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toggle_fow 's review for:
The Storyteller
by Traci Chee
I was too generous to the second book in this trilogy. In retrospect, I see my folly. This is a three star book, and in comparison, THAT was a two-star book. I've rectified the problem now.
Anyway, I hope you can hear the venom in my voice when I say that this was FINE. One might even go so far as to say it was perfectly adequate.
Book three isn't nearly as torturous as book two was, mostly because Kaito is safely dead. That horrendously annoying odyssey is never to be repeated and, though Archer does spend a few moments staring into the middle distance, he's entirely bearable here in comparison. The biggest tragedy of this series overall is how much I LOVED Archer in the first book and now can only come around to a sort of bland acceptance of him. Where did it go? Where did we lose it?
The answer is obvious: book two.
Book one had such potential, but some things can't be salvaged.
This series just has SO much scope and so little heart in comparison. Sure, Sefia and Archer love each other soooo much -- but usually I get irritated when later-series books spend too much time rehashing the "previously on." In this book, I need all the rehashing, because I have straight up forgotten everything that happened before. Because it's so hard to care. Among the names and places and people and powers and teleporting from one ship I barely remember to the next ship I barely remember... anything that I might have felt for anyone involved in this adventure was just buried. I got nothing.
My next beef is the overall wrap-up. WHEN will a YA book execute the "written word as magic" concept in a COMPELLING way? I've seen it so many times, and it falls flat again and again. This book comes so much closer than most, but still falls short of tying everything together.
The Narrator as an all-seeing but powerless entity is interesting in a sort of I Am the Messenger way, but then... that ending. Everything happens just as the prophecy said, all along. The mysterious "she" who controlled everyone's fate is never revealed, and what was the point of what just happened? Why did the Guard bring all this about, knowing what fate had already decreed for them? Why were we just told this entire story that purports to be about love and freedom, and what exactly are we supposed to take away from it? Destiny is inescapable? Free will is an illusion?
The only bright spot we have here is Eduaro. He was the only bright spot in the second book too, and he really shines here. Honestly, the whole story could have been about him and his arc, and I would have enjoyed the heck out of it. He's great.
As for the rest? Vague and unsatisfying. I'm unsatisfied. Also, I continue to steadfastly dislike Captain Reed, and the Brother is a stupid name for a ship.
Anyway, I hope you can hear the venom in my voice when I say that this was FINE. One might even go so far as to say it was perfectly adequate.
Book three isn't nearly as torturous as book two was, mostly because Kaito is safely dead. That horrendously annoying odyssey is never to be repeated and, though Archer does spend a few moments staring into the middle distance, he's entirely bearable here in comparison. The biggest tragedy of this series overall is how much I LOVED Archer in the first book and now can only come around to a sort of bland acceptance of him. Where did it go? Where did we lose it?
The answer is obvious: book two.
Book one had such potential, but some things can't be salvaged.
This series just has SO much scope and so little heart in comparison. Sure, Sefia and Archer love each other soooo much -- but usually I get irritated when later-series books spend too much time rehashing the "previously on." In this book, I need all the rehashing, because I have straight up forgotten everything that happened before. Because it's so hard to care. Among the names and places and people and powers and teleporting from one ship I barely remember to the next ship I barely remember... anything that I might have felt for anyone involved in this adventure was just buried. I got nothing.
My next beef is the overall wrap-up. WHEN will a YA book execute the "written word as magic" concept in a COMPELLING way? I've seen it so many times, and it falls flat again and again. This book comes so much closer than most, but still falls short of tying everything together.
The Narrator as an all-seeing but powerless entity is interesting in a sort of I Am the Messenger way, but then... that ending. Everything happens just as the prophecy said, all along. The mysterious "she" who controlled everyone's fate is never revealed, and what was the point of what just happened? Why did the Guard bring all this about, knowing what fate had already decreed for them? Why were we just told this entire story that purports to be about love and freedom, and what exactly are we supposed to take away from it? Destiny is inescapable? Free will is an illusion?
The only bright spot we have here is Eduaro. He was the only bright spot in the second book too, and he really shines here. Honestly, the whole story could have been about him and his arc, and I would have enjoyed the heck out of it. He's great.
As for the rest? Vague and unsatisfying. I'm unsatisfied. Also, I continue to steadfastly dislike Captain Reed, and the Brother is a stupid name for a ship.