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3.87 AVERAGE
3.87 AVERAGE
Highly entertaining. Great characters, great story, interesting setting.
No romance. Win.
No romance. Win.
I like the story that Wrede is creating and along with the pace of the novel and the character development she has created an alternative world that I want to keep reading about.
This whole world (alternate history/reality) is just so cool. and the various subplots in this book are all so great.
Not as good as the first book in the series—really just marking time until the conclusion—but I'm interested enough in the universe it's set in.
Although I enjoyed Across the Great Barrier, it was a letdown after Thirteenth Child (the first book in the Frontier Magic series), which I loved. It did not feel as original as the first book, and the tension around Eff being a bad luck "thirteenth" was pretty much gone. (It's similar to how I felt with Wrede's Enchanted Forest series - I loved Dealing with Dragons but felt more let down by each subsequent book.)
Across the Great Barrier kept me interested and I had no trouble finishing it, so I definitely recommend the series.
Across the Great Barrier kept me interested and I had no trouble finishing it, so I definitely recommend the series.
I really enjoy all of Patricia C Wrede's books but this one suffered from the same highlight-reel feel as the first book. I really like the concept of the alternate Wild West, but this could use a little more meat to the story.
maybe I'm coddled and dense but I don't see what the uproar about this series was. so the ice bridge never happened. THERE ARE DRAGONS AND SHIT IN THIS WORLD. that didn't exist here. IT'S FANTASY.
I will always love Patricia Wrede, and conceptually, I am fascinated by this series, but for me it doesn't measure up to her previous work and this sequel didn't measure up to the first book in the series. It features things I like: the prairie; the 1800s, revisionist history; magic - but it never really comes together and this book seemed to lack the urgency of the first one, Thirteenth Child. Plus, I've read some really interesting criticism of the way Wrede's alternate history totally eliminates all native people in the American west and that still really bothered me all the way through.
3.25 The story is still interesting, but the character interplay is a little weaker with a somewhat limited cast. At least the twin brother gets more billing, but I fear for both of the two obvious resolutions of the blessed chilled/cursed child storyline. I'm still holding out some hope for at least a comment on why there are no indigenous humans in the Americas - there was at least a nod about over-simplification of the non-white magical traditions - but I wouldn't bet on it. Note for long-time Wrede readers: There's thankfully little romance and no marriage in this one, but the stepping stones for a volume three marriage are there of course.