Helpful Score: 1
I found this book terribly tedious. I have to be honest - I only made it about 2/3 through before I gave up on it.
First, there are annoying inconsistencies in the writing. For example, in one paragraph, he says "still there was no sign of human habitation", and yet, only a few sentences later, there are suddenly buildings and a farm. Later in the book, they say that from now on, they will only travel at night. Yet one page later, it talks of rising at dawn to be on the road early.
This could probably be forgiven, if it weren't for the fact that the characters continue to have the same conversations, almost verbatim, over and over and over again. Calandryll and Bracht argue over Varent. Once, fine. Twice, okay. But by the third or fourth time, it's really old (especially since nothing happens in the meantime to sway the argument either way - it's literally the SAME argument each time). Calandryll ponders who could have sent the assassin, and decides it must be his brother. Three pages later, he debates it again, coming to the same conclusion. A little later, guess what? We get to hear the internal ruminations AGAIN, and yet still with no more information than we had the first time. Maybe the author thinks his readers can't remember what happens unless he hits them over the head with it at least three times?
After 300 pages, I felt like the plot had gone absolutely nowhere, and I realized I didn't really give a rip whether they saved the world or not.
First, there are annoying inconsistencies in the writing. For example, in one paragraph, he says "still there was no sign of human habitation", and yet, only a few sentences later, there are suddenly buildings and a farm. Later in the book, they say that from now on, they will only travel at night. Yet one page later, it talks of rising at dawn to be on the road early.
This could probably be forgiven, if it weren't for the fact that the characters continue to have the same conversations, almost verbatim, over and over and over again. Calandryll and Bracht argue over Varent. Once, fine. Twice, okay. But by the third or fourth time, it's really old (especially since nothing happens in the meantime to sway the argument either way - it's literally the SAME argument each time). Calandryll ponders who could have sent the assassin, and decides it must be his brother. Three pages later, he debates it again, coming to the same conclusion. A little later, guess what? We get to hear the internal ruminations AGAIN, and yet still with no more information than we had the first time. Maybe the author thinks his readers can't remember what happens unless he hits them over the head with it at least three times?
After 300 pages, I felt like the plot had gone absolutely nowhere, and I realized I didn't really give a rip whether they saved the world or not.
