The Burning Land - Victoria Strauss Book Review

Enter a review
of your own!

Other books by
author Victoria Strauss

"The Burning Land"
Message Board

Review Summaries

" Eos, Feb 2004, 24.95, 496 pp. ISBN 0380978911 When the heretics threw out the rightful King and his followers and dismantled the religious worship of Alta, the government in exile fought to reclaim what was theirs. State and church working together defeated the heretics and the worship of Alta became mandated. Shapers (sorcerers) take vows of celibacy and use a drug that weakens their powers. The Dreamers of Arsace, those people who can visit other places in their dreams, sense a disturbance in the Burning Lands. The church believes apostate shapers are using unfettered magic and mount an expedition to find out who is causing the disturbances. Gyalo, a very religious shaper, leads the expedition. After much hardship the troupe crosses the desert to find the cave city of Refuge, a place where Arsacian exiles fled persecution. Here Gyalo's adventures begin as he questions his beliefs and believes that the god Alta has awakened from his slumber to usher in a new age. Harriet Klausner "
Harriet Klausner, Resident Victoria Strauss Scholar

Click above for the new Obama Girl Parody video!

Overall Review

Our unique search engine breaks down books and movies into dozens of literary elements, all of which are searchable.

Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot

Composition of Book
Descript. of chases or violence - 10%
planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 20%
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 30%
Descript. of society, phenomena (tech), places - 40%

Tone of book - suspenseful (sophisticated fear)
FANTASY or SCIENCE FICTION? - fantasy world/fantasy past
Political power play Yes
Political plotlets - overthrowing govt/kingdom
Is this an adult or child's book? - Adult or Young Adult Book
Religious overtones? Yes

Main Character
Identity: - Male
Profession/status: - mage/magician
Age: - 20's-30's
How sensitive is this character? - sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence - Smarter than most other characters
Physique - very athletic

Main Adversary
Identity: - Male
Age: - 20's-30's
Profession/status: - mage/magician
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in: - a moderate amount
How sensitive is this character? - hard edged
Sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence - Smarter than most other characters
Physique - very athletic

Setting
Earth setting: - during "Tolkien" (fairytime) times
Takes place on Earth? Yes

Style
Person? - mostly 3rd
Accounts of torture and death? - generic/vague references to death/punishment
How much dialogue? - significantly more dialog than descript

Most similar books by Gordonator ranking
The Lion of Senet by Jennifer Fallon
The Elder Gods by David and Leigh Eddings
The Book of New Sun by Gene Wolfe
The Ring Of Five Dragons by Eric Van Lustbader
Medalon by Jennifer Fallon

Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s).

Try our new Star Wars & Star Trek puzzle pictures! Click here

Advertise with us
Feedback
Star Wars Revenge of the Sith plot spoilers
Hobbits
The politics game
The lawyer game

3 Book search options!
1) Simple lookup
(title or author)

or
2) Detailed book search
(click here) or

3) One-click plot searches! Simply click on a plot below!

Animal Story

Clones

Coming of age

Cultural problems, alien culture

Explore/1st contact/ enviro story

Family relations

GIANT monster(s)

Horror story?

Inner Struggle

Lifeform altered?

Mental/magical powers focus

Parody

Political power play

Religious overtones?

Repressive society story

Robots, Computers, VR

Romance

Spying & Investigations

Tech./$$$/Info hunt

Time Travel story?

Training/Apprent.

War or Invasion

Games:
Trivia Masters!

Rescue your favorite
scifi characters from
slavery!

Talk to your favorite
scifi characters!

Eating New Yorkers
Computer Game

Pomeranians

Most recent TV & Movie discussions:

Charmed: Is Piper really a Halliwell? 11/13/2009 11:30:45 AM

Lord of the Rings: Why would Aragorn choose pig lips Arwen Evenstar over Eowyn? 11/12/2009 6:40:39 PM

Xena: 37 reasons why Xena and Gabrielle are... you know.... 11/12/2009 7:23:13 AM

A Boy and His Dog: A Boy and His Dog 11/11/2009 11:48:16 PM

Battlestar Galactica: Was Battlestar Galactica politically conservative? 11/1/2009 9:51:45 AM

Battlestar Galactica: Why were the Cylons so slow and thinking impaired? 10/31/2009 8:36:52 PM

Blade Runner: Blade Runner 10/22/2009 2:43:11 AM

Star Trek Enterprise: Jolene Blalock on T'Pol and Star Trek Enterprise 10/19/2009 2:48:46 PM

Charmed: If Piper Halliwell gets pregnant, can Leo give her an abortion? 10/3/2009 12:29:33 PM

Star Wars: Why did stormtroopers wear armor that didn't work against blasters? 9/30/2009 9:48:47 PM

Newest slaves:
Andy Garcia 12:37:39 AM
Vin Diesel 12:36:14 AM
Antonio Banderas 12:35:27 AM
Sylvester Stallone (Rocky Balboa) 12:34:43 AM
Jackie Chan 12:33:57 AM
Sylvester Stallone (Rambo) 12:33:13 AM
Bruce Lee 12:31:46 AM
Cindy Margolis 12:30:38 AM
Shannon Elizabeth 12:30:32 AM
Margaret Hot Lips Houlihan (MASH) 12:29:16 AM
All slaves
(click here)

Celebrity interviews:
President George W. Bush 6:32:00 PM
Jan-Michael Vincent 2:16:51 PM
Captain Kathryn Janeway 3:47:46 PM
Jack ONeill (Richard Dean Anderson) 1:39:22 PM
Jennifer Aniston (Friends) 5:01:07 PM
All celebrities
(click here)