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being_b's review
1.0
Dear Author,
Women are not things. Blindly possessive obsessive objectification of women isn't romantic. Therefore, the following scenes have caused me to be unable to read any more of your work.
"Hero," meeting Our Heroine for the first time: Oh she smells so good my soul calls out I LURVE her forevah I wonder what her name is?
Heroine: You're sexy and appealing, but your family killed all my family and I have to go find a Magical Artifact to bring them back, kthnxbai.
Heroine rents ship, sails off to find artifact.
"Hero": I'm totally gonna follow her, take the Magical Artifact for myself, get rich and famous off it, marry her and live happily ever after.
"Hero" rents ship, follows her.
Three months of sailing follow, in which Heroine tries to hide from "Hero", learns magic, saves the ship at least once and commits to saving the world. Hero is seasick and pends time elaborating on his Perfect Future with Magical Artifact and Heroine who has met him for half an hour one time.
Me: Okay, he's creepy. I assume he's a villain?
Heroine: I'm stranded on the island and my only way to get me and my friends back is to get a ride on "Hero"'s ship. Unfortunately, "Hero" wants to kill my friends, and I want to bring them with. Well, I'm a trained negotiator, so let's negotiate.
Negotiator person: So you claim you should get to keep the Magical Artifact that might save your family because you sailed all this way and suffered (almost died multiple times) to get it, right?
Heroine: Right.
Negotiator person: Ha ha, gotcha! By that logic, "Hero" sailed all this way and suffered (sea-sickness) to get you. So you can only keep the artifact if "Hero" gets to keep you.
Heroine: Okay, that seems fair.
Me: WHAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTT????
Negotiator: The two of you have to share a cabin all the way back home. That's three months, folks.
Author: Clearly thinks this is a romance-novel-worthy setup for sexytiems and drama.
Me: Drops book in disgust.
Women are not things. Blindly possessive obsessive objectification of women isn't romantic. Therefore, the following scenes have caused me to be unable to read any more of your work.
"Hero," meeting Our Heroine for the first time: Oh she smells so good my soul calls out I LURVE her forevah I wonder what her name is?
Heroine: You're sexy and appealing, but your family killed all my family and I have to go find a Magical Artifact to bring them back, kthnxbai.
Heroine rents ship, sails off to find artifact.
"Hero": I'm totally gonna follow her, take the Magical Artifact for myself, get rich and famous off it, marry her and live happily ever after.
"Hero" rents ship, follows her.
Three months of sailing follow, in which Heroine tries to hide from "Hero", learns magic, saves the ship at least once and commits to saving the world. Hero is seasick and pends time elaborating on his Perfect Future with Magical Artifact and Heroine who has met him for half an hour one time.
Me: Okay, he's creepy. I assume he's a villain?
Heroine: I'm stranded on the island and my only way to get me and my friends back is to get a ride on "Hero"'s ship. Unfortunately, "Hero" wants to kill my friends, and I want to bring them with. Well, I'm a trained negotiator, so let's negotiate.
Negotiator person: So you claim you should get to keep the Magical Artifact that might save your family because you sailed all this way and suffered (almost died multiple times) to get it, right?
Heroine: Right.
Negotiator person: Ha ha, gotcha! By that logic, "Hero" sailed all this way and suffered (sea-sickness) to get you. So you can only keep the artifact if "Hero" gets to keep you.
Heroine: Okay, that seems fair.
Me: WHAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTT????
Negotiator: The two of you have to share a cabin all the way back home. That's three months, folks.
Author: Clearly thinks this is a romance-novel-worthy setup for sexytiems and drama.
Me: Drops book in disgust.
echorose202's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death
justalittlefox's review
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
amibunk's review against another edition
3.0
3.5
This installment of the series had an interesting twist that I did not see coming. (I always love it when that happens.) The world building is still entertaining and bold in scope. The character development is not stellar, but there's a lot of action to keep you from missing it.
Overall, solid and interesting.
This installment of the series had an interesting twist that I did not see coming. (I always love it when that happens.) The world building is still entertaining and bold in scope. The character development is not stellar, but there's a lot of action to keep you from missing it.
Overall, solid and interesting.
meixiaotian's review against another edition
4.0
It’s good. Fun. Not life changing* or amazing, but a good time.
I cared about the characters, despite all the tiresome romantic drama. They’re not very deep but they are sympathetic. And Hasmal is great. He’s supposedly a middling mage and a bit of a coward, but he’s honestly just a solidly competent guy, not bogged down by silly drama. I love me a Just A Guy character.
The book divisions of this series are strange; the story is comprised of arcs, but the books aren’t divided by the arcs, they’ cut in the middle of them. Maybe that contributes to the minor drag in pacing, maybe not.
* Not life changing unless you are me. Because this book has haunted me for so many years. I read it as a kid and somehow only absorbed Danya’s sixish scenes. When I got older, I realized how weird her plot is (as the mother of fantasy Jesus), especially without context. But I didn’t remember enough to find it again, so it just haunted me. May I never forget such a strange book again.
I cared about the characters, despite all the tiresome romantic drama. They’re not very deep but they are sympathetic. And Hasmal is great. He’s supposedly a middling mage and a bit of a coward, but he’s honestly just a solidly competent guy, not bogged down by silly drama. I love me a Just A Guy character.
The book divisions of this series are strange; the story is comprised of arcs, but the books aren’t divided by the arcs, they’ cut in the middle of them. Maybe that contributes to the minor drag in pacing, maybe not.
* Not life changing unless you are me. Because this book has haunted me for so many years. I read it as a kid and somehow only absorbed Danya’s sixish scenes. When I got older, I realized how weird her plot is (as the mother of fantasy Jesus), especially without context. But I didn’t remember enough to find it again, so it just haunted me. May I never forget such a strange book again.
jwells's review
DNF about 9 chapters in. After the first book I hoped Kait was going to send Ry packing, when he finally caught up with her. But it seems clear from the beginning of this one that the fated mates thing is not being subverted as I hoped. I checked out a few spoiler reviews to make sure, but yeah I'm bailing on the series. I'm allergic to fated mates. (To cut the author some slack, they probably weren't a cliche yet back when she wrote this.)
smcleish's review against another edition
4.0
Originally published on my blog here in October 2001.
Lisle manages to avoid the main pitfall common to mid-trilogy fantasy novels in the second of her Secret Texts series. Instead of being just a continuation of the first novel in which nothing new or surprising happens, there are interesting developments in the plot and we learn a great deal about her world and the various systems of magic which give the titles of the three novels (as practised by those nicknamed wolves, dragons, and falcons).
The story continues to revolve around the Mirror of Souls, key to releasing the souls of the dragons from the Veil (limbo) where they have been imprisoned for thousands of years since the Magicians' Wars. By deceiving living people, they manoeuvre the Mirror to the centre of the city of Calimekka, where it can restore them to bodies from which the rightful souls have been banished.
The major characters that we are meant to sympathise with, Kait Galweigh in particular, are very well drawn, their opponents somewhat less so. The background is unusual and interesting, and I look forward to reading the conclusion of this excellent trilogy.
Lisle manages to avoid the main pitfall common to mid-trilogy fantasy novels in the second of her Secret Texts series. Instead of being just a continuation of the first novel in which nothing new or surprising happens, there are interesting developments in the plot and we learn a great deal about her world and the various systems of magic which give the titles of the three novels (as practised by those nicknamed wolves, dragons, and falcons).
The story continues to revolve around the Mirror of Souls, key to releasing the souls of the dragons from the Veil (limbo) where they have been imprisoned for thousands of years since the Magicians' Wars. By deceiving living people, they manoeuvre the Mirror to the centre of the city of Calimekka, where it can restore them to bodies from which the rightful souls have been banished.
The major characters that we are meant to sympathise with, Kait Galweigh in particular, are very well drawn, their opponents somewhat less so. The background is unusual and interesting, and I look forward to reading the conclusion of this excellent trilogy.
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