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A review by eatreadgamerepeat
The Crystal Variation by Sharon Lee, Steve Miller
4.0
Overall I will be giving it a 4 stars
I will just be writing short reviews for the books individually. I was quite surprised by how much I enjoyed this book as a whole, I wasn't sure exactly what to expect but it's a really enjoyable story. Like I've said before I was under the impression that I had most good sff books on my radar - this book just proves how wrong I was about that assumption. I've only read the first 3 books in the reading order (according to my friend who has recommended these books to me) and I already kind of want to go back and read this book again - well after I finish Trade secret.
Book 1: The Crystal Soldier
4 stars - I was slightly surprised by how much I enjoyed it, the story is quite fast paced and well written - I liked both of the main characters Jela & Cantra quite a bit, they were both very interesting and both have this air of mystery around them where you don't know exactly who or what they are and you slowly find out some of it throughout the story (and I assumed you will get more in the second book). I thought the world building was well done and the universe as a whole is quite interesting and I can't wait to find out more. I also really enjoyed the writing style that at times felt a bit like stream of consciousness from the characters perspective . For example: the character would be thinking something and then the thought would get interrupted mid-sentence and the character would respond to whatever was happening. While that's not a unique thing I hadn't seen it in a long time and I really enjoyed that aspect of the writing style. One thing I kind of disliked as that especially for the first half of the book I spend quite a lot of time not sure about what the heck was going on and feeling like maybe I had missed something important, this wasn't strong enough of a feeling that it really brought the whole book down for me because I was enjoying what I was reading, even if I didn't really know what was going on.
Book 2: The Crystal Dragon
3 stars - the first half of this book is quite rough to be honest, it wasn't exactly bad but after coming of the high that book 1 left me on it was a bit of a disappointment. The second half was utterly amazing and had me in tears at several points - it had a lot of the parts I loved about the first book and more . The ending was, in my opinion, marvelous, and the perfect ending which now has me wanting more.
Book 3: Balance of Trade
4 stars - This book is set many many years after the story of the Crystal Dragon & has not much to do with that story (other than the implications as seen by the ending which are somewhat spoilery so I won't discuss them here). Jethri is an interesting main character, much like with the characters in the crystal soldier there is a lot of mystery going on around him and I'm interested to see where it's all going to go.
I will just be writing short reviews for the books individually. I was quite surprised by how much I enjoyed this book as a whole, I wasn't sure exactly what to expect but it's a really enjoyable story. Like I've said before I was under the impression that I had most good sff books on my radar - this book just proves how wrong I was about that assumption. I've only read the first 3 books in the reading order (according to my friend who has recommended these books to me) and I already kind of want to go back and read this book again - well after I finish Trade secret.
Book 1: The Crystal Soldier
4 stars - I was slightly surprised by how much I enjoyed it, the story is quite fast paced and well written - I liked both of the main characters Jela & Cantra quite a bit, they were both very interesting and both have this air of mystery around them where you don't know exactly who or what they are and you slowly find out some of it throughout the story (and I assumed you will get more in the second book). I thought the world building was well done and the universe as a whole is quite interesting and I can't wait to find out more. I also really enjoyed the writing style that at times felt a bit like stream of consciousness from the characters perspective . For example: the character would be thinking something and then the thought would get interrupted mid-sentence and the character would respond to whatever was happening. While that's not a unique thing I hadn't seen it in a long time and I really enjoyed that aspect of the writing style. One thing I kind of disliked as that especially for the first half of the book I spend quite a lot of time not sure about what the heck was going on and feeling like maybe I had missed something important, this wasn't strong enough of a feeling that it really brought the whole book down for me because I was enjoying what I was reading, even if I didn't really know what was going on.
Book 2: The Crystal Dragon
3 stars - the first half of this book is quite rough to be honest, it wasn't exactly bad but after coming of the high that book 1 left me on it was a bit of a disappointment. The second half was utterly amazing and had me in tears at several points - it had a lot of the parts I loved about the first book and more . The ending was, in my opinion, marvelous, and the perfect ending which now has me wanting more.
Book 3: Balance of Trade
4 stars - This book is set many many years after the story of the Crystal Dragon & has not much to do with that story (other than the implications as seen by the ending which are somewhat spoilery so I won't discuss them here). Jethri is an interesting main character, much like with the characters in the crystal soldier there is a lot of mystery going on around him and I'm interested to see where it's all going to go.