Daniel Vanzin
It was clear from the start this wasn't going to be a good book, but I wanted to see how far I could read it. The writing is weak, the plot is standard, the characters are clichés.
PLOT
Azoth is a kid who lives in the streets. He is part of a gang lead by Rat, a cruel leader who is constantly abusing his followers. Everyday he must reach a quota or face the consequences. One day he decides to challenge the abuse, defying the leader in front of everybody. To teach him a lesson, nothing happened to Azoth, but his best friend Jarl took the punishment.
Helpless and scared for his life and Doll Girl's, his other friend, Azoth tries to enlist as an apprentice to the best assassin in town, Durzo Blint. Durzo denies him at first, but after much insistence, he gives the boy a task: if he kills his gang leader, he would train him. Somehow Azoth manages to succeed, but not before Doll Girl is tortured and left to die.
What follows is Azoth's training and the development of his new identity, as a young noble from a distant land. He must learn about poisons, fighting, killing and spying. But above all, never to create any emotional bonds with anyone, as that is a weakness his enemies would use against him.
ANALYSIS
So far as I read everything was very blend, nothing interesting happening. Although I liked the very brief apprenticeship under Durzo, instead of a whole book about this, the plot felt very rushed at after this point.
Some of the things I didn't like:
- over reliance of tropes, making things too predictable: the tough looking badass assassin, who is feared by everyone, who has no emotions, but is in fact a deeply caring man
- bullied street kid wants to become stronger to defend himself and others, decides to become an assassin, bu hate killing
- empty promises: ‘You can never talk to her again or else I'll kill you, OK?', ‘OK.'. Proceeds to talking to girl again, with no consequences
Another solid story. The author does an splendid job providing us with just enough information from the previous books as they are necessary to understand the current plot and characters.
Tri-Cities area of Washington state are under the protection of Mercy's wolf pack, and they have a zero tolerance policy for the kind of magic that uses pain as a source of power, black magic that is. During one of the her routine errands, where she and some wolves are dealing with a miniature zombie goats infestation, she begins to unravel a plot to invade her territory by someone capable of performing necromancy, a black witch.
Meanwhile, she is in charge of arranging a meeting between the Grey Lords of the fae and the human leadership, none other then the president of the United States and his staff, in order to discuss the terms of a truce. It turns out this meeting is against the witch's best interest, and it seems that she is not working alone.
With Elizaveta's absence of the country, she who is the current leader of the witches in the Tri-Cities area, and one of the most powerful witches Mercy know of, the city is ripe for the taken. It is up to Mercy to defend the humans under her protection, together with the help os some of her supernatural friends. The vampire Stefan, who is maintaining his status of independent from his previous seethe. The previous owner of her mechanic shop Zee, one of the most ancient and powerful faes, and his son Tad, also powerful as well. And of course, some of her werewolves, including a witch born one. Not to mention she herself, who is a shape shifter daughter of the god Coyote, which gives her plenty of resistance to magic and a lot of luck.
Unfortunately even with all this firepower, a coven of black witches is just too powerful to handle. Mercy must also rely on the help of someone she most definitely does not trust or like, but is an expert o the matter if witches, being one himself.
Nearly as good as the previous one, but it was The Vampire Lestat which first blew my mind, this one just kept it that way. All the elements are still here though, great writing, plot, atmosphere and characters, both new and old ones. The book's description is a very good summary of the story.
I was very satisfied with the expansion of the lore, the tale of how the vampire kind originated in primitive Egypt, thousands of years ago. The spiritual world, Amel's lust for blood eventually granting him transcendence from a disembodied form, with just one atom of physical existence, into mortal flesh. The mystical meaning of the dream of the twins permeated the whole book, the pacing and exposition were on point.
I loved the continuation of Armand's journey as he struggled once again to become integrated into contemporary society, Daniel's attempts to become part of the supernatural world, Jesse's coming to terms with her powers and her ancestry. Khayman rediscovering what is meant to be among the living, his tragic history slowly revealed as he and others described the awful actions he was forced to make. Marius world being shattered by the treatment he gets when Akasha finally speaks to him. Maharet's unquenchable love for life and persistent search for her sister. Even after 6 thousand years she manages to overcome succumbing to the common vampire madness which leads them to either kill themselves, to enter a state torpor underground, or just keeps them from being able to join society because they can't keep up with times. Her secret is that from the very beginning of her unlife, she found a reason to live, a reason so strong that kept her going throughout the ages.
Even the minor characters were utterly enthralling. David Talbot of the Talamasca, an organization which research and investigates the supernatural, and in the RPG were turned into vampire hunters, which I enjoyed so much more. Pandora's travel throughout the world as she gathers the most ancient and powerful vampires in order to discuss what can be done with the awakening of the 'mother', who apparently planned to destroy them all.
Akasha and Lestat's love story was beautiful and tragic. They were destined for each other, it was Lestat's lyrics and vocals who brought her back to life from her eternal sleep. But at last they couldn't reconcile their differences of world view. Lestat basically just wanted to be a monster, to enjoy the world to its fullest, being adored and feared at the same time. All Akasha ever wanted was to act as a benevolent God. She just needed to exterminate a small chunk of the world population first. She also didn't want to do this alone. Imagine being the most powerful and old being, all your life experiences and your wisdom means nothing if you don't have someone to share with. Imagine her disillusion when she finds out Lestat could never be who she needed him to be, and that she was destined to rule alone if she continued to pursue her goals of world domination.None of her children understood her. Alone and heart broken, Akasha died by the hands of Mekare, but she was already destroyed when the final blow came. She simply could not be allowed to exist, as no amount of convincing could turn her away from her destructive path.Lestat's just acquired new powers were turning him into a god, and his desire for Akasha was greater then ever. He is deeply conflicted by that love, the love for his friends and even the love for humankind. Ge got all the knowledge and power he ever wanted, but being a god was just too boring for him.
The ending might have seemed simple, but it was satisfying enough. All the remaining vampires that still walked the earth, the ones spared by Akasha because of Lestat's love for them, they try to convince her that killing 40% of the population in order to save the rest is too high a price to pay. They believe that this is the age of 'men', of science, that now more then ever the human species holds within their grasp the tools of their salvation. They just need a little more time. Unfazed by that argument, as recent technological advances had also brought on some of the worst wars in history, they fight. As the fight begins, Mekare shows up, as foretold by her own prophecy thousands of years ago, and kills Akasha. Lestat is depressed for a few months, writes down his thoughts in order to release another book, and by the end of the story, he is his old mischivious self again.
I still have some of the same critiques I had towards the previous book. I wished that the world's most ancient, living, intelligent creatures would have a devastatingly deep and meaningful discussion when they got together to try and defend why humanity should not be annihilated. But I knew that would be difficult, but more importantly, it's not what's the book is about.
The lives of ~12 years old kids/teens in remote, rural, small towns in medieval times. Love, betrothals, daughters fulfilling ‘all' the roles of a dead mother, incomprehension of the adult world while longing to belong to it. This book has nothing I care to read about.
The book has at least two small stories, each one with a different protagonist. The first one is a ~12 years old boy, who decided he has had enough of being afraid of the demons who attack their village at night. All the adults says that he should be inside his house, behind the magical wards that keep the demons away. The boy disagrees. After seeing his mother die by the hands of a demon, he calls his dad a coward. As he finds out he has just been engaged to a ‘girl', yuck, he flees from home and goes alone into the wild, risking death from the demons, who are everywhere but comes out only at night.
The second protagonist is another ~12 years old girl, and I stopped reading here.
Among the things that bothered me, when the boy sees his mother being attacked by demons, he runs to her. He should have been killed, but instead he saves his mother life. He did not have a plan, nor did execute any clever maneuver during his ‘attack'. He just went for it. And the conclusion he takes from his lucky victory? Adults are stupid, his dad is a coward.
In another scene, after his mother's death, he asks his father: “And what will we do now?”, the father answers “Bury the body”. And that triggers him. How dare you be rational in a moment like this????
Read 3:17 / 16:54 19%
It's not like the book didn't move forward the story and further incorporated parts of the Arthur mythos, but they were too scarce, and most of the book, specially the begining, was just too much filler content.
The first chapters deal with Merlin going north to find out what Morgause's been up to. It was a very boring. The author tries to make a thriller out of the ‘Will Merlin successfully go unnoticed to Lothian' It's just not too interesting. If he does, it's not a very exciting accomplishment for the greatest wizard in history. And if he doesn't?
One part of the book deals with Arthur establishing Camelot as his center of government. Another part deals with Guinevere 2 (yes, he married 2 Guineveres), and her affair with ‘Lancelot'. It was very well handled, as it was told from Merlin's point of view. We have to remember this is not a book about Arthur, so very little is mentioned about the their ‘betrayal' to the king.
By the end of the book, Merlin falls in love at the same time he finds an apprentice to train and eventually take his place, someone who has just began to manifest their powers, as his are long gone.
The ending left out some interesting parts of the mythos out, namely Mordred and the Grail. I mean, they are mentioned, but only briefly for a few lines. I wonder if the next books will cover them, since this should be the last book about Merlin.
Also, if this is the ending of the saga, it was a bit of a let down. We didn't get a closure for any of the characters.
Well written, except for writing the the full 3 names of every character every time their mentioned. The book tells the story of a city and its main inhabitants, from the time it was founded. It reads as a diary of the city, mentioning mildly interesting events of everyday life, mixing some fantasy with it, as in impossible events. Examples: everyone in town loosing their memories, flying carpet.
There is no plot or content, so this is a big no for me.
Read 2:23/14:04 17%
Interview with The Vampire may have caused a revolution in the vampire fiction genre, but this is the book that started a revolution in the RPG world, giving birth to the narrative focused Vampire The Masquerade. It seems to have served as its main inspiration, at least for what I can tell, as there are so many direct adaptations taken from it.
I first read VtM:2nd and it holds a very special place in my mind as it was so well written, and the mythos so enthralling. Horror is not my thing, but the way White Wolf handled the content it was amazing. Their other books are excellent as well, I highly recommend Demon: The Fallen and I plan to read the rest of them sometime.
The book starts slowly, and with much of the same things that put me off the first one: too much talk about emotions, Victorian prose and descriptions. Even so, that contributed a lot to character building and world setting. Lestat personality is slowly unraveled throughout the book, and these elements makes for a good start.
As Armand starts to tell his story, the book really started to blossom. It was just perfect for what I seek in fiction. A well told story, original, captivating, fiction blended in real history, in a logical way. We get a lot of answers to the workings of the undead life, and they all make sense.
Lestat is an ethical monster, his personality is well fleshed out, and although I mostly disagree with his attitude, it is perfectly reasonable. He is arrogant and selfish, the villain of the story by any kind of measure. Every interaction Lestat has with the other characters is intense and are very heartfelt.
I will mark the following as spoilers at it tells something about the evolution of Lestat's relationships with the other characters. This plus which characters appears is all the book is about. These are minor spoilers I would say, and every other reviewer didn't bother hiding them.
Nikola the violin player, was his first friend, his first love. A companion who shared his views of the world, that society is hypocritical and everything is meaningless. All except beauty. When they do disagree on something, namely Lestat equating beauty to good and Nikola, a complete nihilist, maintaining there is no such a thing, they still manage to be good friends. As the story unfolds, their differences starts to become just too much to ignore. But Lestat never stopped loving him nonetheless.Gabrielle is Lestat's mother, but she is so much more then that. She is his confidant, to whom he shares his inner most thoughts and desires. She makes it tolerable living under the same roof as his father and brothers, to whom he has no great affection. She suggests that he should seek out the friendship of Nickola, who she immediately recognized as an intellectual and emotional match for Lestat. She is the one he pours his soul, wailing about his torments as he struggles with his humanity after becoming a vampire. How he cannot bear to keep away from Nickola, even though he knows they can never be together. How he longs to be loved, and accepted, for the cruel monster he is. He confesses that all he wants is to drink everybody's blood, and expect the should revel at the sight!Armand, the larger then life character from Interview With the Vampire, is now greater then ever, explored in so much more detail. And yet he is nothing compared to Lestat, a shadow of the old world while he is the future of their race. He tells his story from when he was still a mortal, still capable of to love and caring for others. He describes at length his profound love for his progenitor, Marius, without whom he has become an empty shell. As his tale progresses, we get to watch as he slowly looses his humanity. Armand has nothing to contribute to Lestat, as the rules he follows are beneath him. Lestat is the one who helps him to come to terms with the new century, just as Louis helped Armand after.A little more spoilerish, on the same spirit as mentioned above.If Armand was a disappointment, Marius truly captured Lestat's body and mind. For decades he searched for him, traveled the world looking for answers, and he finally found them with him. Where Armand is an empty monster, Marius is ethical and full of love for humans, which he believes is his duty to serve and to live with them in harmony. He only feeds on the wicked, that is his creed, an dit was also shared by Lestat. Another thing both believed in is that there is goodness in beauty, and to produce beauty is the key to surpass the their villainous nature. Marius keeps no information from Lestat, he tells everything he knows. He reveals the origins of the vampires in ancient Egypt, thousands of years ago. And introduces him to Akasha.Akasha, the Queen of the Damned. Well, she is the main plot of the next book. Suffice to say that her impact on Lestat surpassed even that of Marius, by a long shot! Her mere presence physically manifests itself, few can withstand even looking at her. She is in a statue like state, and it is not clear why. She is awakened by the end of the book, ans turn some vampires into balls of fire.Louis is back, and makes a brief appearance by the end of the book. He has by now read Lest's book and although he has not completely forgiven him, he is thrilled once again to be joined with his estranged friend.
The story starts and ends with Lestat's band getting ready and performing for the first time in public. He has generated a lot of anticipation by telling his whole story to the world and exposing the ehxistance of vampires has not made him many friends among his kin. He is joined by Louis and also Gabrielle, who he hadn't seen in centuries.
And it is through music that Lestat expects to redeem himself, to find his place in the new century. Just as he performed in the theater when he was still a mortal centuries ago, he craves for an audience, to reveal himself, and still be loved and accepted for who he is.
This is the epic tale of a man's never ending quest seeking answers to life (and unlife). It has a good amount of philosophical reasoning, good for those who have considered these issues before to critically evaluate them and for those who have never seen them, to have a better understanding of life.
One thing I found disturbing, although expected, reading the reviews about this book. People seem to think Louis was ‘wrong', that Lestat is the hero and Louis is just a whiny little bitch. This is a gross misunderstanding of the story! Louis was right about everything, Lestat is a monster, he did play with Louis emotions, deliberately omitting information in order to control him. Lestat made him into his pet, from whom he only expected obedience and unconditional love. The brilliance of this book, as it is told from Lestat's point of view, is that we can see how he can justify his actions, his evil deeds, to himself and to others. It is Lestat that is the unreliable narrator, as his narcissist personality clearly supports this view.
I might have given this a 4 star, but the narrator, Simon Vance, was just outstanding. And if this was just a romance, I also might have kept a 4 star, but I found this book much more intelectualy and fictionally interesting.
So, for the influence in RPG's, the revolution of the vampire mythos, the narrator, the deep characters and their relationships, the exceptional handling of a horror story and its deep philosophical nature, I give this a 5.
Again a book with very little relation to the actual myth, in the sense that it is a story on its own. There is a good participation of known characters like Arthur (although still a boy), Merlin, Morgause and Uther. The attempts to represent fiction based on reality were well placed, and added a lot to the sense of foreshadowing. There are some subtle and some more overt references to Guinevere, Excalibur and Camelot.
The story picks up right at the end of the previous book, and it deals with Merlin trying to protect Uther's newborn son, through the use of some clever trickery and a little bit of clairvoyance (again magic is very much downplayed). He must find a way to convince the king and queen to allow him to take charge of the boy, then find a secure place to raise him, find the means to hide his travel to such a place, keep an eye on the boy even from afar, ensure he is raised properly by a good family and also educated in the way of kings.
After securing baby Arthur, Merlin travels the world in search of Caliburn, a sword he sees in his dreams as the sword of the one true king. After finding it, he inserts himself into Arthur's life and becomes a friend and a mentor to him. It is the start of the story everyone knows.
This is one more of those situations that situates me aside from humanity. People actually liked this book.
I gave it a good try, much more then it deserved. I was lazy and didn't want to find another book to read. It was well written. I was still enamored with the characters described in the previous book, hoping the story would pick up at any moment. It didn't. ~20% in. The book won't get any better, I've seen this pattern before.
Four hours of pure descriptions and mundane tasks. ABSOLUTELY NO PLOT ADVANCEMENT WHATSOEVER, NOTHING INTERESTING HAPPENS. This is why you create a connection with the characters, people will read anything if they liked the characters.
And now for the bad part, it is full of cliches, including some of the worst most despicable ones! Never mind that Gavin is building a city with Kariss, and that takes an huge amount of pages. The book is focusing of Kip's time in the school of wizards. He is bullied because he is different, he is shy around girls, the teachers are mean to him, he has a hard time making friends. Insert any other ‘underdog wizard apprentice school training' here.
Read 4:07/24:12 17%
This book falls into a category that I particularly despise, which I describe as ‘the ordinary life of an extraordinary guy'. It starts by describing how incredible famous and bad ass the protagonist is in the first 1-2 pages, and it proceeds by telling how he came to be that way through the rest of the book.
And being a typical fantasy book, there is usually no much creativity in that aspect: the hero went to an isolated fighting/magic/assassin school when we was still a boy, and there he trained every hour of every day. And his teachers were cruel. And nobody liked him. And he hated that place. But slowly he began to understand the teachers better, make some friends and overall, liking the place.
Still, I really made an effort and the story did have some interesting events along the way. The problem is it's SO TERRIBLY SLOW! I can get past reading about how he put his shoes one foot at a time, then washes his face, then have breakfast, and every other insignificant detail of his everyday life. Just DON'T MAKE IT TAKE PAGES TO DESCRIBE THAT! REALLY!
I stopped reading soon after have read a few pages regarding how they learned how to make weapons.
Read 5:34/23:08 24%
No, just no. You take the uninteresting sidekick and make her the protagonist of the sequel? You make her flawless and invincible?
Things I also despise: romanticized pirates (pirates are rapist, murderers and thieves), a remorseless killer made out to be the good guy, NO PLOT WHATSOEVER.
The first scene of the book is an action scene (ugh), has the ‘protagonist' defeat a crew of 20 man by herself.
Read 1:22/16:08 9%
The life of Merlin before he was interesting. A good story, but if you're looking for high fantasy, magic or even a god-like protagonist, this is not the book for you.
The author made Merlin look like an ordinary character in a historic fantasy tale. He is an unusual boy, but most of what makes him unique is not very relevant until the end of the book, and even then, it is downplayed to a large degree.
Merlin is the son of a princess in a pre unified Gran-Britain. His father is unknown as his mother refuses to reveal his name. Sometimes he is presented as the bastard son of the King in order to preserve the reputation of his daughter, but some rumors start going around that he is actually the son of a devil.
He doesn't play with other boys, because he would rather study than engage in physical activities. He sometimes seems to know things that he couldn't possible know, but that is because he usually sneaks around and overhear a lot of confidential conversations. At one point he manages to escape an assassination attempt because he was very perceptive.
One day while exploring the woods he finds an old man in a cave. The man appears to know who Merlin is and decides to teach everything he knows to him. Although described as an wizard, Galapas is basically a very smart individual, who teaches Merlin philosophy, languages, healing potions, and other sciences. At a later age, he would study finances and engineering with the best teachers in the realm.
So, none of the things that makes Merlin special requires magic to be explained. The author made an effort to give a rational explanation for all the exceptional feats attributed to the character. But there is some hints of magic every now and them. Most specifically, prophecies. Merlin does sometimes have visions of the future, but he has absolute no control over this power.
Overall I liked the book, but I really expected some more exciting things to happen. Merlin's special abilities, magical or not, are not very useful in the story. I know they will play a very important role in providing guidance for Arthur latter in his life, but for now, this is ma mostly typical, well written, historical fiction.
WHAT
An army of rebels, including many powerful spellcasters, rise up against the ruling government that has oppressed them for many years after choosing the loosing side in a semi religious battle. The winning side of the war maintained the status quo under their leader, the most powerful spellcaster alive, known as the Prism. He alone can prevent this needless war and save the life of thousands. He must do so while raising a bastard child he just found out he has, and keeping a secret that could shatter the world, a secret that burns him from inside and keeps him away from the woman he loves.
TLDR
+ promising plot
+ decent magic system based on colors
+ likeable protagonist, good enough and well described supporting characters
+ good handling of a character with an immense amount of power
+ nice twist regarding the protagonist true identity
- plot slowed down significantly towards the end
- missing information, why he fought with his brother
- cliche/insufficient explanation on why he is the evil brother
- lack of intelligent decisions on the part of some characters
- bad twist, second one regarding the protagonist true identity
PLOT
Gavin Guile is the Prism, the equivalent of a ‘pope' of magic in this fictional world. Magic is called drafting, and it is based on colors. Each drafter can draft from a single source of color, although some can use two and a very few ones can use more. The amount of magic they can use is limited by their will, and the more magic they use, the faster they come to a breaking point where they go mad and must be put down least they endanger the population.
The Prism doesn't have these This is the first twist of the plot.limitations. Not only he can draft from any color, he can do so at a very higher intensity, as he can differentiate a thousand different shades of each color. He also can draft way more magic then any other drafter without endangering going mad. Instead he has a fixed lifespan. Usually seven years, when then for some reason he dies (likely killed in order to preventing him from going mad as well).
Sixteen years ago, he fought his evil brother, Dazen Guile, for the title of Prism. It is not revealed why both were eligible to the position that should have only one candidate each generation. Some people used that fact to question the whole religious system that proclaimed that could only have one Prism at a time. Alliances were made, sides were chosen, hundreds of thousands died. The loosing brother was killed and his followers suffered greatly until this day.
That suffering kindled the rebellion that Gavin is facing now, as one of the Seven Satrapies, semi autonomous countries ruled by the central government of the Chromeria, is leading a crusade against all the Chromeria and their religion stands for.
MORE PLOT (a little spoilerish)
Drafters have a ‘live hard die fast' destiny, as they are a part of the most prestigious and elite class in the kingdom, but their lives are bound to serve the people, and they usually don't live more then 10 years after becoming a full drafter. The Prism life is even shorter, 7 years. Some Prisms manage to break exceed that lifespan, doing so in multiples of seven. No one have lived more then 21 years, Gavin is in his 17th year as the Prism.
Everyone thinks he killed his brother, but in fact he has captured him and kept him in a secret prison for the latest 16 years. Not only that, he is in fact the brother everyone thinks is dead, the evil one. He occasionally visits his brother, they taunt each other and Gavin make sure to keep him confused and misinformed, lying to him about the time of day and the events of the world outside.
After learning he has a son, named Kip, Gavin travels to meet him, only to find out that his son's village have been destroyed and he is about about to be killed as well. He saved his life, reveals himself as his father and initiates him in formal drafting training after the boy have clearly demonstrated his magical abilities.
Accompanying him is Karris, his bodyguard and former lover, who becomes very upset when she finds out Gavin's son's age means that he cheated her while they were together 16 years ago. Were together, because Gavin broke of the engagement with her soon after the war. She has mixed feelings about Gavin, who before the war treated her miserably but years after, when they met again, seemed like a different man.
Karris mission though is one of espionage, and while Gavin returns to the Chromeria with his on, she proceeds to try to infiltrate the rebel army. She soon finds out she has been betrayed, and her arrival was expected.
The man who destroyed Kip's village is raising an army of mad spellcasters, the ones that should have been killed but escaped their fate. As a result, they became wilder and much stronger then most drafters.
Kip is a pudgy boy raised in obscurity in a small village where nothing exciting happens, unaware of his drafting abilities and hated by his mother just for existing. When his village is destroyed, he vows revenge against the man who killed his family and friends. Upon discovering his heritage, he is introduced to the Chromeria's school of casters and his fathers assigns him a tutor, Olivia Danavis.
Olivia is the third supporting character who is also given plenty of focus on the book. She is the daugther of one of one of the greatest generals the world has ever seen, who was defeated in the Prism Wars by Gavin Gile. She is in Chromeria studying to be a drafter, but because of her heritage, she leaves in misery and is ostracized by fellow students. After being as assigned tutor of the Prism's son, she receives a lot of unwanted attention for the wrong reasons.
ANALYSIS (a little spoilerish)
I appreciate the handling of Gavin's immense power in a palatable way. Even though he acts as he is the most powerful man alive, having no fear of anything and mostly doing what he pleases, he is still constrained by his duties as the Prism and some sense of morality.
He believes his powers were meant to help the people, and he is very sorry for all the suffering his actions caused 16 years ago.
- it is his duty to chase and kill the mad spellcasters who refused to surrender themselves to the freeing- he uses his power in new and inventive ways, such as creating a machine that allows him to fly, and erecting an immense wall of pure magic in order to defend a city from an attack
I expected an explanation to why both brothers were elected to be the Prism. The character of Gavin's brother is also never explored, why suddenly he changed his behavior at 13 is mentioned but it doesn't go farther then that. It has something to do with their father.
I really didn't like the cliche of the evil brother actually being the good one, and the evil part is the result of actions he had no control over, but nonetheless blamed himself for it. All the while, the good brother is a rapist and a genocider.
It fell somewhat forced the shades of gray where both brothers are assholes, Gavin (actually Dazen) being a womanizer and a slaver as well.
I hated that the story slowed down so much a little after the middle of the book. The ending was just a big action scene, absent of content. Kip's character became kind of annoying, always feeling sorry for himself and making stupid decisions (like getting himself and Olivia captured), all the displaying incredible feats of magic even though he had no previous training. It was kind of implied that he was a strong drafter because of being the son of the Prism.
The book didn't start awful. Descent protagonists and writing, promising plot.
A couple of thieves are framed for the murder of the king. While arrested in the dungeon, awaiting their execution, they are visited by the Prince, who describes how he plans to torture them to death. After that, their visited by the Princess, who makes a deal with them: their freedom for the promise of taking her brother north, in order to keep him safe from the ones who murdered the king and also to talk to someone special.
With their new unexpected companion always bickering, they travel to find to find the secret prison which harbors this mysterious man their supost to meet. In the way they stop to rest in a monastery. A monk takes them in and shows them a room for the night. When morning comes they find out that the monastery had been burned out, and the monk is somewhat of a savant, and is oblivious to the fact that he would dir of starvation if he choose to remain there.
The monk provides some clues to their quest, and join them in the adventure. Arriving at the place, we get a LotR rip off mountain door scene, and after a while, they meet the wizard they were send to find, one who has been imprisoned and kep alive though magic for nearly a thousand years.
The man has his demands before agreeing to provide them with the information they seek. They agree to help the man, who was arrested for having supposedly destroyed the realm 900 years.
With the information they need to restore order in the realm, clear their names and get a handsome reward, they go back to the king's castle. But in the way, the Prince finds out his uncle is to blame, and is trying to kill him as well. So they decide to ask for the help of someone who was loyal to the dead King, and know would help them with his army.
And now the come the part I stopped reading. The story wasn't that great, but passable so far. And then the conspirators who murdered the King get together and start spitting out their agenda. At this point the exposition goes out the window, and I couldn't bare it anymore. The plot felt too common, and nothing else (interesting characters, promise of great events to happen, intelligent deeds, etc) made it worth to keep reading.
At best this was just too vanilla for me.
Read 8:23/22:38 37%
A book about the people who sent a girl to the past. What are their days like? What do they wear? Who are their relatives? What do they think about each other, and what might be happening to the girl they sent to the Dark Ages?
- slow paced
- slow old narrator
- overly descriptive to the smallest details
- repetitive
- british accent
- the male voices were not good
- the reviews did not encourage me to continue going
Read 2:05/26:22 8%
Very well written book, although the flourished, Victorian prose is lost on me. I mainly liked the overall idea of the book, and what it set in motion in the world of the vampire genre, as with the creation of the Vampire: The Masquerade RPG.
The protagonist, Louis, is kind of stupid and the ethics of the story are incredibly lack lusting. Maybe I have to give credit because of the time the events took place, but for a well read man, one who knows his Socrates, to see nothing wrong in killing indiscriminately or not to be able to see evil in degrees is disturbing. But ignorance is necessary to keep the feeling of hopelessness and dread the book sets out to establish.
The villain, Lestat, is kind of a shallow and one dimensioned, but still satisfying, depiction of a monster. There were some attempts made in order to add more nuances to his personality, with Louis evolving his opinion of him the more time they spent together. But still, Lestat is just a psychopath who enjoys torturing and killing his victims. And Louis, the vampire he sired, is too naive and inexperienced to make the distinction between what he perceives to be two inexorably bonded traits: being a vampire and being a psychopath.
I like my characters stoics, but Louis can't help but despise his vampiric nature, and Claudia to bewail in vain about her eternal childish features. But these aspects also contribute to the story being told, making it a bit more interesting as well. Lestat and Armand are the only ones who fully accepted what they are.
So, for the depiction of vampires as more then just monsters, because of Louis conflicting nature, his fear of what he is becoming, fear for his immortal soul, if it has not been dammed already, I approve this novel.
For anyone who likes vampires, read the RPG, 2nd or 3rd edition. You will forever judge everything else vampire related to the lore described in that book.
Its a children's book, it's well written. I just couldn't care less about how Meg Murry is bullied at school and misses her father that disappeared during an unusual job assignment from the government.
The narrative is too focused on children I guess. Every interaction with Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs Who and Mrs. What feels like they're talking to children, which they are.
Read 1:50 / 6:04 30%
WHAT
A cheap erotic fantasy story where a innocent hot young girl meets an older dangerous hot guy, thrown in some vampires and sex addicted faes for some flavor. Her sister is dead and she wants to find the murderer by herself, never mind she can't kill a cockroach to save her life or have the capacity to go to the store to buy poison to kill it from a distance.
TLDR
+ readable
- unexciting plot
- foolish protagonist
- self spoiled narrative
SUMMARY
MacKayla Lane if a typical southern belle. She is in her early twenties, works as a bartender to pay the bills, spends her time by the sunbathing at the pool. She is very beautiful, curvy and innocent. Her world is turned upside down when her sister who is living in Ireland is brutally murdered.
Upset because the police has given up finding her murderer after a few weeks, she decides to fly there in order to convince them to continue the investigation. Alone in a strange country where she can barely understand what the people are saying, she is unable to talk to the police inspector assigned to the case of her sister's murder right away. So, she decides to investigate it herself.
Some weird things start to happen around her, as she slowly finds out there is more to this world then the eyes can see, and she is uniquely capable to see them.
Out of her depth, with no especial skills that can help her to defend against natural or supernatural threats, she is forced to rely on the help of a mysterious stranger, a handsome older and wiser man, with chiseled chin and... you get the drill.
This emotionally unavailable, chauvinistic bad boy, father figure, decides that he can use her for his purposes, and so their partnership forged. Now MacKayla must avoid the dangers of sex to the death with faes, vampires and whatnots, who have supernatural abilities that makes them drop panties irresistible to women.
ANALYSIS
Well, it was pretty clear where I was getting myself into right from the start:
- the book is called called Dark Fever
- it has a cover showing a naked hot, naked male and female upper torsos
- its written by Karen “Moning”
- took quite a while to find a male reviewer on Good Reads
- the first few lines mention that there are two kinds of faes: the ones who kill you on sight and the others who use you for sex
Exposition through describing future events was kind of annoying. I would rather discover about faes and the protagonist's powers together with her, along the development of the story. Instead that is described in the prologue. This artifice is also used sparsely through out the book, ruining the “surprises” it could have presented.
“I would later find out that he was lying but at this point I believed him
faes
This was just awful:
- It uses a 3rd-first person narrative, where the main character narrates the story and refer to him/herself in the third person.
- The names of the characters were annoying, I couldn't bear the excessive repetition of Uche. All the other names of places did not connect with me as well.
- It starts with a prologue.
- The prologue wasn't interesting. It was uninformative, it didn't add any foreboding and the information it gave was related to world building. I rather see that as little as possible, and in the form of show don't tell.
“None of these places or people matter, by the way. I simply point them out for context.”
“When she turns to the man — slowly; stone eaters are slow aboveground, except when they aren't...
I can see how this book is a landmark in fantasy history. It is one of those 101 on how to write a basic good adventure fantasy story. Every fantasy book should look up to this and at the very least be better.
The story is simple, the characters easy to like. Xanth is a small realm situated somewhat inside our own, but inaccessible by normal means. In this world, everyone has exactly one magical talent. Talents never repeat. And to keep living here, this talent must have manifested itself by the time you're ~22 years old, or else you're banished from Xanth. It doesn't matter how stupid and useless your magic is, as long as you have one. So you have a very small population with a wildly diversified array of magical talents, ranging from transmutation to changing the color of butterflies at will.
Bink is a citczen of Xanth, one who is near his 22 birthday and hasn't yet found his magical ability. Everyone else he knew got theirs when they were still a child. They used to tease and prank him merciless on account of this. Bink compensated the weakness in one aspect of his life to strentht the others. As a result he became strong, agile and intelligent. He needed to adapt in order to stand up to his bullies, and as a result, he turned out to a better man for it.
Banishment for Bink would mean to not only loose his homeland, the only place he ever knew, but also to be kept away from his parents and his girlfriend whom he loved. There is still a chance for him though. The good magician Godfrey, who is probably the strongest magician in Xanth, may have a way to help him to reveal his power. For a price of course, the good magician is expensive as hell.
So Bink sets up on his quest to find the good magician. The way is long and perilous. He finds himself in all sorts of dangerous situations, and meet a whole lot of wonderful characters. And along the way, the world of Xanth is revealed to us, together with the fantastic magic of its inhabitants.
Among the things I liked about the book is the logical explanation of things. Through an evolutive point of view, magic is explained to us. Plants have developed the magic most suitable to make them prosper in their environment. The flora of a forest can make the travelers passing through it to feel very comfortable, so much that they don't ever want to leave it. That way, its predators can feast on its flesh. A carnivorous tree might be able to make it rain so that unaware prey take shelter in its cover.
“May we stop for a drink?”
“Not here! Anyone who drinks from that water becomes a fish.”
“A fish? Why?”
“The river is trying to restock itself.”
Busted centaurs, mischievious sorcerers, gnomish magicians, evil ex-magicians turned general, dragons, mermaids, haunted castles, zombie crocodiles and a whole lot of other things awaits Bink on his adventure.
TLDR
+ well written, good enough plot and characters
. unique idea of multiple worlds not explored well enough
- rushed, stereotypical ending
Summary
Kell is the most powerful wizard in a 17th century London where magic is commonplace. He is one of the only two people capable of traveling to alternate planes of existence, where other London exists as well.
Each London has a varying degree of magic present, from none to a-world-destroyed-lot. During his day to day affairs as an emissary to the kings of the different London, Kell stumbles upon a dangerous artifact, that grants its wielder great magical powers. But in increasing the level of magic from the world, you risk bringing it to the same fate as the London that was destroyed.
There are people after this artifact as well, and they don't mind the consequences. Kell must at the same time prevent them from getting the artifact and resist the urge to use it himself. He is joined in this task by Delilah, a street-raised thief from a London with no magic.
Analysis
Some of the minor things that bothered me:
- you get a magical sword, somehow you feel it's evil, with the potential to destroy the world. You resist the urge to wield its power and you get rid of it... by throwing it out of the window. 10 for intention, 0 for execution :-)
- The whole world is filled with magic, but that doesn't come come across too much in the story. The idea of alternate ‘realities' is barely developed.
- The main character is a wizard, one of the two most powerful wizards in the ‘worlds'. Yet he basically looses a brawl in an alley, and is ridiculously weaker then the other one.
The major thing I disliked was the last part of the book. It felt like the whole book was slowly building up the story and characters, and then they fight, the hero who is much weaker then the villain, somehow wins.The villain has a fortified castle, elite guards, magical traps. He drops the castle bridge, order the guards to stand down and disable the traps, just because.The
I liked the alternate worlds idea, but it felt too much unexplored. Also, the I freely reinterpreted some parts of the book to better fit what I tough was most logical. The hero wasn't responsible to bring his world to a near destruction, as he kept blaming himself for. For me, he was just bored out of his mind and decided to make things more interesting whenever he could, in order to have some fun and to improve his abilities.
The antagonists got a hold of this fact and exploited it to their advantage. In my mind the hero basically had no blame in the matter, as he wasn't even necessary for the event to happen. He was just chosen as an emissary because the villains wanted to have some fun as well.
Very well written, character-driven book. The plot is somewhat meaningless and it does gets less less interesting about 3/4 of the way.
The setting is that of a post-apocalyptic zombie infested world. It starts in an isolated military base a few days away from what is perhaps the only known disease-free human settlement.
The army is in charge of protecting the scientists who are conducting experiments in order to find a cure for the “zombie” disease. A group of children are the subjects of their research, and some teachers were brought in to the base in order to give some psychological insight into the minds of those children.
For what I can tell of the main characters:
Miss Justineau is the heart of the team. She is one of the teachers in the military base, Melanie's favorite teacher.
She is the kind of person who would rather see everybody die rather then kill a single human being. Her answer to logical reasoning that contradicts her morals is to “punch them in the face”. It might sound like the sort of character I hate, but she was very well represented for what she is. I found her affection for Melanie hearth warming.
Sergeant Parks is the brute. He is a stoic soldier charged with the security of the base. At first he is presented as somewhat obnoxious, because he feels some animosity towards Melanie. But his personality is developed into a very pragmatic individual who reacts as best as he can no matter what the situation.
Dr. Caldwell is the brain. She is portrayed as the stereotypical cold and calculating scientist who cares for nothing but her work. Which is to save the world, by the way. She displays much detachment from her “subjects”, who she sees at nothing but biological specimens. She is very pragmatic as well, the kind of person who looses and arm, puts on a tourniquet, and goes on to what she was doing.
Private Gallagher is the young innocent one. He the other soldier in this group of main characters, although he is the less importance of them all.
Melanie is a combination of all the other characters traits. She is one of the subjects of Dr Caldwell's research. As a child, her personality is being developed throughout the story. She observes the other characters and “gets” something from each one of them I believe. A very interesting character.
In a post-apocalyptic world, some guy wants to die, because his wife went crazy and “killed herself” 3 years ago, and so he decides to do the same.
He is the sheriff of a fallout-like bunker, and dying means deciding to go outside. Everybody is afraid, because they want to know if when he goes outside to die, will he clean the lenses wit his wool. The guy is apathetic, and doesn't care one way or the other.
I found the writing to be unbearable. It is supposed to transmit a feeling of hopelessness, but it does so in detriment or character and plot. It is akin to a horror story for me. Give me content, not feelings.
So the main character wants to die. I hate suicidal characters. If means giving up reason and succumbing to emotions. His wife went hysterical, which means the same thing. Characters without intellect doesn't appeal to me.
This was an all drama experience, with nothing for me to hold on to.
Read 1:22/18:08 8%