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3.62 AVERAGE
3.62 AVERAGE
Oh... no... review time... And the dreaded 3 stars... more like 3.5 towards the end as the pace quickened and the action really came together.
I certainly enjoyed this book. I liked the world building. The characters were likable and I'm in love with Myn the baby dragon.
I think pacing was a problem at the beginning. I lost pace several times. It dragged a litttle but I can see the author was trying to build and create in this time too. Maybe less explanation. In the same breath, some sections (not written in chapters) finished rather abruptly. E.g. Oh she did that and then went to sleep ... Ok ...
The story was left at a gripping moment so I wouldn't say no to reading the next book.
I certainly enjoyed this book. I liked the world building. The characters were likable and I'm in love with Myn the baby dragon.
I think pacing was a problem at the beginning. I lost pace several times. It dragged a litttle but I can see the author was trying to build and create in this time too. Maybe less explanation. In the same breath, some sections (not written in chapters) finished rather abruptly. E.g. Oh she did that and then went to sleep ... Ok ...
The story was left at a gripping moment so I wouldn't say no to reading the next book.
This is what I'd call a 'middle of the road' book, otherwise known as a 'three-starrer' or a bang in the middle book. The plot line is very high fantasy esque with all of the cliches that come along with that; schools of magic, various well known creatures and a heroine thrown in at the deep end with a magic sword thrown in for good measure along with a couple of legends.
However, that said, it is an interesting read and kept me engaged to the end although often I wondered why when I was pretty certain what was going to happen. And that is perhaps the crux of the matter; had it been a little less predictable, with a main character who wasn't obviously going to succeed at everything she set her mind to, it would have been more thrilling and far more interesting. As it was, by half way through I didn't care what scrapes our heroine got into because she was always going to escape with little more than scrapes and bruises and perhaps fainting weakly, because that's what girls do. The author is good at throwing hell at his characters, however our heroine is virtually too perfect to be believed and is awesome, obviously. Mary Sue is perhaps a realistic description here.
I did enjoy the portrayal of Leo, half-fox-human beast thing, as a very sketchy character whom you are never quite certain of motives for. The dragons are extremely cool characters as well with a clever moving of intellect and animalistic behaviour. Likewise some of the minor characters we come across spring off the page, regardless of cliche, and it shows the author has skill in creating 3D characters... he just seems to have let it slide with his heroine in favour of her being generally brilliant and yet at the same time child like and naive. She interferes with any grey spectrum of morality issue by being childishly black and white, but despite all she's come through she doesn't gain an understanding of the varied shades of grey. She's instead brilliant yet whiny, child-like yet battle ready and doesn't seem to grow up. That is a combination of attributes likely to get my back up any day of the week.
The other issue with the book is the writing style. It's not bad as such but it's not brilliant either. It's very 'he said', 'he said', 'this happens', 'that happens' and seems to be missing any emotive link or exceptional writing skill. It's readable, don't get me wrong, but the slightly stilted nature pulled me out of the story more times than I could count which is a definite negative. Perhaps it doesn't help that I couldn't empathise with the main character, but there also wasn't a lot there to empathise with.
So essentially, three stars for keeping me engaged to the end but not thrilling me and certainly not wowing me. Will I read the next in the series? Yeah, why not. If I didn't already own it I wouldn't seek it out though.
However, that said, it is an interesting read and kept me engaged to the end although often I wondered why when I was pretty certain what was going to happen. And that is perhaps the crux of the matter; had it been a little less predictable, with a main character who wasn't obviously going to succeed at everything she set her mind to, it would have been more thrilling and far more interesting. As it was, by half way through I didn't care what scrapes our heroine got into because she was always going to escape with little more than scrapes and bruises and perhaps fainting weakly, because that's what girls do. The author is good at throwing hell at his characters, however our heroine is virtually too perfect to be believed and is awesome, obviously. Mary Sue is perhaps a realistic description here.
I did enjoy the portrayal of Leo, half-fox-human beast thing, as a very sketchy character whom you are never quite certain of motives for. The dragons are extremely cool characters as well with a clever moving of intellect and animalistic behaviour. Likewise some of the minor characters we come across spring off the page, regardless of cliche, and it shows the author has skill in creating 3D characters... he just seems to have let it slide with his heroine in favour of her being generally brilliant and yet at the same time child like and naive. She interferes with any grey spectrum of morality issue by being childishly black and white, but despite all she's come through she doesn't gain an understanding of the varied shades of grey. She's instead brilliant yet whiny, child-like yet battle ready and doesn't seem to grow up. That is a combination of attributes likely to get my back up any day of the week.
The other issue with the book is the writing style. It's not bad as such but it's not brilliant either. It's very 'he said', 'he said', 'this happens', 'that happens' and seems to be missing any emotive link or exceptional writing skill. It's readable, don't get me wrong, but the slightly stilted nature pulled me out of the story more times than I could count which is a definite negative. Perhaps it doesn't help that I couldn't empathise with the main character, but there also wasn't a lot there to empathise with.
So essentially, three stars for keeping me engaged to the end but not thrilling me and certainly not wowing me. Will I read the next in the series? Yeah, why not. If I didn't already own it I wouldn't seek it out though.
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Review for Kindle version:
A nice read, but wasn't that amazing. Didn't like the author's writing style found many technical errors, and even line editing needs works. Main character was boring and unrealistic. She's "unbalanced" in the sense that she's powerful as a mage and knows how to fight. I think it's because the author's a dude, he made this girl to please the female readers out there, but he failed to deliver. There were many instances where the MC could've showed weakness, or even some femininity without betraying herself, but the author just doesn't know the mind of a female, 'cause he ain't one to begin with. Sabriel worked, but this book didn't. For some reason this book felt like a weird mash-up of Amulet (graphic novel), Wizard101, and some other minor YA fantasy novel I read that wasn't good enough for me to remember its name.
A nice read, but wasn't that amazing. Didn't like the author's writing style found many technical errors, and even line editing needs works. Main character was boring and unrealistic. She's "unbalanced" in the sense that she's powerful as a mage and knows how to fight. I think it's because the author's a dude, he made this girl to please the female readers out there, but he failed to deliver. There were many instances where the MC could've showed weakness, or even some femininity without betraying herself, but the author just doesn't know the mind of a female, 'cause he ain't one to begin with. Sabriel worked, but this book didn't. For some reason this book felt like a weird mash-up of Amulet (graphic novel), Wizard101, and some other minor YA fantasy novel I read that wasn't good enough for me to remember its name.
If I hadn't already read "Winter of Fire" I may have liked this book more. The characters were fun (if you like Pollyana protagonists and mysterious, capable, victimized warriors) and who doesn't want a dragon sidekick? But "Winter of Fire" also has a strong female protagonist who is certain she is right and the world is wrong, lives in an extremely cold climate, and escapes to a hidden retreat where she learns more about her powers. "Winter of Fire" is better written and better paced.
This book was creative, and interesting. But it definitely took me quite a while to get through. The only thing I can think to say is that it lacked the ability to hold my attention. I felt like I was just wading through mud, and then randomly would hit a spot of less resistance for a few pages, but then would get slowed down again and I'd have to trudge through. The story wasn't bad, the characters were developed and the world building was interesting, but the pace was just too slow for me. This is very much my own preference and doesn't reflect negatively on how the book was written, as I said earlier it was creative and had it's moments of fast paced action. But it's just not my cup of tea.
3.5 stars
An entertaining epic fantasy. It felt like it moved quickly, though really not a whole lot actually happens in this first book of three. I'd have rated it higher if Myranda wasn't so annoying for the sake of being an annoying character so often.
Also made the mistake of starting book 4 before realizing it was book 4, so I might worry more about these characters if I didn't know how the trilogy ended...
An entertaining epic fantasy. It felt like it moved quickly, though really not a whole lot actually happens in this first book of three. I'd have rated it higher if Myranda wasn't so annoying for the sake of being an annoying character so often.
Also made the mistake of starting book 4 before realizing it was book 4, so I might worry more about these characters if I didn't know how the trilogy ended...
[This is an older review I'm just now adding to GR. I had noticed this was still on my "planning to read" shelf even though I'd already read it.]
Myranda is alone, the last surviving member of her village, and a pacifist in a world that seems bent on rejecting peace. In the Northern Alliance, her home, speaking out against the Perpetual War can get a person ostracized or worse. Myranda finds herself constantly on the move, and it is during her aimless travels that she comes across a dead soldier and his beautiful jeweled sword. That sword lands Myranda in an enormous amount of trouble, bringing her to the attention of the Northern Alliance's elite soldiers, a rebel group known as Undermine, and a deadly and mysterious assassin known as the Red Shadow.
I downloaded this for free about three years ago and finally decided to read it when I saw that the author's other books were part of the current month-long Smashwords sale. I was particularly interested in The Rise of the Red Shadow, because I'm a sucker for gorgeous cover art and anthropomorphic foxes.
The Book of Deacon did a pretty good job of killing my interest in getting more of this series. It may have a pretty cover, but the text itself read like an early draft rather than a polished and complete work. There were typos, incorrectly used words, sentences that used the wrong verb tense, and way too many instances of the words “rather” and “quite,” but the real problem was the work as a whole.
Yeah, I know that sounds harsh. I do think that there was a decent story in here, but it was buried under plodding pacing, ridiculous, incorrect, or confusing details, and a lack of decent focus. It needed somebody to go through the whole thing and ask questions like “Does this make sense?”, “Is this section necessary?” and “Is there a better way to communicate this information?” At the very least.
One of many examples: women didn't traditionally become soldiers, but the war had been going on for so long that there simply weren't enough men anymore. Women had started to go off to war rather than stay at home and raise families. You'd think that this would lead to things like a steadily shrinking population, a healthy respect for anyone that might be considered this world's equivalent of a doctor, and maybe protests against the war. Instead, people attacked or shunned anyone who was against the war. On the one hand, it was made illegal for white magic practitioners to practice white magic (healing, among other things) in the service of anyone but the Northern Alliance Army. On the other hand, many white magic practitioners were let go from the army because it was supposedly easier to just replace fallen soldiers than heal them. Which directly contradicted the detail about the lack of men leading to more women becoming soldiers. None of it made any sense.
There was some evidence, later on in the book, that the Northern Alliance had been infiltrated by the series' true bad guys, a group of inhuman beings. Maybe they were using the war to slowly destroy the Northern Alliance from within, but that didn't explain the shocking way Myranda was treated. People who should have been at least a little interested in her continued survival seemed determined to kill her with apathy.
The rebel group that found Myranda knew her shoulder was wounded but hadn't even planned to look at it, much less do anything about it. When they realized it was infected, they let her have a night's rest, gave her some food and water, and sent her on a multi-day journey to a wizard. Granted, Myranda herself didn't seem to think her injury was worth much concern either, because she didn't immediately tell the wizard about it. When she finally mentioned it, he removed the bit of wood that led to the infection and then told her she'd better learn white magic quickly, because he was going to expect her to heal herself. He didn't mention that it should have taken her 3+ weeks to learn everything she needed to know. Luckily, she was super special and learned fast.
Like I said, I don't think anyone read this book through prior to its publication and asked whether everything made sense. I kept reading, though, because I'm bad at DNFing books and because there were occasional good bits. I liked Leo, who reminded me a little of Disney's Robin Hood, and the baby dragon was kind of cute.
The last third of the book made me regret my decision to continue on. Myranda ended up in a hidden village filled with what were essentially academics. Literally everyone studied simply for the sake of studying – practical work, like food growing, could be quickly taken care of via magic. For absolutely no reason, all of the village's Master-level magic users fought to be the first to train Myranda their variety of magic, and, although she'd only just started to learn magic, she was instantly put in expert-level training sessions. She took days or weeks to learn what should have taken her months or years. Meanwhile Deacon, an actual magical genius who'd been studying for years, worried that he'd only hold Myranda back if he spent too much time with her.
(Yes, there was a hint of romance, but only a hint, because they were both too socially awkward to make much progress in that area. It went something like this: Master magic user: "Psst! Tell her she's pretty." Deacon: "I'm sure you already know this, Myranda, but you're lovely. *blush*" Myranda: "Oh! *blush* Thank you. You're a really nice friend.")
I honestly don't think it was necessary for readers to see every detail of Myranda learning to master first fire, then air, then earth, and then water. It was excruciating and often ridiculous. Also, I found myself becoming more and more frustrated with Myranda. She got angry at Leo/Lain for not doing what he could to stop the war, but she should really have directed her anger at the entire village. Everyone there was a powerful magic user and/or warrior, and not one of them had even tried to leave the village, much less lifted a finger to stop the war. They were all content with their petty rivalries, meaningless squabbles, and neverending research.
Although this ended on a cliffhanger, I have no desire to find out what happens next.
(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)
Myranda is alone, the last surviving member of her village, and a pacifist in a world that seems bent on rejecting peace. In the Northern Alliance, her home, speaking out against the Perpetual War can get a person ostracized or worse. Myranda finds herself constantly on the move, and it is during her aimless travels that she comes across a dead soldier and his beautiful jeweled sword. That sword lands Myranda in an enormous amount of trouble, bringing her to the attention of the Northern Alliance's elite soldiers, a rebel group known as Undermine, and a deadly and mysterious assassin known as the Red Shadow.
I downloaded this for free about three years ago and finally decided to read it when I saw that the author's other books were part of the current month-long Smashwords sale. I was particularly interested in The Rise of the Red Shadow, because I'm a sucker for gorgeous cover art and anthropomorphic foxes.
The Book of Deacon did a pretty good job of killing my interest in getting more of this series. It may have a pretty cover, but the text itself read like an early draft rather than a polished and complete work. There were typos, incorrectly used words, sentences that used the wrong verb tense, and way too many instances of the words “rather” and “quite,” but the real problem was the work as a whole.
Yeah, I know that sounds harsh. I do think that there was a decent story in here, but it was buried under plodding pacing, ridiculous, incorrect, or confusing details, and a lack of decent focus. It needed somebody to go through the whole thing and ask questions like “Does this make sense?”, “Is this section necessary?” and “Is there a better way to communicate this information?” At the very least.
One of many examples: women didn't traditionally become soldiers, but the war had been going on for so long that there simply weren't enough men anymore. Women had started to go off to war rather than stay at home and raise families. You'd think that this would lead to things like a steadily shrinking population, a healthy respect for anyone that might be considered this world's equivalent of a doctor, and maybe protests against the war. Instead, people attacked or shunned anyone who was against the war. On the one hand, it was made illegal for white magic practitioners to practice white magic (healing, among other things) in the service of anyone but the Northern Alliance Army. On the other hand, many white magic practitioners were let go from the army because it was supposedly easier to just replace fallen soldiers than heal them. Which directly contradicted the detail about the lack of men leading to more women becoming soldiers. None of it made any sense.
There was some evidence, later on in the book, that the Northern Alliance had been infiltrated by the series' true bad guys, a group of inhuman beings. Maybe they were using the war to slowly destroy the Northern Alliance from within, but that didn't explain the shocking way Myranda was treated. People who should have been at least a little interested in her continued survival seemed determined to kill her with apathy.
The rebel group that found Myranda knew her shoulder was wounded but hadn't even planned to look at it, much less do anything about it. When they realized it was infected, they let her have a night's rest, gave her some food and water, and sent her on a multi-day journey to a wizard. Granted, Myranda herself didn't seem to think her injury was worth much concern either, because she didn't immediately tell the wizard about it. When she finally mentioned it, he removed the bit of wood that led to the infection and then told her she'd better learn white magic quickly, because he was going to expect her to heal herself. He didn't mention that it should have taken her 3+ weeks to learn everything she needed to know. Luckily, she was super special and learned fast.
Like I said, I don't think anyone read this book through prior to its publication and asked whether everything made sense. I kept reading, though, because I'm bad at DNFing books and because there were occasional good bits. I liked Leo, who reminded me a little of Disney's Robin Hood, and the baby dragon was kind of cute.
The last third of the book made me regret my decision to continue on. Myranda ended up in a hidden village filled with what were essentially academics. Literally everyone studied simply for the sake of studying – practical work, like food growing, could be quickly taken care of via magic. For absolutely no reason, all of the village's Master-level magic users fought to be the first to train Myranda their variety of magic, and, although she'd only just started to learn magic, she was instantly put in expert-level training sessions. She took days or weeks to learn what should have taken her months or years. Meanwhile Deacon, an actual magical genius who'd been studying for years, worried that he'd only hold Myranda back if he spent too much time with her.
(Yes, there was a hint of romance, but only a hint, because they were both too socially awkward to make much progress in that area. It went something like this: Master magic user: "Psst! Tell her she's pretty." Deacon: "I'm sure you already know this, Myranda, but you're lovely. *blush*" Myranda: "Oh! *blush* Thank you. You're a really nice friend.")
I honestly don't think it was necessary for readers to see every detail of Myranda learning to master first fire, then air, then earth, and then water. It was excruciating and often ridiculous. Also, I found myself becoming more and more frustrated with Myranda. She got angry at Leo/Lain for not doing what he could to stop the war, but she should really have directed her anger at the entire village. Everyone there was a powerful magic user and/or warrior, and not one of them had even tried to leave the village, much less lifted a finger to stop the war. They were all content with their petty rivalries, meaningless squabbles, and neverending research.
Although this ended on a cliffhanger, I have no desire to find out what happens next.
(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)
I was excited about this book because the description included magic, wars, fantastical creatures, and more! I thought this would be right up my alley and got the audio version to listen to for a road trip. Unfortunately, it was not as exciting as I thought it would be and dangerously had me nodding off more than being intrigued. It was so boring and uneventful for me. At first, I thought it might be leading up to something grand but it ended up with Myranda training, which had potential to be grand, but fell flat for me. The most exciting part for me was Myn and I finished it for her. I'm nervous to continue the series if the next book would follow the same pattern. I felt like the potential was there for the characters and the plots, but it just didn't work for me.