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Reviewers' Comments: The Dark Mirror Barbara Davies in Starburst (UK) Marillier has a wonderful sense of place and deftly evokes the wild landscape and harsh life of 6th century Scotland. This period of history is sparsely documented, but though she's done extensive research she doesn't shove the result in the reader's face and her extrapolations of the culture and rituals are always convincing. As usual, her protagonists are engaging and their opponents formidable and tricky, and she tests their love, endurance and courage to breaking point. An exciting and very enjoyable read; I'm looking forward to the rest of the trilogy. (excerpt) 5 stars Faren Miller in Locus (US) A New York Times reviewer has compared the difficulty of creating believable historical characters in fiction to dealing with the emotional lives of children, since both "require a bigger leap of the imagination - if not into another time, then into another age." [Suzy Hansen, 3/6/05] In The Dark Mirror Marillier combines these two challenges, throwing in magic for good measure. Her main protagonists are a chief's son sent off to a foster family (common practice in those days) and an infant member of the Folk who's not smuggled in as a changeling but apparently abandoned to live or die among humans. Bridei the fosterling is some years older than Tuala the "Good One" (as folk call her kind in hope of avoiding their displeasure) but he's nearly as adrift, far from his own kin. Marillier shows their difficult passage toward adulthood: the young warrior facing his first battle, the pretty little girl whose loveliness begins to unnerve everyone around her as it matures. In one key scene, after supper at a druid's table Tuala tells the story of a stone carver's bargain with an uncanny crone, and her audience finds out what it's like to be lost in a place where there are far more questions than answers, no clear distinction between right and wrong - like their world, as others see it. Bridei confronts similar hard questions when he ponders "the true meaning of war." There's plenty of young angst and anguish here, but Marillier injects
narrative excitement when it's most needed and gets on with a tale that "ends"
with a twist that only hints where she may go next time. Publishers' Weekly (US) - starred review Having given pre-Celtic Scotland a once-over in Wolfskin (2003) and
Foxmask (2004), Australian author Marillier returns with a much more
in-depth study that draws on what little history is known and surrounds it with
the pretty boy-meets-girl story of Bridei, a boy raised by a group of wily
councillors determined to mould him into a king who can reunite their divided
land, and Tuala, his fey-born adopted sister who runs wild while he studies and
is outcast where he is welcome ... The happy ending - all too rare in first
volumes of series, and only slightly overshadowed by the inevitable dark
portents - will encourage new readers to seek out both future instalments and
past publications.
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