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3.64 AVERAGE
3.64 AVERAGE
Enter a fantasy world full of unique creatures and abilities. A young girl must overcome a difficult beginning to unlock her potential. Few help her along the way, so she must decide for herself whom to trust and how to proceed. At times her journey seems slow, while at other times she is forced along a path she does not want to tread.
DNF at 56%.
I’ve tried three different times to get into this and I just can’t. I think the characters are too young, and I also don’t enjoy the multiple viewpoints. The story itself is fine if slow, and the world building is quite interesting.
Just kinda meh.
I’ve tried three different times to get into this and I just can’t. I think the characters are too young, and I also don’t enjoy the multiple viewpoints. The story itself is fine if slow, and the world building is quite interesting.
Just kinda meh.
I really enjoyed Catling's bane, the prose is excellent and so are many of the characters, with quality varying upon how much time was devoted to them. Catling, in particular, is good, as her personality evolves as she matures and experiences the various events of her life.
The plot itself is also excellent, with its core foundation revolving around the morality of emotionally influencing people for 'the greater good.' This provided a wealth of depth to the world, plot, and characters because the author doesn't simplify the moral conflict. We are introduced to heinous, middling and benevolent characters performing this mental abuse, many of them truly believing in their cause while acknowledging the reality that they're oppressive and abusive. I loved this moral core of the narrative.
However, speaking the narrative, there are stretches where not much happens. I never found the story boring, in part because of the prose and character's excellence, and these inactive sections do have a purpose in the story, the narrative just doesn't progress. It's particularly prevalent in one of the POV characters, who, despite having emotional nucleus and goals, spent most of their chapters floundering through the story and not really interacting with or affecting events meaningfully.
That one, minor, qualm aside, I really enjoyed the book.
The plot itself is also excellent, with its core foundation revolving around the morality of emotionally influencing people for 'the greater good.' This provided a wealth of depth to the world, plot, and characters because the author doesn't simplify the moral conflict. We are introduced to heinous, middling and benevolent characters performing this mental abuse, many of them truly believing in their cause while acknowledging the reality that they're oppressive and abusive. I loved this moral core of the narrative.
However, speaking the narrative, there are stretches where not much happens. I never found the story boring, in part because of the prose and character's excellence, and these inactive sections do have a purpose in the story, the narrative just doesn't progress. It's particularly prevalent in one of the POV characters, who, despite having emotional nucleus and goals, spent most of their chapters floundering through the story and not really interacting with or affecting events meaningfully.
That one, minor, qualm aside, I really enjoyed the book.
Here is my review of Book 1 of The Rose Shield: Catling’s Bane by D. Wallace Peach.
WARNING: THE FOLLOWING MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS.
Summary (from Amazon):
In the tiers of Ellegeance, the elite Influencers’ Guild holds the power to manipulate emotions. Love and fear, pain and pleasure, healing and death mark the extremes of their sway, but it’s the subtle blends that hook their victims’ hearts. They hide behind oaths of loyalty and rule the world.
A child born in the grim warrens beneath the city, Catling rues the rose birthmark encircling her eye. Yet, it grants her the ability to disrupt the influencers’ sway. Established methods of civil control disintegrate before her. She’s a weapon desired by those who reign and those who rebel.
To the Influencer’s Guild, she’s an aberration, a threat. They order her death and thus the betrayals begin. One woman protects and trains her, plotting to use her shield to further imperial goals. No longer a helpless child, Catling has other plans. As chaos shakes the foundations of order and rule, will she become the realm’s savior? Or its executioner?
The Rose Shield Tetralogy – a blend of science fiction and fantasy.
Welcome to a world of three moons, a sentient landscape, rivers of light, and tier cities that rise from the swamps like otherworld flowers. A planet of waterdragons, where humans are the aliens living among three-fingered natives with spotted skin. Where a half-blood converses with the fog and the goddess plans her final reckoning.
Follow Catling’s journey as she grows from childhood into the deadly force that shapes the future. She is the realm’s shield, an influencer, assassin, healer, mother, and avenger. And all she wants is to go home.
The books of The Rose Shield Tetralogy
Catling’s Bane
Oathbreakers’ Guild
Farlanders’ Law
Kari’s Reckoning
What I liked:
This is an epic fantasy story in the vein of Brandon Sanderson, Jim Butcher, or the late Robert Jordan. It is a richly envisioned world filled with vibrant characters that surprise you at every turn. There are no stereotypical archetypes here, but characters that do move, act, and react to the situations and circumstances of their lives in ways that seem both logical and stunning. The twists in action keep the story from falling in the normal pace of fantasy epics where the humble-hero escapes peril and becomes savior but in a satisfying way. The layers upon layers of motivation in each character kept me as the reader from figuring out where things would finish. The detailed world with its twists on mythical and more mundane creatures aided the story in ways where a lot of high fantasy writers weigh their stories down and make them sluggish. This was masterful writing.
What I didn’t like:
The “power” of the influencers, and Catling’s unique ability, read a lot like Robert Jordan’s “one power” in his Wheel of Time series. At first, it was all too familiar. I do have to say, though, D. Wallace Peach made it her own and added a mix of details to this power that makes it unique. I can see the influence of other writers (like the aforementioned Jordan, Sanderson, and others), but it is only that, an influence. By the time I finished the book, the similarities stopped and something altogether new emerged.
Conclusion:
Here we have a book that needs recognition by the world at large. There are many, and I do mean many, books that get a lot of attention that fail miserably in comparison to what author D. Wallace Peach has created here. This is a world readers are longing to find. These are characters fantasy fans need to know. My only head-scratching question I have after reading just this first book is, where is Netflix or Amazon with their offers to make a high-budget series of this?
WARNING: THE FOLLOWING MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS.
Summary (from Amazon):
In the tiers of Ellegeance, the elite Influencers’ Guild holds the power to manipulate emotions. Love and fear, pain and pleasure, healing and death mark the extremes of their sway, but it’s the subtle blends that hook their victims’ hearts. They hide behind oaths of loyalty and rule the world.
A child born in the grim warrens beneath the city, Catling rues the rose birthmark encircling her eye. Yet, it grants her the ability to disrupt the influencers’ sway. Established methods of civil control disintegrate before her. She’s a weapon desired by those who reign and those who rebel.
To the Influencer’s Guild, she’s an aberration, a threat. They order her death and thus the betrayals begin. One woman protects and trains her, plotting to use her shield to further imperial goals. No longer a helpless child, Catling has other plans. As chaos shakes the foundations of order and rule, will she become the realm’s savior? Or its executioner?
The Rose Shield Tetralogy – a blend of science fiction and fantasy.
Welcome to a world of three moons, a sentient landscape, rivers of light, and tier cities that rise from the swamps like otherworld flowers. A planet of waterdragons, where humans are the aliens living among three-fingered natives with spotted skin. Where a half-blood converses with the fog and the goddess plans her final reckoning.
Follow Catling’s journey as she grows from childhood into the deadly force that shapes the future. She is the realm’s shield, an influencer, assassin, healer, mother, and avenger. And all she wants is to go home.
The books of The Rose Shield Tetralogy
Catling’s Bane
Oathbreakers’ Guild
Farlanders’ Law
Kari’s Reckoning
What I liked:
This is an epic fantasy story in the vein of Brandon Sanderson, Jim Butcher, or the late Robert Jordan. It is a richly envisioned world filled with vibrant characters that surprise you at every turn. There are no stereotypical archetypes here, but characters that do move, act, and react to the situations and circumstances of their lives in ways that seem both logical and stunning. The twists in action keep the story from falling in the normal pace of fantasy epics where the humble-hero escapes peril and becomes savior but in a satisfying way. The layers upon layers of motivation in each character kept me as the reader from figuring out where things would finish. The detailed world with its twists on mythical and more mundane creatures aided the story in ways where a lot of high fantasy writers weigh their stories down and make them sluggish. This was masterful writing.
What I didn’t like:
The “power” of the influencers, and Catling’s unique ability, read a lot like Robert Jordan’s “one power” in his Wheel of Time series. At first, it was all too familiar. I do have to say, though, D. Wallace Peach made it her own and added a mix of details to this power that makes it unique. I can see the influence of other writers (like the aforementioned Jordan, Sanderson, and others), but it is only that, an influence. By the time I finished the book, the similarities stopped and something altogether new emerged.
Conclusion:
Here we have a book that needs recognition by the world at large. There are many, and I do mean many, books that get a lot of attention that fail miserably in comparison to what author D. Wallace Peach has created here. This is a world readers are longing to find. These are characters fantasy fans need to know. My only head-scratching question I have after reading just this first book is, where is Netflix or Amazon with their offers to make a high-budget series of this?
4.5 stars.
Catling’s Bane is the first in the Rose Shield series and showcases D. Wallace Peach’s wonderful fantasy writing. It is a character driven story with a young girl: Catling taking centre stage. BUT don’t be fooled into thinking this is a gentle read. It is not. There are influencers at work, who think nothing of killing people, even the youngest members of society are cruelly eliminated for minor crimes, whilst their peers, and family members are ‘influenced,’ to believe that their hangings are no more than a fun day of entertainment.There is a strong political element to the story, with warrens representing the classes of society. Also, there is a sense of wanting to belong, to be part of a caring family, and poor Catling longs for that more than anything: even though her mother isn’t exactly maternal Catling still cares for her.
The beginning was a little difficult to follow due to the large cast of characters. A short introduction to them all would have been welcome.
At times the plot shifted in an unexpected way but the ending had me buzzing for more. The ending was brutal but beautifully written. I couldn’t look away! Oh my!
This is my first introduction to D. Wallace Peach’s novels. I’ve been following her blog for a long while and been impressed by her writing. There is no doubt in my mind that D. Wallace Peach is a talented author.
Beautiful writing in all categories: descriptive, emotive and very entertaining dialogue and I couldn’t help but be invested in Catling’s plight.
#highlyrecommended
My rating: 4.5 stars.
Catling’s Bane is the first in the Rose Shield series and showcases D. Wallace Peach’s wonderful fantasy writing. It is a character driven story with a young girl: Catling taking centre stage. BUT don’t be fooled into thinking this is a gentle read. It is not. There are influencers at work, who think nothing of killing people, even the youngest members of society are cruelly eliminated for minor crimes, whilst their peers, and family members are ‘influenced,’ to believe that their hangings are no more than a fun day of entertainment.There is a strong political element to the story, with warrens representing the classes of society. Also, there is a sense of wanting to belong, to be part of a caring family, and poor Catling longs for that more than anything: even though her mother isn’t exactly maternal Catling still cares for her.
The beginning was a little difficult to follow due to the large cast of characters. A short introduction to them all would have been welcome.
At times the plot shifted in an unexpected way but the ending had me buzzing for more. The ending was brutal but beautifully written. I couldn’t look away! Oh my!
This is my first introduction to D. Wallace Peach’s novels. I’ve been following her blog for a long while and been impressed by her writing. There is no doubt in my mind that D. Wallace Peach is a talented author.
Beautiful writing in all categories: descriptive, emotive and very entertaining dialogue and I couldn’t help but be invested in Catling’s plight.
#highlyrecommended
My rating: 4.5 stars.
Catling's Bane (The Rose Shield #1) by D. Wallace Peach – I won a copy of this one, and forgot I won it. I have been sorting through my tbr pile trying to review books I won advanced copies of and this one matriculated to the top. If you like political/dystopian fantasy, this has some lovingly detailed world building. I liked our leading lady, but I wanted there to be a bit more action and a bit less description. Ever read a British Pastoral Novel (Thomas Hardy we are looking at you man)? Description to excess. Don’t get me wrong, it was beautifully done. But I wanted a bit more plot. Still enjoyed it! Happy Reading!
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes