Meh

[Janelle]

This is not Barclay’s best work. As usual the characters are good and the relationships between them are strong and believable. I love the complex relationship between the members and how past events aren’t simple forgotten.

The problem is the plot. While action packed, it hinges on all the characters failing to ask the very obvious questions. Let’s start with the dragons. At the end of the last book, three Kaan dragons were trapped in Balaia, which is completely unsuitable and is now killing them. First question, why stay in Balaia? There is a southern continent, it has magic because the elves come from there and they have magic and they have a mental link to Hirad if they need something. Or better they could take up residence on one of the many uncharted islands in the archipelagoes?

Second, why does no one even suggest having the dragons carry them to where they need to go? The dragons’ lives depend on the Raven’s success, and they spend the vast majority of the story sitting in a cave doing bupkiss. When Hirad does finally call on them, it is almost a month later, and they have lost most of their fire and their resistance to magic. But if they had just flown the Raven to the island in the first place it would have by passed delays, conflicts, and a ton of travel time. They would have arrived way before there enemies. There is a handwaved excuse about then being the masters not the servants, but considering the stakes they should probably get over it.

The next big problem is the magic system. There are four colleges of magic, and the One Magic. To be honest, they all seems to be a distinction without a difference. They use the same spells with the same effects. They show up as different colors in the ‘mana spectrum’ and the One mages can use all the colors. But on the whole there is no obvious difference.

This makes it hard to believe that a return of the One Magic can be a threat in and of itself. The real threat seems to be that so much power is heaped on a child too young to understand or control the forces within her. I am left wondering why the colleges formed and why it would be so bad if the One reformed.

On that note, how did they go so long without inter-college hanky panky? Surely this has happened before, especially with one college advocating the return of the One.

Lyanna is a fairly flat character. She’s only five, but she still lacks a personality beyond wanting her mother and being scared at the right moments. She is a sacrificial lamb from the word go, and I feel like her being a child is really the only part that should tug at my heart strings.

Overall, I am not a fan of this installment. It has good action, but I expect the characters to be smarter then what they are displaying.

[David]

Its not Balaia thats killing them its the world they are in and they are stuck there so moving to the elven continent wont help. They need to get back to their home dimension (cant remember why they cant open a portal though, its been years since reading it).

The colleges formed so they could use magic, the colleges each have their own (for lack of a better word) magic stone that allows them to use magic, otherwise magic is beyond them. Its like the stone syphons magic into it and this allows mages to use that power, like using a filter to clean water of impurites is how I thought of it. But the stone of each college gives that college a specific twist to their magic, hence the demon connection in Densers college.

The rest of your observances I cant comment on, like I said its been years since I read this one and I thought it was the weakest of the original books.