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lylah's review
3.0
These books don’t wow me very much, especially as the series goes on, but I still get in the mood to read them from time to time - I like the setting and the classic fantasy feel a lot, and the Welsh-inspired names and reincarnation plot have always intrigued me.
The beginning of this book was a lot more interesting than the second half; I enjoyed learning about Bardek, which was surprisingly free of stereotypes of a non-dominant culture to this world (I guess the Deverrians are considered barbarians to most places, so the Bardekians may be the dominant culture?). It was a lot of fun to see Jill and Salamander trouping around with their magic show while Rhodry struggled to regain his memories.
The Brotherhood/evil gang plot seems like an overused fantasy trope to me at this point and wasn’t all that riveting; Perryn, under the influence of dark magic, raped Jill repeatedly and ensorcelled her in a previous book and he gets a little too much screen time (and a happy ending) for me; nevertheless, I like that Jill had to choose between her love for Rhodry and studying the dweomer.
I do appreciate that the plot eventually goes back to Nevyn’s need to mentor Jill in the dweomer, but much of this book feels like sidetracking plot points that barely move the characters forward. This series has never had “chapters” but been divided by time and place, and as the reincarnation plot is hardly touched in this book, there are only three or so divisions and much of it felt longer than it had to be because of paragraph breaks indicating new scenes the whole time. I miss the switching back and forth between time periods and incarnations of the characters in the first few books.
The beginning of this book was a lot more interesting than the second half; I enjoyed learning about Bardek, which was surprisingly free of stereotypes of a non-dominant culture to this world (I guess the Deverrians are considered barbarians to most places, so the Bardekians may be the dominant culture?). It was a lot of fun to see Jill and Salamander trouping around with their magic show while Rhodry struggled to regain his memories.
The Brotherhood/evil gang plot seems like an overused fantasy trope to me at this point and wasn’t all that riveting; Perryn, under the influence of dark magic, raped Jill repeatedly and ensorcelled her in a previous book and he gets a little too much screen time (and a happy ending) for me; nevertheless, I like that Jill had to choose between her love for Rhodry and studying the dweomer.
I do appreciate that the plot eventually goes back to Nevyn’s need to mentor Jill in the dweomer, but much of this book feels like sidetracking plot points that barely move the characters forward. This series has never had “chapters” but been divided by time and place, and as the reincarnation plot is hardly touched in this book, there are only three or so divisions and much of it felt longer than it had to be because of paragraph breaks indicating new scenes the whole time. I miss the switching back and forth between time periods and incarnations of the characters in the first few books.
deargeekplace's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
imyril's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
adrienner's review against another edition
5.0
I love this series! I went straight into this fourth book from the third, and it picked right up where it left off. I pretty much read this whole book in one day, I just could not put it down! The fourth book is almost one entire climatic section to the 4 part series.
I would have been happy with the ending (Indeed, happy endings are fine, but ones like this are better) EXCEPT I found out that this is really a 12 part series, not just 4! I had to print out the past lives sheet on Ms. Kerr's website and I see there are several time periods I have not yet read about. Off I go to get the rest of these books. That is how much I have enjoyed them! I am tempted to get myself my own copies of this Deverry world since these were shared with me via bookcrossing.
I can't say if it is a good sign or bad (I think good because I do it with all my favorite books) but at a particularly boring part -- or uninteresting because I don't know what it leads to, I will randomly skip ahead and read a page --- usually 100 pages or so ahead. Today I found myself reading pages 168-173 when I should have been reading page 68. But instead of turning back, I turned to page 400-something and read ... well, I won't spoil it for you, but it is the last scene with Rhodry and Jill. It does not spoil the book for me, it just makes me want to read how they end up there since I skipped all the pages in the middle.
I do wonder what Perryn was. I thought perhaps he was a dragon that somehow ended up in a human body. I don't know if that makes any sense. That's my only unanswered question.
I would have been happy with the ending (Indeed, happy endings are fine, but ones like this are better) EXCEPT I found out that this is really a 12 part series, not just 4! I had to print out the past lives sheet on Ms. Kerr's website and I see there are several time periods I have not yet read about. Off I go to get the rest of these books. That is how much I have enjoyed them! I am tempted to get myself my own copies of this Deverry world since these were shared with me via bookcrossing.
I can't say if it is a good sign or bad (I think good because I do it with all my favorite books) but at a particularly boring part -- or uninteresting because I don't know what it leads to, I will randomly skip ahead and read a page --- usually 100 pages or so ahead. Today I found myself reading pages 168-173 when I should have been reading page 68. But instead of turning back, I turned to page 400-something and read ... well, I won't spoil it for you, but it is the last scene with Rhodry and Jill. It does not spoil the book for me, it just makes me want to read how they end up there since I skipped all the pages in the middle.
I do wonder what Perryn was. I thought perhaps he was a dragon that somehow ended up in a human body. I don't know if that makes any sense. That's my only unanswered question.
evakristin's review against another edition
4.0
The story of Jill and Rhodry continues, in this book without the reincarnations. I have mixed feelings about that. Onthe one side, I enjoyed getting to know our characters through many lives and I liked trying to guess who was who before it was reviled. On the other side, sometimes I was annoyed by the way these stories interrupted the main plot. All in all, I didn't miss it much.
My favourite part about this book (except for finally seing some bad-assery from Nevyn), was exploring Bardek. The small glimpses we get of their culture, the ancestral statues, the crossed oars over the doors, were fascinating. I hope we're going back there later in the series. Because even though this book could be the endingJill has left Rhodry (yes, I cried) and is finally studying the dweomer with Nevyn , I'm very happy about the fact that there's more!
My favourite part about this book (except for finally seing some bad-assery from Nevyn), was exploring Bardek. The small glimpses we get of their culture, the ancestral statues, the crossed oars over the doors, were fascinating. I hope we're going back there later in the series. Because even though this book could be the ending
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