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ayla25 's review for:
The White Road
by Lynn Flewelling
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I enjoyed this one more than the last.
*SPOILERS AHEAD*
It's good to have the Sebrahn plotline wrapped up as it was getting quite tiresome. The adventures were fun, I liked getting to know Rieser and see him bond with Micum. Also, Micum is back! Yay! I'm glad Ulan is finally dead, as his scheming was getting on my nerves, and I loved going to Bokthersa and seeing the dragons. That was all very fun.
I will say the lack of female characters for the second book in a row better be rectified in the next one. I want to have an adventure with an even split of men and women for once. I miss Becca and Klia and Thero, I want them back in the adventures! I really hope they are part of the main action in the next book.
The pacing was a bit off too. Although not as slow-paced as Traitor's Moon, the first half of this book really seemed to drag for me and the second half, while enjoyable and action packed, felt a bit rushed. I think the reason the first half was dragging was due to where the story was inevitably headed. We know Sebrahn can't stay with Alec and Seregil, as they can't drag him along on their missions, and he would never allow them to be nightrunners again - and then there would be no more books! Either he had to go with the Hâzadriëlfaie or die in some tragic way. I sensed this very early on. So while Micum, Alec and Seregil are trying to outrun Rieser and the faie, it felt a bit like a waiting game. There's nothing necessarily wrong with knowing the ending of a book before you start - all romances are like that. We know the couple is going to end up together in the end and the fun is in *how* it's going to happen and the drama and tension before it does. In this case however, I felt as if Flewelling was trying and failing to do dramatic irony. Dramatic irony is when the reader knows something the characters don't, which can create very effective tension if done well. The audience screams "He's behind you!" as the actor on stage scratches his head, none the wiser that someone is creeping up on him with a knife. But it just didn't work here.
When Seregil is wondering out loud about who is following them, making incorrect guesses, wondering what that funny noise they are hearing is - we know the answer. When Rieser is wondering who they are tracking, and what on earth they are up to - we know the answer. We know they're going to catch up to them, we know they have to have the inevitable conversations, explaining who they are, what's going on, and what their goals are. We know they're eventually going to go on a mission to get the books, and we know by the end of the story Sebrahn will have to be removed from the narrative somehow.
At a certain point, all this chasing and planning and stalking and outrunning and making camp and talking and and and. . . was stalling the inevitable meeting of these two groups of people and mission they would obviously have to go on together. And that's where the main meat of the story is. Once they left Bokthersa I was just itching for them to get on with it. And like I said, this isn't even the slowest paced book in the series but it felt the slowest.
The fantasy racism was also a big disappointment. This series has had a problem with fantasy racism before, but never to this extent. The Hâzadriëlfaie remarking on how Turman smells all the time and saying that fighting the Retha'noi was "like fighting children" left a bad taste in my mouth. The slaughter of native people (chased out of their homelands) by our entirely *white* main cast because "They attacked us first!" and "We just HAD to kill them, even though we didn't want to!" was something I just couldn't get behind and it felt really unnecessary to the story. Did we need this book to end with a battle? Not really.
Lastly, there was no closure with Ilan. I know I said in my last review that I hoped I'd seen the last of him, and that was true, but if he *is* here, he needs a definite conclusion to his story. It's clear that Flewelling has seen the criticism people had of him in the last book, and was trying to fix it by making Ilan more pathetic and Seregil less forgiving and lenient with him this time round, especially after what he did to Alec in the last book. I liked the change in Seregil's attitude towards him (and I definitely approve) but I still think they needed to at least make sure Ilan wasn't sold back into slavery when they parted ways. It felt as if the attitude Seregil had for him during this book was the attitude he should have had for him last book and vice versa, gettng more lenient and forgiving to this pathetic creature over time, rather than less. He should have definitely felt more angry and hateful when the wounds Ilan influcted on him and Alec were still fresh. Glad he hasn't been forgiven and that they've left him behind, hopefully for good this time — not so thrilled that he might be sold back into slavery. Nobody deserves that, especially not this broken shell of a man. Ilar also sometimes ventured into being so pathetic that it felt... silly? Idk he seemed like more of a whole, developed character last book, now he's just a personification of his trauma. Like, last book he had agency enough to plan and get revenge, and this book he was just Ulan's dog.
Also, I don't like that Alec's transformation into looking more faie seems to be permanent now. Sorry *shrug*. I think the effects should have faded and he should have gone back to looking more human. Just a personal preference I guess.
Hopefully in the next book we will catch up with our favorite cast of characters again and get back to a classic nightrunner mission. I'm glad the Sebrahn and slavery storylines have been concluded.
*SPOILERS AHEAD*
It's good to have the Sebrahn plotline wrapped up as it was getting quite tiresome. The adventures were fun, I liked getting to know Rieser and see him bond with Micum. Also, Micum is back! Yay! I'm glad Ulan is finally dead, as his scheming was getting on my nerves, and I loved going to Bokthersa and seeing the dragons. That was all very fun.
I will say the lack of female characters for the second book in a row better be rectified in the next one. I want to have an adventure with an even split of men and women for once. I miss Becca and Klia and Thero, I want them back in the adventures! I really hope they are part of the main action in the next book.
The pacing was a bit off too. Although not as slow-paced as Traitor's Moon, the first half of this book really seemed to drag for me and the second half, while enjoyable and action packed, felt a bit rushed. I think the reason the first half was dragging was due to where the story was inevitably headed. We know Sebrahn can't stay with Alec and Seregil, as they can't drag him along on their missions, and he would never allow them to be nightrunners again - and then there would be no more books! Either he had to go with the Hâzadriëlfaie or die in some tragic way. I sensed this very early on. So while Micum, Alec and Seregil are trying to outrun Rieser and the faie, it felt a bit like a waiting game. There's nothing necessarily wrong with knowing the ending of a book before you start - all romances are like that. We know the couple is going to end up together in the end and the fun is in *how* it's going to happen and the drama and tension before it does. In this case however, I felt as if Flewelling was trying and failing to do dramatic irony. Dramatic irony is when the reader knows something the characters don't, which can create very effective tension if done well. The audience screams "He's behind you!" as the actor on stage scratches his head, none the wiser that someone is creeping up on him with a knife. But it just didn't work here.
When Seregil is wondering out loud about who is following them, making incorrect guesses, wondering what that funny noise they are hearing is - we know the answer. When Rieser is wondering who they are tracking, and what on earth they are up to - we know the answer. We know they're going to catch up to them, we know they have to have the inevitable conversations, explaining who they are, what's going on, and what their goals are. We know they're eventually going to go on a mission to get the books, and we know by the end of the story Sebrahn will have to be removed from the narrative somehow.
At a certain point, all this chasing and planning and stalking and outrunning and making camp and talking and and and. . . was stalling the inevitable meeting of these two groups of people and mission they would obviously have to go on together. And that's where the main meat of the story is. Once they left Bokthersa I was just itching for them to get on with it. And like I said, this isn't even the slowest paced book in the series but it felt the slowest.
The fantasy racism was also a big disappointment. This series has had a problem with fantasy racism before, but never to this extent. The Hâzadriëlfaie remarking on how Turman smells all the time and saying that fighting the Retha'noi was "like fighting children" left a bad taste in my mouth. The slaughter of native people (chased out of their homelands) by our entirely *white* main cast because "They attacked us first!" and "We just HAD to kill them, even though we didn't want to!" was something I just couldn't get behind and it felt really unnecessary to the story. Did we need this book to end with a battle? Not really.
Lastly, there was no closure with Ilan. I know I said in my last review that I hoped I'd seen the last of him, and that was true, but if he *is* here, he needs a definite conclusion to his story. It's clear that Flewelling has seen the criticism people had of him in the last book, and was trying to fix it by making Ilan more pathetic and Seregil less forgiving and lenient with him this time round, especially after what he did to Alec in the last book. I liked the change in Seregil's attitude towards him (and I definitely approve) but I still think they needed to at least make sure Ilan wasn't sold back into slavery when they parted ways. It felt as if the attitude Seregil had for him during this book was the attitude he should have had for him last book and vice versa, gettng more lenient and forgiving to this pathetic creature over time, rather than less. He should have definitely felt more angry and hateful when the wounds Ilan influcted on him and Alec were still fresh. Glad he hasn't been forgiven and that they've left him behind, hopefully for good this time — not so thrilled that he might be sold back into slavery. Nobody deserves that, especially not this broken shell of a man. Ilar also sometimes ventured into being so pathetic that it felt... silly? Idk he seemed like more of a whole, developed character last book, now he's just a personification of his trauma. Like, last book he had agency enough to plan and get revenge, and this book he was just Ulan's dog.
Also, I don't like that Alec's transformation into looking more faie seems to be permanent now. Sorry *shrug*. I think the effects should have faded and he should have gone back to looking more human. Just a personal preference I guess.
Hopefully in the next book we will catch up with our favorite cast of characters again and get back to a classic nightrunner mission. I'm glad the Sebrahn and slavery storylines have been concluded.