This felt uneven. Some parts were greatly enjoyable, like the characters and their relationships. The plot line was not bad, the conclusion was foreseeable, however surprising in places. I felt that there was too much teaching. I got the whole chaos/order/harmony business the first time. I assume...
Is it better then the first?Marginally. Maybe.Will I be reading the rest of the series?Let me put it this way - the physical copy is already on it's way to Goodwill and while I'm not going to wipe it's existence off my computer and could foresee one day flipping through it/them again if bored, it...
The Red Wyvern tells the story of a civil war in the land of Deverry. A war that has been going on for many, many years, and this has taken its toll on the land. No longer can the would-be-kings bring as many men to war, and no longer can they command the loyalty they used to. One of the main cha...
One and one doesn’t always result in two. One: I like to read a lot of different books instead of a whole series back to back. One: I found the previous book in the series - A Time Of Exile – to be a bit of a dull affair. The result is that it didn’t took me two, but rather two and a half to thr...
With this book Katharine Kerr is starting a new phase in the Deverry story. We move on fifty years or so from the climactic ending of The Fire Dragon, and times have changed. The Horsekin have started marauding the Deverry border, killing the men and enslaving the women. There is a fragile allian...
Book five of the Dragon Mage sequence by Katharine Kerr. The events in this book follow on directly from those in the Gold Falcon - the joint armies of Westfolk, Deverry men and Mountain Folk are mustering in order to put Zakh Gral (the Horsekin fortress) to the sword. This time round we leave th...
Darkspell is the second in a multiple-book series, and, much like the book itself does, this review will presume some knowledge of the series' first book, Daggerspell. I'll do my best to skirt around spoilers for Darkspell itself.Darkspell continues the interlacing episodes of Daggerspell between...
Daggerspell is an epic fantasy novel built on the idea of reincarnation. If we have failed to fulfill our destiny in one life, we are compelled to return to this life in another form to do that. As I read this novel, I was confronted with my feelings about that inalienable destiny. There are s...
The third book in the Dragon Mage sequence. In this book we spend about half of our time in the past, concluding the storyline concerning Lillorigga, princess Bellyra, Maddyn the bard and the prince Maryn. The second half of the book shifts the plot forwards concerning Rhodry, Dallandra, Niffa, R...
This saga has many books, but it's composed of several parts. Book 1 to 4 are the Deverry Cycle. At the end of Book 4 (note that Bristling Wood is the US title and Dawnspell the UK title, but they are the same novel), you get a real ending. So don't hesitate to buy this book or the previous ones ...
The cover blurb says, "On the planet Snare, the descendants of Islamic fundamentalists war with the descendants of scientists, and the alien natives, for the fate of a planet." Let this be a warning to you against reading cover blurbs.It's not 100% false. We do have the descendants of Islamic fun...
It's hard to overstate how disappointing this book was. Long. Dull. Uninspired. Anticlimactic. A pale, passionless shadow of the way the series started out.I'm glad all the loose ends got tied up and the story all sorted itself out, but boy was it a slog to get here. Unlike the others, this...
Katharine Kerr’s Deverry cycle is a lot like a ride on a rollercoaster. Whereas one book can be an absolute thrill to read, the next one can be quite a bore or disappointing. After everything that happened in the first four books of this series, Kerr takes us to the Westlands in this second cycle...
Polar City is the capital of Hagar, one of the few worlds on which the tiny, human-dominated Republic sits, squeezed between the Interstellar Confederation and the enormous Coreward Alliance. When an alien from the Confederation Embassy is murdered, Police Chief Bates faces an explosive situation...
This review has been crossposted from my blog at The Cosy Dragon . Please head there for more in-depth reviews by me, which appear on a timely schedule.Vida is destined for sexual slavery, even as she tries to escape the protective confines of anonymity in a brothel. A lucky 'chance', set up by t...
Once we’d crossed, I called Cynthia and told her that we’d found Roman and returned him to Brittany. She thanked me, because she’d been worrying—just as I knew she would. “Do you think he’ll do this again?” Cynthia said. “I don’t know. I hope not. But I think we’d better be ready for it. Brittany...
In the darkness he glowed with a faint silvery light as he stood smiling at Berwynna. “Remember me, lass,” he said in the language of Alban, “but live your life, too. I loved you enough to wish you every happiness. Find a new man.” “I don’t want to,” Berwynna said. “The only thing I want is for y...
Tell them you've been visiting faines in the wood for fourhundred years."That was perhaps a bit cruel. They'd mock him, most likely,But then they'd probably send him to the National Health, andget him taken care of.Tinker looked at the signboard, then pushed at the car door; itdidn't open, and he...
I recognized the abbreviation “Oxon.” Although I had no idea which particular college the patch represented, Oxford University apparently existed on his home world. He carried his trans-dimensional briefcase, which he set down next to his armchair. Ari and I took the couch. “So,” Spare14 began, “...