A review by stenaros
The River Kings' Road by Liane Merciel

1.0

I really disliked this book. First off, what does every medieval fantasy novel worth its salt have in the front cover? Yes! A map. This is handy for several reasons, but mostly because when I read that Brys and Odosse traveled between Willowfield and some border town in Oakharn I need a visual to understand how far that is and also where everything is in relation to each other. Without that, all those town names are only made-up words on a page. The map makes the narrative real. Other problems? There are too many characters that flit in for two paragraphs and then don't return for 50 pages. When they do return, they appear without reintroduction, which would be fine if they were memorable characters in the first place. Unfortunately, they weren't and I didn't care enough to flip back and find out who they were--and here e-readers with their search function would be very handy in this instance, though I suspect I wouldn't actually use the function-- so I spent substantial portions of the narrative thinking, "who is this?" Also, the author employs the abhorrent Steven King technique of killing off a very nice innocent minor character whose kindness should have been rewarded. Overall, this was an entirely unsatisfying 388 pages and I don't recommend this book in any way, shape or form.