From the back of the book:
Wild, strange, and unpredictable, he is known as the Changer: the ultimate vagabond who slips in and out of myths and cultures, refusing to be pinned down to any one origin just as he refuses to be locked into any one
shape--or name. Yet when a quest for vengeance forces him to shed animal form and seek out King Arthur, the Changer discovers that the darkest of dangers threaten the timeless realm. For Arthur's sworn enemies have risen once more to topple the king and spread chaos among humankind. The Changer himself will be the enemy's unwitting accomplice, unless he somehow stops
the dreaded forces and diabolical powers threatening to destroy Arthur's kingdom--and all humanity.

This is probably my favorite book in the world, and has completley shifted my views on what "good" fiction should be. The book takes place in modern day America - King Arthur is living in a hacienda in New Mexico, USA, and the Changer happens to be enjoying life as a coyote in the nearby desert.
Sasquatches communicate via internet chat rooms, and the Greek goddess Diana is King Arthur's personal assistant. It's a wild and wonderful premise, and
Jane Lindskold pulls it off with amazing prose and a truly unique style. If you're on my Brother to Dragons, Companion to Owls bookring, you'll
understand just how wonderful Jane Lindskold can be. If you've never read anything by her, or if you normally shun Fantasy, please give this book a
shot. It's *that* good!

Complete bookring shipping order:
chivers, Brasil
stickerooni, Canada
iceagent, Canada
Merenwen, Canada
Czersk, Minnesota, USA
Banded-79, Wisconsin, USA
Sherria, Connecticut, USA
tabby90, North Carolina, USA
kicket, North Carolina, USA
Ealisaid, North Carolina, USA
bookczuk, South Carolina, USA
WritinReader, Kentucky, USA
kalipriestess, Florida, USA
geniedances, Texas, USA
ghaweyn, Colorado, USA
explorer1118m, New Jersey, USA
sleone, California, USA
ToXiCKiTTiKiSS, California, USA
Amaranta20, Washington, USA (int'l)
Eskielover, Washington, USA (int'l)
asterw, Greece (int'l)
starbytes, Malaysia
JeSuisBelle, Phillipines
mundoo, Australia (int'l)
amberC, Australia
gypsyrose02, Australia
puppymummy, Australia (int'l)
suzen, France (int'l)
Zarylia, Poland (int'l)
Xeyra, Portugal (Europe pref.)
tiggsybabes, England (Europe prefered, int'l)
heathwitch, UK
samulli, Germany or New Zealand (int'l)
...
and back to me

Released on Wednesday, February 25, 2004 at US mail in Tucson, Arizona USA.

On its way to chivers in Brasil - first leg of the bookring. Was sent via surface mail, so it may be a couple of weeks coming...

can you believe it arrived today???
it's the third time something like this happens...
i'll try to read it fast to keep it going.
thanks for the postcard!!!!

just finish reading this wonderful book!!!! ir eally enjoyed it!!! it reminds me of neil gaiman's american gods.
since the book has a passage here in brasil i thought i could say something about belém. differently from what is described in the book, belém is not in the middle of the forest and is a big city!!!! and you don't see monkeys in the streets the way you see cats in the USA!!! monkeys are not pets, they're protected by law!!!!!
anyway, the author really did a gret research, everything else is right :)
thanks midwinter for the oportunity to read this book!!!

Just got it today in the mail. Thanks for the postcard! I will read it asap.

This book was quite good. I was really suprised how much historical fact and myths went into the story. Off to iceagent as soon as I get a mailing address.

Never heard back from iceagent...now the book is off to merenwen.

I've got the book and just have to find time to read it. I'm looking forward to it as I love fantasy, but I just received another bookring book before this one. Strange getting them both so soon and together--guess when you have to skip people it messes things up! Lol.

I'll be back...soon hopefully!

Well, certainly not soon enough! I'm almost done-just a few more pages-I've contacted Czersk and hope to send off this book soon. This is just an update to which I'll add my comments on the book later; I've been remiss in keeping everyone informed of the progress of this book. Unfortunately I'm not online here much anymore.

December 14, 2004
I will be mailing this book off this week--happy trails...and reading!

I loved the premise of this book: the whole concept of athanor and mythical beings alive and thriving in our current era. A nice wide range of mythology is used.

I found some of the mythological research confusing though (sorry, I can't recall the exact passage that made me think Jane had made a mistake OR an alternative interpretation) and found some of the references too obsure and out of my realm of knowledge--which would be just fine as I like to learn knew things, but found it sometimes detracted from the story as Jane failed to provide enough info about that myth to make it worth mentioning.

I enjoyed the story line, and the twists and turns. I thought that the ending was good as it provided closure while keeping it open for further story lines; however, I felt that the ending was rushed.

The book seemed too long at parts with diversions I thought uneccessary. With so much of the book drawn out, in plot or detail, the ending seemed really rushed and cramped.

All in all, it is a good book and I look forward to reading Legends Walking !

Happy Holidays!!!

Just came today. I am very excited to see it since I have had Legends Walking for about a month now and haven't been able to read it! Now that the first book is with me, I will be sure to get to it soon.

I have tried many attempts to get into this book, but despite my amusement for the reincarnation, if you will, of the great heroes of the world, I have been unable to form a connection with the book. My time for reading is dwindling more and more every week, and with the pile of Bookrings and rays I must get to multiplying, I feel it would be selfish to hold onto this book any longer. Thank you for the opportunity midwinter. I'm sorry for not being able to finish it. Maybe sometime in the future . . .

I recieved CHANGER Monday and am Two and a half chapters into it. It looks interesting so far...

---

Finished reading and sent CHANGER on it's way Saturday apr. 9.
I enjoyed it very much...
Thanks, Midwinter, for starting this ..ring

This arrived while I was out of town. What a nice treat to come how to :) I'm looking forward to reading this one. Thanks for sharing midwinter.

It took me awhile to get into this book. I think that I was trying too hard to take it seriously, trying to get caught up in the suspense and the drama of the story. When I finally just let myself laugh at the images it created for me I enjoyed it much more, and found myself wanting to read it. King Arthur living in Albuquerque, NM? Sasquatches dressed in long green caftans and turbans, passing as ugly men...Loki and Lilith in modern day America...Abominable snowmen surfing the internet...Confuscious as an attorney in a 3 piece suit...these are images that literally made me laugh out loud, and approaching the book from that perspective made it a wonderful escape.

Thanks for sharing this midwinter! I'll send it on to the next participant ASAP.

*Reserved for the next person in the ring*

Sorry for the delay...life has been crazy and I haven't managed to get to the post office. I dropped this in the mail today.

Got in the mail today, thanks!

I really enjoyed this book, it was fun and well written. It's a neat idea that there are immortals among us and everything mythological is real, but I couldn't help thinking that as a plot device it was a cheap ploy. Really you could put any cool character from any history in your book easily. That's not a bad thing, it just seemed to cool a device to be so easily achieved with an explanation of immortals. I would like to know more about the Changer and the Sea King and their early life in primordial ooze. Although I'm sure that book wouldn't be as exciting as this with it's kidnappings, revenge killings and rampant conspiracies.

I've gotten kicket's address so I'll be sending this off this week.

From kicket:
Thanks for the opportunity to read it. It was good. I took the advice of several other readers and read it with a light touch rather than taking it too seriously.

On it's way to Ealisaid now...

Received in the mail today. I'm looking forward to reading this. Thanks so much! Fortunately, I'm not reading anything else at the moment so I'm ready to plunge right in. (OK, I confess, I've already peeked at the first few chapters!)

Overall, I enjoyed this book and I really liked the character of The Changer. However, while I found the concept of immortal heroes and heroines and mythological beings living among us to be entertaining, I thought Lindskold made a few mistakes in how they were presented. One problem that I run into whenever I read a book about long-lived or immortal beings is that the authors of such books never seem to know exactly what to do with them, and the immortals end up acting no different than...well, us...when we are young. I always wonder if the authors spent any time interviewing or just speaking with people who are 100+ years old in preparation for writing about such long-lived beings. I don't think any of them have, and they should. Surely once someone has lived for hundreds or thousands of years, their way of thinking and looking at the world and others would change, often dramatically. I find it hard to believe that anyone who has lived so long is still behaving like a bunch of college frat boys (or American politicians!) -- holding grudges over old relationships, planning to rule the world, plotting, backstabbing, and thinking that kidnapping someone for political reasons will ever work.

I found it odd that, out of all these heroes, none of them except the musician Tommy are actually famous in any way. (Also, my personal preference would have been for Lindskold to have written Tommy as another personification of Jim Morrison, who I think would be a more appopriate choice, particularly since I think Morrison once claimed to be Dionysus reincarnated.) Surely Athena could have been more use to the world than simply working as Arthur's administrative assistant?

And oh...Arthur. I didn't feel that Lindskold gave us nearly information. While Arthur's previous incarnations are mentioned frequently, Lindskold never tells us why Arthur decided to quit ruling Britian when he was only in his 30s and with his job unfinished. Is he just a quitter? Did something happen? Was most of the tale of Arthur just myth? We aren't told.

The story of the two humans who are investigating the Athanor slowed down the story and I felt they were an unnecessary addition. The book is a bit overlong and this part of the story could have been cut with little loss. Their reaction when they learn just who they are dealing with was much too understated.

Still, in spite of my complaints, I did enjoy reading "Changer". Thanks so much for sharing it with us, midwinter!

Mailed to bookczuk via media mail this afternoon.

Enjoy!

REceived in today's mail. I am currently over-run with visiting relatives and shall get to this shortly, when my sanity has returned (I hope!)

I love Jane M. Lindskold, and Arthurian tales, and fantasy, but can tell that I am not in the right frame of mind to read this one now, nor will I be able to get through it in a timely fashion. Rather than hold the ring up, I have sent it along to WritinReader to keep the ring moving.

Someday, when the time is right, a copy of the book will fall in my path and I shall eagerly snatch it up and read it. Until then, I bid farewell to this copy, and say thank you to midwinter for including me on the ring. I look forward to hearing when others read the book.

And for all on this ring, I hope to see you in Charleston in 2007! It's a lovely town!

Pictured our new Cooper River Bridge, which just opened this month. In the background are the old bridges which will be gone by 2007

Got it today. I'll start reading it as soon as I finish the one I am currently reading.

Unfortunately, I am going to have to go on and send this on. It looks like a great book, but I don't want to hold up the ring. Kalipriestess has a note on her profile asking to be skipped, so I'll contact geniedances and get this moving again.

RELEASE NOTES:

Mailing to Geniedances.

Arrived safe and sound in the mail. Will start reading it as soon as possible.

Unfortunately I'm haveing so many problems these days I just can't concentrate on a lengthly read. Between a death in my family, major complications at work and a ton of other complications, rather than holding up the ring even longer, I'm going to contact the next person on the list. I appreciate your willingness to share and hope that I will be able to participate in future bookrings once my sanity returns.

I can't read it right away, but will get to it as soon as possible. Thanks.

I just can't get into this right now. I will pass it on as soon as I have the next address. I won't hold up the ring any longer.

I plan to start reading this tommorow and i hope to be able to send it off at the end of the week.

Sorry, i tried. I just couldn't get into it. the characters didn't do it for me. Hope Sleone has more luck with it. i'll be sending it off to her tomorrow.

I had forgotten about joining this bookray. When it arrived I thought I would read a couple pages to be able to say I had made an attempt . Wow. I really enjoyed this book and will look for more by this author. Thanks for sharing!

RELEASE NOTES:

sending to ToXiCKiTTiKiSS

Received a couple of days ago. Just going to send to the next person to keep the ring going. Sorry for the delay. Will send on when I have the chance and receive the next person's address.

This just came in the mail today. I'm in the middle of a couple books but this looks very cool and I can't wait to read it.

This was a decent book. I found it very slow to get into, but around page 360 I was hooked and the last 140 pages flew by. Not something I need to read again or own but thanks for the chance to read it. I'll be sending this on to Eskielover.

Where, oh where, has my little book gone?

Changer appears to be Mission in Action :( I'll see what I can do about finding a replacement copy. If anyone has seen it in the meantime, will you please PM me?

Thanks!

This book has washed ashore at the Lost Book Island after not being heard from for many months. This new arrival will be shown to a room and be allowed a bit of rest before being introduced to the many fun things to do here at the island.

All around there are books sipping cool drinks under shady palms while other books participate in a wide variety of beach sports. There is plenty of sand, surf and sun here for all of the lost and wayward books to enjoy.

It is hoped that very soon a new journal entry will come to rescue this book from the island and send it back out into the BookCrossing world so that it may continue on its journey. It is hoped that the new journal entry will tell all the interested parties where this book has been this long time and where it will be traveling to next.