Kirith Kirin is an epic, epic fantasy tale - imagine something the scope of Lord of the Rings' mythology, but condensed into 500 pages. The world building and history of Kirith Kirin are rich and detailed, staggeringly so. Echoing what another reviewer said, the history of the story almost overpowers the story itself - which is unfortunate, because both the present and past of Kirith Kirin's tale are fascinating. If Grimsley had perhaps drawn his story out into a trilogy, we would have been give...

The depiction of magic in this book is far different from that in a typical sword-and-sorcery story. It is breathtakingly powerful, and the novel is worth reading just to for the stunning battles.

Is this book hard to rate or what. I would probably describe it as 'If Storm Constantine wrote the Kingkiller Chronicles' sort of novel, but that would be over-simplifying things, and wouldn't make much sense anyway. But it's a start. So let's go with 'If Storm Constantine wrote the Kingkiller Chronicles' for now.- Kirith Kirin is told in the first person POV by Jessex, who starts his life as a farm boy before a true dream brings him to Arthen to light the lamps and sing the morning and evening

4,5 stars.It was a long, slow book. There were places where it was dragging, sometimes almost unbearably, but when I finished it, I felt good, and I don't feel like rating it lower. Mind you, it's as fantasy as it can be; if you don't like high fantasy as a genre, there's no chance you'll enjoy it. I'm not an all-consuming fantasy fan myself but this book somewhat clicked with me from the beginning, and even though I spent days reading it (I normally read much faster), I didn't want to hurry, or...

This book combines both adventure and fantasy into an interesting novel. It is understandably hard to write a fiction book without confusing the reader as much of the characters and settings are made up, yet Grimsley managed to introduce a completely unrealistic and complex world without confusing the reader. Overall the story had strong character development throughout the novel yet there were some plot holes present and an exaggeration of many unimportant characters. I rate this rare yet wonde...

Maybe only three stars? I really don't know. What an interesting and at times frustrating book. There's an amazing story here, but sometimes it can be hard to see under the weight of all the lore the author just keeps piling on. At times I found this book breathtaking, other times I found myself skim reading. I did enjoy the way the author gleefully embraces a lot of classic tropes the genre has moved on from, but I suspect this was less intentional and more a result of the author not realising

Jim Grimsley does not fast forward any event in this incredible high fantasy novel. Grimsley is not a fantasy writer, he usually writes realistic fiction and stage plays. He is well known for his book Dream Boy. So it seems unfair and almost criminal that he should sweep in a write one of the best fantasy novels I have ever read. Kirith Kirin tells us a tale about a young Farmboy who becomes the most powerful wizard in the world whose destiny is to restore Kirith Kirin place as King, after the r...

For those who treasure strange lands filled with magic, lore, evil queens, dark mages, and larger than life heroes, Kirith Kirin has much to give. Author Jim Grimsley does not fast forward through any of the events in this epic tale as he reveals its mysteries. Those who will settle for simple universes and fast action will not find their place in the world of Kirith Kirin, but those who revel in detailed world building and the slow unraveling of of arduous paths to a satisfying resolution will

I read Kirith Kirin right after I finished Richard K. Morgan’s The Steel Remains, which made for quite a study in contrasts (I liked both books for different reasons). Grimsley’s approach to fantasy is earthy, atmospheric and mystical, and reminded me a bit of Ursula LeGuin’s Earthsea. It is also extremely meticulous, and that was the tough part for me. The story is a nearly day-to-day account of the magician Jessex’s apprenticeship and the eventual mastery of his powers. At times, I found it ha...

I finally finished this book. It took me a month, but I did it. I refused to give up. I probably should have never picked it up in the first place.I don't like being mean, or giving low ratings, but this book was rough.I have a number of gripes:1.) Jessex is only 14-15 when he's chosen to be Kirith Kirin's lamp-lighter. And yet, Kirith Kirin, who is an immortal of unknown age, falls in love with him??? That's a little gross, maybe if I was still a teenager I might not realize how disturbing that...

It was...quite sad, but not in a good way. It COULD have been a great book-quite possibly absolutely brilliant. It was started with a very nice concept-but it is very poorly executed. There are elements in it which clearly show it could be a classic of high fantasy. There is also the potential for it to have become a romantic fantasy that could quite easily have been of the "this will leave you huddled in a corner crying and hugging a teddy bear" type.Sadly, however, the author is apparently a g...

Well...this was a DNF for me, but not necessarily because it was bad. It was a combination of factors-it's a long book, I'm a college student who just got a job during finals season and in the end I had to turn it in to the interlibrary loan people at my university before I found the time to finish it. Then again, I also had plenty of time over break and I chose to start another Tanya Huff book and read through about 10 webcomics instead, so I guess there's also something to the fact that maybe

Taken from my July 29, 2001 amazon.com review: Grimsley does an amazing job with this book. The characters are well developed and take you on an amazing journey. This book did remind me of the Last Herald-Mage Trilogy which it is bound to be compared.Jessex is an adolescent on the verge of manhood when the winds of destiny catch him up into a struggle that has been blowing across the land. It is a journey of discovery and love that fuels the progress of this story.Unlike similar books in the gen...

It's odd, because in some ways this isn't a very well-written book: it's dense, slow-moving and at times hard to follow; I found the sequel, The Ordinary, to be superior in terms of storytelling and writing. But despite its flaws, this is a captivating story -- I had trouble putting this book down, even though it was slow going. Grimsley has obviously put a lot of thought into the workings of the society depicted in the novel. He also manages to write about the use of magic and make it more than...

Not much of a romance - it is there but nothing happens of note until about 3/4 through. I think that is what kept it from being a great read - too much epic. And then it ended - I found myself thinking, "I read all of that and...that's it?"

Kirith Kirin is the coming-of-age story of Jessex, a normal shepherd boy who is called by prophecy to serve Kirith Kirin, an immortal king whose rightful throne has been kept from him. He and his followers reside in the mysterious and dangerous forest of Arthen. Jessex's tale follows his growth into a magician of great power, the battles he fights in Kirith Kirin's name, and the development of his relationship with the great king himself. Kirith Kirin is also a memoir: the tale is framed as an o...

I usually get through a fantasy book in about a day. This one was really slow going. A change of pace is okay, but this was excessive. I feel like a lot of the parts of the story that crawled were when the author was setting up the world. There were a lot of places covered in this book and there were a lot of names, and not only were the names difficult, but a lot of them were similar which made it even harder to get it all straight without having to go back and forth in the book. Also, I hated

Fun Fantasy for 3/4 through. Writer got too involved in creating the fantasy world, characters and story line suffered. Luckily he had some good twist and happy ending at last.

Someone in a GR group I belong to was really talking this up. I didn't get very far in, but meh, seemed like typical humor-missing epic fantasy.

I really wanted to love this book. I really, really wanted. But...i didn’t. It had a great idea and the begining was great. But the author simply lost himself in the world that he was building and forgot about the story. All those names, all those places, all those plants, all that magic...i really felt that he was there (which was i good thing) but the reader simply couldn’t follow...it was so, so much. And all that at the expense of the story.Plus, i had a huge problem with the romance and the...