles. There are few gruesome moments too, but probably not past PG13 by movie standards.
This story is really great. There are only two catches. 1.)You have to get through this book without deciding you can no longer stand the spacey heroine (I promise she does improve) and 2.)you cannot stop with this book, the story finishes in A Man Rides Through. (As a similar example, I cannot watch Empire Strikes Back without watching at least the first part of Return of the Jedi; you just CAN'T stop there!) Keeping all of that in mind. I would still recommend these books and have many times. I am on my third set because I loan them out and do not get them back!
Definitely with these two read them in order and close together.
This story is really great. There are only two catches. 1.)You have to get through this book without deciding you can no longer stand the spacey heroine (I promise she does improve) and 2.)you cannot stop with this book, the story finishes in A Man Rides Through. (As a similar example, I cannot watch Empire Strikes Back without watching at least the first part of Return of the Jedi; you just CAN'T stop there!) Keeping all of that in mind. I would still recommend these books and have many times. I am on my third set because I loan them out and do not get them back!
Definitely with these two read them in order and close together.
Ethel I. (RoyalCatwoman) reviewed Mirror of Her Dreams (Mordant's Need, Bk 1) on + 278 more book reviews
The search for a champion goes awry as the Congery of Imagers first lures poor little rich girl Terisa Morgan from our world, and then snatches a mysterious warrior whose futuristic weapons destroy part of the castle he is supposed to defend. Terisa rises to the challenge, quickly becoming a key figure, a wild card among the many cliques and powers vying to save or seize king and kingdom. Donaldson scores with the magic discipline of imagery, in which mirrors serve as windows on alternate worlds. His characterization, however, is either derivative or programmatic (in a world without ordinary mirrors, no one can be taken at face value).
This is a wonderful book - part 1 of a two part series. Another Donaldson masterpiece.
Karen B. (skyfeather) reviewed Mirror of Her Dreams (Mordant's Need, Bk 1) on + 194 more book reviews
The mirror of Her Dreams is the story of Terisa Morgan and Geraden, son of the Domne, in the strange land called Mordant. It is a rich and finely textured novel of love and lust, power and court politics, in this place where nothing is ever what it seems...and reality intertwines with powerfully seductive illusion.
A young woman enters an alien world where intrigue is the name of the game. Who can she trust? What is really going on in this world? Why was she asked to come and what could she possess that was vital to this world and WHY are people trying so desperately to kill her? This novel will capture you and hold your attention from page one right through to the end and leave you anxious to read the next book in the series. Great read.
Richard M. (richardm) reviewed Mirror of Her Dreams (Mordant's Need, Bk 1) on + 107 more book reviews
Very good book. For the first 200 pages, I wanted the book to move forward quicker, but after I completed the novel, the back story was very important. Intricately plotted plans and subplots to overthrow a worthless king and his magic mirrors. "A Man Rides Through" completes this story.
Hayley M. (Zachaustlily) reviewed Mirror of Her Dreams (Mordant's Need, Bk 1) on + 227 more book reviews
excellent series
Mary M. (flynsquirrel) reviewed Mirror of Her Dreams (Mordant's Need, Bk 1) on + 308 more book reviews
unusual twists
Bridget O. (sixteendays) -
Admittedly, I skipped over the last almost 100 pages of this book but you have to understand - I WAS SO BORED. I read the last few pages and when it was clear there was going to be no resolution to this incredibly uninteresting story, I gave it up.
Book Description
With The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, Stephen R. Donaldson changed the face of fantasy fiction forever. In The Mirror of Her Dreams, the astonishing first novel in the two-volume Mordants Need series, Donaldson shows us a world of wondrous beauty and seductive illusion, where mirrors hold the deadliest of magics and nothing is what it seems. . . .
The daughter of rich but neglectful parents, Terisa Morgan lives alone in a New York City apartment, a young woman who has grown to doubt her own existence. Surrounded by the flat reassurance of mirrors, she leads an unfulfilled lifeuntil the night a strange man named Geraden comes crashing through one of her mirrors, on a quest to find a champion to save his kingdom of Mordant from a pervasive evil that threatens the land. Terisa is no champion. She wields neither magic nor power. And yet, much to her own surprise, when Geraden begs her to come back with him, she agrees.
Now, in a culture where women are little more than the playthings of powerful men, in a castle honeycombed with secret passages and clever traps, in a kingdom threatened from without and within by enemies able to appear and vanish out of thin air, Terisa must become more than the pale reflection of a person. For the way back to Earth is closed to her. And the enemies of Mordant will stop at nothing to see her dead.
With The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, Stephen R. Donaldson changed the face of fantasy fiction forever. In The Mirror of Her Dreams, the astonishing first novel in the two-volume Mordants Need series, Donaldson shows us a world of wondrous beauty and seductive illusion, where mirrors hold the deadliest of magics and nothing is what it seems. . . .
The daughter of rich but neglectful parents, Terisa Morgan lives alone in a New York City apartment, a young woman who has grown to doubt her own existence. Surrounded by the flat reassurance of mirrors, she leads an unfulfilled lifeuntil the night a strange man named Geraden comes crashing through one of her mirrors, on a quest to find a champion to save his kingdom of Mordant from a pervasive evil that threatens the land. Terisa is no champion. She wields neither magic nor power. And yet, much to her own surprise, when Geraden begs her to come back with him, she agrees.
Now, in a culture where women are little more than the playthings of powerful men, in a castle honeycombed with secret passages and clever traps, in a kingdom threatened from without and within by enemies able to appear and vanish out of thin air, Terisa must become more than the pale reflection of a person. For the way back to Earth is closed to her. And the enemies of Mordant will stop at nothing to see her dead.
