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jonathanpalfrey's review
2.0
This book comes as a relief after the previous one: it makes relatively pleasant reading, and also moves with reasonable pace and includes a number of significant plot events.
Rikardon and Tarani still struggle with moments of disagreement and lack of trust, but the problems between them are not as bad now.
I still don't find here the compelling scenes that motivate me to reread a book. I've read it for this second time only because the first time was thirty years ago and I'd forgotten what happened since then. So I think this is a straight two-star novel: "It was OK."
Heydron (who actually wrote these books, planned by her and Garrett) is capable of writing fiction competently, but seems to lack the knack of writing compelling scenes.
Incidentally, the letter 'ä' is normally pronounced like the letter 'e', so 'Kä' should sound similar to 'qué' in Spanish, which means 'what?'. The title of this book could thus be understood as "The search for What?"
Rikardon and Tarani still struggle with moments of disagreement and lack of trust, but the problems between them are not as bad now.
I still don't find here the compelling scenes that motivate me to reread a book. I've read it for this second time only because the first time was thirty years ago and I'd forgotten what happened since then. So I think this is a straight two-star novel: "It was OK."
Heydron (who actually wrote these books, planned by her and Garrett) is capable of writing fiction competently, but seems to lack the knack of writing compelling scenes.
Incidentally, the letter 'ä' is normally pronounced like the letter 'e', so 'Kä' should sound similar to 'qué' in Spanish, which means 'what?'. The title of this book could thus be understood as "The search for What?"
cerepol's review
3.0
A fair bit better than book 4 to be sure. It is another book where not a lot happens, and instead just revisits some of the character interactions from previous books with barely any evolution. Reading them back to back has shown that a lot of each book is recapping/reacting to the end of book 4.
manwithanagenda's review
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
I've had to pick up and flip through the first omnibus of this series to see if I was kidding myself about enjoying them. 'The Well of Darkness' was all backtrack-ey and too redundant to be enjoyable. There are problems here, too, but the book trades in on enough revisiting of characters from the first three books (Thymas and the Sharith, Thanasset and co. at Raithskar, etc.) that it's not completely frustrating. The rise of another, less singular, menace facing Raithskar in the form of the vineh, ape-like creatures with claws that had been partially tamed as servants, turning wild without the influence of the Ra'ira adds some urgency, too.
After finding shelter in the Valley of the Sha'um and Tarani's bonding with the female Yayshah, the first time a female sha'um has been so bonded, they must leave and find shelter elsewhere that will support Yayshah - hugely pregnant, don't try to compute how a large mammal can come full term on a litter within, at most, three months, just go with it - and allow them to track down the location of the King's Sword which legend says is in Kä.
The title of this book is misleading, because the actual search for the long-lost city of Kä is at the very end and doesn't take much time at all. The big drive to this book, after the pregnant sha'um, is the resolution of the identity crisis within Tarani, something that Rikardon has known about for several books but has hidden from her for, well, no good reason.
The world of Gandalara is still interesting, but the characters take such a long time to get over emotional hurdles and basic misunderstandings - all of which are played out real-time in the book - that I would have a hard time justifying this as a seven book series.
Gandalara Cycle
Next: 'Return to Eddarta'
Previous: 'The Well of Darkness'
My Review of Gandalara Cycle Omnibus 2
After finding shelter in the Valley of the Sha'um and Tarani's bonding with the female Yayshah, the first time a female sha'um has been so bonded, they must leave and find shelter elsewhere that will support Yayshah - hugely pregnant, don't try to compute how a large mammal can come full term on a litter within, at most, three months, just go with it - and allow them to track down the location of the King's Sword which legend says is in Kä.
The title of this book is misleading, because the actual search for the long-lost city of Kä is at the very end and doesn't take much time at all. The big drive to this book, after the pregnant sha'um, is the resolution of the identity crisis within Tarani, something that Rikardon has known about for several books but has hidden from her for, well, no good reason.
The world of Gandalara is still interesting, but the characters take such a long time to get over emotional hurdles and basic misunderstandings - all of which are played out real-time in the book - that I would have a hard time justifying this as a seven book series.
Gandalara Cycle
Next: 'Return to Eddarta'
Previous: 'The Well of Darkness'
My Review of Gandalara Cycle Omnibus 2
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