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A review by winterscomin
Battleaxe by Sara Douglass
4.0
I'm going to break this one down into some of its major aspects:
Storyline/plot: A fairly traditional 'Chosen One' story meets an 'ultimate evil' (think Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, etc.). Nothing very special yet.
Characters: Some memorable ones, I find the Sentinel characters the most interesting, although we probably know the least about them, so mystery is working. On the other hand there are a lot of 'Mary Sue' types -almost every major named character seems to be super important for the world to survive and has some sort of special powers & of course, secret plot armour.
Creatures/Races: Probably my favourite part of this book are all the different races, between the Icarii, Avar and Skraelings/Wraiths and other such creatures. The 'good' races all have their own cultures and identities set up which I hope will be expanded on more in future books. The 'bad' of course are much less-so, but hey, the Wraiths are essentially flesh-eating versions of the Warcraft games' wisps, so that's fun.
Worldbuilding: Another aspect I'm enjoying, the bits of history and religion, the prophecies and 'ancient' sites of power, the Mother and the Star Gate. Big ticks here.
Magic: A few different types of magic and magic-wielders have shown up, but they all seem fairly OP (especially when used by main characters) and not explained too much. There don't appear to be all that many rules or limitations -at least, not yet- aside from an individuals innate ability and to some extent their learning/knowledge. But otherwise they just will something into happening? Hopefully this is also explored further later in the series.
Overall, a solid 4 stars. I enjoyed reading the book quite a lot even if it wouldn't rank in my absolute favourites list. I'd probably consider it a pretty good place to start for beginner fantasy/epic fantasy readers.
Storyline/plot: A fairly traditional 'Chosen One' story meets an 'ultimate evil' (think Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, etc.). Nothing very special yet.
Characters: Some memorable ones, I find the Sentinel characters the most interesting, although we probably know the least about them, so mystery is working. On the other hand there are a lot of 'Mary Sue' types -almost every major named character seems to be super important for the world to survive and has some sort of special powers & of course, secret plot armour.
Creatures/Races: Probably my favourite part of this book are all the different races, between the Icarii, Avar and Skraelings/Wraiths and other such creatures. The 'good' races all have their own cultures and identities set up which I hope will be expanded on more in future books. The 'bad' of course are much less-so, but hey, the Wraiths are essentially flesh-eating versions of the Warcraft games' wisps, so that's fun.
Worldbuilding: Another aspect I'm enjoying, the bits of history and religion, the prophecies and 'ancient' sites of power, the Mother and the Star Gate. Big ticks here.
Magic: A few different types of magic and magic-wielders have shown up, but they all seem fairly OP (especially when used by main characters) and not explained too much. There don't appear to be all that many rules or limitations -at least, not yet- aside from an individuals innate ability and to some extent their learning/knowledge. But otherwise they just will something into happening? Hopefully this is also explored further later in the series.
Overall, a solid 4 stars. I enjoyed reading the book quite a lot even if it wouldn't rank in my absolute favourites list. I'd probably consider it a pretty good place to start for beginner fantasy/epic fantasy readers.