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3.9 AVERAGE
3.9 AVERAGE
Great example of lazy writing and when it might be time to retire. We never get any solid character attachment. We start with one group and just start to attach to them when suddenly book 2 changes it. We have zero attachment to the lead girl who isn’t born yet then 13 then 20 and is so busy being a war general we have no idea who she is as a person. Also - a 20 year who has spent 7 years training, recon, fighting etc and then gets parents yelling at her Ike a little kid because she didn’t pre-check a recon venture with them is so out of the blue for absolutely needless tension. We also have all this build up about the big bad government but only hear from them for a nanosecond. We also get build up about the big battle and how much they’re going to need for it and how intense it’s going to be and then Nora just has lead girl (see, so detached I can’t even remember her name) just flash into the cells everyone’s rescued and captured in a single page and whew war is over, time to go back to writing pages about nothing. This could have been an amazing world building trilogy, time to really get to know the characters and feel for them, but it’s just a hodge-podge of names thrown at you “who is that and why do I care?” “Never mind it doesn’t matter they’re unimportant anyway.” There could have been a lot of interesting elements to flesh out with the world they live in, the individual magical species, how they interact with accepting non-magicals, etc. instead it’s clearly “government bad, is it them, something different = bad” BS and how are they getting by so easily? Water food clothing creature comforts? Nothing about scavenging or rebuilding - just - stuff’s working. I guess because they’re magically random stuff can just be swept under the table as “must be magic” but, again, really lazy writing and a professional like Nora should be ashamed at the “quality” (or the lack thereof) of these books and may need to take a hiatus and maybe a refresher on writing. Also, a father scolding a 20 year old who is leading massive battles that she was making out with a boy? Come on, seriously?!? Also, are they using magic to just make gas or keep gas working because gas has a pretty short shelf life unless it’s kept under specific conditions so wondering why people would leave valuable vehicles abandoned much less the lunacy that 20 years later they’re still driving vehicles is absolutely ridiculous. Nora just keeps giving us the same scene at different locations - happens upon a surprise attack, people are dubious until a magical says Fallon is cool. She gives them all the same exact news. Gets everyone set up. Yay! She’s such a good person. We get almost no interaction of any other characters with each other, no one has any emotions or issues, life is fantastic. Oh wait don’t forget about max’s brother’s crazy girlfriend and kid - whoops never mind on to just repeating how Fallon stoops an attack and just gives away all kinds of supplies because apparently mass manufacturing has returned??? 20 years later and they’re still using bullets? You realize that’s a limit resource. Even if you can make your own bullets there’s still only so many supplies actually in existence that’s likely not being made much or at much limited capacity. Instead of telling us about any of the exciting stuff like the actual battles we keep being revved up for Nora just glosses right over it and all we get is the same regurgitation for endless pages. How does crap like this make someone such a renowned author?
meh. loved the first 2 books, but this was a disappointing finish to a promising series. I love nora Robert's books, but this is not her best work. in fact, I wouldn't even bother with this book.
the writing is choppy, all the characters sound the same to the point where it's often hard to follow who is talking. important moments are skimmed over, important battles are summarised and even the big reveals were glossed over so quickly you are left wondering what purpose they served.
the book is so black and white - no nuance, no grey, no flaws in the good guys, no redeeming features in the bad guys - but in the real world no one is all good or all bad. in this world everyone is one dimensional and lacking any depth of character that would make them interesting. there is no growth, no hero's journey, everything was foregone from the beginning and at no point did it ever seem like the good guys could lose.
all in all a disappointing end to a trilogy that held so much promise in the first book.
the writing is choppy, all the characters sound the same to the point where it's often hard to follow who is talking. important moments are skimmed over, important battles are summarised and even the big reveals were glossed over so quickly you are left wondering what purpose they served.
the book is so black and white - no nuance, no grey, no flaws in the good guys, no redeeming features in the bad guys - but in the real world no one is all good or all bad. in this world everyone is one dimensional and lacking any depth of character that would make them interesting. there is no growth, no hero's journey, everything was foregone from the beginning and at no point did it ever seem like the good guys could lose.
all in all a disappointing end to a trilogy that held so much promise in the first book.
This was a decent ending to the "The One" trilogy. I was left wanting a bit more...tidying up of the various characters, but all in all it was a decent finish.
I'm not completely sold on how Roberts wrapped everyone's stories up, and it let me a bit wanting to know just how things went, but for now...I'll take it.
I'm not completely sold on how Roberts wrapped everyone's stories up, and it let me a bit wanting to know just how things went, but for now...I'll take it.
This was a really great conclusion to this series. While the series as a whole essentially spans twenty years, this last book is really just the final year and the inevitable final battle between light and dark. It's everything that the world has been building toward since the first seal was broken and the Doom was released on the world and magic returned.
Fallon has really come into her own as The One. She knows what needs to be done and knows she must be the leader/general her people and the world expect. While things are never easy in this story she faces all of the challenges head on and trusts the people around her to play there part. This is a story of an epic confrontation, where good faces evil head on. There is darkness and loss along with hope and redemption. The road they all travelled has never been an easy one and there was a lot of pain along the way, both in what those of the dark have done to the ones they've captured as well as with the loss of friends to the battle. But the vision the people of New Hope have fought for is finally starting to seem like it might finally be coming true.
This story is action packed from the beginning. Everything has finally come to ahead and Fallon, with Duncan and her friends and family her side is no longer waiting for things to come to her. It's time to take the fight to the dark and win back the places it has taken. I thoroughly enjoyed this story and felt for the characters as they struggled through losing some of those close to them. But each one knew what it was they were fighting for. A better world was possible and everyone of them was willing to step up to see that vision realized. I enjoyed the way Fallon took action and became the general of this army. She took the fight to the bad guys and felt every pain her people went through. Really happy with the way all of this came out. I liked all of these characters and the bonds of family and community that they have fought for and built over the twenty years of this series. Everything comes full circle and its in that circle that a new future is found.
Fallon has really come into her own as The One. She knows what needs to be done and knows she must be the leader/general her people and the world expect. While things are never easy in this story she faces all of the challenges head on and trusts the people around her to play there part. This is a story of an epic confrontation, where good faces evil head on. There is darkness and loss along with hope and redemption. The road they all travelled has never been an easy one and there was a lot of pain along the way, both in what those of the dark have done to the ones they've captured as well as with the loss of friends to the battle. But the vision the people of New Hope have fought for is finally starting to seem like it might finally be coming true.
This story is action packed from the beginning. Everything has finally come to ahead and Fallon, with Duncan and her friends and family her side is no longer waiting for things to come to her. It's time to take the fight to the dark and win back the places it has taken. I thoroughly enjoyed this story and felt for the characters as they struggled through losing some of those close to them. But each one knew what it was they were fighting for. A better world was possible and everyone of them was willing to step up to see that vision realized. I enjoyed the way Fallon took action and became the general of this army. She took the fight to the bad guys and felt every pain her people went through. Really happy with the way all of this came out. I liked all of these characters and the bonds of family and community that they have fought for and built over the twenty years of this series. Everything comes full circle and its in that circle that a new future is found.
I came to love the characters and enjoyed reading the story, I was always compelled to pick it up and see what happens next. However, everything seemed to happen so easily for Fallon, there were no huge setbacks until at the end. She just knew when to do everything and they always panned out and that seemed a bit unrealistic. Loved the family dynamics and all the characters, Nora Roberts really knows how to write loveable and relatable people.
Yay to a happy ending in these dark times in reality!
I had much of the same issue with this book as I did with the first one in the series. Everything happened much too quickly and with too little explanation. I mean for goodness sake, the culminating battle happened in the last 12 pages. If that doesn't scream rushed, I don't know what would. There were so many important events that just happened much too quickly for my liking. Overall, the story was very compelling, the writing just didn't do it justice in my opinion.
A wonderful series. Fight scenes are the only weakness. They’re summed up and not severe enough.
I was listening to this while on a long drive and found myself sobbing multiple times on the freeway. A perfect conclusion of this trilogy. I will forever be sad that more people don’t read this brilliant series, which unfortunately came out right before the pandemic. I would absolutely recommend this series to anyone who likes fantasy, but definitely listen to the audio book narrarated by the one and only Julia Whalen
What a disappointment. I really loved the first two installments, so much that I pre-ordered this book back in May. I pre-order a lot of books and typically this means I end up surprised when it is delivered, but this is one that I remembered the date of (Tuesday before Thanksgiving) and anxiously awaited. Only to be wholly and completely let down - it felt like the same lines, the same thing repeated, over and over and over again, until the end, which was very obvious and would have been okay that it was obvious if not for the rote storytelling, lackluster dialogue (it was painful in some spots) and complete lack of plot other than, "we know the end is coming, we have to pick a date for it, though." So frustrating and I think an ultimate disservice to these characters and their world. Bummer.