The Winter Isles
Antonia Senior
Somerled is a young boy when his family first travels to the unforgiving slopes of Scotland. His future doesn’t seem bright, his father loves but doesn’t trust him. His beloved mother keeps standing tall by his side at all points. When he grows to be a warrior, he is able to achieve unbelievable feats in battle.
Honestly, this book almost bored me stupid. Somerled gets into bigger and bigger battles, produces more and more children. The battles are like road humps, they just keep happening. I didn’t finish reading it, and don’t even feel that sorry about it. I have better things to read. If you’re looking for a innovative warrior story, I’d go for Eirelan.
The only light point of this novel was getting the perspectives from the women. It was refreshing to have something other than Somerled’s endless questioning and optimism. The mental voices were crisp and distinct, I could easily tell them apart, and that’s something that is rarely done well.
My history is rusty, even though I generally have some idea of what is going on in the Celtic and Gaelic areas. This novel didn’t fill in any gaps, and I didn’t feel like I got anything out of it. Boring. 2 stars only for its excellent perspective work.
The twists and turns in this novel, both in time and perspective, made my head spin. Helen holds onto herself with difficulty, and you can really feel that happening. It’s nicely balanced between inaudible ramblings inside her mind, and outer thoughts that she can’t keep in. Not to mention how she interacts with other people.
Ah! The twists! Ah! The turns! Ah! The betrayal! Ah! The suspense! Loved it. I really can’t tell you more about the plot without ruining some things that go one, but please go and get a copy to find out for yourself.
Oh god. This is yet another slow paced novel. I just couldn’t get into it. Not only was the pace slow, the way of writing of the novel reminded me of 
I remind astounded by the sheer number of convincing magic systems Sanderson can create. There are so many interesting novels about 
Carmel is so incredibly dumb. For an 8-year old, hasn’t she been taught about going off with strangers? Even if they do profess to be related, didn’t she ever know how to call other people? Or remember her own phone number? Doesn’t she know how to call the police? Why didn’t she ask to go to the funeral? Ugh. I couldn’t love her.
The changes between the different perspectives were clear between adults and children, but the two kids, Jesper and Carina, their voices weren’t well defined. I could read one, and because what they saw overlapped, I got confused about how many things had happened.
Thomas and Charlotte are nicely characterised, and the novel pretty much jump starts itself. I felt like I was feeling every step in the wood, and every single thing Thomas was feeling/thinking/saying. There was a hint of sexual humour, but also thoughtfulness and kindness in there. There was just a few things that bothered me…
The characters really really get into their strides here. And well they should, as this novel neatly wraps up the first two. I don’t know how I felt about the ending. It was a little neat, but also open ended. I loved Adolin’s final gesture – finally! Get on it boy! Kal, hmm, don’t know what I think about you. Sometimes you are just so dumb, and sometimes you are brilliant.
Ellis is a tortured soul who is only trumped by Vada’s nightmares. Vada is the protagonist, and we see everything from her perspective. What wasn’t obvious to me was why Ellis pulled away after the accident. The blurb is misleading for sure. Just ignore the comments there, and jump into the novel.