Convergence: Book One of the Blending

by Sharon Green

Book Overview

Representing the forces of Earth, Fire, Air, Spirit, and Water, five talented strangers unite against the treachery of slave masters of the past in order to save their world. Original. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0380784149
• ISBN13: 9780380784141
• Release Date: November 1996
• Publisher: Eos
• Length: 442 Pages
• Weight: 0.51 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 4.2" x 6.9"

Customer Reviews

A book that can easily become one you can't put down

This book happened to be one that I grabbed off of the shelf, not knowing a lot about either the author or the series. Little did I know that I would soon be going out scouring bookstores in order to finish my collection!The thing that really grabbed me about this series was the characters. Green does a wonderful job developing each and every one of them as well as their connections to each other. Yes, the style of writing can get a little repetitive (it shifts between the main characters' points of view), but all you have to do is get through the first couple of chapters and it doesn't matter! The writing style even becomes refreshing because it allows you to see how the different characters deal with ideas and problems differently, adding a great deal of intrigue to the story. I consistently found myself reading on and on through the series just to find out what happened to everyone! It is one of those books that you just can't put down after you start!The story is about five strangers, Lorand, Tamrissa, Vallant, Rion, and Jovvi, each with a different, but strong, magical gift (earth, fire, water, air, and spirit), who live in a world where everyone has their own magic. The five meet and "converge" in this book, and then Green begins to masterfully weave her characters and story with romance, suspense, and action. I don't want to give anything away, but I can tell you that each book is a cliffhanger, so you shouldn't wait to get the next one so that you have it on hand when you finish the first!

it's a sophisticated fairy tale

I enjoyed the unhurried narrative, and the language made reading very smooth. The story has gotten all elements of a Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale, with fine attention to subtle details. I liked the "regressions" into the personal lives of the characters and hope to enjoy the next four books as much as this one.

Great start to a wonderful series

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I've recommended it to a few friends and they've liked it just as much. I couldn't put it down and read it just two sittings. After I finished it, I immediately bought the other books in this series that were out.

Great! Best Fantasy I've Read

I've returned from Hawaii and read it while I was there (along with 2 & 3) I couldn't put it down. Some of it's corny, but still, it was great.

One of the best fantasy books ever! - A must read!

Sharon Green is one of my favorite fantasy authors. Her latest book, Convergence, is her best work to date, and I found it hard to put it down to eat or go to sleep. In this new fantasy world, unconnected to those of her previous stories, five magically talented individuals with uncommon strength but who are in bad personal situations are forced by the state to demonstrate their magical abilities for the purpose of forming a Blending that will stave off a prophesied takeover of their world by four ancient, powerful tyrants who had once enslaved the world and would do so again. But to qualify, the five protagonists not only have to overcome a series of tests that one must pass or probably die, but also the intrigues of two or more corrupt factions in high power, as well as the attempts by selfish, greedy and callous relatives and acquaintances to exploit them for their own personal gain. It was quite fascinating to see the two woman and three men overcome various inhibitions caused by their previous life situations and to come together, develop friendships with one another, and help each other when one or more of their former relatives or acquaintances tried to force one of them back into the previous life that they had. I'm quite happy to see Sharon Green mostly leaving a common and now tiresome motif found in nearly all her previous books - a powerfully talented, self-centered and close-minded female protagonist unjustly tries to stave off the efforts of a talented, good-natured man to overcome a bad personal situation she is in and to make friends and then love between them. In Convergence, only one of the females is similarly represented, and as she is the nominal narrator of the story and does not seem to hold this attitude anymore in her asides to the reader, which are said to be made at a future time in relation to the story's end of this first book of the series, I have hopes that this will not be dragged out in the rest of the series. I am eagerly looking forward to the next book in this series and expect it will be as enjoyable as the first. Ron Ebert ron.ebert@ucr.edu