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A review by eserafina42
Echo in Onyx by Sharon Shinn
3.0
3.5 stars. I kept reading and overall enjoyed the book, found the concept intriguing (really, though, goddess - body doubles would be a much simpler solution), and also liked the characters, but I had some problems suspending belief at both the outlandishness of the cover-up and the dea ex machina (since they do worship a goddess in that culture) at the end.
Of course, this would have ended up as a completely different plot, but I actually stopped listening for the night right after Jamison's (sp?) death and was convinced that I knew how they would handle it. This is a medieval/early modern type world where I'm sure there are plenty of ruffians and lowlifes lurking about. The obvious solution to me would have been for Brianna to go running back to the inn telling about how one of them had attacked Marguerite and Jamison had been killed defending her honor - and that Marguerite's Echo had been collateral damage. (Of course, everyone knew that Jamison was a bastard in more ways than one, but how could they have questioned a story that portrayed him as a hero?) I came back to it the next day to find this messy, convoluted thing where poor Brianna has to live a double life and they have to constantly worry about the deaths being discovered.
Marguerite's "trial," if it could even be called that, also bothered me, since I didn't really feel that the system of government (a tyranny, essentially, at least in that case) was fleshed out enough, maybe a bit of a fault in the world-building.
Of course, this would have ended up as a completely different plot, but I actually stopped listening for the night right after Jamison's (sp?) death and was convinced that I knew how they would handle it. This is a medieval/early modern type world where I'm sure there are plenty of ruffians and lowlifes lurking about. The obvious solution to me would have been for Brianna to go running back to the inn telling about how one of them had attacked Marguerite and Jamison had been killed defending her honor - and that Marguerite's Echo had been collateral damage. (Of course, everyone knew that Jamison was a bastard in more ways than one, but how could they have questioned a story that portrayed him as a hero?) I came back to it the next day to find this messy, convoluted thing where poor Brianna has to live a double life and they have to constantly worry about the deaths being discovered.
Marguerite's "trial," if it could even be called that, also bothered me, since I didn't really feel that the system of government (a tyranny, essentially, at least in that case) was fleshed out enough, maybe a bit of a fault in the world-building.