Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.38 AVERAGE
3.38 AVERAGE
REVIEW PART ONE: LANGUAGE AND STYLE
Rawn (who has been around for quite a while, yes I know) writes beautifully. I have no complaints at all about that aspect of the book.
REVIEW PART TWO: CHARACTERS & CHARACTERIZATION
The characters here are lively, interesting - and rather dramatic, as befits a group of traveling players. Even the two players that are obvious "types" are well-drawn enough to not detract from things. The secondary characters also show some economizing in places (the Prince who's a notorious rake, the eccentric family, etc.), but again the story skims along fast and brightly enough that it's barely noticeable. Especially since the POV sticks closely with two of the players.
REVIEW PART THREE: WORLDBUILDING
The story is set in a country that has a wildly mixed population - people have ancestry that can include any of Human, Troll, Elf, Fae, and several others. There is a monarchy. There was a generation-ago civil war and residual related hostilities. Information about all of this is provided in clumps, not all of them wonderfully paced, but it's never easy to work that kind of material into a narrative. Also, the characters are refreshingly aware of how unfair the laws and customs of their society are toward women ... perhaps because they particularly disadvantage a friend of theirs, but still. They even talk about it and at one point the main protagonist makes a public complaint. Nice.
REVIEW PART FOUR: PLOT, PACING, RELATED ISSUES
And here's where it all falls apart for me. The beginning was baffling, because it took me far too many pages to figure out that the POV character was in this tavern because his little troupe was performing there. But that's not the main thing, and I forgave the book almost immediately because of the quality of the writing.
No, the main thing is that the narrative follows the troupe through its triumphal competition debut and subsequent tour. There are character developments. There are hints, and then outright warnings, that someone is going to appear who will mess things up badly for one of the characters. Toward the end of the book, it's clear that the villain has appeared - somewhere in the background.
And the climax? The final, concluding moment, the payoff, the crashing chord that ties everything together at the end?
The POV character decides to Do Something About The Villain.
IN THE NEXT BOOK.
Yes, it's a Volume 1 in which lots of incidents and business occur - and some great character development and worldbuilding stuff, truly - but apparently what the plot was REALLY about was this guy screwing himself up to dare to try meddling with things.
For this conclusionless conclusion, I put off various bits of work I needed to do and gave myself a headache?!? Insert swear words here.
This book goes back to the public library, and I doubt I'll bother with Volume 2. Grrr.
Rawn (who has been around for quite a while, yes I know) writes beautifully. I have no complaints at all about that aspect of the book.
REVIEW PART TWO: CHARACTERS & CHARACTERIZATION
The characters here are lively, interesting - and rather dramatic, as befits a group of traveling players. Even the two players that are obvious "types" are well-drawn enough to not detract from things. The secondary characters also show some economizing in places (the Prince who's a notorious rake, the eccentric family, etc.), but again the story skims along fast and brightly enough that it's barely noticeable. Especially since the POV sticks closely with two of the players.
REVIEW PART THREE: WORLDBUILDING
The story is set in a country that has a wildly mixed population - people have ancestry that can include any of Human, Troll, Elf, Fae, and several others. There is a monarchy. There was a generation-ago civil war and residual related hostilities. Information about all of this is provided in clumps, not all of them wonderfully paced, but it's never easy to work that kind of material into a narrative. Also, the characters are refreshingly aware of how unfair the laws and customs of their society are toward women ... perhaps because they particularly disadvantage a friend of theirs, but still. They even talk about it and at one point the main protagonist makes a public complaint. Nice.
REVIEW PART FOUR: PLOT, PACING, RELATED ISSUES
And here's where it all falls apart for me. The beginning was baffling, because it took me far too many pages to figure out that the POV character was in this tavern because his little troupe was performing there. But that's not the main thing, and I forgave the book almost immediately because of the quality of the writing.
No, the main thing is that the narrative follows the troupe through its triumphal competition debut and subsequent tour. There are character developments. There are hints, and then outright warnings, that someone is going to appear who will mess things up badly for one of the characters. Toward the end of the book, it's clear that the villain has appeared - somewhere in the background.
And the climax? The final, concluding moment, the payoff, the crashing chord that ties everything together at the end?
The POV character decides to Do Something About The Villain.
IN THE NEXT BOOK.
Yes, it's a Volume 1 in which lots of incidents and business occur - and some great character development and worldbuilding stuff, truly - but apparently what the plot was REALLY about was this guy screwing himself up to dare to try meddling with things.
For this conclusionless conclusion, I put off various bits of work I needed to do and gave myself a headache?!? Insert swear words here.
This book goes back to the public library, and I doubt I'll bother with Volume 2. Grrr.
Good read. Enjoyed the world she has created in this series and am looking forward to book 2!!!
4.5 stars actually :-)
http://www.thebookbag.co.uk/reviews/index.php?title=Glass_Thorns_-_Touchstone_by_Melanie_Rawn
http://www.thebookbag.co.uk/reviews/index.php?title=Glass_Thorns_-_Touchstone_by_Melanie_Rawn
Not sure what the problem was. I wanted to like this book, but there was something about the pacing that didn't work at all for me
I've had this one my to-read shelf for a couple of years now, and finally gave in. The problem is that it's the first in a new series, and I've been waiting 15 years for her to complete the last trilogy, after leaving book 2 on a total cliffhanger, so was really quite wary of starting a new one before it was complete. It was inventive, fast paced, engrossing, I really liked it, and I don't dare recommend it to anyone until I know it's going to get a resolution one day, because I've lost a lot of trust in the author. I haven't decided what star rating to give it on Goodreads yet!
Interesting story and characters, but ... details are held out of reach, repeated, vanish, ... not as tight as I expect from this great author. May still read next one, Elsewhens though, as the theme parallels with authors' creative process (a goldmine of a blurb!)
The story and characters are engaging, but I'm left with the feeling that nothing actually happened, that this first book is all build up to the other books that are to come in the series. As a matter of fact, when the book ended, I was like, WTH. Hopefully, the other books in the series will have a lot more action.
...despite the enjoyable aspects of this novel, there are some parts of it that do not sit well with me at all: specifically, certain aspects of the worldbuilding. While the concept and the characters are a great joy to read about, the world itself does not do it any favours. The pseudo-European setting, as well as the mind-boggling number of fantasy races, some of which do not make a lot of sense (how can a Wizard be considered a separate race entirely from Human?), are not particularly interesting, and add very little to the story beyond explaining why certain characters are good at certain things and bad at others.
I am also not entirely pleased with the near-absence of any strong plot in this novel. To be sure, there are very strong hints of what the next book might be about, but that’s for the next book, not this one. While the travels and travails of Cade and the rest of Touchstone make for pleasant-enough reading, it does not have sufficient heft to carry a book on its own. A part of me thinks that this book could have been half as long and still been fun to read; if it were not for my interest in the characters, I think I might have set this aside halfway through and not given it a second though.
Full review here: https://wp.me/p21txV-Fr