MonkeyCatcher
New Member
I finished reading this last night, and although I really, really enjoyed it, I have to confess that I prefer The Lions of Al-Rassan.
What I really liked about this novel was the depth of the characters, especially in regards to the villians. As others have noted, Brandin was not your typical totally evil, completely cold-hearted nemesis, and I thought that the level of humanity brought to this "bad guy" pused this book past the calibre of other fantasies. The complex mix of emotions in Dionora also added to this, resulting in a book full of living, breathing characters rather than generic cut-outs.
I did find a few things wrong with it, though. I didn't like the fact that
.
The ending was fanatstic, in my opinion, with the amount of information held back just perfect. Although with that being said, I think that the book would have been better had the epilogue been taken away. I didn't like that much closure, and it seemed a bit too cheesy.
4/5
What I really liked about this novel was the depth of the characters, especially in regards to the villians. As others have noted, Brandin was not your typical totally evil, completely cold-hearted nemesis, and I thought that the level of humanity brought to this "bad guy" pused this book past the calibre of other fantasies. The complex mix of emotions in Dionora also added to this, resulting in a book full of living, breathing characters rather than generic cut-outs.
I did find a few things wrong with it, though. I didn't like the fact that
Alessan got with Catriana in the end. They just didn't match. I thought that she was much better suited for Baerd, and indeed I thought that Kay had been hinting towards a pairing of them throughout the novel. Not so, it seems. And in the same vein, I didn't like it how Catriana was saved after jumping. I thought that that was a bit of a cop-out, especially with the convenient death of the only (?!? surely there would be more than one on the eve of war!) tracker in the city. It would have been much more fitting if she had have died for the cause. Plus I didn't like her that much anyway 
The ending was fanatstic, in my opinion, with the amount of information held back just perfect. Although with that being said, I think that the book would have been better had the epilogue been taken away. I didn't like that much closure, and it seemed a bit too cheesy.
4/5