This book was excellent! It had seemingly multiple plots all at once to exquistly pull together and make a perfect book. It was like you were in the book living each fantasy at the same time in each of the other realms of the book when the author switches viewpoints. All in all a fantastic book, have read it twice. All fantasy readers, this is a must read.

These books comprised an ecellent story, with memorable characters. More importantly, the characters were believable and very human in their frailties. Gemma is one of the best female protagonists since Bradley's Free Amazons of Darkover. Granted, this review is from a male, but I think Gemma would be a heroine that more women could relate to - it would be interesting to hear the opinions of any women who have read the series.

Drawing from her own personal experience, Betty Jane Wylie gives the reader an inside view of what it is like to be widowed at middle age. Although dour at times, this book is mainly filled with practial advice for the newly widowed. Information is given on finance and employment, relationships with friends and children, companionship and sex, travel, household repairs, etc.

This book is unique, in that it is not a detached, academic look at the grieving process. Wylie's personal anger and pain at her loss are evident. Although this book is depressing to read at times, it also seems realistic and practical.

The Faroe Islands cover about 540 square miles of steep green territory in the stormy North Atlantic and only 34 square miles of that is arable. Most of the rest is turned over to sheep, whose wool long provided material for the export of stockings. Settled first by Scandinavian farmers and fishermen in the 9th century, the Faroes did not differ greatly from other Norse outposts of the time. They lost their independence in the 13th century, being ruled then from Norway, were decimated by plague in the 14th century, and soon transferred to Danish control under the Union of Kalmar which united Denmark with Norway for centuries. Though semi-autonomous---with their own postage stamps and World Cup football team---the Faroes are still linked to Denmark today.

Given the lack of much solid information about the early period of Faroese history, Jonathan Wylie had to concentrate on later times. His history has the feel of an anthropologist straining at the leash, dashing impetuously and gladly towards an anthropological theme, then reluctantly returning to the task at hand. Perhaps an out-and-out book of anthropology would have been better. Not that THE FAROE ISLANDS, INTERPRETATIONS OF HISTORY is bad, but Wylie excels in the "interpretations" rather than in the presentation of straight history. He concentrates on economic and church life in the 1500-1800 period when for a long time Faroes trade was completely dominated by a government monopoly, the result of which was that little change occured in society. To better portray the feel of society at the time, he analyzes some folk tales. This is among the most fascinating parts of the book and again shows where his true talents lie. The conservatism of Faroe society extended even to population control. The authorities prevented landless people from marrying ! The Danish language was used in religion and commerce, but at home people still spoke Faroese. When, in the 19th century, an economic revolution occured with the end of the Monopoly and the birth of a modern fishing industry, it was accompanied by a rise in population and in the status of the local language too. Language and literature became the vehicle for increasing demands for self-rule. Linguistics and linguistics professors played a major role in Faroese history, unlike in any other country I've ever heard of. Wylie does an excellent job in describing the links between language and national feeling. By 1920, he says, "...although the Faroes did not become a nation in political fact, they had essentially acquired a national culture: a shared sense of political and cultural distinctiveness articulated in locally based, locally staffed formal institutions as well as in a set of internationally and locally recognized symbols of nationhood."

This is an academic work, a book for scholars, not for Lonely Planet fans. You are going to find masses of names, wade through a lot of complicated information. And you will find references within the text, an unpleasant feature of many academic books. However, I note the above only to alert general readers. THE FAROE ISLANDS is a thoughtful, interesting work which must be useful to anyone with a serious desire to understand Faroe society in history. The comparisons with Iceland and the Shetlands in the conclusion are especially fascinating. If you stay the course, you will come away with many insights into a small, but interesting part of the world.

Poor plot and worse characterizations left me studying this novel as a lesson in how NOT to write good fantasy. It is more puzzle than novel; a prophecy is introduced (we know not from where) and we are to guess its hidden meaning before the 'climactic' ending explains its metaphors, the entire solution laid out in great detail during the denouement as a detective would explain a murder at the end of a mystery novel. The pattern is repeated twice more in the sequels, with no value added.

This is a fairly light hearted Science Fiction/Fantasy novel, I read it first in my mid teens and still enjoy it now. The series as a whole is a great read and the follow on series (Unbalanced Earth) is a complete change in many ways but equally good.

Europe's many international soccer tournaments see some phenomenal mismatches, as when Russia plays Andorra, for example, or when Germany plays San Marino. But I've always found the Faroe Islands team the bravest. Imagine a country of 40,000 people taking on countries of 50 million or more ! They do it every year. There's only one stadium that meets FIFA standards. Other than in soccer, though, you'd have to admit that news about the Faroe Islands is "slightly" sparse. How many people go there, how many people know much about this group of islands in the North Atlantic more or less between Norway and Iceland ? I was certainly one who knew almost nothing. THE RING OF DANCERS was published in 1981. At the time, judging from the no doubt-comprehensive bibliography in this volume, there were possibly two books in English on the Faroes, with a couple more mimeographed articles or studies in obscure places. There was also a National Geographic article in 1970. That was it.

Unfortunately this book will not be a satisfactory source of general information for most readers. It is meant for specialists---for those interested primarily in the anthropology of Scandinavia. The amount of detail is tremendous in three out of four chapters, much more than can be absorbed by readers who do not have a professional interest in the Faroes. Chapter Two explores a very interesting problem---how people refer to compass directions and how this relates to a general geographic conception of their land. In New England, people commonly say "over to" Salem, "into Boston" or "up to Boston" but "down to Maine", to name a few examples. The Faroese pattern is far more intricate, but who can remember the details of all this in an unknown language ? Geertz' "Local Knowledge" (1983) comes to mind. Chapter Three is an analysis of a Cinderella-like folktale which supposedly reveals much about 19th century Faroe society and the changes it was undergoing. I was not entirely convinced, but the attempt was interesting. Because we readers are plunged right into these analyses without any background, everything remains on the level of "Yeah ? Really ? Well, maybe, I guess....."

Chapter Four is about the development of the Faroese language---yes, OK---but it was only Chapter Five that grabbed my attention, both on the descriptive level---it's about sporadic pilot whale hunts when up to a thousand whales can be massacred on the beaches followed by night-long celebrations with dancing and drinking---and on the analytical level---the author used Geertz' Balinese cockfight article as a rough model. This chapter and the short interviews of Faroese intellectuals that followed were what saved the book for me. In short, if you are looking for a readable introduction to the Faroes, this is not it, though there are some tantalizingly fascinating parts. If you are a student of Anthropology or a professional, you can definitely find some interesting material here, though if you are unfamiliar with Scandinavia, you still may be left with quite a number of questions.