What do You think about The Book Of Athyra (2003)?
Athyra gets 3 stars, Orca gets 5. Athyra was somewhat difficult to get into, being that it's from an entirely new character's perspective, and Vlad/Loiosh banter is one of my favorite things about this series. However different it was, it still isn't an unpleasant read, though it contained far too much philosophy for my tastes. Orca, while mostly from Kiera's perspective, is whole other boat, because it's already a character you've known and (if you're like me) adore. It also has one (or two, if you're bad at guessing) huge reveals at the end, which I fucking loved. Brust is really good at throwing a surprise or two in and still making you go, "It all makes sense now!"
—Heather
Athyra - 2/28/14 - I read the first two of this series some time last year. And the next two a month or so ago. So when I made my last Amazon order, I got the next 4. This one? This one's making me wish I hadn't. I don't mind the change in perspective from Vlad to someone else. But the story is just so damned boring. Nothing much happens. The boy isn't interesting in the least. The age thing is confusing me. Perhaps they've explained it in previous books and I've forgotten, but still. I'm reading Orca now and it's better, but not great. I'll probably stop reading this series for a while after I finish it and try the next two later. Ug.Orca - 3/1/14 - /sigh What the hell? Is it me? I loved the first 5 of this series. So much that when I did my last book ordered, I went ahead and bought the next two volumes (4 books total). I'm regretting that now. So this one still has Savn from Athyra, but he's broken. Maybe it's because I didn't really care about his character in the previous book, but I found this one incredibly tedious. It seemed like a lot of trouble to go through to get Mother's house back when she really didn't seem like, in the beginning, she was going to be able to help Savn at all. I'm putting the next volume in this series away for a while. I already own it, so I'll probably attempt to read it, but it won't be for a while. Here's hoping it's better when I finally get to it.
—Jenn
There's two books in this edition-- Athyra and Orca. I'll comment on each seperately.Athyra was my favorite of the two. I really liked the change in point of view character and the completely different pace of this novel. It was interesting to get an outside look at Vlad from the perspective of someone on the outside of his world, far outside. Of course, I've never been really into the whole gangster/assassin lifestyle thing anyhow, so I didn't miss it at all.As for Orca, it was also from a different point of view-- at least part of the time. This was the main problem for me, because I often got lost when the POV transitioned and I would end up confused and would have to backtrack and re-read stuff to get things straight, and I find that annoying. The story in and of itself was good, but that POV switch thing really started annoying me and pulled me out of the story.I'm giving it a 4 for Athyra, Orca would get a 3, maybe a 3.5 if half stars were allowed.
—Jeanene
