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lpickett47's review against another edition
5.0
A second installment that is actually better than the first.
It is very typical for trilogies to open strong, drop hard in the second book, and then finish strong. Not sure what it is but I feel like the second book of any series or trilogy is always among the worst. There are exceptions of course, such as with Stone of Farewell. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, much more than I did the first, even through some of its tedium.
When I wrote a review for The Dragonbone Chair, I spoke of how Williams slowed down the story to aid character development and world building. The same occurs here, but it happens in the same way most often.
Simon is the sleepiest main character of anything I have ever read. The dude is always waking up or blacking out, and then having vague dreams that contribute to the story. This can grow tedious, but it is nice that it bothers Simon just as much as the reader. Besides, the exposition is one of two gripes I have about this novel. The second one is Miriamele's story, which honestly was just kind of depressing and a lot of her bickering with Cadrach, who I ended up liking more toward the end of her arc anyways. I loved Miriamele in The Dragonbone Chair because of her potential, I just hope her character is explored more and redeemed in To Green Angel Tower, which I will be reading next.
That being said, everything else about this book was exceptional. The characters were wonderful, and I am really getting interested in Guthwulf, someone who I never even thought too much about in The Dragonbone Chair. The story is wonderful, with great actions sequences that are complimented by slower dialogue driven scenes and even some comic relief scenes. It is a pretty well-balanced book since it decides to throw a bunch of new perspectives at the reader, taking the focus away from solely Simon.
Williams is a wonderful author. I find myself consistently stopping and rereading passages that are just beautiful. His world-building is incredible and, after downloading a map of Osten Ard off the internet to avoid constant page flipping, I am getting a good idea on how Osten Ard is laid out. It took me a while to figure out who everybody was, but thankfully the appendix in the back of the book helped me out. Williams definitely has a way of lulling the reader into a sense of security (like with the Sithi in their summer city I can't remember the name of) and then creating a kind of tension with that security. He did it in the Hayholt in the Dragonbone Chair and does it again in this book.
Stone of Farewell is better than The Dragonbone Chair in my opinion, but, just as the first book, it can be a tedious read. Patience and focus make the reading experience so much better, however, and by the time I read the final page, I wanted to grab To Green Angel Tower and keep going.
It is very typical for trilogies to open strong, drop hard in the second book, and then finish strong. Not sure what it is but I feel like the second book of any series or trilogy is always among the worst. There are exceptions of course, such as with Stone of Farewell. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, much more than I did the first, even through some of its tedium.
When I wrote a review for The Dragonbone Chair, I spoke of how Williams slowed down the story to aid character development and world building. The same occurs here, but it happens in the same way most often.
Simon is the sleepiest main character of anything I have ever read. The dude is always waking up or blacking out, and then having vague dreams that contribute to the story. This can grow tedious, but it is nice that it bothers Simon just as much as the reader. Besides, the exposition is one of two gripes I have about this novel. The second one is Miriamele's story, which honestly was just kind of depressing and a lot of her bickering with Cadrach, who I ended up liking more toward the end of her arc anyways. I loved Miriamele in The Dragonbone Chair because of her potential, I just hope her character is explored more and redeemed in To Green Angel Tower, which I will be reading next.
That being said, everything else about this book was exceptional. The characters were wonderful, and I am really getting interested in Guthwulf, someone who I never even thought too much about in The Dragonbone Chair. The story is wonderful, with great actions sequences that are complimented by slower dialogue driven scenes and even some comic relief scenes. It is a pretty well-balanced book since it decides to throw a bunch of new perspectives at the reader, taking the focus away from solely Simon.
Williams is a wonderful author. I find myself consistently stopping and rereading passages that are just beautiful. His world-building is incredible and, after downloading a map of Osten Ard off the internet to avoid constant page flipping, I am getting a good idea on how Osten Ard is laid out. It took me a while to figure out who everybody was, but thankfully the appendix in the back of the book helped me out. Williams definitely has a way of lulling the reader into a sense of security (like with the Sithi in their summer city I can't remember the name of) and then creating a kind of tension with that security. He did it in the Hayholt in the Dragonbone Chair and does it again in this book.
Stone of Farewell is better than The Dragonbone Chair in my opinion, but, just as the first book, it can be a tedious read. Patience and focus make the reading experience so much better, however, and by the time I read the final page, I wanted to grab To Green Angel Tower and keep going.
johnthebiker300's review against another edition
5.0
Superb. The brief summary of the first book was helpful at the beginning.
Started slowly but got very exciting towards the end.
I I’ll start on the third book very soon.
Started slowly but got very exciting towards the end.
I I’ll start on the third book very soon.
veraann's review against another edition
3.0
Memory, Sorrow and Thorn Series Book #2
So far I am liking this series, though there are some very slow parts. It is nicely written. Lots of description where you can really see the world. This jumps around quite a bit between different characters or groups of characters in different parts of the world.
Sometimes I wished to keep reading about a certain group and wished it didn't jump around, other times it wasnt so bad. All the characters whether major or minor are so well done. They all have a depth and personality that really comes through. There was some cliffhangers at the end, and something did catch me by surprise, which was great since being a typical, classic fantasy so many things are predictable.
The last of the trilogy is split into 2 decent sized books. I will definitely pick them up soon and see how everything gets put together for an epic ending. I have also seen he is going to be writing a new trilogy set in this same world and am curious to see what he does with it.
So far I am liking this series, though there are some very slow parts. It is nicely written. Lots of description where you can really see the world. This jumps around quite a bit between different characters or groups of characters in different parts of the world.
Sometimes I wished to keep reading about a certain group and wished it didn't jump around, other times it wasnt so bad. All the characters whether major or minor are so well done. They all have a depth and personality that really comes through. There was some cliffhangers at the end, and something did catch me by surprise, which was great since being a typical, classic fantasy so many things are predictable.
The last of the trilogy is split into 2 decent sized books. I will definitely pick them up soon and see how everything gets put together for an epic ending. I have also seen he is going to be writing a new trilogy set in this same world and am curious to see what he does with it.
belgatherial's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
outcolder's review against another edition
4.0
Female characters were more present, better defined, and more diverse in personality and purpose than in the first book. Williams is still very much swimming in Tolkien’s wake, blowing a saxophone up Tolkien’s ass... in particular the fairy folk backstory annoys me... but I am enjoying it all a great deal. You might expect the second book of a trilogy or whatever this is to lag a little, but all the switches of P.O.V. help keep things moving. Also, winter isn’t coming, it is raging full blast, so that might also have been one of things George RR got from this series.
jugglemisterer's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
diarmuid's review against another edition
4.0
Started off strong, stretched a bit too thin in the middle with all the threads, but got its steam back at the end when things started to converge. Hopefully that bodes well for the next book. I preferred the first book as the slowness was more appropriate for kicking things off, here it overstayed it's welcome somewhat and I just wanted to get to the good stuff. Even the lore drops were difficult to understand with every name being some variant of Tinuk'ed'aya'e'Sha'o. Still, I thoroughly enjoyed it, although I will probably leave it a while before the next one.
_cthulhu's review against another edition
5.0
Great book! The thing I like in this series and I miss in the R.R.Martin's A song of Ice and Fire series is that they have closure. You feel that the action in Memory, Sorrow and Thorn is going somewhere.
Anyway the universe and the new characters are very well defined as usual and everything is beautifully written. It's still difficult to stop reading it :). NEXT!
Anyway the universe and the new characters are very well defined as usual and everything is beautifully written. It's still difficult to stop reading it :). NEXT!
disagreeable's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
So much better than the first book.
Simon is still an idiot and it’s hard to deal with him but..I do deal with it.
Lots of adventure, weird settings, tense situations. An excellent second book in a series of three. Off to the next!
Simon is still an idiot and it’s hard to deal with him but..I do deal with it.
Lots of adventure, weird settings, tense situations. An excellent second book in a series of three. Off to the next!
acrousey's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0