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Books Related to Daughters of Fire Barbara Erskine - ISBN: 0007174276
Daughters of Fire by Barbara Erskine - Rated
I absolutely loved all Barbara Erskine's previous books. I was so much looking forward to reading her latest novel. What a complete disappointment it turned out to be. I thought I'd try and get into the storyline and even put it away for a few months. Could not finish off the book as I was much too annoyed and wanting the same magic as the other books provided. I have sent this book to my mother-in-law to see what she thinks of this latest addition.
Daughters of Fire - Rated
I have all of Barbara Erskine's books. She is an excellent author. The only comment I would like to make about Daughters of Fire was that for me it went into too much detail. It was not like her other books. Her other books put it this way I found them hard to put down.
Immeasurably disappointing - Rated
This was the first of Erskine's novels that I read and I was thoroughly disappointed
There are a number of problems I had with the novel;
-In Daughters of Fire Erskine attempts to link the present day to the past; a time when the Roman Empire invaded Britain. The present day focuses on a historian named Vivviene whose attempts to write an historic novel about the Celtic Queen Cartimandua are hampered by dreams and visions of the life of Cartimandua which the reader is supposed to believe are real events. The dreams that the main character has make up the link to the past however at times it is difficult to understand whether the link is supposed to be simply visions over which 'Viv' has no control or whether she has some sort of influence over the events.
-the reactions of the characters to the situation they found themselves in were at best repetative, at worst unbelieveable. The same situations occured time and again - Viv would have a dream about Cartimandua and wake up absolutly terrified. When the other 2 characters in the present day scenario also had visions of the past they reacted in exactly the same way as Viv. This happened 3 or 4 times per chapter. Maybe every person would react the same way to a particular situation but it didn't make for a particularly thrilling read.
-3 bit-part characters who come into the story, for some inexplicable reason, morph into totally different people by the end of the novel. The only reason I can concieve of for the change is that Erskine wanted us to feel less sorry for them when she killed them off. It's bizarre and totally non-believable.
This book had so much promise; I had previously read a series of novels by Manda Scott about Boudicca and was impressed not only by her fantastic ability to storytell but by the research that must have gone into writng it. Daughters of Fire lacked both of these.
Utter Rubbish - Rated
I thought this book was awful, and I can't begin to imagine why people have rated it so highly; I would love to point them in the direction of some truly good books. The story drags on interminably, with an incredible amount of pointless dead ends and repetition. Why do all the characters 'shrug' before they speak?! I found myself quite obsessed with finding the next '...he shrugged', '....she shrugged'. If Pat 'fumbled in her bag for a cigarette' once she must have done it a hundred times. And exactly how many times does Cartimandua plead with the goddess Vivienne for help and guidance but 'there was nothing but silence'?
The entire premise of the characters going backwards and forwards in time was completely unconvincing and inconsistent. And the ending...........just about the only likeable character in the books is gratuitously killed off just because nothing else of any interest was going to be happening and she didn't know how else to end it. Absolute cobblers.
I had high hopes for my first Barbara Erskine, but never again... This really is not a book I would recommend to anyone.
An excellent read..... - Rated
I am not usually a fan of books that have more than one story going on at the same time but this book moves between the Iron Age and the present and back again very smoothly with both sets of central characters beautifully intertwined. I could not put this book down - it took over my dreams and I wanted to go to Ingleborough for myself to hear and see those sights and sounds from long ago. My first Erskine but certainly not my last.
