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A review by themanfromdelmonte
The Ivory Tomb by Melissa Caruso
3.0
I dithered between three and four stars for this book. I like Ms Caruso's writing and enjoyed her Swords and Fire trilogy enormously. However, I read the last instalment in the Rooks and Ruin series more than a year ago and I had trouble remembering who everyone was and what was going on at the beginning of this book. I may have to reread the series but I say that with trepidation as they're not short books 500+ pages each as I recall.
I think the main problem I have with this book is that there are too many extremely powerful people running around, demons, warlocks, Witch Lords etc. It's a bit like how I feel watching the Avengers. Alongside Hulk and Thor you have the Black Widow and Hawkeye who are just regular human beings. Take a step back and it's just not plausible that they can long survive conflicts between superhuman entities. Similarly, the Rooks may be very able people but in an all-out fight between a Witch Lord and a demon they're just incidental. Only Ashe lasts any length of time against Carnage and that's only because the latter insists on using a sword.
On the plus side I liked Ryx/Disaster's slow journey to accommodation with her duality and her romance with Severin. The explanation of the true nature of the demons was also well executed.
Two final niggles. Towards the end of the book the protagonists have expended a lot of time and effort to contain Carnage so that she can be shoved back through the rift and then all of a sudden we're talking about Nightmare. I wondered if Ms Caruso did a bit of a rewrite and forgot to make all the necessary corrections. The other niggle is the Graces. They're a convenient mcguffin for the first conflict so where did they go? And what were they?
I think the main problem I have with this book is that there are too many extremely powerful people running around, demons, warlocks, Witch Lords etc. It's a bit like how I feel watching the Avengers. Alongside Hulk and Thor you have the Black Widow and Hawkeye who are just regular human beings. Take a step back and it's just not plausible that they can long survive conflicts between superhuman entities. Similarly, the Rooks may be very able people but in an all-out fight between a Witch Lord and a demon they're just incidental. Only Ashe lasts any length of time against Carnage and that's only because the latter insists on using a sword.
On the plus side I liked Ryx/Disaster's slow journey to accommodation with her duality and her romance with Severin. The explanation of the true nature of the demons was also well executed.
Two final niggles. Towards the end of the book the protagonists have expended a lot of time and effort to contain Carnage so that she can be shoved back through the rift and then all of a sudden we're talking about Nightmare. I wondered if Ms Caruso did a bit of a rewrite and forgot to make all the necessary corrections. The other niggle is the Graces. They're a convenient mcguffin for the first conflict so where did they go? And what were they?