Valley of Silence (The Circle Trilogy, Book 3)

Customer Reviews:

A GREAT FINISH!!!
This was my favorite of the trilogy!!! All the books were good, however from the beginning this was the book I looked forward to the most! I loved Cian and Moira!!! Even from the beginning you could tell there was more to Cian than what he wanted to show everyone. The way he fought not to feel for his brother or the others and his struggle with the knowledge that he would some day watch them die. Then in the last book, you could almost touch his love for Moira. This is what a romance book should be!!! I couldn't wait to see how the battle ended but I didn't want their story to end. Nora Roberts is a very gifted writer!!!! Thank you, Ms. Roberts, for the hours of enjoyment.

--2006-12-15

Bad series, don't buy it
Don't buy this series - if you want to try it, wait until you can get it at a library. These are the worst books I've ever read from Nora Roberts. She seems to have been talked into jumping on the "dark fantasy" bandwagon that is so trendy with the publishers right now - and they're flat and boring and annoying.

Her writing is still professional - the books are readable. As the series continued, though, I cared less and less and less about the characters and the story with each page in each book. I bought each book and read the first two - I couldn't make myself start the 3rd one for 2 weeks after I picked it up. I've read about a quarter of it and I'm realizing that I just don't care to finish it. I'll skip to the end (if I can make myself bother, I know what the end will be) and throw it out.

This is really disappointing, because I usually read her contemporary romances immediately and keep them to re-read - they're wonderful light reading with characters you can revisit and always enjoy their stories. Now I'll have to scan the next ones in the bookstore before buying to make sure I don't waste my money on this kind of junk.

If you want dark fantasy and graphic sex, read the authors who do it right like Laurell K. Hamilton.

--2006-12-06

Nice Wrap-Up
Nora Roberts' trilogy about a sorcerer (Hoyt), a witch (Glenna), a shape shifter (Larkin), a demon hunter (Blair), a vampire (Cian), and a scholar and queen (Moira) who fight an apocalyptic battle against an army of vampires draws to a close. In Book I, Hoyt and Glenna fell in love and formed the Circle of Six with the others. Moira and her cousin Larkin came through the Dance of the Gods (where Hoyt also came ahead in time almost a thousand years) from the land of Geall, an almost storybook place of dragons and a Cinderella-style castle. In Book II, Blair and Larkin develop feelings for each other while they train and plan for the battle to come, then everyone travels through the dance back to Geall, where Moira would become queen, and begin to ready the Geallian people for battle. Book I was more about all six characters and the formation of their circle, whereas Book II was mostly about the romance between Moira and Larkin. This book follows more of that formula when the attraction between the vampire and the queen heats up and ignites. There is a bittersweet poignancy to this romance, however, as Cian is a vampire. He and Glenna are not only from different worlds, but Cian is not really a man; some even refer to him as a demon. They can never be together, never marry, never conceive children together. Cian has lived 900 years and will never age, yet in an amount of time almost meaningless to him, Moira will grow old and die. Their love is impossible, but they are irrevocably drawn into it nonetheless, each knowing heartbreak is inevitable. When the moment comes, Nora does not shy away from a single crushingly bleak emotion from either of them. The whole time, I knew that something would have to happen to bring them together in the end, but I had no idea what that would be, and neither Cian or Moira believed they had a future. They were heartbroken, not over some silly set of circumstances, stubborn pride, or miscommunication that could easily be overcome, but by the very laws of nature. When the solution came it was almost disappointingly simple, but in the end, these six characters had been through enough trials and bloodshed, magic had been a constant presence, they traveled through time, and even between worlds. Perhaps making it simple was best after all. The ending bespoke of how love makes giving up everything else a pittance to pay, a decision so impossibly easy to make that it's not a decision at all. It's true that Nora Roberts could sell millions of copies of drunken ramblings, but the reason why her books continue to sell so well is that she tries new things, breaks new ground, and finds new ways to tell a story that has basically never changed. While this trilogy may not be for everyone, with its violence and fantasy elements, I enjoyed not only the unusual and creative story and colorful characters, I also admired the way it was crafted.
--2006-12-06

Needed to spend more time on this one...
I am a big fan or Nora Roberts, but I think she needed to spend a little more time on this series. The plot was muddled, the dialogue uneven, and the characters spent WAY too much time talking. Talking about strategy, talking about feelings, talking about each other, talking talking talking. Usually, a story like this has more action, but I was bored. There really was no character development either. Normally, you can get a really good picture of each character, but they all felt 1-dimensional. AND, does it seem odd that each character just said "Oh, okay" about time travel and the like? This could have been a really great trilogy- on par with the Three Sisters, but it felt rushed and slapped together.
--2006-12-03

Derivative Trilogy
NR obviously is a big fan of "The Wizard of Oz," "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," & "The Lord of the Rings." This trilogy has elements of all, especially the last two. From the first, she seems to have borrowed Glenna the Good Witch of the East. However, from the last two, she cribbed unmercifully. It may not have been strictly plaigiarism, but close. Unfortunately, with all the "borrowed" ideas, she wrote a not very good series. It has been done better.

I agree with many others who think these books were published because of the power of Nora Roberts name and past successes. Perhaps she should take some time off and have a nice vacation.
--2006-12-03

- Jove