Author: carikavanlog

Genre: Fantasy

What I liked about this book:

The world these characters are in is interesting, and the writing is mostly clean. It had a nice cadence to it, held my attention, and mostly wasn't confusing. Colin has a good personality and is fun to read about, to the point where I sort of wished the book had been about him and not Vavaren.

This story had a lot of potential to be a really interesting and good epic fantasy, especially what with the fate lines, which is a dynamic I have not seen used before. The world has some fun aspects to it such as the jungle interspersed with various other biomes, cannibals, and a group of raiders whose culture I really would have liked to see more of. 

What I did NOT like about this book:

The pacing here is horrible. Stuff just sort of happens with no real rhyme or reason. By chapter 10 people are dead, and by a few chapters after that they're back in the jungle and with some cannibals, then after that they're at a healing house? It all sort of just ran together for me.

The culture of this world is nonexistent. It seems like it's bland, samey Tolkein-middle-earth that I've seen a million times before, and I'm tired of it. There are no special customs here, no unique speech or practices or clothing that make the world unique. It's all very forgettable.

But the worst part of this is that Vavaren bores me to tears. She was severely traumatized--beaten and raped while a slave--and it seems to have no bearing on her personality, which is like damp cardboard. She's good at fighting, has a special power, and is some sort of chosen one, but past that things just happen to her. Her romance with Colin also has no backing, and is about as subtle as being hit in the face with a bag full of paving stones.

It just left a lot to be desired. If this book were to be completely rewritten with a similar setting and a VASTLY different plot, I'd probably kind of like it.

Overall:

Decently clean writing, plays on every single thing I hate about epic fantasy. I wrote something fairly similar to this when I was around fifteen.

Rating: 

4/10. It was tolerable, but that's all. I want to hate it more than I do.