SFF Author: Anne Bishop

THE BLACK JEWELS TRILOGY by Anne Bishop

Imagine a fairy-tale heroine. You know the type: beautiful, kind, able to charm all the beasties of the forest into eating out of her hand. On the astral plane, she even has a unicorn’s horn. Now imagine that she has enough magical power to move mountains. (Literally.)

You might think this is a recipe for the worst Mary Sue in the history of literature, but in Black Jewels, it works. There’s a reason Jaenelle is the way she is.

Tangled Webs by Anne Bishop

Warning: This review will contain some spoilers.

The Black Jewels Trilogy was and is one of my very favorite guilty pleasures. Yet I’ve been avoiding Tangled Webs (what is tagged book six in what is now called The Black Jewels Series — don’t even get me started on that) for some time. To explain why, I’ll give you a quote from the publisher’s blurb:

“The invitation is signed “Jaenelle Angelline,”

The Shadow Queen by Anne Bishop

My last encounter with Anne Bishop’s BLACK JEWELS SERIES did not go well. Okay, that might be a bit of an understatement. But I suppose even my inner fangirl is a bit hard-pressed to let go sometimes, so I decided to give the series one last try.

The setup is somewhat different for The Shadow Queen. After suffering centuries of abuse and degradation under corrupt Queens, the territory of Dena Nehele is left without a Queen at all.

The Pillars of the World by Anne Bishop

I loved Anne Bishop’s Black Jewels Trilogy so much. But it took me a long time to pick up The Pillars of the World, because it just didn’t sound terribly appealing.

And it wasn’t appealing in the least. The one character I did like was portrayed as a cold, possessive jerk by the end of the book. The mysterious Lucien is shunted aside for the “sweet” Neall who has about as much depth as a puddle.

Sebastian by Anne Bishop

It always saddens me when an author I thought was good turns out to be…well, not so good. I was willing to forget about Anne Bishop’s previous trilogy (Tir Alainn) and go into Sebastian with her original Black Jewels Trilogy in mind.
This just was not a good book. It was not a fantasy novel, so much as a romance novel with some fantasy concepts. And they are interesting concepts, as Bishop’s often are (although a bit confusing until you get far enough into the book to make the right connections).