Destiny by Elizabeth Haydon

This is book three in the Symphony of Ages series.

At last, the identity of the F'dor host is revealed, but not until about 2/3 of the way through the novel. Rhapsody has sought out the mad prophetess (aren't they all?) Manwyn to learn the identities of children spawned from the demon's evil minion then tracked them across the continent in the hopes of extracting the essence of the F'dor from their blood. Meanwhile, Achmed continues to strengthen his hold over the kingdom of Ylorc in the face of possible incursion from a rival nation and while attempting to discover the parties from within who are selling proprietary secrets to neighboring countries.

This is my least favorite of the series. The action feels more rushed, and yet over by the 2/3 mark. The last section tries to shoehorn in a different incident which feels unnecessary and overstuffed (but will be relevant in the subsequent novels) for the sake of ending on the restoration of Rhapsody's memories of Ashe that were kept from her for plot reasons earlier on in the novel. I get why but I still feel like it would have been better to start book four with it and end book three with the battle against the F'dor. But I am also not a "romantic" person so I could care less about her relationship with Ashe.

Comments

The Outsourcerer's Apprentice by Tom Holt

I don't know if I would call this a sequel but it is set in the same universe as Doughnut and When It's A Jar so it's definitely related. Benny just wanted to take a break from studying for exams by escaping into YouSpace for a while. Unfortunately, he has lost his doughnut and is trapped as Prince Florizel in a world that is falling apart. The Wizard who controls everything has been outsourcing all the magical labor for his own ends to different dimensions which has begun a ripple effect towards destabilizing the entire plane. Now, Florizel and his reluctant subjects Buttercup, a Red-Riding-Hood sick to death of having to kill talking wolves everyday, and Turquine, a knight suddenly curious about the increase in dragons and what that means for his union, must confront the Outsourcerer once and for all. Tom Holt is probably the next spiritual successor to Terry Pratchett in terms of humor. This series blends quantum mechanics, macroeconomics, and fantasy ...

The Summer Dragon by Todd Lockwood

Let's start with the positives. The illustrations in this book were really well-done. The dragons as they were described seemed realistic, and you can tell that Mr. Lockwood put some time and effort into designing a world that could support them as a species. Maia dreams of one day having a dragon of her very own from her family's breeding grounds but most of the hatchlings are already spoken for by the government to be trained for the war effort. One day, while she is out exploring with her brother, they see an ancient wild dragon supposedly a harbinger for change. Unknowingly, this sighting embroils Maia in not only the ongoing war, creeping ever closer to her home and dragons, but also in an internal religious schism with the potential to be just as deadly. Okay, here's what I didn't like: the story seemed geared towards adolescents, so I think it was mis-shelved from the YA section. Maia is very clearly a teenager trying to nav...

Chasing Embers by James Bennett

I really wanted to like this book. It seemed like it was right up my alley. But it turns out that alley isn't a place I have any interest in going. Red Ben is a mystical creature living under a forced peace with humans. He is content to sit and drink and mourn over the loss of his most recent relationship when an old enemy moves against him. The interruption barely upsets Ben because of the aforementioned peace but the enemy's taunts that Ben no longer enjoys protection because another like him has awakened gets his full attention. Soon he is desperately trying to track down a former goddess hell-bent on revenge while fending off his old enemy and a coven of dangerously powerful witches who have kidnapped his ex-girlfriend. I think the major problem I had while reading this is that there are no real female characters existing on their own merits without being used as props for the male protagonist. Atiya gets treated as a Mcguffin or an object of...

The Literary Lucy

Search This Blog