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In TRAITOR’S MOON, Lynn Flewelling entangles her nightrunner characters Alec and Seregil in yet another dilemma. This time, the duo are required to go back to Seregil’s homeland, from which he had been exiled as a young boy, in an attempt to get the Aurenfaie on Skala’s side in the war against Plenimar. The war is still raging despite the victories of the last book and Skala is now desperate.
I liked this book better than the first two. For one, the relationship between Alec and Seregil became a bit more realistic. Watching Seregil deal with his status as Exile as moving and interesting, and I thought the mystery and what to do was well plotted and very well foreshadowed. I didn’t manage to figure out what was going to happen in the end. These books are getting better at being great fantasy, and with that you can tell that the author is improving with experience, which is obvious once you move on to the Tamir trilogy. In the meantime, I’m hoping she writes another Nightrunner book, because I’d like to read more of their adventures now that her writing and plotting has improved so much.
Much like the first in the trilogy, this second book featuring Alec and Seregil is fairly typical fantasy. We have the ultimate good and the ultimate evil, there aren’t shades of gray in this novel, like there are in her second trilogy. Personally I hope that changes a bit in the third installment. There is some romance and more suspense, more plot threads. It took me a while to figure out why Beka was figured so prominently, but I did eventually. Flewelling’s writing could improve a bit, but mostly has improved over the first, and this is only her second novel, after all.
It felt plodding at times even when the action was moving, mainly in the first half when we’re not sure what’s going on. In the second half, the pace picks up and I tore through it in one night. The characters are not quite realistic; they’re too polarized in good or evil and I had a hard time feeling sorry for them even when things got tough. The only one who wasn’t solid good or solid evil is Thero. I enjoyed his character, and I’m hoping he pops up in the third book.
I will definitely finish the trilogy, but I would again call this series fairly typical fantasy, doesn’t challenge much, but exists for fun.
I was worried about this book. It’s the third in Robin Hobb’s Soldier Son trilogy, and the first two were particularly hard to take, especially book 2. Hobb is famous for torturing her characters, and she does not give Nevare a break, not once, in those books, and book 2 ends with his rejection by the Gernians, his people, and finally following the magic towards the Specks.
I would still not say that this trilogy is on par with Hobb’s other three. It’s painfully hard to read. This book is easier to deal with, but also moves slower, particularly during battle planning and the first half. The two people that are Nevare struggle to reconcile themselves for much of the time, and a lot more time is spent pining over various others. Regardless, I was drawn back to the book over and over thanks to Hobb’s deft storytelling; only in hindsight can I really see where the book slowed down and which parts were more irritating than others. Once action was taken, the plot picked up and the book moved swiftly towards a conclusion that I enjoyed immensely, although one that does not precisely continue the social message that Hobb could have portrayed. Perhaps its impossibility was her point.
Her writing is masterful as usual, disappearing behind the images she conveys and the people she creates. She truly is one of the best fantasy authors out there, if this is her worst trilogy. I’m looking forward to everything she writes in the future.
Unusually, this second book in the Mistborn trilogy doesn’t disappoint as much as most middle books of trilogies. It remains engaging and involving, the characters all develop realistically and sometimes surprisingly, and the plot moves along briskly as the tension mounts. Vin particularly moves forward remarkably and convincingly considering her origins in the first book of the trilogy. Brandon Sanderson’s writing continues to improve, which allows the reader to focus wholly on the story. His plotlines manage to all come together in the end, (spoiler) but the end is much more of a cliffhanger than the first of the trilogy, which is somewhat irritating, particularly as we’ll be waiting until October for the last installment.
The subject matter is interesting – after the good guys have won, what do they have to do to keep control? It quickly becomes clear, however, that there are much larger matters at hand, and the battle hasn’t really been won at all.
I don’t think that I’m ever going to say that this author is my favorite of all time, but she does write solid, interesting fantasy. Luck in the Shadows is about a boy, Alec, who is unexpectedly rescued by a slightly older man, Seregil, who goes on to change Alec’s life completely.
There isn’t much to review here. I don’t have anything negative to say, exactly. The book managed to hold my attention throughout and I was interested in what was happening. The ending is somewhat resolved and somewhat of a cliffhanger, which I think is always the best ending for a first book in a series, because it leaves me wanting more without torturing me. Still, there was something missing – maybe because I didn’t particularly care for either Alec or Seregil, and characterization is one of my favorite points. I think I’d rate this book to be decent, but not great. I will be reading the next two in the series though.
I’ve been looking forward to this book for a long time. I love the original Kushiel trilogy, and reread it in preparation for beginning this second trilogy (which is not yet completed, with two books published). When I came to this book, I have to admit that it disappointed me.
For one thing, I just don’t love Imriel as much as I love Phedre. This book is indeed a coming of age tale, and I really enjoy the developments in Imriel’s character, but I don’t like him nearly as much or find his story nearly as interesting. I think the fact that he grew up so much meant that less happened, plot-wise, although certainly things do happen, especially in the second half. More of the book was spent discovering himself, rather than discovering any part of the world, which normally I enjoy but I didn’t as much here, perhaps because there isn’t a sense of destiny about Imriel. He is in control, whereas things happened to Phedre and she dealt with them as she could. I suppose that is just my taste and doesn’t necessarily reflect as much on the book – just that it is definitely different.
I would also have loved to hear more about Melisande, rather than the tantalizing hints that we are given.
Otherwise, Carey’s style and prose are up to par. There’s nothing wrong with the plot, but the book is very long for the events within it. Overall, she just needs to convince me that I should care about Imriel!
This book is a terrific end to an amazing trilogy. Now that most character relations have been established, Carey can really play with their relationships and make us feel for them even more than we could before. Except for a very uncomfortable section of the story, the necessity of which is obvious but still disturbs me, the novel is well plotted and engaging, moving quickly. Even though this was my second read-through, I was still surprised by certain things and had forgotten a great deal of the plot in four years.
I think most of all I love the relationship between Phedre and Joscelin. I wouldn’t go so far as to say it feels real, because I don’t think real people could endure what they do, but that’s part of what makes it amazing and touching. Their strength is unrealistic, but also admirable and makes us care for them even more. Watching them with another person in their family dynamic is interesting and does make them more human despite their many super-human qualities. I think their relationship is, to be honest, one of Carey’s triumphs. But then, I love the first Kushiel’s Legacy trilogy, and this book is probably just as good as the first – it dips a bit in the middle, slowing down, but overall, it’s all amazing, and I’d recommend these books to almost anyone, not just those who read fantasy. They are long, but in return they have almost every quality of an amazing, epic tale.
This entertaining YA book is about Nathaniel, a young apprentice magician, and Bartimaeus, the djinni he summons in an attempt at revenge on a man who has embarrassed him. Of course, Bartimaeus does his bidding, which gets both of them in a great deal more trouble than they’d bargained for.
I love Nathaniel, he’s very noble and very clever and very understandable. I think he’s perfect to relate to, as everyone can remember childish feelings of loyalty and embarrassment, though most of us don’t live out those feelings quite like he does. Bartimaeus is very amusing, and the footnotes that pepper his section really add to the story by giving him and his history a lot more depth. He lightens Nathaniel’s intense moods, which was really well done by Stroud, preventing the book from being depressing, which otherwise could have been possible. The book is also carefully plotted, with no dull moments, and the reader is left almost constantly wondering what will happen next as the plot escalates. It’s great. I love how the magicians are interwoven with regular society, similar to in Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, always a plus.
I really liked it, and I am looking forward to reading the next two in the trilogy.
It’s difficult to give a summary of this book, because a lot happens and very little of it seems to matter by the end. I’m not really sure what Sarah Monette thought as she wrote this. She probably intends to expand on a lot of the themes and hidden references in the next book. There is a lot that feels just tossed in, with no explanation, and definitions of words like septad definitely would have helped. I don’t mind if a book tosses me straight into a world if explanations are forthcoming, and here they’re not. In that way it reminded me of Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson; not in any other way though.
I spent about the first half of the book hating it. I hated Felix, everything was depressing, and I kept wondering when Mildmay and Felix were finally going to meet each other. It was driving me crazy, I felt like the book was going nowhere. I’m generally patient, but I can’t stand when the back of a book promises me something that isn’t forthcoming quickly, because to me that makes it a spoiler and ruins the experience. This book does that, and I kept wondering when the torture was going to end for various characters.
When Mildmay and Felix do meet, the book gets vastly better. The plot starts to move, things start happening, and more importantly, I get a sense of the characters’ feelings for the first time. Both had involved themselves in emotional entanglements beforehand, but only here did I feel like they were real people and start to care about them. We get to see more of the world – I didn’t like Melusine the city very much – and some resolution finally shows up, although nowhere near enough. I don’t know why the book doesn’t state that it is the first of a trilogy anywhere.
Also, there’s a lot of modern swearing and slang that doesn’t really fit in a pseudo-European world for me. I like when she makes up her own slang and I think it may have been better if she’d done more of that, or at least used fewer four-letter words. Mildmay’s sections got jarring at times because he swears so often.
Other than that, I actually liked the last hundred pages. I liked them a lot. They were really emotionally successful and finally got me into the story. Almost enough for me to get the next in the trilogy, but probably not for quite a while.
Inkspell is a strange book. While Cornelia Funke has created a very enchanting Inkworld, she is perhaps too verbose. The book is very long, and while plenty of things happen, it seems too long. It doesn’t have as much appeal as Harry Potter to keep kids reading, in my opinion. I still really like the concept, and I also like the idea that the story can be changed while the characters are inside it, but my attention was not as captivated. The book is just too long – and I like long books!
The characters have grown on me, though. I really like reading about their further exploits, and I just love Dustfinger. He’s complex, in some ways, with his relationships with Resa and Roxane, and his affection for his children. He comes across as the most real of all the characters; the rest of them are sugar-coated.
*big spoiler*
It is true, though, that when Farid died, I nearly cried, and even more so when Dustfinger gave his life to bring Farid back. Utterly heartwrenching scene.
*end spoiler*
I also didn’t like how the book can’t really stand alone and the cliffhanger ending. I’m not a very big fan of cliffhanger endings even though I really enjoy series. I am definitely looking forward to Inkdeath, so I guess Cornelia Funke has drawn me in after all.
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