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A review by midrel
Cold Magic by Kate Elliott
4.0
There are two special things going for this book. The first is the beautiful, flowing prose that really grabs the reader and forces him/her to want to read more. The second is the excellently written characterization.
There is, however, also one thing against this novel, and that is the way the world-building is handled: Basically, it gets too much in the way of both aforementioned prose and characterization, specially near the beginning of the tale, in the form of tedious info-dumping exchanges or monologues about alternate history whose contents could have been presented in a less heavy-handed manner. At times it did seem painfully obvious the scene served no purpose whatsoever but to dump world-info on the reader.
In the end, I think people's enjoyment of this book will depend on whether they are able to press on despite the over-abundant world-building near the beginning. If they can do that, they'll be richly rewarded.
There is, however, also one thing against this novel, and that is the way the world-building is handled: Basically, it gets too much in the way of both aforementioned prose and characterization, specially near the beginning of the tale, in the form of tedious info-dumping exchanges or monologues about alternate history whose contents could have been presented in a less heavy-handed manner. At times it did seem painfully obvious the scene served no purpose whatsoever but to dump world-info on the reader.
In the end, I think people's enjoyment of this book will depend on whether they are able to press on despite the over-abundant world-building near the beginning. If they can do that, they'll be richly rewarded.