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A review by theaurochs
Maker's Curse by Trudi Canavan
2.0
A dragged out series, this final book of which feels like it both didn't conclude anything or really progress anything. Frustratingly there are glimmers of hope in parts of this book, but we keep getting side-tracked by a new "terrible threat to the multiverse oh nooooo" and it doesn't allow our characters or overarching narrative any time to breathe or even really develop.
The idea of an easily traversed multiverse is still kind of cool, but we don't get too much exploration of it that we hadn't already seen in the previous three novels. Mysteries and problems that have been set up throughout the series are resolved in hugely inconsequential ways; they feel like they should have impact but absolutely none of them do. The characters barely change throughout, and they have the distinct feel of characters rather than people; it feels depressingly obvious that Canavan is propping them up with a bit of cardboard, pushing them around the sets to enact the small amounts of plot.
The early third-to-half is dogged by the same extremely tedious repetition as earlier books in the series; where it feels like nothing is happening but the characters worrying about a thing that's going to happen, over and over again.
At perhaps most damningly, the phrase "my lover" is used completely earnestly and repeatedly.
Now that this series is complete I can unequivocally say: do not read it.
The idea of an easily traversed multiverse is still kind of cool, but we don't get too much exploration of it that we hadn't already seen in the previous three novels. Mysteries and problems that have been set up throughout the series are resolved in hugely inconsequential ways; they feel like they should have impact but absolutely none of them do. The characters barely change throughout, and they have the distinct feel of characters rather than people; it feels depressingly obvious that Canavan is propping them up with a bit of cardboard, pushing them around the sets to enact the small amounts of plot.
The early third-to-half is dogged by the same extremely tedious repetition as earlier books in the series; where it feels like nothing is happening but the characters worrying about a thing that's going to happen, over and over again.
At perhaps most damningly, the phrase "my lover" is used completely earnestly and repeatedly.
Now that this series is complete I can unequivocally say: do not read it.