Trudi Canavan - The Preistess of the White

[Margo]

Priestess of the White ~ Trudi Canavan
ISBN1-84149-386-4
Publisher: Orbit
Book Type Fantasy, 659 pages

The book is about a young lady called Auraya who becomes one of the chosen Priestess's of the White. There are 5 White priests and priestess's all together. The story also envolves Auraya's relationship with a Dreamweaver called Leiard, who Auraya has known all her life. Dreamweavers are not accepted by the Gods, Priests & Priestess. So this causes problems for Auraya.

The story goes into different tribes and I rather liked the Siyee who were little people with wings. But again I didn't feel enough went into this part of the story. May be I am just fussy?

The book for me wasn't interesting enough to keep me hooked, infact I had to take a break from it because I felt it dragged on too long, and wasn't exciting. I didn't feel enough detail was given towards Auraya, I just couldn't connect with her and I felt it was like she had no personality. Or the author wasn't showing enough of it. I much prefered Leiard and Emeralh in the book.

Once I reached the last 200 pages of the book, it began to speed up and I began to enjoy it. At the end I wanted to read more, and seeing as two more books follow this one, I'll have to wait to read them. But I am not sure I will purchase these.

For me I give the book a rating of 6/10

[Kell]

I saw this in Ottakar's window at the weekend - I didn't realise it was such a hefty tome - the thing looked massive!

[Margo]

It is Kell, it took me ages to get through lol.

[Inanna]

Wow you finished it, good going Margo, guess I need to get it finished as well now :wink:

[Hazeltree]

I know this is an old post but I've just joined the forum.

I read Priestess of the White a while ago. I did finish it but I didn't find it as good as her Black Magician Trilogy. I'm going to get the second book next time I get a chance to go to a book shop and then re-read the Priestess. Give it another go when the story is continued.

[Mia]

I've just finished the last book of the trilogy (Voice of the Gods). I really enjoyed Canavan's first Black Magician trilogy, and didn't enjoy these as much (though I bought them all in hardback!) I agree with Margo that not enough focus was given to Auraya, which made her hard to connect with. However, I think this improved in the second book and you do discover what makes her tick. She's quite a sympathetic character once she begins to realise everything isn't always black and white, and I ended up identifying with her in various ways.

I think my favourite of the three was the middle book (Last of the Wilds). I read the final book fairly quickly, as I wanted to see what happened in the end, and also if a suspicion I had had from the time of the first book was proved right (it was! But it's a major spoiler so I won't repeat it here. However, the fact that I guessed it so early implies that it's pretty obvious!)

Girly that I am, I liked Mischief the veez, but I thought that the idea was stolen rather from Oy in King's Dark Tower series.

All in all, an enjoyable trilogy for Canavan fans, but nowhere near as good as the Black Magician trilogy. I would certainly read anything else she published though. :)