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topdragon 's review for:
The Golden Key
by Melanie Rawn, Kate Elliott, Jennifer Roberson
I won't rehash the plot of this excellent novel; discovering that, afterall, is half the fun. This novel is an excellent character-driven novel; a collaboration of three well-known fantasy authors. The book is broken into three parts, each seperated by several decades, allowing for each of the three authors to focus on their own part. This would seem to make the whole thing disjointed but not so. There are some slight differences in style among the three parts but these differences only lead to a different, appropriate focus for the section and the characters that reside there. Overall, it blends together seemlessly and the characters are woven together extremely well.
Some novels annoy me when they use "foreign" words regularly throught the text. I hate it when I have to constantly check the appendix for a glossary of terms. So I was worried when I saw the glossary included in this novel, depicting all of the "Spanish/Italian" words. But when I read the novel, I found I didn't need it. The words are easily comprehended in the context of the sentences and become part of the overall ambiance of the story.
Overall, this book, though fairly lengthy, is a fascinating piece, highly worthy of your time to read. The authors do a marvelous job with the setting and characters and the plot is driven by the characters themselves as opposed to events outside their control. If you like political intrigue, court/religious politics, revenge, etc. as well as a a truly unique magic system, then don't let this one pass you by.
Some novels annoy me when they use "foreign" words regularly throught the text. I hate it when I have to constantly check the appendix for a glossary of terms. So I was worried when I saw the glossary included in this novel, depicting all of the "Spanish/Italian" words. But when I read the novel, I found I didn't need it. The words are easily comprehended in the context of the sentences and become part of the overall ambiance of the story.
Overall, this book, though fairly lengthy, is a fascinating piece, highly worthy of your time to read. The authors do a marvelous job with the setting and characters and the plot is driven by the characters themselves as opposed to events outside their control. If you like political intrigue, court/religious politics, revenge, etc. as well as a a truly unique magic system, then don't let this one pass you by.