I quite liked this one in parts, but the "assorted incidents that feel random" comment is, sadly, bang on. I have a feeling that part of my relatively positive reaction is that I do like both Nick and Roddy. The whole Loggia City segment left me cold, though, and Romanov felt like a less pleasant version of Konstam from Homeward Bounders. It bothered me, too, that some interesting ideas were just dropped cold in a couple of places (Nick's spirit guide animal, for example), and other interesting ideas seemed to have been stuck in there just to see how they flew, whether or not they made sense to the story as a whole (like the flower-classification system for the spells Roddy picked up).
I did find the climactic scene pretty involving, but the whole thing does just sort of fizzle out at the end. DWJ always seems to have trouble with endings - Archer's Goon is the only one I can recall just now that ends in a satisfying way for me - and the problem just seems to get worse and worse.
I have her newest, The Game, but I'll want to re-read it at least once before I say anything about it.
The thing was, I really wanted to like Nick and Roddy, and individually, I did. But when the two met, I started liking them less, interestingly. I think part of it was because I couldn't tell their voices apart and had to keep checking the chapter headers to figure out who was who.
Ooooo, you have the latest! I'm still a couple of books behind and waiting for Pinhoe Egg.
I quite liked this one in parts, but the "assorted incidents that feel random" comment is, sadly, bang on. I have a feeling that part of my relatively positive reaction is that I do like both Nick and Roddy. The whole Loggia City segment left me cold, though, and Romanov felt like a less pleasant version of Konstam from Homeward Bounders. It bothered me, too, that some interesting ideas were just dropped cold in a couple of places (Nick's spirit guide animal, for example), and other interesting ideas seemed to have been stuck in there just to see how they flew, whether or not they made sense to the story as a whole (like the flower-classification system for the spells Roddy picked up).
I did find the climactic scene pretty involving, but the whole thing does just sort of fizzle out at the end. DWJ always seems to have trouble with endings - Archer's Goon is the only one I can recall just now that ends in a satisfying way for me - and the problem just seems to get worse and worse.
I have her newest, The Game, but I'll want to re-read it at least once before I say anything about it.
- Cho
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Ooooo, you have the latest! I'm still a couple of books behind and waiting for Pinhoe Egg.
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(FWIW - review of The Game now posted)
- Cho
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