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halfelfschollar's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I must say, despite this only being the second book in the series I think the past incarnations shown in this book are some of my favourite. While I enjoy how each version is different from the others you can really see some of the building blocks that the souls are built from in Gweniver and Ricyn.
Kerr is also very talented in distinguishing her antagonists from her true villains. While I despised Alastyr I can find myself pitting a character like Dannyn. While I don't like him I can feel sorry for his situation and the troubled fate he's wrapped up in.
Kerr is also very talented in distinguishing her antagonists from her true villains. While I despised Alastyr I can find myself pitting a character like Dannyn. While I don't like him I can feel sorry for his situation and the troubled fate he's wrapped up in.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, and Sexual violence
Moderate: Homophobia
humanpuke's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
It’s worth noting that apparently a newer edition of this book attempts to fix some of the problems outlined below. I don’t have that edition and can’t comment on that.
Tired trope of “villain is gay and a pedophile” prevented this from being a 5 star book, and some parts dragged more than Daggerspell. It’s from the 1980s, so it’s certainly a terrible relic of trends in SFF at the time. And while the series deals with other consequences of troublesome sexuality, given that this is such a trope, the blatant homophobia can’t really be treated the same as the incest story lines. At least in my opinion.
But it answered a lot of questions from Daggerspell, sometimes in a clumsy fashion, and sometimes in a very interesting way. Still gonna continue on in the series.
Tired trope of “villain is gay and a pedophile” prevented this from being a 5 star book, and some parts dragged more than Daggerspell. It’s from the 1980s, so it’s certainly a terrible relic of trends in SFF at the time. And while the series deals with other consequences of troublesome sexuality, given that this is such a trope, the blatant homophobia can’t really be treated the same as the incest story lines. At least in my opinion.
But it answered a lot of questions from Daggerspell, sometimes in a clumsy fashion, and sometimes in a very interesting way. Still gonna continue on in the series.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Child abuse, and Homophobia
mellymith's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape and Homophobia
aderyn's review against another edition
1.5
I read these for the first time when I was 12, and while I still mostly enjoy the series (if a lot more critically) this book in particular is full of blatant homophobic writing/ideas. Kerr gets better about this when it is touched on in the later books, but at this point it is truly awful.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia
Moderate: Fatphobia and Rape
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