Reviews

Arcanum 101 by Mercedes Lackey, Rosemary Edghill

snark's review

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3.0

This book was fun to read but was definitely lacking in many qualities. Sometimes it's nice to mix in books like that, with so much less attention required--humble book bundle is handy.

catherinemachinegun's review

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2.0

Yikes. Really needs more development and a solid copy edit. There were some good ideas in there but the book just didn't gel.

bluebec's review

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4.0

This was... half a book. It's short, around 157 pages or so, and it really feels like the story has only just started. I assume there is more to find about the place that I will go looking for, but it ended far more suddenly than I expected.

twitchyredpen's review

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3.0

Part of the Secret World universe, set when Victoria Victrix of the first book is in high school, but only tangentially about her.

Short, fun. Still basically X-men, except also with elves and such -- I don't recall the X-men stories and the Guardian stories being very linked in Secret World:Invasion, but they definitely are here.

jessmahler's review

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4.0

I really enjoyed this book, but before I say why, let me put in a disclaimer/warning:
If you aren't a long time fan of Lackey's Elves on the Road world (Bedlam's Bard mostly, but also Urban Elves, and Diana Tregard series) move on. This book is less a novel in it's own right and more fan service for folks who want another taste of their favorite world and characters.

And actually, that's pretty much why I enjoyed the book. Tomas was an interesting enough character, though he could have been more thoroughly developed. VeeVee has potential, but spends more time infodumping her own history than interacting or moving the plot. Cameos or secondary character roles for Eric Banyon, Hosea Songmaker, Kayla Smith, Dottie (mechanic from Fairgrove) and a few others turned an otherwise mediocre story into a really fun read just from the excitement of seeing what they were up to and the anticipation of who was going to pop up next.

Ending was a bit of a disappointment, very rushed and it felt like the authors tried to cram 3 or 4 potential plots into the story without fully developing any--Tomas' struggle to accept magic, family drama in the Torres family, two romance plots...

I'm happy I bought it, and I'll pick up a sequel if they write one just to see my old fave's again, but I hope they'd put more effort into a well developed plot and characters
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