* Official Discussion Thread for Lord of the Fading Lands *SPOILERS*

[Sim]

I definitely liked this book better than the main and had quite a few people laughing at the cover... :|

I wish they would have spent more time on Elly's story and less on the politics. I got the sense that there was some tense relations with the Fey, but it weighed the story down. Also more about the Eld would've been cool too.

Yes again with the virgin and old man. *sigh*

I do have to give it to Elly, she did stand up to Rain quite a few times. Of course she knew that he wasn't going to hurt her so he really had no choice other than to go along with what she wanted, but still.

All in all, I did enjoy the book and will read on in this series :)

[Julie]

I found this book kind of tedious. By the middle of it I was sort of skimming over large chunks of it, and from what I could tell my skimming didn't hurt my understanding of the plot at all. I doubt I'll continue with this series, even though this book has a lackluster ending that wraps up nothing.

[Kamil]

Julie wrote: "I found this book kind of tedious. By the middle of it I was sort of skimming over large chunks of it, and from what I could tell my skimming didn't hurt my understanding of the plot at all. I doub..."

The plot goes like this; an old dude wants a much younger girl.... the end

[Ender]

I skimmed the last hundred pages or so. Basically the book had sort of a beginning and absolutely no end. Most of it was all middle (most of it about wedding plans I could barely be less interested in). I wasn't interested in the characters either. I'm tired of reading about the same characters over and over again (alpha male & helpless female). It's like the only thing that changes in these books are the names of the characters and the setting. Same basic story every time. Why do women authors keep doing this?

The only bright spot was this passage: "[Rain] would rather dance naked before the entire court than give Celieria's queen the satisfaction of knowing she could annoy him."

Yeah, guess what image I INSTANTLY had running through my mind? And no, it wasn't a seductive dance either...it keeps bursting into my head and then I giggle randomly, and I'm oh-so-glad no one else is around.

[Anna]

meh... boring book...
The characters were one-dimensional and had no character arcs or growth. As was mentioned before, a HUGE amount of the plot was focussed on her clothes and wedding planning and how to act properly and use the correct forks.

It generally felt like a YA book, which meant that when there were references to more explicit things they felt really harsh and raunchy and out of place. For example, I believe one of the first actually sexual scenes we get is the one between Kolis and Jiarine, which is weird and rape-y anyway, but on top of it, after only chased kisses and random face touching between Rain and whats-her-face, all of a sudden this ugly bomb is dropped: "...slippery red satic, slit from crotch to anus for his convenience. Plump, shaved flesh pouted through the edges of the fabric, and the scent of musk wafted up in rich waves." IIIICCCCKKKK!!! And this is pretty much the most description of Jiarine we get the whole book.

All the characters seemed totally immature too, not only Elly. Den is stupid and simplistic, Rain is just an obnoxious smoldering dude with not much else going for him who lays in the surf and pounds the sand with his fists while screaming his sexual frustration to the heavens... really? Take things "in hand" man, it's not that difficult. Elly is young and obnoxious and only strong in a shallow "spunky" kind of way that passes for backbone in so many romance books.

Finally, the only sex scene we get between the two mains is sort of an exaggerated phone-sex type situation. I learned from this that I get no satisfaction whatsoever from magic sex. All his Spirit hands on her in earlier scenes just seemed obnoxious, and having fake Spirit sex just seemed anti-climactic to me.

The fact that there was no resolution in this book only added insult to already substantial injury.

I will NOT be reading any further in this series.

P.S. I HATE when this sort of comment is made in any book, or in real life... absolutely HATE it!!! "'Aiyah. Sariel taught me.' He held up his index finger. 'Rule one: in any dispute between mates, the male is always to blame, even when he is clearly blameless. Rule two' - his middle finger joined the first - 'whenever in doubt, refer to rule.'" This sort of comment is as demeaning to women as a dismissive pat on the head. Why take up words in this sort of book with this stupid comment? Speechless...

[Ellen]

Mirandia wrote: "So, I have not finished the main pick (as of yet) but the alt I could not put down. At the beginning I did a few issues for a bit, as it felt like I might have picked up a book that was not book 1 ..."

Oh my gosh, I am so glad someone else had to listen to this. The narrator was AWFUL! And there was never any break or indication when they changed POV, so we were going from Den to Ellie with no indication. Probably worst audiobook experience I have had, but it was all my library had.

Happy to commiserate with someone else. :)

[Mirandia]

Yay, so glad to have someone with me!!

[Philippa]

Honestly, I liked this book much more than the main. I thought that the world building was better and more enjoyable. And I really liked the characters and characterization.

While I agree that Rain was over-protective and aggressive, I thought that it was better than many of the similar depictions of that behavior I've seen in other books because the other characters are constantly calling him on it. So, it was seen as a flaw how over-protective and domineering he was even within a culture where women are constantly being protected. (I wasn't as big a fan of the gender dichotomy there, but they did show how the healer women were pretty powerful within their gender roles, so it didn't bug me as much. I also didn't get the impression that their healers were particularly meek.)

I actually really liked Elly. I thought she wasn't particularly weak given the fact that she never knew she had magic/was deeply afraid of that magic, and had been taught to respect and obey her parents. She actually stands up to her parents quite a bit, as well as Rain. She also does a pretty good job of taking charge of her own desire given that she's in a culture where that's frowned upon.

While I like stories set in cultures where it's considered acceptable for a women to own her own sexuality without being considered impure, I also like to see stories where women work within the bounds of more restrictive cultures to be more sexually open. I definitely felt that was what was going on here, and that Elly wasn't particularly passive at all. Also, I don't know if the Fey had the slut/virgin dichotomy idea particularly, at least in comparison to the Celierians, so the gender relations did seem more complex than that relatively simple divide.

[Tegan]

Regardless of the various issues in this book I almost cheered at the rant at the hearing/royal court over how stupid the claiming a woman by marking her was, especially when it was against consent.

[Kamil]

Rain was overprotective because once he lost someone he loved

[Stacia (the 2010 club)]

Even with some of the initial character issues, I think there was a shift in the character dynamics as the series progressed, so I'm assuming that it was intent from the author to show character growth the further we got into the series. Both Elly and Rain have to change in order to adapt to what the other needs, as well as having to learn how to rule during a time of massive change for their respective peoples.

[[deleted user]]

I loved this book. With all it's flaws and shining bits, I loved this book. I just picked up the next four books from the library. The ending was killing me and I had to find out more!! I decided to play it safe and get the rest of the series just in case another ending like this one occurred. No delayed gratification this time!!

[Helen]

I loved this book so I read it and the following 4 in less than a week while on holiday. I read somewhere that the first two books are actually one split in two, hence the abrupt ending. The alpha male characters really don't bother me. They are very standard for this genre and I have read ones that are much worse. This series reminded me of Mercedes Lackey books and bought back fond memories of reading them as a teenager.

[Emily]

I liked this one. The world is one that I'd like to see more of (2nd book on hold at the library). The side characters are interesting. I especially want to learn more about Ellie's quintet.

Some problems I had with the book:

1. The different terms used in the book threw me for a while, especially the temporal words. Turned out there was a glossary but it was at the very end of the book. Wish they would have put it in the beginning, like the October Day series does.

2. What the heck is up with that ending? I'd rather read a long complete book than have it chopped up in the middle like that.

3. The use of "aiyah" for "yes". This really bothered me and took me out of the flow of the story each and every time. I'm Chinese, so saying "aiyah" is more of an exclamation of distress/annoyance/irritation. Wish she could have used some other variation on "aye".

[Annique]

I was struggling to get into this one...and then I liked it with no warning or reason at all. I completely agree with the abrupt ending, so I promptly borrowed the audio book for book 2 (only version available) from the library. Narrator is not my fav as well...I keep getting confused as to who's talking and constantly have to "rewind." I really hate the queen (Anoura?), hoping she gets hers in a later book. Enjoying the 2nd book a little more than 1st.

[Naomi]

http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/...

Here is a drawing for everyone that I just did. Its a Veronica cat-dragon with Kiala ridding.

[Erika]

Chris wrote: "With so many faults, I shouldn't like this book at all, but it sucked me in"

so I'm a month late, but it took a while to get the book from the library! I agree with a lot of the commentators here, the book was so bad in so many ways, (no sexy times, flying cats, a weird back story about a freak out after your girl died, and all sorts of political stuff that I really don't like having to keep track of) but it was strangely enthralling. such a guilty pleasure. I was all set to be done with them after this book, but there was no real ending, so now I have to read the next one. I at least need them to admit to each other that they love each other and aren't just obliged to be together because they are fated to be together. hope all of that happens in the next book. sexy times would be nice, too.