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Forgotten Realms - Publication Order
Dawnbringer
Battle the forces of darkness in the Forgotten Realms ®
Two angels given mortal flesh are sent to guard two star-crossed lovers, born scions of rival merchant houses. At first, it looks as though love will conquer all, and the rift will finally be mended. But there are those who hate the word peace with a passion so much that it poisons everything they touch, corrupting house to turn against house, mother to turn against child, and angel to turn against angel.
Dawnbringer is the perfect meld between classic and contemporary fantasy, with shades of Romeo and Juliet , told from the perspective of guardian angels, in a world where sorcery and monsters are commonplace.
Two angels given mortal flesh are sent to guard two star-crossed lovers, born scions of rival merchant houses. At first, it looks as though love will conquer all, and the rift will finally be mended. But there are those who hate the word peace with a passion so much that it poisons everything they touch, corrupting house to turn against house, mother to turn against child, and angel to turn against angel.
Dawnbringer is the perfect meld between classic and contemporary fantasy, with shades of Romeo and Juliet , told from the perspective of guardian angels, in a world where sorcery and monsters are commonplace.
352 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 2011
2 people are currently reading
259 people want to read
About the author
Samantha Henderson
51 books12 followersSamantha Henderson lives in Southern California with various fauna. Her fiction and poetry have been published in Strange Horizons, Realms of Fantasy, ChiZine, Fantasy Magazine, Lone Star Stories, and Weird Tales.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
March 4, 2015
A few things kept me from giving this the solid 3 star rating that seems to be on par with most Forgotten Realms books. Most Realms books fall around just over 300 pages in length, meaning pagetime is a premium. This book spends 80-90 pages on events that are just setting up things later (a feud) when the reader experiences a 115 year time jump. Understandable, but I felt like too many pages were spent here just to set up simple events.
July 2, 2011
Dawnbringer by Samantha Henderson
Dawnbringer is a stand-alone novel set in the Forgotten Realms setting of Dungeons and Dragons. This is Samantha Henderson's second full length novel, her first is titled Heaven's Bones and is set in the Ravenloft setting of Dungeons and Dragons. She has written a vast amount of short fiction, along with a vast amount of poems published in various anthologies, collections, and magazines. Dawnbringer was released May 2011 and is published by Wizards of the Coast, LLC.
After two pirates, Gareth Jadaren and Ivor Beguine, escape the pirate life, they sought out to make a name for themselves as merchants. However before they escaped, a raid on a merchant ship left Gareth with an unusual piece of jewelry. After trying to find out if it was magical, a woman named Jandi, tries to warn them that the item is powerful and other forces my try to take it. The trio, Jandi joining the two, head out and arrive at a spot of land that Gareth claims as his own, with the help of Jandi and the mysterious jewelry. However, before the trio can celebrate, tragedy strikes. Centuries pass by and the Beguine family and Jadaren family are bitter rivals, ever since that tragic day. Thankfully, a compromise has been made with a marriage between the houses to try to put a stop to the hatred. But hatred runs deep and the families turn to two deva protectors, Lakini and Lusk, to help ensure no harm comes from the union. Unfortunately, hate can even twist angelic beings.
Criticisms:
1) Flow. Dawnbringer has a horrible problem with its flow and how the story is told. There are a lot of contributing factors to this problem, but it's mostly due to the sudden spurts of background and description. Dawnbringer felt like a story that had no exact direction until well into the novel. Aside from the short story at the beginning of the novel and the few chapters towards the end of the novel, most of the story has this choppy, disorganized feel to it. There are long stretches of description that don't really add to the overall story, but instead seem to pad it out. These stretches come up out of nowhere and interrupts the story, giving it that choppy, disorganized feeling. It's understandable to give some description of various locations, but these bits do last too long and actually feel like an interruption. The choppy feeling extends past these interruptions as well. Every once in a while, there's a scene that happens either forward or backward in time, be it in a flashback or having some event expanded upon. While these scenes don't have that much impact on the flow, they do add to this choppy feeling, and at some points it felt incomplete. These problems make Dawnbringer somewhat hard to follow.
2) Characters. There are quite a few problems with the characters in Dawnbringer. The two main draws of the story, the devas Lakini and Lusk, were good, but they were the only developed characters. Even so, they were still hard to understand and like. It seemed as though there were a lot of things left unsaid and there was a lot left out that could have helped readers like them more. Still, they were good characters and surprisingly deep when all was said and done. However, everyone else was just figments and hardly anymore than that. Aside from the three characters we meet at the beginning of the book, the rest just never seemed to have that big of an impact. The members of the Beguine family; Kestral, Ciari, Vorsha, Nicol, and Sanwar, never seemed that important. The novel does spend most of its time on this family, but the characters seemed shallow and interchangeable. The two daughters, Ciari and Kestral, didn't seem different from each other. They were so alike that they were mixed up multiple times throughout the story. There was even a time were I thought that Ciari, the older daughter, was the one that was going to be married, even though I knew it was Kestral. The father of the family, Nicol, was barely present and didn't have impact on the story. With Vorsha, the wife, and Sanwar, the uncle, they were a bit more complex, but still didn't seem to really be there. The other family, was non-existent except for the soon-to-be husband, Arna. But he only was present for a chapter and was written off and forgotten. The main problem with the characters is that, while there were interesting concepts, none of them felt fully developed. It was hard to remember who was who, because they all acted alike, aside from a few characters. It didn't help that throughout the story, a lot of characters seemed to be other characters. It could have been simple editing mistakes, but more often than not, I found myself wondering if this character was saying this or if it was that character. The majority of Dawnbringer's characters were not developed, and not unique enough to tell apart.
Praises:
1) Beginning. Dawnbringer starts out with a short story setting up the actual story. The beginning shows what happened to cause this rivalry. However, when first reading Dawnbringer, it is odd to have this kind of story start a novel about rival houses. The characters were interesting and were developed. They were likable and actually had personalities. The story was direct and to the point, there wasn't any useless padding or descriptions that took up too much time. The beginning of Dawnbringer was a good way to introduce the basic elements of story along with having a nice short story element to it.
2) Dark. Dawnbringer had a lot of dark elements and disturbing things happen that weren't expected. It's one of the darker Forgotten Realms novels that have been released. Some of the images were graphic and disturbing. For example, the two devas come across some halflings late in the story, and what they see is just wrong. It was gory and disturbing. Then there are a few things that happen later that will leave you speechless. Also, Dawnbringer is incredibly adult in some of the situations that happen. It's something totally unexpected. Dawnbringer is one of the darker, more adult oriented, and more disturbing Forgotten Realms novels to date with some of the disturbing images.
Side Notes:
1) Time Jumps. There are quite a few time jumps throughout this novel. It does make it hard to follow and relate to the characters, because they are suddenly gone and you don't really get the chance to really like them.
2) Romeo and Juliet. When reading the back of Dawnbringer, it seems like it does have connections to Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. These connections are just on the surface, but the story as the whole barely has anything to do with Romeo and Juliet.
3) Cover Art. Dawnbringer's cover art is different, but generic. The colors are bright and really eye catching, but everything else is generic and unoriginal. The two faces on the cover look just unoriginal and the whole premise of the cover has that 'overdone' look to it. It's not really unique, but it is different from the past few recent Forgotten Realms releases.
Overall: 3/5
Final Thoughts:
Dawnbringer has quite a few problems that really hamper the story, starting with how the story flows. It's choppy and is interrupted by descriptions and flashbacks, making it hard to follow what was going on. The characters also had a problem. They weren't distinctive enough to really be memorable, aside from a few characters. There were times when some characters blended into the other ones, and were mixed up. Aside from that, Dawnbringer had quite few things going for it. The beginning was a nice way to set up the problems that happen later in the story, and it felt like an included short story. In fact, the whole novel feels like it's just a short story that someone wanted to make longer. Also, there's a lot of dark, twisted, and disturbing images and things that happen in the story that weren't expected. It's seriously one of the more darker Forgotten Realms novels that have been recently released. Dawnbringer is one of those story's that a die-hard Forgotten Realm fan would love, but would leave most newcomers in the dark.
Dawnbringer is a stand-alone novel set in the Forgotten Realms setting of Dungeons and Dragons. This is Samantha Henderson's second full length novel, her first is titled Heaven's Bones and is set in the Ravenloft setting of Dungeons and Dragons. She has written a vast amount of short fiction, along with a vast amount of poems published in various anthologies, collections, and magazines. Dawnbringer was released May 2011 and is published by Wizards of the Coast, LLC.
After two pirates, Gareth Jadaren and Ivor Beguine, escape the pirate life, they sought out to make a name for themselves as merchants. However before they escaped, a raid on a merchant ship left Gareth with an unusual piece of jewelry. After trying to find out if it was magical, a woman named Jandi, tries to warn them that the item is powerful and other forces my try to take it. The trio, Jandi joining the two, head out and arrive at a spot of land that Gareth claims as his own, with the help of Jandi and the mysterious jewelry. However, before the trio can celebrate, tragedy strikes. Centuries pass by and the Beguine family and Jadaren family are bitter rivals, ever since that tragic day. Thankfully, a compromise has been made with a marriage between the houses to try to put a stop to the hatred. But hatred runs deep and the families turn to two deva protectors, Lakini and Lusk, to help ensure no harm comes from the union. Unfortunately, hate can even twist angelic beings.
Criticisms:
1) Flow. Dawnbringer has a horrible problem with its flow and how the story is told. There are a lot of contributing factors to this problem, but it's mostly due to the sudden spurts of background and description. Dawnbringer felt like a story that had no exact direction until well into the novel. Aside from the short story at the beginning of the novel and the few chapters towards the end of the novel, most of the story has this choppy, disorganized feel to it. There are long stretches of description that don't really add to the overall story, but instead seem to pad it out. These stretches come up out of nowhere and interrupts the story, giving it that choppy, disorganized feeling. It's understandable to give some description of various locations, but these bits do last too long and actually feel like an interruption. The choppy feeling extends past these interruptions as well. Every once in a while, there's a scene that happens either forward or backward in time, be it in a flashback or having some event expanded upon. While these scenes don't have that much impact on the flow, they do add to this choppy feeling, and at some points it felt incomplete. These problems make Dawnbringer somewhat hard to follow.
2) Characters. There are quite a few problems with the characters in Dawnbringer. The two main draws of the story, the devas Lakini and Lusk, were good, but they were the only developed characters. Even so, they were still hard to understand and like. It seemed as though there were a lot of things left unsaid and there was a lot left out that could have helped readers like them more. Still, they were good characters and surprisingly deep when all was said and done. However, everyone else was just figments and hardly anymore than that. Aside from the three characters we meet at the beginning of the book, the rest just never seemed to have that big of an impact. The members of the Beguine family; Kestral, Ciari, Vorsha, Nicol, and Sanwar, never seemed that important. The novel does spend most of its time on this family, but the characters seemed shallow and interchangeable. The two daughters, Ciari and Kestral, didn't seem different from each other. They were so alike that they were mixed up multiple times throughout the story. There was even a time were I thought that Ciari, the older daughter, was the one that was going to be married, even though I knew it was Kestral. The father of the family, Nicol, was barely present and didn't have impact on the story. With Vorsha, the wife, and Sanwar, the uncle, they were a bit more complex, but still didn't seem to really be there. The other family, was non-existent except for the soon-to-be husband, Arna. But he only was present for a chapter and was written off and forgotten. The main problem with the characters is that, while there were interesting concepts, none of them felt fully developed. It was hard to remember who was who, because they all acted alike, aside from a few characters. It didn't help that throughout the story, a lot of characters seemed to be other characters. It could have been simple editing mistakes, but more often than not, I found myself wondering if this character was saying this or if it was that character. The majority of Dawnbringer's characters were not developed, and not unique enough to tell apart.
Praises:
1) Beginning. Dawnbringer starts out with a short story setting up the actual story. The beginning shows what happened to cause this rivalry. However, when first reading Dawnbringer, it is odd to have this kind of story start a novel about rival houses. The characters were interesting and were developed. They were likable and actually had personalities. The story was direct and to the point, there wasn't any useless padding or descriptions that took up too much time. The beginning of Dawnbringer was a good way to introduce the basic elements of story along with having a nice short story element to it.
2) Dark. Dawnbringer had a lot of dark elements and disturbing things happen that weren't expected. It's one of the darker Forgotten Realms novels that have been released. Some of the images were graphic and disturbing. For example, the two devas come across some halflings late in the story, and what they see is just wrong. It was gory and disturbing. Then there are a few things that happen later that will leave you speechless. Also, Dawnbringer is incredibly adult in some of the situations that happen. It's something totally unexpected. Dawnbringer is one of the darker, more adult oriented, and more disturbing Forgotten Realms novels to date with some of the disturbing images.
Side Notes:
1) Time Jumps. There are quite a few time jumps throughout this novel. It does make it hard to follow and relate to the characters, because they are suddenly gone and you don't really get the chance to really like them.
2) Romeo and Juliet. When reading the back of Dawnbringer, it seems like it does have connections to Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. These connections are just on the surface, but the story as the whole barely has anything to do with Romeo and Juliet.
3) Cover Art. Dawnbringer's cover art is different, but generic. The colors are bright and really eye catching, but everything else is generic and unoriginal. The two faces on the cover look just unoriginal and the whole premise of the cover has that 'overdone' look to it. It's not really unique, but it is different from the past few recent Forgotten Realms releases.
Overall: 3/5
Final Thoughts:
Dawnbringer has quite a few problems that really hamper the story, starting with how the story flows. It's choppy and is interrupted by descriptions and flashbacks, making it hard to follow what was going on. The characters also had a problem. They weren't distinctive enough to really be memorable, aside from a few characters. There were times when some characters blended into the other ones, and were mixed up. Aside from that, Dawnbringer had quite few things going for it. The beginning was a nice way to set up the problems that happen later in the story, and it felt like an included short story. In fact, the whole novel feels like it's just a short story that someone wanted to make longer. Also, there's a lot of dark, twisted, and disturbing images and things that happen in the story that weren't expected. It's seriously one of the more darker Forgotten Realms novels that have been recently released. Dawnbringer is one of those story's that a die-hard Forgotten Realm fan would love, but would leave most newcomers in the dark.
June 15, 2019
This book really surprised me, I was expecting a simple fantasy story, competent but not amazing and I was pleasantly surprised.
The fragmentation of the plot in time avoids spending too much time on a single thing to the point where it could become boring. Characters maybe don't have as much development as they could but are competent people with their own personality and agenda beyond serving the purpose of the story.
As a bonus if you are familiar with D&D gameplay you can find some interesting ways mechanics are inserted into the book.
If you like fantasy books it's a recommendation, knowledge of the universe is not needed to enjoy it fully.
The fragmentation of the plot in time avoids spending too much time on a single thing to the point where it could become boring. Characters maybe don't have as much development as they could but are competent people with their own personality and agenda beyond serving the purpose of the story.
As a bonus if you are familiar with D&D gameplay you can find some interesting ways mechanics are inserted into the book.
If you like fantasy books it's a recommendation, knowledge of the universe is not needed to enjoy it fully.
May 23, 2021
This wasn't good.
Disappointment with the quality of writing is large. It seems to meander all over the place without rhyme or reason.
To boot, it just didn't feel like a Realms novel.
Shame as I really enjoyed the authors Ravenloft novel and was exited to read this.
Disappointment with the quality of writing is large. It seems to meander all over the place without rhyme or reason.
To boot, it just didn't feel like a Realms novel.
Shame as I really enjoyed the authors Ravenloft novel and was exited to read this.
May 10, 2011
It's probably not possible for me to give an entirely unbiased review of this book as the author is a good friend of mine. Also this is a genre that I have no familiarity with and it is written for a younger audience (although that does not prevent the author from including some fairly grizzly scenes.)
I feel the back cover description does not do the complexity and depth of the story justice. It makes it sound like a fantasy version of Romeo and Juliet which Dawnbringer certainly is not. There are similarities, specifically the feud between two powerful families and the trouble it causes the couple in question, but while their story is part of the central action, there is much more to the story than their relationship.
If I had a complaint, I would say it was that because Dawnbringer follows a number of character's stories, it is not entirely clear if there is a single protagonist until at least half way through the book. I like the multiple threads, but feel they could meld one into the other somewhat better. An extended prologue makes up the first fifth of the book and I was slightly confused when the action jumps ahead by over 100 years. The various story lines are interesting and satisfying but I did end up wondering where it was all going for some time. But it all begins to come together just past the mid-point of the book. I suspect much of my disorientation was due to my lack of experience with fantasy literature. To a fan of Dungeons and Dragons, the world of Dawnbringer will be familiar.
Samantha Henderson is very good at creating the texture and feel of the world she is writing about. There is an almost tactile quality to the writing and I often felt I could more than see the environment. Her characters are realistically imperfect. The best of them still discover they have made grievous mistakes and must struggle to be better people. This makes the characters far more satisfying for me and the overall story much more interesting.
I think this is a book that will appeal to those who enjoy their fantasy with realistic, complex characters.
I feel the back cover description does not do the complexity and depth of the story justice. It makes it sound like a fantasy version of Romeo and Juliet which Dawnbringer certainly is not. There are similarities, specifically the feud between two powerful families and the trouble it causes the couple in question, but while their story is part of the central action, there is much more to the story than their relationship.
If I had a complaint, I would say it was that because Dawnbringer follows a number of character's stories, it is not entirely clear if there is a single protagonist until at least half way through the book. I like the multiple threads, but feel they could meld one into the other somewhat better. An extended prologue makes up the first fifth of the book and I was slightly confused when the action jumps ahead by over 100 years. The various story lines are interesting and satisfying but I did end up wondering where it was all going for some time. But it all begins to come together just past the mid-point of the book. I suspect much of my disorientation was due to my lack of experience with fantasy literature. To a fan of Dungeons and Dragons, the world of Dawnbringer will be familiar.
Samantha Henderson is very good at creating the texture and feel of the world she is writing about. There is an almost tactile quality to the writing and I often felt I could more than see the environment. Her characters are realistically imperfect. The best of them still discover they have made grievous mistakes and must struggle to be better people. This makes the characters far more satisfying for me and the overall story much more interesting.
I think this is a book that will appeal to those who enjoy their fantasy with realistic, complex characters.
October 20, 2015
Ok, finished it yestreday... almost 150 pages in an evening - this thing is what might be called - light reading (after perdido street station that is).
in short - nothing special. slow start (like 150pages that made me drop it for a long time), than blazingly fast 150, and the rest - sort of medium baked epilogue. 2/5
but why I picked this one in the first place - well - because I had read a review saying that it was different to other novels set in Forgotten Realms novels. And yeah...it was, in regard that it almost had nothing to do with the forgotten realms setting - just the deva (which is not exactly a fore-front race in the setting) and a brief encounters with few gods, and reference to Chauntea from time to time. And well..that's it. It could have been written in any other DnD universe/realm and wouldn't have played out any different than this one.
It wasn't all that bad, as I said previously - its main let-downs ere super-mega-slow start (come on..150 pages for intro-of-sorts is forgiveable for a novel that is 800 pages long...not 300+.... ) and the lack of need being called Forgotten Realms novel. These two would be really the only complaints I would outline as being objective.
Other complaints, if any - would be nitpicking, I would like to say, but besides really great main characters that compensated lesser minuses (abundance of them, to be frank) - those both devas, and the unfolding of their destinies, and how it intervened with the House Jadaren and house Beguine and what came out of it, and well.. that's all good that was there.
It definitely had more drawbacks than advantages and so fairly granted, but can't complain as this was in the end nice reading to shorten an evening without the internet and while waiting for next batch of books to come.
2/5.
in short - nothing special. slow start (like 150pages that made me drop it for a long time), than blazingly fast 150, and the rest - sort of medium baked epilogue. 2/5
but why I picked this one in the first place - well - because I had read a review saying that it was different to other novels set in Forgotten Realms novels. And yeah...it was, in regard that it almost had nothing to do with the forgotten realms setting - just the deva (which is not exactly a fore-front race in the setting) and a brief encounters with few gods, and reference to Chauntea from time to time. And well..that's it. It could have been written in any other DnD universe/realm and wouldn't have played out any different than this one.
It wasn't all that bad, as I said previously - its main let-downs ere super-mega-slow start (come on..150 pages for intro-of-sorts is forgiveable for a novel that is 800 pages long...not 300+.... ) and the lack of need being called Forgotten Realms novel. These two would be really the only complaints I would outline as being objective.
Other complaints, if any - would be nitpicking, I would like to say, but besides really great main characters that compensated lesser minuses (abundance of them, to be frank) - those both devas, and the unfolding of their destinies, and how it intervened with the House Jadaren and house Beguine and what came out of it, and well.. that's all good that was there.
It definitely had more drawbacks than advantages and so fairly granted, but can't complain as this was in the end nice reading to shorten an evening without the internet and while waiting for next batch of books to come.
2/5.
May 16, 2012
3.5. That is the number of stars I would really like to give this book, but goodreads won't let me. So I am left with the choice of 3 or 4, and I didn't quite find enough to bump it up to the next level.
The back cover makes this novel sound very Romeo and Julietty, and for a small portion of the plot, it seems like that idea was taken and molded into something new. I was interested in seeing someone take on the Deva race and how that would play out in the Realms. Henderson does a good job with the characters, but getting into the cool nitty-gritty of what makes Devas really special is lacking. There are flashbacks to earlier times in their current incarnations, but nothing that is really a wow factor. Henderson hints at certain elements, like a deva slowly moving down the rung of gods serving beings, but hints are really all we get. There isn't anything more in depth as to the whys or the really big outcomes. (Yeah we see the outcome at the end of the novel, but it still begs the why and what now questions.) I do have to say one of the supporting characters, the uncle, is really someone you start hating, and for that pulling that much emotion out of me I give Henderson kudos.
In summary though, it seems like there was so much more that could be done with this novel. To me it seems like it should have been split into two or more novels, allowing us to go deeper into the plot elements. However, I am not the publisher so I have no decision over that. If you have some time to kill, and are looking for something to read, this isn't too bad.
The back cover makes this novel sound very Romeo and Julietty, and for a small portion of the plot, it seems like that idea was taken and molded into something new. I was interested in seeing someone take on the Deva race and how that would play out in the Realms. Henderson does a good job with the characters, but getting into the cool nitty-gritty of what makes Devas really special is lacking. There are flashbacks to earlier times in their current incarnations, but nothing that is really a wow factor. Henderson hints at certain elements, like a deva slowly moving down the rung of gods serving beings, but hints are really all we get. There isn't anything more in depth as to the whys or the really big outcomes. (Yeah we see the outcome at the end of the novel, but it still begs the why and what now questions.) I do have to say one of the supporting characters, the uncle, is really someone you start hating, and for that pulling that much emotion out of me I give Henderson kudos.
In summary though, it seems like there was so much more that could be done with this novel. To me it seems like it should have been split into two or more novels, allowing us to go deeper into the plot elements. However, I am not the publisher so I have no decision over that. If you have some time to kill, and are looking for something to read, this isn't too bad.
May 13, 2015
It was a little disorienting the way the story started out with one group of characters, then jumped ahead a couple hundred years, then skipped a decade, etc. but I guess that makes sense if the story's supposed to be more about the devas than the humans. Devas are one of the most fascinating races in Dungeons & Dragons, so I enjoyed reading about their peculiarities. Not only character-wise, but also plot-wise, the narrative could have been more focused. I'd prefer to really get to know a small group of characters than to meet a bunch only to have them disappear or only be lightly sprinkled throughout the book. That said, I really liked the rakshasa foreshadowing and how that played out. It seems like it was set up for a sequel, which I would read, but which doesn't seem to exist as of now.
I'm not sure if it's just my copy, but there were a LOT of typos in the book. The character Nicol, a man, was referred to as Nicole several times. There were several other spelling errors and grammatical missteps.
As with anything, it's easier to articulate what Dawnbringer does wrong than what it does right. It certainly was entertaining and interesting. And while I'm definitely no scholar on D&D novels, this is the only novel I've heard of that features devas, which it does very well.
I'm not sure if it's just my copy, but there were a LOT of typos in the book. The character Nicol, a man, was referred to as Nicole several times. There were several other spelling errors and grammatical missteps.
As with anything, it's easier to articulate what Dawnbringer does wrong than what it does right. It certainly was entertaining and interesting. And while I'm definitely no scholar on D&D novels, this is the only novel I've heard of that features devas, which it does very well.
May 4, 2012
Mixed feelings about this. I enjoyed the "deva" part, when the author tries to give the reader an idea of what a life as a being bound to come again and again is. I enjoyed even some of the scenes, because this novel is built up with scenes, the narrative is splintered in different time periods, with different elements of the plot evolving.
What I didn't enjoy is certainly the lack of depth for most of the characters and some "simple" reasons behind the main antagonist's reasons. Of course we are most of the time driven by the simplest reasons when we act, but it is also true that in literature we need powerful motives, more "powerful" than in our petty lives. As my acting teacher used to tell me: "when on stage, put all your strength into your actions: to the audience, they'll be trivial enough".
I like though Ms Handerson's style though, and I hope to see soon a more "mature" approach to the genre, as I'm sure she's more than capable.
What I didn't enjoy is certainly the lack of depth for most of the characters and some "simple" reasons behind the main antagonist's reasons. Of course we are most of the time driven by the simplest reasons when we act, but it is also true that in literature we need powerful motives, more "powerful" than in our petty lives. As my acting teacher used to tell me: "when on stage, put all your strength into your actions: to the audience, they'll be trivial enough".
I like though Ms Handerson's style though, and I hope to see soon a more "mature" approach to the genre, as I'm sure she's more than capable.
November 24, 2020
The plot is fragmented and unresolved. It probably won't ever get resolved. But the book structure was just so darn interesting that i couldn't give less than 5 stars.
The mysteries and character connections are so alien from typical fantasy fare, that i found constantly while reading that my expectations were subverted. Sometimes in a good way, sometimes bad. Tropes exist for a reason after all. But breaking free from them has value too.
That's what this book has done for me, my opinion is heavily divided and i love feeling like i don't understand myself from a meta perspective.
The mysteries and character connections are so alien from typical fantasy fare, that i found constantly while reading that my expectations were subverted. Sometimes in a good way, sometimes bad. Tropes exist for a reason after all. But breaking free from them has value too.
That's what this book has done for me, my opinion is heavily divided and i love feeling like i don't understand myself from a meta perspective.
April 11, 2019
An okay read.
Centered around a two, warring families and unforgiven hostilities, the book has a strange structure of skipping 10-15 years at times from chapter to chapter.
Personally wasn't a big fan of this, which was not able to shake up the stale story and continued family machinations, or to shape out most characters properly.
Centered around a two, warring families and unforgiven hostilities, the book has a strange structure of skipping 10-15 years at times from chapter to chapter.
Personally wasn't a big fan of this, which was not able to shake up the stale story and continued family machinations, or to shape out most characters properly.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews