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stevetw's review against another edition
3.0
Unfortunately, easily the weakest of the series so far, by far. I suppose not bad as a story in and of itself, but as a continuation of the Runelords series, it feels like Runelords only in the barest sense. It feels like he had nowhere else to go in the main story with the magic, and with escalating evil, and so had to come up with this. First, the Reavers were the greatest evil ever faced and had to be stopped. Then Shadoath was even worse and needed to be stopped by an even more powerful being. Now even she's not the worst, and Fallion has to become even more powerful to stop this latest threat. It seems like an ever-escalating threat that only stops when the author decides to end the series. That's the exact reason I stopped watching Walking Dead. Now, I'll continue the series, as there are, as of now, only two more books, but it's definitely with less enthusiasm, and if this was like a 15 book series, ala Wheel of Time, I might stop.
The other problem besides the trope of each villain "worst villain ever TM" being worse than the last, this feels like a totally new series. I got that with the turnover with Son of the Oak and accepted that. This feels like he intentionally changed the world. If I wanted to read an entirely different series, I would have picked that series up. And yet, it's not. I now have to keep track of "shadow personalities", and where this guy is a king here he was a peasant in the first world. Meanwhile, Raj Aten was a monster in the first series and all-powerful, here he survived and is a good man? Kinda makes me go um, trying to connect all these personalities with their counterparts. I didn't like when they blew up the Star Trek universe and I don't like when they do it here. And then the Runelord powers and blood metal that were the signature of the series, literally it's name, is almost absent here. Yeah, towards the end they're learning it in the new combined world, but it still seems like he wants to make a whole new series.
Overall, an unfortunately weak entry. Hopefully the next entry is better.
The other problem besides the trope of each villain "worst villain ever TM" being worse than the last, this feels like a totally new series. I got that with the turnover with Son of the Oak and accepted that. This feels like he intentionally changed the world. If I wanted to read an entirely different series, I would have picked that series up. And yet, it's not. I now have to keep track of "shadow personalities", and where this guy is a king here he was a peasant in the first world. Meanwhile, Raj Aten was a monster in the first series and all-powerful, here he survived and is a good man? Kinda makes me go um, trying to connect all these personalities with their counterparts. I didn't like when they blew up the Star Trek universe and I don't like when they do it here. And then the Runelord powers and blood metal that were the signature of the series, literally it's name, is almost absent here. Yeah, towards the end they're learning it in the new combined world, but it still seems like he wants to make a whole new series.
Overall, an unfortunately weak entry. Hopefully the next entry is better.
briarraindancer's review against another edition
3.0
Maybe it's just me, suffering from a hideous cold, but I'm having a hard time getting into this book. I loved all of the Runelord books up 'till this point, but when Fallion merged the two shadow worlds, I found myself groaning.
"More characters I have to learn? I can't keep up!"
Still, I'll keep going; I'm hoping it'll get easier.
"More characters I have to learn? I can't keep up!"
Still, I'll keep going; I'm hoping it'll get easier.
jesse583's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
fryguy451's review against another edition
3.0
More like ~3.5. A good story, but only more questions and an open ending.
gmvader's review against another edition
1.0
I wish I could tell the difference between when I have changed too much to appreciate an author’s writing and when the author has just diminished too much to be read any more.
I recall really enjoying the first four books of this series and found them to be exciting and phenomenal works of fantasy with brilliant consequences to the magic system that seemed to be missing in other works.
Then I read the precursor to this book and found it almost unbearably dull and poorly written.
Being a glutton for punishment — and slightly obsessive about finishing series once begun — I read this book.
I’m not sure where Farland is going with this. I get the idea from some of the writing advice he gives that he fancies himself a great writer of characters. Unfortunately this book is full of a series of character tropes with the thinnest of character traits.
It all starts when Fallion casts a super-powerful magic spell that makes his world collide with another one. The entire face of the world is changed as the two places merge and many people cease to exist, others join together with people from the other world and the landscape is completely shifted around to make some kind of approximation of the two worlds.
Fallion thinks he is completely in the right for doing this because, after all it is in the plot. Even though thousands, or maybe millions die because of it and it also brings super powerful giants that want to conquer everything as well as some kind of demons and monsters that kill people left and right.
Fallion is apparently incapable of caring about people.
What follows is a series of improbable adventures as we are told how tiny and delicate normal people are compared to the giants from the other world that are now everywhere followed by heroic battles where the normal sized people fight off the giants, demons and monsters and win the day because they are the heroes.
On the one hand I applaud Farland for being willing to destroy his world and make it into something else. That’s not always an easy thing to do. In fact, I believe that the story of the Lord of the Rings is the story of the breaking of Middle Earth. It is the story of the passing of magic from the world. I have to nod my head to David Farland for being one of the few authors that I’ve read who has figured that out and used that aspect in their fantasy. Most authors miss Tolkien completely and copy what they think they saw that they loved.
Farland isn’t copying anything, really, he’s just not a very good writer. Every scene feels awkward and underdeveloped. The descriptions are seldom rich enough for the scene to be fully imagined, the characters are seldom realized enough to have believable or understandable motivations, the people, magic, monsters, giants, worlds, demons, etc. have powers and ideas and abilities that vary with the convenience of the plot and the story. Monsters that are talked about by powerful mages as being scary beyond belief turn out to be susceptible to bright lights… sometimes.
The whole makes for a bit of a mess that feels like Farland is regressing in his skill rather than the opposite. I hesitate to go back and read the earlier ones that I loved so much. Perhaps they are not as good as I remembered. Perhaps I have outgrown this over-wrought poorly written story.
The question then remains. Will I finish the series? I don’t know. This was bad enough that I might not. Will the author finish the series? That remains to be seen as well.
I recall really enjoying the first four books of this series and found them to be exciting and phenomenal works of fantasy with brilliant consequences to the magic system that seemed to be missing in other works.
Then I read the precursor to this book and found it almost unbearably dull and poorly written.
Being a glutton for punishment — and slightly obsessive about finishing series once begun — I read this book.
I’m not sure where Farland is going with this. I get the idea from some of the writing advice he gives that he fancies himself a great writer of characters. Unfortunately this book is full of a series of character tropes with the thinnest of character traits.
It all starts when Fallion casts a super-powerful magic spell that makes his world collide with another one. The entire face of the world is changed as the two places merge and many people cease to exist, others join together with people from the other world and the landscape is completely shifted around to make some kind of approximation of the two worlds.
Fallion thinks he is completely in the right for doing this because, after all it is in the plot. Even though thousands, or maybe millions die because of it and it also brings super powerful giants that want to conquer everything as well as some kind of demons and monsters that kill people left and right.
Fallion is apparently incapable of caring about people.
What follows is a series of improbable adventures as we are told how tiny and delicate normal people are compared to the giants from the other world that are now everywhere followed by heroic battles where the normal sized people fight off the giants, demons and monsters and win the day because they are the heroes.
On the one hand I applaud Farland for being willing to destroy his world and make it into something else. That’s not always an easy thing to do. In fact, I believe that the story of the Lord of the Rings is the story of the breaking of Middle Earth. It is the story of the passing of magic from the world. I have to nod my head to David Farland for being one of the few authors that I’ve read who has figured that out and used that aspect in their fantasy. Most authors miss Tolkien completely and copy what they think they saw that they loved.
Farland isn’t copying anything, really, he’s just not a very good writer. Every scene feels awkward and underdeveloped. The descriptions are seldom rich enough for the scene to be fully imagined, the characters are seldom realized enough to have believable or understandable motivations, the people, magic, monsters, giants, worlds, demons, etc. have powers and ideas and abilities that vary with the convenience of the plot and the story. Monsters that are talked about by powerful mages as being scary beyond belief turn out to be susceptible to bright lights… sometimes.
The whole makes for a bit of a mess that feels like Farland is regressing in his skill rather than the opposite. I hesitate to go back and read the earlier ones that I loved so much. Perhaps they are not as good as I remembered. Perhaps I have outgrown this over-wrought poorly written story.
The question then remains. Will I finish the series? I don’t know. This was bad enough that I might not. Will the author finish the series? That remains to be seen as well.
trsclee's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
storyphoria's review against another edition
3.0
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While it's interesting to see our heroes starting to realize who they are within the larger "universe", this book starts a full downward spiral into... well... despair and chaos in which Farland just decides to go all in on the mayhem. Even when our heroes succeed it feels like they are defeated, and the binding of these two worlds feels like the end of days are upon them.
Farland's writing is still enjoyable, however the story/plotlines are getting a bit heavy with the plot armor and I found myself having trouble really getting invested into the characters. Not bad, just not as good as the first 4 in this series and that's a sentiment that only grows through the rest of this series for me.
https://solo.to/storyphoria
While it's interesting to see our heroes starting to realize who they are within the larger "universe", this book starts a full downward spiral into... well... despair and chaos in which Farland just decides to go all in on the mayhem. Even when our heroes succeed it feels like they are defeated, and the binding of these two worlds feels like the end of days are upon them.
Farland's writing is still enjoyable, however the story/plotlines are getting a bit heavy with the plot armor and I found myself having trouble really getting invested into the characters. Not bad, just not as good as the first 4 in this series and that's a sentiment that only grows through the rest of this series for me.