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4.02 AVERAGE
4.02 AVERAGE
I wish I could give this book 3.5 stars, but it's stuck with 3 as I don't think it merits 4. This review starts off with a brief love affair/fan girl moment over Blood Song and then goes onto my opinion of Tower Lord -- No Spoilers.
Where to start....Blood Song (Raven's Shadow #1) was the very first fantasy book I had ever read. I quite literally saw the cover, picked it off of the shelf at the library, and started reading with the thought of, "Whoa, this is way outside my normal reading genres. Why did I even want to pick it up?" However, it didn't take very long until I was hooked and thus began my recent romance with the genre of fantasy books. When I first read Blood Song, Tower Lord was soon to be published and Queen of Fire was only titled, I think. Anyways, I put the series on the shelf and promised myself to revisit it at another time when all 3 books had been published. Just recently, I reread Blood Song and loved it just as much as the first read. I had scanned a few reviews for Tower Lord but that didn't stop me from skipping the library and ordering it directly from Amazon to devour as quickly as life with a toddler allowed.
Onto present day, when I have finished Tower Lord a mere 24 hours ago. Firstly, for me, it was not as bad as many of the reviews I had scanned had promised; although clearly I did not enjoy it as much as many others as the average ratings still remain over 4 stars. I found it difficult to switch from the sole viewpoint of Vaelin Al Sorna in Blood Song to multiple POV's in this book only because Ryan had done such a tremendous job of making me feel so connected to Vaelin and his character that I didn't give two shits about anyone else. I also think that splitting POV's between 4 characters did a slight disservice to the other characters as there was much less character development, thus less attachment. Reva was interesting and I liked the idea of a new player and her relationship with Vaelin. I remembered (and liked) Frentis from the good ol' days of the Sixth Order and his story line was fairly intriguing at times. Lyrna was just someone who seemed to play a minor role to add to the overall story -- I just don't really felt invested in what happened to her or what she was doing or what she was supposed to be discovering. Whatever, Lyrna. Do your thing.
Another thing that was a big bummer for me in this book was the same reason I stopped reading stuff by George R. R. Martin. is because of the crazy epic cliffhangers all the dang time and then switching of POV! Granted, it seems like Martin has a bazillion characters that were difficult to keep straight, adding to the bazillion changes in POV but I digress... I loathed reading one POV and coming upon an ending that left me going "WHAT?!?" and then reading about 3 more characters before returning to that person. By the time I returned to that POV, two things had already happened: (1) all of the the remaining 3 POV's had their own crazy cliffhanger at the end of their chapters and (2) I couldn't freaking remember what the last cliffhanger was, so I was jumping back into the story with no emotion. Too much had transpired that was more interesting than when I had left that character to begin with so there was no shock value when we resumed following them. (Does that make sense? No? Oh well. I don't care.) It was an unending circle of reading, gasping at the turn of events, then picking up on another POV and thinking, "Wait, where is this person? What happened last time that was crazy? Oh. Yeah. I vaguely remember that...let's see what happens now...ho hum, ho hum reading, gasping at the turn of events, then picking up on another POV and thinking, "Wait, where is this person? What happened last time that was crazy? Oh. Yeah. I vaguely remember that...let's see what happens now...ho hum, ho hum reading, gasping at the turn of events, etc.
So between having to split time between Vaelin with 2 ok POV's and 1 blah POV AND having to deal with the disjointed effect of following so many POV's, I could only give this 3 stars. I am starting on Queen of Fire and the average on that is terrible compared to Blood Song and Tower Lord so I am disheartened at the inevitability of my first love of fantasy turning into a total bust of a series. We'll always have Blood Song, though...
Where to start....Blood Song (Raven's Shadow #1) was the very first fantasy book I had ever read. I quite literally saw the cover, picked it off of the shelf at the library, and started reading with the thought of, "Whoa, this is way outside my normal reading genres. Why did I even want to pick it up?" However, it didn't take very long until I was hooked and thus began my recent romance with the genre of fantasy books. When I first read Blood Song, Tower Lord was soon to be published and Queen of Fire was only titled, I think. Anyways, I put the series on the shelf and promised myself to revisit it at another time when all 3 books had been published. Just recently, I reread Blood Song and loved it just as much as the first read. I had scanned a few reviews for Tower Lord but that didn't stop me from skipping the library and ordering it directly from Amazon to devour as quickly as life with a toddler allowed.
Onto present day, when I have finished Tower Lord a mere 24 hours ago. Firstly, for me, it was not as bad as many of the reviews I had scanned had promised; although clearly I did not enjoy it as much as many others as the average ratings still remain over 4 stars. I found it difficult to switch from the sole viewpoint of Vaelin Al Sorna in Blood Song to multiple POV's in this book only because Ryan had done such a tremendous job of making me feel so connected to Vaelin and his character that I didn't give two shits about anyone else. I also think that splitting POV's between 4 characters did a slight disservice to the other characters as there was much less character development, thus less attachment. Reva was interesting and I liked the idea of a new player and her relationship with Vaelin. I remembered (and liked) Frentis from the good ol' days of the Sixth Order and his story line was fairly intriguing at times. Lyrna was just someone who seemed to play a minor role to add to the overall story -- I just don't really felt invested in what happened to her or what she was doing or what she was supposed to be discovering. Whatever, Lyrna. Do your thing.
Another thing that was a big bummer for me in this book was the same reason I stopped reading stuff by George R. R. Martin. is because of the crazy epic cliffhangers all the dang time and then switching of POV! Granted, it seems like Martin has a bazillion characters that were difficult to keep straight, adding to the bazillion changes in POV but I digress... I loathed reading one POV and coming upon an ending that left me going "WHAT?!?" and then reading about 3 more characters before returning to that person. By the time I returned to that POV, two things had already happened: (1) all of the the remaining 3 POV's had their own crazy cliffhanger at the end of their chapters and (2) I couldn't freaking remember what the last cliffhanger was, so I was jumping back into the story with no emotion. Too much had transpired that was more interesting than when I had left that character to begin with so there was no shock value when we resumed following them. (Does that make sense? No? Oh well. I don't care.) It was an unending circle of reading, gasping at the turn of events, then picking up on another POV and thinking, "Wait, where is this person? What happened last time that was crazy? Oh. Yeah. I vaguely remember that...let's see what happens now...ho hum, ho hum reading, gasping at the turn of events, then picking up on another POV and thinking, "Wait, where is this person? What happened last time that was crazy? Oh. Yeah. I vaguely remember that...let's see what happens now...ho hum, ho hum reading, gasping at the turn of events, etc.
So between having to split time between Vaelin with 2 ok POV's and 1 blah POV AND having to deal with the disjointed effect of following so many POV's, I could only give this 3 stars. I am starting on Queen of Fire and the average on that is terrible compared to Blood Song and Tower Lord so I am disheartened at the inevitability of my first love of fantasy turning into a total bust of a series. We'll always have Blood Song, though...
adventurous
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
challenging
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-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
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Bought this one as soon as I was finished the first. Eek! So good! I absolutely loved Frentis' part in this book, and Vaelin is such a great character! I love love love him! I can't wait to continue on in their journey!
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-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:
Complicated