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| Reiffen's Choice | 
 enlarge | Manufacturer: Tor Books
Category: EBooks
List Price: $14.00
Buy New: $6.99
You Save: $7.01 (50%)
Avg. Customer Rating:  13 reviews
Sales Rank: 26437
Format: Kindle Book
Media: Kindle Edition
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 464
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
ASIN: B0015UB10M
Publication Date: March 11, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Product Description
Not until he came out of the trees did Reiffen realize this wasn-t a pasture like the ones back home. Halfway up the slope a circle of tall white stones rose ominously from the lush green of the grass, like the tips of some great and terrible claw buried deep beneath the meadow....
Reiffen, only twelve years old, is the true heir to the thrones of both Wayland and Banking. He and his friends Avender and Ferris live in a magical world of talking animals, dwarves, and shape-shifting bears but-he lives with the shame of knowing that no one will ever let him rule these kingdoms, that their crowns will bring him nothing but betrayal and sorrow-and that he is powerless. Reiffen will have only a short life of child-s innocence, a brief respite from the trial of impossible adult responsibility, the trial of attempting to finish a task he can never complete.
As he stepped between the slabs, he forced himself to look at the circle-.The stones were tall and white and unlike an
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| Customer Reviews: Read 8 more reviews...
 Absolutely fantastic book!!!!! September 6, 2006
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
If you like fantasy books - the kind that draw you into a new world, the kind that have fascinating, 'real-feeling' characters making difficult decisions, but still maybe managing to have a bit of fun along the way - you're going to love this book.
And it's the first in a trilogy, which, in this case is a good thing. Not because the author is going to drag the story on forever & ever & never get anywhere, because you won't feel cheated at the end of book one, just eager to read the next book! But the real reason this is a good thing is because it means we're going to get to visit the world of Valing Manor and the Stoneways and even Ussene at least a couple more times.
More of Redburr and his slightly skewed but always hilarious worldview. More of Avender's life, and what he chooses to do with it. More of Ferris' acerbic wit. More of Skimmer the nokken! And of course, more about the choices Reiffen will have to make and the consequences of those decisions. All of which make the prospect of looking forward to two more books in the Stoneways trilogy a very good thing indeed.
I loved this book and can't wait for the next one!
 Ah, to be a kid again .... October 5, 2006
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
There weren't enough books like this around when I was twelve. Can I get do-overs? No? What a shame. It'd be cool to be a bookworm growing up in an era when so many writers are focusing on young adult fiction. Even as a hoary-haired grown-up I enjoyed Reiffen's Choice, and suspect younger people will appreciate it still more. Maybe especially boys. It's darker and creepier than Narnia and (I think) less infested with "girl cooties" than the Harry Potter and His Dark Materials sequences. There are many conventional features (dwarves, wizards, talking animals), but the world is nevertheless unique, and the writer describes it beautifully. And anyway, dwarves and wizards and talking beasties are often the very reasons we read fantasy. While not weighed down with a lot of angst and introspection, there are parts of the story that really moved me --- in one instance (Molio), to the point of tears (I'm glad I wasn't reading it aloud to someone. That would've been embarrassing!). My only gripe is the ending. I'm not a fan of cliffhangers and would have preferred the story to be told in one big book rather than three small ones. But now I'm hooked and looking forward to the next installment.
Reiffen's Choice, a great choice to read! October 5, 2006
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
Reiffen's Choice is a great choice to read. Reiffen's Choice is a book about a kid named Reiffen who is truly a king to two thrones, though it's also about Ferris and Avender, his two best friends going through an adventure to rescue Reiffen from the evil Wizards! It's filled with talking Seals, shapshifters, Wizards, dwarves, and tons of magic, the book to read if you like Eragon and Harry Potter, but better! Ferris is a one tough girl that is set on joining adventures with the guys, and Redburr has a huge appetite! The book is a page turner! If I could I would have given it 6 stars!
Aune Mitchell
Make Reiffen's Choice your choice! October 10, 2006
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
Very well-written and well-structured this is a great read for fantasy fiction lovers of any age. In a nutshell, Reiffen's Choice is a story of friendship and the difficult choices one must make as one grows up and finds one's place in the world. Twelve-year-old Reiffen is heir to the throne of two kingdoms. Before he can even contemplate claiming his birthright, he is kidnapped by three very evil wizards who wish to rule through him. Reiffen finds himself imprisoned in their sinister world where he is offered a choice of cooperating with the wizards or being forced to do their bidding in any event. His friends Ferris (a girl) and Avender (a boy) set out to rescue him along with a flinty dwarf (Nolo) and a shape-shifting bear (Redburr). The characters are unexpectedly complex and unpredictable--which is a very good thing because your interest in them never wanes. Richly evocative descriptions of the various kindgoms and fortresses add depth to the worlds Butler has created; likewise, the humor and hominess of some of the characters balances the darkness of the plot. The surprise ending underscores the complexity of both the plotting and the characters. Stay tuned for the second installment of this trilogy.
 Flat and cliched plot and characters August 16, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Reiffen's Choice by S.C. Butler is the first novel in The Stoneways Trilogy. It also marks Mr. Butler's first published novel. Admittedly I had never heard of Mr. Butler, nor this novel, until I was perusing the shelves of a bargain book store and found it. That is one of the great things about bargain bookstores; they give you the opportunity to take a chance on authors, and books, that you have never heard of before. Here are my thoughts on this novel.
The plot of this novel is riddled with cliches and overused plot devices. What seems like an interesting concept quickly deteriorates into plot lines that I have read in countless other novels. Things such as a boy being the `true' heir to the throne are just heaped in unimaginative plots in this book. It almost seems as though the author picked plot points from a variety of different fantasy books and combined them into a book. If the book was not so repetitive of other books it may have been a decent read, however, as it stands it fails to capture my imagination or hold my interest. Other plot points include talking animals that can shape change and seem to have the one answer that will solve every situation, to the loss of a friend only to find out that friend is still alive and well. One or two of these minor subplots being cliched and overused may have been okay, but this book just seems steeped in them.
The characters of this book are a mix of kids and adults with a few `exotic" characters mixed in. Characters such as Reiffen, Avender, Ferris, and Redburr are slightly interesting, but again the drawback of all the characters is that they are so predictable. I don't recall being surprised by any characters actions in this book. In fact I would even go so far as to say fans of the fantasy genre may be able to read the first one hundred pages or so of this book and know what will transpire for the characters throughout the book. The dialogue seems stiff and unimaginative. The characters say just enough to move the plot ahead without really focusing on character development. To me, the characters seemed flat and rather one-dimensional and mere card board cut outs of more interesting characters in other novels I have read.
Some criticisms about this novel:
1 - Too much description. There are several times throughout the book where Mr. Butler over describes things to the extent that the actual story becomes bogged down and sputters through the descriptiveness. While the adage of show don't tell holds true, sometimes show too much takes away from the story.
2 - The length of this novel. It is marketed as a young adult novel. However, at well over 400 pages and needless description it doesn't come across as such.
3 - The cliches and unimaginative plots and characters. When I read a book I am looking for something new and interesting. I got neither with this novel.
A positive about this novel:
1 - Mr. Butler's prose, with a little more honing, is good. It just seemed like he didn't trust his imagination instead using others as a crutch. Word choice, flow, and narrative were, for the most part solid. For a new author I was pleased with what I found.
In the end I simply was not satisfied with this novel. I wanted to like it, but the inconstancies, cliches, and repeated plot elements severely affects the novel. After finishing the book I was left with the feeling that Mr. Butler is a talented author and just needs to trust his own imagination instead of using plots from other author's novels. Maybe, fans who are just starting to get into the fantasy genre will appreciate this novel. However, when reading the cover blurb and seeing that it is being compared to Raymond Feist's Magician my expectations are naturally raised. This novel is no where nears Feist's work and it's a shame the publisher tried to place it up there. A may check in on Mr. Butler's later works, but my expectations will be much lower next time.
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