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The Chronicles of Blood and Stone #3
THE SCROLLS OF THE ANCIENTS
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Paperback
First published June 1, 2004
About the author
Robert Newcomb
21 books56 followersRobert Newcomb travelled widely in his youth as a member of the American Institute for Foreign Study. He now lives in Florida. The Fifth Sorceress marked his début and is the first book in 'The Chronicles of Blood and Stone' trilogy. The second volume, The Gates of Dawn, is also published in Bantam paperback and the concluding novel, The Scrolls of the Ancients, in Bantam Press trade paperback.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
September 1, 2022
At least the 1st book was crazy with how bad it got, this one is just fucking boring.
June 13, 2021
A definite improvement on the books that came before, especially the second book. I do feel a pang of pity for Newcomb, a first-time author who never expected to have such fame foisted upon him. The bizarre decision by the publisher to throw his books to the wolves with heavy marketing but little editing makes as little sense today as it did at the time.
In this third outing, we get more action to balance the endless exposition, as well as several more characters and perspectives to follow. But the world is still mostly empty, with no real sense of life to it. The kingdom has been in anarchy since the first book, and that fact is never addressed. It's bizarre to hear Tristan and others talk about saving their nation, when we never get to spend any time there. I couldn't tell you at all how big the population is, or how many towns there are, or what the average person's life is like. We spend all our time with the affluent heroes on their rigid little quest. It's unpleasant and lonely.
Villains are still cookie cutter Skeletors, and there's still an over-reliance on deus ex machina. At least this time Tristan gets to do much more to save the day (more than nothing) and there's some cleverness with preestablished mechanics involving the magic of the world. Newcomb also has some trashy fun with gore, and the more visceral passages are the closest the book comes to being good. I think Newcomb, with practice, would have been more at home writing short, pulpy, action novels as opposed to this weak attempt at traditional high fantasy.
The editing weaknesses are also a little bit better this time, although the word literally gets misused for emphasis constantly. Everyone acts like teenagers even though most of them are in their thirties and some of them are in their three hundreds. Ridiculously, Tristan still has not begun his training even by the end of this book, leaving him with hardly any changes in his skillset or personality from the first tome. That goes for the whole cast, really. I started laughing every time Tristan made a suggestion only to get shot down by the wizards again. The 40,000 page prophecy continues to shackle the heroes while the villains do whatever they please. It's just blah.
Knowing that the storyline remains unfinished even with three additional books, I think I will have to end my reading here. Again, I feel pity for Newcomb, but not enough to justify sitting through 1500 pages to reach an anticlimax. This book ends on a relatively happy note and without an immediate cliffhanger. I will happily imagine that the villains are finally thwarted and the heroes get to have a happy, sappy ending, as was no doubt the plan all along.
In this third outing, we get more action to balance the endless exposition, as well as several more characters and perspectives to follow. But the world is still mostly empty, with no real sense of life to it. The kingdom has been in anarchy since the first book, and that fact is never addressed. It's bizarre to hear Tristan and others talk about saving their nation, when we never get to spend any time there. I couldn't tell you at all how big the population is, or how many towns there are, or what the average person's life is like. We spend all our time with the affluent heroes on their rigid little quest. It's unpleasant and lonely.
Villains are still cookie cutter Skeletors, and there's still an over-reliance on deus ex machina. At least this time Tristan gets to do much more to save the day (more than nothing) and there's some cleverness with preestablished mechanics involving the magic of the world. Newcomb also has some trashy fun with gore, and the more visceral passages are the closest the book comes to being good. I think Newcomb, with practice, would have been more at home writing short, pulpy, action novels as opposed to this weak attempt at traditional high fantasy.
The editing weaknesses are also a little bit better this time, although the word literally gets misused for emphasis constantly. Everyone acts like teenagers even though most of them are in their thirties and some of them are in their three hundreds. Ridiculously, Tristan still has not begun his training even by the end of this book, leaving him with hardly any changes in his skillset or personality from the first tome. That goes for the whole cast, really. I started laughing every time Tristan made a suggestion only to get shot down by the wizards again. The 40,000 page prophecy continues to shackle the heroes while the villains do whatever they please. It's just blah.
Knowing that the storyline remains unfinished even with three additional books, I think I will have to end my reading here. Again, I feel pity for Newcomb, but not enough to justify sitting through 1500 pages to reach an anticlimax. This book ends on a relatively happy note and without an immediate cliffhanger. I will happily imagine that the villains are finally thwarted and the heroes get to have a happy, sappy ending, as was no doubt the plan all along.
August 4, 2021
This is the third instalment of The Chronicles of Blood and Stone and, like the previous two books is a page-turner. I couldn't put it down! Just wish that Robert Newcomb would write some more books as these are really good!
October 31, 2008
Although I read the previous two books years ago, I was immediately addicted to the story line of the 3rd book! Have no idea why I never read it before.
The only thing I dont like is the fact that Newcomb is making his series's in 3 books each where its actually only one series. Should this have been the last book I would have been seriously disappointed.
There's truely no character that I didnt like however Wulgar and his Queens transformation to the Vagaries was just to quick for me...I would have expected them to still fight it and not immediately turn after one Forstolement!
All in all, a good series so far but expect to read 6 books in the series...I wonder if the 6th book is the end!
When will Tristan begin his training??? Cant wait!
The only thing I dont like is the fact that Newcomb is making his series's in 3 books each where its actually only one series. Should this have been the last book I would have been seriously disappointed.
There's truely no character that I didnt like however Wulgar and his Queens transformation to the Vagaries was just to quick for me...I would have expected them to still fight it and not immediately turn after one Forstolement!
All in all, a good series so far but expect to read 6 books in the series...I wonder if the 6th book is the end!
When will Tristan begin his training??? Cant wait!
May 14, 2013
Either Newcomb isn't sure what character development is, or he really doesn't care about including it in his books. People do things arbitrarily, depending on the necessity of the plot. I hate that. The one character in this book who looked like he might actually have another dimension to him also just became plot convenience. This series just gets more bland, cliche, and unreadable as it goes on.
I'm all for some books that are just focused on the plot and don't give too much crap for the characters' feelings if said plot is super awesome or engaging and there aren't huge chunks of nothing happening/dialogue.
I'm all for some books that are just focused on the plot and don't give too much crap for the characters' feelings if said plot is super awesome or engaging and there aren't huge chunks of nothing happening/dialogue.
August 8, 2010
More brand new cookie-cutter villains, confusing dull explanations, all tell and not show, secrets kept for no good reason and Tristan inexplicably falling in love with some boring, beautiful girl. This series is terrible, but kept me reading in the hope that the various technical magic explanations would become relevant, the plot would move forward and Tristan would finally begin his training. several books later I was still disappointed and I'm glad the publisher dropped the series so I won't be wasting more time. Some great ideas in this series, but terribly executed, I do not recommend.
June 16, 2011
As expected, the third volume of Robert Newcomb's Chronicles of Blood and Stone is a very good, engaging read just like the first two parts. And once again, the end leaves us with more questions than answers - eagerly waiting to get my hands on the next book!
October 30, 2012
The worst part of this book was discovering that it wasn't the end of a trilogy as I thought...there are two more books following this one. Definitely not so good that I want to find out how the whole mess ends.
March 17, 2009
This book in the series wasn't as captivating as the other two. THough it was still a good read. I look forward to starting the next portion of the saga.
July 8, 2013
An enjoyable read.
January 3, 2016
Terrible! Where was all this left & right leaning blood signatures when they decided to ban all women because they are more susceptible to the Vagaries? This author is pulling crap out of thin air!
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews