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A review by meeners
The Princess of Cortova by Diane Stanley
2.0
when i first started reading this (the third and last book in the silver bowl trilogy) i kept wondering if i had missed a book in-between, or if i had accidentally picked up a book by an entirely different author, just because there was such a huge disjunct between the events of book 2 and those of book 3. then, towards the middle of the book, i began to feel a strange sense of deja vu - and eventually realized that, in structure and intent, it felt quite a lot like megan whalen turner's the queen of attolia (starting first and foremost with the echoed title). a lot like, but not quite . . . as if this were a watered-down, rushed-out version with a much lighter impact.
perhaps that's an unfair comparison, as mwt's thief series is arguably one of the most masterfully written YA fantasy series to come out of the past 15 years (yes, you heard me! and i'm not gonna take it back, nuh uh), but i think even without it this book would have felt incomplete - or perhaps insubstantial is the better word. entertaining, but ultimately insubstantial.
perhaps that's an unfair comparison, as mwt's thief series is arguably one of the most masterfully written YA fantasy series to come out of the past 15 years (yes, you heard me! and i'm not gonna take it back, nuh uh), but i think even without it this book would have felt incomplete - or perhaps insubstantial is the better word. entertaining, but ultimately insubstantial.