Overall disappointing. Some Worthwhile Parts

I read both Whisper of Waves and Lies of Light the days they came out. I was originally very excited about this trilogy because of the mentioned "world shattering" event (completion of the canal) and thought this would be a very interesting trilogy because the "world shattering" event was not a huge war or the magical artifact changing the world; but rather a politically motivated, blood and sweat event.

This being the final series in the Watercourse Trilogy I was expecting great things from this book. I really enjoyed the first book and somewhat disappointed in the second book. The chapters are extremely short and the storyline jumps all over the place. Not only this, but the books span several years and unless you are very knowledgeable about the Faerun calendar system or pay close attention the months and dates at the beginning of every chapter it can be difficult to follow how much time has passed between chapters. This book did a better job of verbally explaining how long someone had been in jail or exiled compared to the book's predecessors; but, it was still slightly difficult to gauge the time. There is a helpful calendar explanation as an appendix, and this would have been more helpful in the first two books, as well.

The one shining part of this trilogy was one of the main characters: Ivar Devorast. I thought he was an intriguing character and I thoroughly enjoyed his attitude and demeanor. Some of the other characters I could have done without as their story lines were hardly engaging and I didn't care what really happened to them.

Overall, a very disappointing trilogy with so much potential. I would only recommend this book to those that have already read the first two books in the Watercourse Trilogy and die-hard Forgotten Realms fans.

J.Stoner