Genre: YA Fantasy
Rating: B
For: Utah Authors Month
From: Bought it! (I forget where though.)
This is fun little story about a young elf girl, Reiyalindis, who has a vision of sorts that prompts her to gather a group together to go on a mission to take down the ghost people. The ghost people are a group of mysterious creatures that appear and disappear at a whim and have been causing havoc in the world for quite some time. The group she gathers is quite the interesting one. First of all, she has her companion, a mysteriously quiet Dark Elf (which is already strange because she is a High Elf.) Then there's the Common Elf warrior with a curious past. A human who is married to a half breed (part animal,) an eccentric mad professor type, and later a beast consisting of a hodge podge magically created body powered by thousands of magical spirits. What a group, no?
Once they are off on their quest, they must fight the evil fallen Dark Elf, and face down a colony of warlocks. Some pretty crazy things happen, including a close call in a torture chamber. In the end, you find yourself really hoping this motley crew can actually pull it all off!
Even though I enjoyed this story for the most part, I found myself wanting to like it more. I think I especially ached to know more about the Common Elf, Vaelon, who seemed to have a really interesting back story that was only touched upon. In the end, there was also a bit of a romance involving him that I wanted more of and wished was a bigger part of the story. It felt a bit rushed and easy.
I really enjoyed these interesting characters, but once again they needed more development. It was frustrating to not feel more attached to them then I was. The emotion that I love and crave in novels was lacking. Despite that, I was anxious to finish and learn what happens to them all!
In the end, I think it was a little too simple for me, that being said however, it would be perfect for perhaps a younger audience. Granted, it probably wasn't the best for this book to have me read it right after The Name of the Wind, which will undoubtedly end up on my Top Ten of the year list. At any rate, I think I'll have my daughter give it a try and see what she thinks of it.
Bottom line: It was an interesting story that I enjoyed despite some development issues.
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This sounds like it's got a really interesting premise. Sorry to hear it's not quite all it could be. I think I'll probably give it a shot anyway if I happen upon a copy.
ReplyDeleteGreat review!
Well, it sounds good but sometimes the really simple ones are hard for me to connect to. I'll be interested to hear what your daughter thinks.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds really cute. I do think simple is hard to like sometimes though. I like more chemistry, and more sweet romance! :)
ReplyDeleteHmmm...the cover is stunning, and that alone would draw me into reading this story.
ReplyDeleteI hear you about this being a follow-up to TNoTW. After I was done with that book; I too had a difficult time settling into another book. I think it took me upwards to a week before I could read.