The Mouth of Sauron entered the service of the Dark Tower when it first rose again its rebuilding began in of the Third Age , and through cunning grew to power under Sauron and learned great sorcery. He insulted the host, asking who had authority to treat with him, and dismissed Aragorn's claim as King. But then Aragorn's gaze frightened him, and he cried out that he was a herald and an ambassador, and must not be attacked. Gandalf assured him he would not be, so the Mouth took Gandalf to be the spokesman. He then brought forth Sam's sword, a grey cloak with an Elven-brooch, and Frodo's mithril-vest, and said that the fate of the "spy" who carried them would depend on their actions, and insinuated that if they did not do as Sauron demanded, the "spy" would be tortured for many years.
Gandalf asked what the terms were, and the Mouth said that the Hobbit would be allowed to go free, so long as the captains follow Mordor's conditions: Gandalf replied that was too much for the ransom of one servant, and in any case he doubted that Sauron would keep his word. Gandalf demanded that the prisoner be brought forth, but of course the Mouth could not comply except to say, "These are the terms. Take them or leave them! Enraged and fearful at the same time, the Mouth fled back to the Gate and set Mordor's forces upon the West.
In the Peter Jackson 's movie adaptation of The Return of the King , scenes with the Mouth of Sauron were filmed but cut from the original theatrical release. These scenes were later put back into the film in the extended edition. In the film, the Mouth of Sauron is decapitated by Aragorn , while he leaves back to the Gate and is never seen again in the books. He was played by Bruce Spence and appears as a tall, monstrous Man wearing black, priest-like robes and a helm that bears the words "Lammen Gorthaur" Sindarin for "Voice of the Dread Abomination" written in Cirth runes.
This helmet covers most of his face with only his horribly disfigured and diseased mouth visible. His mouth was digitally increased in size for a more unsettling and memorable appearance. As a reason for cracked and blackened lips with rotting teeth, it was hinted that Sauron's very words are so evil that simply repeating them causes his mouth to decay and bleed. This change was made digitally, long after the footage had been shot.
After Jackson rejected the idea of turning the mouth sideways to appear vertical on the face, the designers came up with the idea of rendering it twice as large as the original. According to designer Walter Mahy, the original design for the Mouth of Sauron's costume had the helmet hooked directly into the mouth, pulling it permanently open. This did not work out as it made it impossible for the actor to speak. However, Peter Jackson liked the idea of the robe flowing up into the helmet and this was retained for the final version.
He appears briefly in the Rankin-Bass animated film The Return of the King , in a shortened version of his scene from the novel. After he introduces himself, he mocks Aragorn and warns him that he is "hopelessly outnumbered. He was played by the voice of Don Messick , who also did the voice of King Theoden and the Easterling captain in the movie. In the BBC's version, the Mouth is given an extended role and is the one who tortures Gollum into telling him why he came there and what he was looking for. Aragorn duels with him and slays him before the host of Mordor comes forth.
The same goes for The Lord of the Rings: He is the primary Mordor commander in the conquest of Northern Middle-earth and carries out his master's orders brutally and efficiently, causing the downfall of many Elven and Dwarven realms with ease. The Mouth of Sauron travels apparently from Dol Guldur with three other Nazgul , meeting up with Goblin forces in the outskirts of Lorien. From there, they prepare a mighty Goblin army by creating Goblin Caves and Fissures.
As I think a few reviewers before me have mentioned, the novel's requisite badasses -- Daemon and Saetan -- share the same flaw: How many times does a reader have to be subjected to a magical temper tantrum, or an icy rage or whatever it's called, for god's sake? Not only that, but they're both oddly fluffy when it comes to the "daughter of the blood" herself, Jaenelle. Saetan in particular suffers from extensive badass decay.
And that brings me to my biggest complaint. Jaenelle, girl of the hour, herself. Her blatant Mary Sue-ness made me want to throttle someone. I realise that it was somewhat necessary to the plot, her being the legendary prophesied queen to surpass all queens or whatever, but come on. Bishop really didn't succeed in making me feel for her characters. They were just a little too one-dimensional for my taste. I don't want to spoil anything for anyone, but I found the novel's romantic undertones View all 7 comments. Sep 26, Rage rated it did not like it Shelves: This book is incredibly awful.
The characters with their ridiculous names and the world are poorly developed. I never had a sense of where different "realms" existed in relation to one another, for all This book is incredibly awful. I never had a sense of where different "realms" existed in relation to one another, for all of the babbling about "webs" and "gates" -- honestly, as far as I can tell, each "realm" is like a city, and they all sort of float around in space and some of them are in Hell, where everyone's undead and they only drink blood, not liquor, except sometimes when they get totally wasted, also a horse vampire.
Some people can use magic, and some people are better at it or born with more power, but it's not really explained what the difference is, except that everyone we're concerned with is a able to use magic, b quite powerful or at least sort of special, and c totally sexy. I mean, forget about any kind of description beyond "gold eyes" and "long black nails," sounds SUPER sexy already right! Plus Jaenelle has blonde hair, which she fluffs all the day, and blue eyes, but sometimes she has a stupid expression, and sometimes she's totally intense and wise beyond her years. Everyone who's bad is fat or doesn't have an impressive bosom or whatever, and they're always hanging out in shadows cackling about their wicked schemes and drinking blood.
I'm not even kidding. This book is a joke. Daemon's always angry in a cold way, so he's always leaving frost where he goes. However, when he really gets his dander up, he's able to grotesquely torture and mutilate the people who are supposed to have control over him, so like Everyone's super passive-aggressive, like, I know you're awful and you're going to make me even more wretched, but I think I'll wait until you do and then I guess I'll retaliate.
But until then I'm just going to be very sad and dark and call myself a whore and slink around being bitter and cold and sometimes putting on one earring and makeup, which apparently can make a man more androgynous AND frighteningly masculine at the same time -- and it's part of the extra sexy "frilly shirt and feathered hat" getup, saved for special seductions, because when I think about seductive men immediately I want nothing other than a David Bowie-Jack Sparrow one-two knockout punch, in heeled ankle boots.
Which, actually, it sounds less ridiculous when I say it that way than it did in the book. And all of that would be fine, if the author seemed at all in on the joke, but the narrative takes itself so seriously. Every page is absolutely dripping with melodrama. Everything fades to black or gets kind of hazy and abstract whenever something serious is going down, and honestly, instead of leaving it to the reader's imagination, I think it would have done the author some good to actually write the minutiae of the torment she piles onto her characters.
By skipping the details, not only does Bishop not have to really confront the depravity she's imagined for us, she also doesn't have to deal with how unrealistic and bizarre so many things are. Furthermore, as several people have pointed out, Daemon is totally sexually attracted to Jaenelle, who's twelve.
But let's be real, pedophiles in the actual world where this kind of thing really happens? Are prone to thinking exactly that kind of thing. Kartane, who spends a lot of time thinking about how he's going to brutally rape young girls so that their lives are ruined, is a cartoon. This book isn't real, so he can think whatever Bishop wants. But Daemon justifies his attraction and repeatedly puts himself in a position to take advantage of Jaenelle in ways that he can justify Pretty much the last scene in the book is Jaenelle accusing Daemon of being like everyone else who just wants her body, so, to save her, he If the book was like, yo that's pretty devastating, maybe this guy is not actually cool and a hero, maybe sometimes the bad guy really believes that he cares about you as he's destroying you - so we're going to deal with that by holding him accountable for his actions, that would be a neat twist that gave the story some kind of actual consequential meaning.
But no, he just did that because he loved her so much omg!! Isn't he handsome and charming and tragic. Also, if you thought that the matriarchal society was going to have anything to do with competent, awesome ladies, forget that noise. It's full of stereotypically catty and vain caricatures, the author uses their sexual aggressiveness to paint them as villains, and one of the most common cusses is "son of a whoring bitch.
There are so many problems that I could just keep going and going, but all I'm going to do is keep complaining about this disgusting, stupid book. I think a really serious editor could have been like hey lady this is a nice private fantasy but let's buckle down and write a challenging, compelling, and creative piece of literature, and this might have turned into something pretty interesting and powerful, but obviously that did not happen.
View all 21 comments. Oct 01, Evgeny rated it did not like it Shelves: Welcome to my DNF graveyard: The social system of the world of the book is matriarchy. It seems women in power decided the best use for the men is to keep them as sex slaves: I have yet to see a single free man in the part of the book managed to read; there are some outside of the world though.
Every man - free and enslaved fall in love not Platonic kind with her. The only problem at least in my book; bad pun intended: This was the first problem for me. It takes a real master of the level of Vladimir Nabokov to write about pedophilia in such a way that the reading does not make you feel very dirty. I am sorry - I really am - but Anne Bishop does not come anywhere close to this mastery. The characters were serviceable I guess, but written in such a way that I could not care less about anyone, including the super-sexy teen Queen.
Speaking of character the only amusing bit I can mention is that the book features the most pathetic Lord of Hell in the history of literature since The Old Testament was written. I cannot help mentioning the Savior theme. Tolkien practically created the trope if not, then he most definitely made it very popular.
Everybody and their brother wrote fantasy about a simple person usually coming from a remote village destined to save the world from a total annihilation. Some time later Robert Jordan came with his While of Time. Like it or not, but he developed this theme to such extend that everything coming after him seems like a pale imitation.
Like all that followed Daughter of the Blood has not managed to be completely overshadowed by its predecessor either. I still had hope I would manage to finish this one. At this point I made two tactical errors. First I peeked at the blurb for the next book. And Jaenelle will face her destiny when she remembers Daemon, Saetan's son, who made the ultimate sacrifice for her love If this is not a dead giveaway that we are talking about a romance disguised as fantasy, I do not know what is. Please do not get me wrong, I have absolutely nothing against romances, but only about romances that are honest about their genre from the beginning.
My second mistake was in skimping through the reviews better people then me wrote. The moment I stumbled upon complaint that the characters often behave like complete retards just to move the plot I realized it is time to DNF.
If there is something I cannot stand is heroes both good and bad acting in a way that would make an ordinary wooden log look like an Einstein. There are better books out there. I would like to say my thanks to all my friends who discouraged encouraged me during the read. Their input made my hard decision to DNF easier. View all 10 comments. Feb 15, Jess rated it did not like it. Things I did not like about this book: View all 4 comments. In grade six, my second best friend and I discovered her mother's V. Andrews' Flowers in the Attic series and we snuck them out the bookshelf and read them in the park while eating chips and drinking lemonade.
We found those books so enticingly wicked and could not believe all the things we read about. No more Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew for us- all we wanted to do is read adult books and unbeknownst to us that these were the trashiest books out th 2. No more Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew for us- all we wanted to do is read adult books and unbeknownst to us that these were the trashiest books out there. Ok ok there was Harold Robbins but we didn't discover him until grade seven. The writing was barely adequate at best and highly repetitive. The men were constantly "steepling their fingers" and the women were "fluffing their hair".
The women constantly hissed and the men snarled. You get the picture. The sex was quite dysfunctional and twisted and there was a fair bit of it. The women were just as predatory as the men and nobody liked anybody very much except for the new "Witch" who was twelve years old Yikes I wish the writer had made her eighteen-if you read the book you'll know why I wish this. There was some interesting magical elements in the book but often the rules of the world were applied rather too conveniently to get the plot moving along.
I've seen this book labeled as dark feminist fantasy but I don't think this is an apt description. If you are looking for some excellent dark feminist fantasy I highly recommend Jacqueline Carey who writes exquisitely and has a fertile imagination with fascinating characters and plotlines. If you are in the mood for some trash then this book is adequate. I'm going to hang my head in shame though and admit that at some point I will read Book 2 because sometimes you want to read something that is "trashy, campy, cheesy and sordid".
Admit it you do too. View all 11 comments. Aug 05, Lightreads rated it liked it Shelves: Excerpts from a stream of consciousness transcript as I read this series: Ah, right, his brother with wings. Magical cockring of Obedience! Aww, that's actually pretty cute. He just circumcised someone with his teeth! Oh, look, the unicorns just showed up. Someone else is in a killing rage, yawn. Magical cockring of honor! So he has wings, and also apparent Excerpts from a stream of consciousness transcript as I read this series: So he has wings, and also apparently pon farr.
Oh, ahahaha, the unicorns aren't going to perform the wedding ceremony are they? Of course they are. Aug 28, Amanda Ryan-Romo rated it it was amazing Shelves: If you like feminist fantasy fiction, this is the series to read. Bishop creates a fantasy otherworld unlike any I have read and I've read quite a bit. Bishop further engages in disrupting patriarchy by showing the fallacies present for women in that social system. She challenges patriarchal norms regarding sexuality, language, power and relationships between women and men. Her work, which is centered in an otherworld that is distinctly non-medieval and yet is technologically vague as to almost be modern, empowers women by showing how they can empower themselves through belief in their own power.
Oct 18, Katie babs rated it it was amazing. I knew it was a dark fantasy tale that the majority of my fellow readers have glommed. I also come to the realization that Anne Bishop has created a universe unlike anything I have ever read before. I wonder in the ten years since Anne created the Black Jewels Trilogy, how many authors she has influenced? If only I had read Daughter of the Blood when it was first published! This book blew me away from both a reader's and a writer's perspective. Every one in this book is not what they seem. The acts written are so questionable and the consequences are so very, very dark.
This is not a book for everybody. There are brutal acts against children that consist of rape and pedophilia. The sex here is something that is not enjoyable for both the giver and receiver. Anne has written the sex act as a way to have power over someone. It is usually not done in love, but more for gratification. It is cold and harsh. If someone does not enjoy the act, they may go insane, as some young girls do during their Virgin Night. The Virgin Night is when a young girl becomes a woman. And they better hope the man they are with is gentle and loving, because if their first time is brutal, the girl will be destroy mentally, forever lost to the Twisted Kingdom, a realm where their soul goes, never to return, because they have been brutalized.
There are three Realms within Daughter of the Blood: Terreille, Kaeleer and Hell. These Realms are separated through Gates, which are guarded by Priestesses.
The society that lives in each of these Realms is ruled by the Blood and the Jewel. Think of it as a hierarchy or a caste system if you will. Within these caste systems are territories ruled by a Court. The Court can either be ruled by a Queen or a high ranking member of the Blood. There are so many characters that make up Daughter of the Blood, but there are four main ones that come to mind and will become so very important in the next two books to come.
They are Saetan, Daemon, Lucivar and Jaenelle. There is Saetan, who is the High Lord and ruler of Hell. He has two sons that were taken away from him thousands of years ago. One is Daemon, the other is half-brother Lucivar. They are pleasure slaves that serve their aunt, Dorothea SaDiablo, who I have nicknamed evil skank whore queen for good purpose. She has a magical Ring of Obedience around both these brothers. She can lead them around their cocks in the most literal sense. She controls them and pimps them out to pleasure any woman who can afford the price.
Daemon is beyond gorgeous and deadly. The so-called pleasure he gives these woman is through the power he has. So essentially, Daemon is still a virgin. He has been abused horribly, and I wonder if J. Ward found her inspiration for Zsadist because of Daemon. Zsadist and Daemon are very much alike in that sense, that they have been forced and raped.
There is no escape for Daemon, only hope for a prophecy was told about the living myth; dreams made flesh will arrive in the form of a young woman, a witch who is Witch. Daemon has waited and waited for Witch because she will be his true lover, the one who will own his soul. She is the only woman he can truly be with in every sense of the sexual, emotional, spiritual and physical. Where as Daemon suffers more emotional abuses, Lucivar suffers the worst kind of physical.
He too waits for Witch, to release him from his torment.
Jaenelle can cross through all Realms, where she leaves her body to do so. This is where she first meets Lucivar and then his father Saetan. Saetan believes Jaenelle is the daughter of his soul. He longs to teach her craft, magic that she must learn in order to keep her safe because Dorothea and other Queens would destroy Janelle. But by the age of twelve, Jaenelle is in a bad place.
Her family thinks she is mentally ill and place her in and out of a hospital called Briarwood. Briarwood is not what is seems. It is a place where little girls, like Jaenelle are left to the mercy of the Uncles, men who enjoy the taste of little girls. The way Daemon handles Jaenelle is very carefully constructed. Daemon knows that Jaenelle is the one he is meant to be with, but because of her, age he would never do anything to her. Even though he wants Jaenelle, he wants who she is inside, the woman she will become. Anne handled this relationship very well.
He is very much an innocent, when it comes to his feelings for Jaenelle, just like Jaenelle is very innocent in her actions and feelings. She finds a friend in Daemon, a companion that seems to understand her. She also bridges the gap between Daemon and Saetan. Father and son are on the path to forgiveness, all because of Jaenelle. From this point on, Daemon and Jaenelle will be separated and they both will go through some truly horrible things. Jaenelle is brutalized in such a way that made me sick to my stomach. This was the one major peeve I had because the rape of a child is something I am just not comfortable with.
The reason for this is to set up the next book because the abuse Jaenelle goes through, breaks her mind, where she leaves her body and disappears. She will be gone forever, a shell with no soul. It is up to Daemon to rescue her. But he is not just rescuing the person that Jaenelle is, but her true being that is Witch. Anne leaves things open that will hopefully be concluded in the second book, Heir to the Shadows. Daughter of the Blood is disturbing. Dark is not a good enough word to describe this world that Anne Bishop has created. As for myself, the best word to describe how I felt reading, is of being consumed.
Perhaps Daughter of the Blood could be compared to that of a car accident you just can turn away from. I may have been disturbed, and a bit ill at certain points, but I wanted more. I question why Anne had to go so far with some of things in Daughter of the Blood. Perhaps it was for shock value, or she felt it just fit in the world she was writing. I would have preferred not to read some of those difficult scenes, but again, my opinion is more of a personal nature. Regardless of the dark tone and nature of Daughter of the Blood, Anne has written an amazing book that evoked so many different emotions.
Jaenelle brought forth my memories of innocent and childlike dreams.
Daemon gave me those barely unleashed feelings of lust and seduction, and Lucivar made me feel such pain and suffering. I wanted to torture Dorothea and make her eat her heart. Funny how Hell seems kind while the other Earth like Realms seem so horrible. Anne Bishop has opened my eyes to an incredible world that I will never forget.
View all 8 comments. Jan 29, Shannon Giraffe Days rated it it was amazing Shelves: The three realms of Terreille, Kaeleer the Shadow Realm and Hell are ruled by the Blood, people given the gift of Jewels of different-ranking colours. They are supposed to be caretakers of the land, and are deeply heirarchical. I was really engrossed in this book and look forward to the rest of the series. This was a tough read. I started and stopped multiple times.
My friend kept pushing me to finish. Well, I finally did, and I'm glad I did. Very few books have a world that feels this real to me. The first half is mostly world building, and that's why it's tough to get through plus the names, oh the names. You really don't have a character to love or hate. I would highly suggest bookmarking the appendix until you get familiar with the characters as well. As you get to the last half of the book, and hook up with the barbarian and the monk again , things getting going.
You have a few characters that you start to get attached to, and the world is very realized in your head thanks to the world building. By the end if the book, you have a great cast and world ready for a holy war.
Bilbo backed away to the wall, breathing hard, his hand clutching at his pocket. So now, when its master was awake once more and sending out his dark thought from Mirkwood, it abandoned Gollum. Customers who bought this item also bought. Chantal Horan Yes, these books are packed with action, hilarity and awesomeness. I know there are many reviews out there talking how fucked up this book is. What fun to be off again, off on the Road with dwarves!
I can't wait to dive into the next one. One of the best of the genre that I have read in a while. The world building is top notch with a complexity that nears our own world. The Three Seas see m to be an analog to about our 5th Century. The lesser enemies are people.
The greater enemies are real horror. The characters are complex and consistant. My only problem with the book is the sheer number of proper nouns which can be a struggle to keep track of. Overall, however, I'm looking very much forward to continuing the series. The book moves a little slowly, but deliberately. I felt a little lost at the beginning, due to the great number of oddly named characters, kingdoms and factions. Don't think anyone who devours a book in two or three days will have a problem with this.
I tend to read in spurts, one or two chapters a day, so have to take a few minutes to re-familiarize myself with the setting and characters before digging in. When all is said and done, this is a very interesting and well written story. One person found this helpful 2 people found this helpful. This book is frustrating in a brilliant way for the most part.
There are multiple times where I wish it would just be more straight forward but then it wouldn't be what it is. The prose is slightly challenging at times but mostly this is a wonderfully dark and violent epic fantasy that has shades of contemporaries like Peter V Brett, Brian Staveley and GRRM but also an otherness of something Tolkienesque in its dark wonder at the same time. There's no denying that Mr. Bakker is a writer of unique capabilities. The plot, characters and setting are created with a sure hand and carry a powerful impact.
Unfortunately, all is not perfect. Too many dead paragraphs and internal meandering hurt the pace and engagement. See all reviews.
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