Books
These posts seem more and more for my own benefit these days, but at least they're useful for that.
Time to catch up on book commentary, though these aren't really fresh in my mind at the moment.
Magnificent Devices
This is the third (after Lady of Devices and Her Own Devices ) in what I thought was going to be a trilogy, but just seems to go on and on. Honestly, it doesn't feel like the story is long so much as the installments feel short. This time, the action moves to the Americas, there are airships, there are pirates, there are trains, and a few death-defying escapes.
Overall, though, I just don't know. There wasn't any real closure, with one thing rolling right into the next and cutting off sort of in the middle. The books are relatively inexpensive, but there isn't much payoff either. I feel sort of invested in the story, but I also feel like continuing to follow the series isn't really getting anywhere. The characters are just interesting enough, but not truly captivating. So... I'm not sure what to say about the series at this point.
Daughter of the Blood
I've seen the cover before (it was published in 1998), but never felt any draw to it. The name came up in some online review searching, so I figured I'd give it a try. I'm not sure that was a wise investment of time or money.
Now, while I may have a few hot button issues, I'm generally pretty hard to offend with a fantasy novel. And while I can see how the extremely sexist (and largely female-dominated) setting in the book and the treatment of people that goes along with it could be offensive, that wasn't really the part that bothered me.
What bothered me was... well... The central character is a girl growing up as some super-embodiment of magic. She frequently does the "impossible," like traveling between realms of the living and dead at whim, and toggles back and forth between sweet-innocent and the borderline omniscience of some inhuman avatar. Drawn to her are three powerful, ageless (I think the youngest was 1700+), related men with such inspired names as Daemon, Saetan, and Lucivar, who all love her in their own way. And... urgh... okay, some bad things happen, sure, but the whole thing feels to me like some Mary Sue fanfic (even if the setting may be original) written by a high school girl in her spare time. Something about that bugs me more than any of the questionable relations between characters. It just felt sort of immature and hollow.
Crossed Blades
I previously enjoyed both Broken Blade and Bared Blade, and the third installment is no different. This is probably my favorite of this batch of books. Aral and Triss are still a great pair to me. The action moves away from Aral's new home city, so there isn't any real presence of Fei, but Faran continues on as psuedo-daughter/apprentice figure from the last book and more Blades make their reappearance, for good and ill. The politics that have been set up continue with a few new players, and there's both betrayal and trust to be found in the story. I do feel a little unevenness, though, in that Aral can at times seem to be just barely holding his own as a pale shadow of his former glory, yet sometimes he comes across as the legendary "kingslayer" he was called... but it's not too unbelievable, given the situations.
Yeah, I'm still into this rogue fantasy series, and do hope it continues on for a while.
Time to catch up on book commentary, though these aren't really fresh in my mind at the moment.
Magnificent Devices
This is the third (after Lady of Devices and Her Own Devices ) in what I thought was going to be a trilogy, but just seems to go on and on. Honestly, it doesn't feel like the story is long so much as the installments feel short. This time, the action moves to the Americas, there are airships, there are pirates, there are trains, and a few death-defying escapes.
Overall, though, I just don't know. There wasn't any real closure, with one thing rolling right into the next and cutting off sort of in the middle. The books are relatively inexpensive, but there isn't much payoff either. I feel sort of invested in the story, but I also feel like continuing to follow the series isn't really getting anywhere. The characters are just interesting enough, but not truly captivating. So... I'm not sure what to say about the series at this point.
Daughter of the Blood
I've seen the cover before (it was published in 1998), but never felt any draw to it. The name came up in some online review searching, so I figured I'd give it a try. I'm not sure that was a wise investment of time or money.
Now, while I may have a few hot button issues, I'm generally pretty hard to offend with a fantasy novel. And while I can see how the extremely sexist (and largely female-dominated) setting in the book and the treatment of people that goes along with it could be offensive, that wasn't really the part that bothered me.
What bothered me was... well... The central character is a girl growing up as some super-embodiment of magic. She frequently does the "impossible," like traveling between realms of the living and dead at whim, and toggles back and forth between sweet-innocent and the borderline omniscience of some inhuman avatar. Drawn to her are three powerful, ageless (I think the youngest was 1700+), related men with such inspired names as Daemon, Saetan, and Lucivar, who all love her in their own way. And... urgh... okay, some bad things happen, sure, but the whole thing feels to me like some Mary Sue fanfic (even if the setting may be original) written by a high school girl in her spare time. Something about that bugs me more than any of the questionable relations between characters. It just felt sort of immature and hollow.
Crossed Blades
I previously enjoyed both Broken Blade and Bared Blade, and the third installment is no different. This is probably my favorite of this batch of books. Aral and Triss are still a great pair to me. The action moves away from Aral's new home city, so there isn't any real presence of Fei, but Faran continues on as psuedo-daughter/apprentice figure from the last book and more Blades make their reappearance, for good and ill. The politics that have been set up continue with a few new players, and there's both betrayal and trust to be found in the story. I do feel a little unevenness, though, in that Aral can at times seem to be just barely holding his own as a pale shadow of his former glory, yet sometimes he comes across as the legendary "kingslayer" he was called... but it's not too unbelievable, given the situations.
Yeah, I'm still into this rogue fantasy series, and do hope it continues on for a while.
Even if for your own benefit, it gives me titles to look into. :)
ReplyDeleteWell, at least there's that. I still have the problem that I read a book and don't have anyone to talk to about it. Then, maybe, a friend reads the book later and I've already forgotten details that I might have wanted to discuss. Aieee! ;)
ReplyDelete