[Rob B]

Forgot to mention, I did post about our discussion in Juliet Mariller's Q&A forum, she said she may pop in after she gets back from the Writing Conference she is attending and maybe some of her forum members may pop in and join in the discussion.

[magze]

Overall this is an excellent book . I think part of the reason I read it was because I remember reading this fairytale as a child and just wanted to see if it would still enchant me as an adult,and happy to say it did .My favourite character is Finbar .The stepmother comes back in the third book of the series ,you can read each one as a stand alone but they are more enjoyable if you read all three of the trilogy .

[FicusFan]

I didn't see so much of a problem with this, really. I see it as Sorcha moving on and not really having contact with those people. Once again, FF, I think we are in strong agreement on this book. I hoped to enjoy it, I like it MUCH better than Carey's first book and I'm enjoying the book MUCH more than I expected.

Yes Sorcha may have moved on but I as the reader didn't move on as completely as she did. Because the author did such a good job in setting things out, and developing characters, and events I wanted more completeness to them. Sort of like a follow through in a golf or tennis swing - you keep going after the important part (hitting the ball) until you complete what you are doing. The author set up the priest in the clearing, and once she finishes with him we know what happens to him. She doesn't just discard him the way she does with Red's mother or the little dog (until it popped back up). I realize there is a whole school of 'realism' out there that wants things to be undefined once the story moves on, to keep it more like real life - but I am not one of that ilk. I want to know what happens to those characters in a book (directly or through enough evidence to infer) who have made an impression on me, and to me she left several dangling badly and inconsistently with their prior character development.


There was only one passage/scene I felt was a little inconsistent with Sorcha's strong character throughout, though maybe on reflection, I'm rethinking it. Here goes, page 230 TOR MMPB (US)

Bold/underline my emphasis - I understand she's been miserable, but she is also desperate to save her brothers. Maybe this speaks to the true depths of her misery, but this little passage stuck out for me, Sorcha, to that point had been built up as a very strong and dedicated character I found it surprising she would abandon her task. I don't know, it just stuck with me.

I don't find it inconsistent at all. It is a symptom of deep depression and fits with her trauma and her emotional state. Perhaps the unrealistic part is that she ever got moving again, being that she was on her own and would probably have simply either frozen or starved due to inacitivy at everythng form eating, to washng to foraging for wood for the fire.

[Fola]

Hi all, this is Juliet Marillier - I post on various forums under the name of Fola, a wise woman character in my newest book, The Dark Mirror.

It's interesting reading your comments on DoTF. It was my first novel and I am now writing number seven. My work has developed and changed quite a bit over the five years since I wrote DoTF, with a broader story arc and more balance between male and female characters. My newer books are still quite character based and deal with human journeys in a world that blends real history with folklore and magic.

DoTF is the only book I've written based on an existing fairy tale. Whoever said Lady Oonagh is rather one dimensional, as is Richard, was quite right. These are archetypal fairy tale characters, not intended to be more. They don't have deep motivations or complex psychology. My villains become more complicated and more real in my later books.

I also moved away from the first person narrative in all the books following the three Sevenwaters books. I found first person was great for getting under the skin of the protagonist and drawing the reader intimately into the story, but became difficult in later novels where I wanted to provide an insight into both male and female psychology and to be at the heart of scenes where certain characters just wouldn't have been. (It is difficult to put a 6th century woman in the middle of a battle. not impossible, but hard to make plausible!)

The comparison with Jacqueline Carey is rather surprising. I am a friend of hers (we toured the US together in 2001) and I really enjoy her work. Style-wise I don't think we are very similar at all. My language is much simpler than hers (at least, hers in the Kushiel books.) As someone said, the similarity is the first person narrative plus a strong female protagonist.

[Eldanuumea]

How awesome! Thanks for dropping in on our discussion, Ms. Marillier, it is a pleasure to "meet" you.
I am enjoying the discussion so much I think I will revisit the books, so I can join in with current perceptions.

[Rob B]

Ms. Mariller: Thanks for taking up on the invitation, dropping by and joining in! Was DoF your first attempt at a novel as well as your first published novel? It comes across as very well polished and very good, not only as a first novel, but as a novel, period. I’m looking forward to making my way through your subsequent novels.




I was a little surprised to see Simon come back into the fold. Not in a big way, but in my mind, I think the story could have played with our without his return, but works better with him inheriting the lands. Moreso, I was initially surprised by his feelings for Sorcha, but as more of his tale was revealed and Sorcha's comment about how he will never be happy with what he has, my assessment of Simon evened out - I see him as a conflicted character. Not that I have any siblings, but his reactions towards his older brother and family came across to me as those of the jealous sibling.

Originally posted by FicusFan
At the last minute she seems to save her sixth brother even as she breaks her vow. She is saved in the nick of time, and Simon is returned home and made whole. It just seemed too pat and cliched for me. It wasn't until this part that the book took on a 'romancy' tone for me.

The happy ending, “pat ending” didn’t bother me, and having read the fairy tale, at least the version I linked to above, prior to reading the book, I thought the way things played out in DoF as an extension of the fairy tale rang true and worked for me.

The whole part about the little dog coming and going while Sorcha was in Briton didn’t even occur to me until seeing it here.

[Eldanuumea]

I saw Wolfskin and immediately bought it, was wondering if it is the beginning of a new series?

The Sevenwaters trilogy was one of the first extended series I read after discovering the fantasy genre almost three years ago. I remember being delighted by an author taking such a beloved tale and building such a fully realized world around it.

[Eventine]

Wow! We've nearly had more discussion in five days than we got all last month.

I've finished up now so I'll now make a bit of a rambling commentary based on the book and some of the discussion so far:
First up - the cover/blurb. My copy has a comment by Australian Women's Weekly on it, which is one of those magazines read by middle aged women so they can catch up on all of the latest gossip on the royals and get new recipes for slice. Needless to say, as a young man I was quite aghast to be seen with a book that would be more happily marketed at my mother (OK, that's a massive exaggeration, but I think you get my point). This resulted in me going into the book with the expectation of a soppy romance. I was happy to find it wasn't.

In my first post I mentioned that only one moment had really appealed to me in the first half of the book - this was the first time the brothers came to visit after they were cursed. This made me realise that I was only really enjoying the moments when the brothers were present - Sorcha, as a character, didn't appeal to me as much as Finbar and Padriac. I think this began with her knowledge of herbcraft and healing - the knowledge and seriousness of the character for someone that age really didn't fit for me.
The section Fitz pointed out where she stops weaving also stood out for me, but it wasn't on its own. There were several times through out the novel where I get the impression she was on a go slow on the weaving, to the point where I actually said aloud "just finish the shirts already!".

As the story moved on, I'd just wait for "yet another bad thing" to happen. FF mentioned the use of foreshadowing by having the story written in first person as if the author was recounting a tale in the past. I thought that too many times we were told something bad was going to happen before it did - this reduced the impact for me.
I think first person can be a hard way to write - as FF mentioned earlier, sometimes the trap you can fall into is not seeing the secondary characters as much. This reminds me of a trick Robin Hobb uses by having her protagonist see what's happening elsewhere in his dreams.

The evil uncle was too over the top for my liking as well. If he'd had a handlebar moustache and twisted the ends while laughing maniacally I wouldn't have been surprised.

OK - after all that it probably looks like I hated the book. I didn't. I thought it was pretty well written for a first offering, but was just a bit too angst filled for my liking. I thought some of the secondary characters such as Ben and Finbar were well done and were what kept me interested.
I'll contemplate picking up the sequels, although I did think it was well contained enough to keep me happy with how it finished.

BTW - I feel rude having said everything above knowing Ms. Marillier could read it. All I can say is, it's not you, it's me ;)

[FicusFan]

The whole part about the little dog coming and going while Sorcha was in Briton didn’t even occur to me until seeing it here.

I notice everything :D

Edit:

Ev: Don't worry you weren't rude, just honest. By the way what is "slice" when its at home ?

[Eventine]

I thought that might come up.

Slice is a style of flat cake that's cut into squares and usually eaten with tea or coffee.
Picture several housewives sitting around sucking down coffee, chewing on slice and gossiping.

To give you a US example, brownies would be part of the greater slice family.

I just googled "Vanilla slice", and wouldn't you know it the first recipe that appears is from Australian Women's Weekly - http://www.fareshare.net/slice-vanilla.html

One of my favourites is caramel slice - http://www.netcooks.com/recipes/Cookies/Caramel.Slice.html


OK gang. There's todays lesson on the role of food in Australian sub culture.