A review by authoraugust
The Naming by Alison Croggon

4.0

Let's hear it for another excellent find from the Kindle Daily Deal! I don't usually go in for high fantasy - it leaves me squirming because I can never bring myself to care about something on such a grand scale; I'm a sucker for the individual and the details - but I'm glad I gave Croggon's book a chance. Maerad is a pretty good protagonist, certainly better than many in high fantasy I've read or read about, and Croggon's writing is luscious. Sometimes it's obvious she's a poet, when the detail goes overboard and fills space, but most of the time she uses description so deftly and tweaks common turns of phrase to mean something new and fresh, placing you right in the center of her fantastical world. I didn't like how quickly the story ended, after it had just gotten ramped up, but to be fair that's kind of the mark of high fantasy: a lot of build-up in the early parts with not a lot of action (very Fellowship of the Ring like that, The Naming was). All in all, a solid read, and enjoyable enough that even when it refused to download to my Kindle, I read it on my iPhone screen.