It was the cover and the title that caused
me to buy the book. The summary on the back of the book was very promising as
well. Unfortunately, the book isn’t as good as I had hoped. The story is filled
with clichés and the characters aren’t so great either.
I found a summary of the book on
Goodreads.com. It is a little different from the back of my book though:
The
comfortable world of Martris Drayke, second son of King Bricen of Margolan, is
shattered when his older half-brother, Jared, and Jared's dark mage, Foor
Arontala, kill the king and seize the throne. Tris is the only surviving member
of the royal family aside from Jared the traitor. Tris flees with three
friends: Soterius, captain of the guard; Carroway, the court's master bard; and
Harrtuck, a member of the royal guard. Tris harbors a deep secret. In a land
where spirits walk openly and influence the affairs of the living, he suspects
he may be the mage heir to the power of his grandmother, Bava K'aa, once the
greatest sorceress of her age. Such magic would make Tris a Summoner, the
rarest of magic gifts, capable of arbitrating between the living and the dead.
The
book pulled me in from the very beginning. The world in which the story takes
place is really interesting and the learning curve isn’t too steep. I liked
Martin’s writing style: it’s very fluent and she describes just enough of the world
and the characters. While the plot is loaded with clichés and I already have an
idea how the story is going to end, I am still curious about the other books.
What annoyed me endlessly about the story was that there barely was a break
from the action. The action sequences followed one another up in a very high
tempo. It was as though I was reading a video game.
The
characters were very stereotypical and flat. Only one actually developed a bit
during the story and there was only one character I really started to like when
the story progressed. What is nice in the story, are the different points of
views you get. It is really interesting to see what certain characters think of
the situation.
I
have to conclude by saying that this novel feels more like a Young Adult story
then a mature fantasy story. That is not necessarily a bad thing, but it can be
quite a disappointment when it’s in the rack with the other fantasy books. I
would give this book 2.5 out of 5.
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| source: www.google.com |
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