Kari C. reviewed on 9/16/2010 + 77 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 1

After reading "Gardens of the Moon" and finding it to be all right, I decided to give the next book in the series a chance, with the idea that the first book in a series is often the weakest.

It took me a little bit to get into this book. While the prologue was quite good, the first chapter didn't do anything to hold my attention. We didn't see any familiar characters until page 30. Just like the last book new characters, places and cultures are thrown at reader and the reader has to piece together histories and why things are important as they go along. Flipping though the book it looks like we only get 3 characters that were also in the last book.

The story seems interesting, but Erikson makes the reader work too hard to enjoy it. The book also feels like he's making it up as he goes along. "Here's a problem, how should I take care of it? How about this character no one has heard of or some kind of magic?". Things seem to happen for no reason at all. I still don't understand his magic system. I'm sure things aren't as random as they seem, but if that is try Erikson is holding everything too close to the chest.

I also feel like there should have been at least one book before the actual first book of the series. There are constant references to things before the Empress killed the old Emperor and took over. The characters talk about people and events like the reader should know what they're talking about, when in fact there's no way for the reader to know.

In the interest of full disclosure I will admit that I didn't finish the book. I got through page 150 of 598 before I got too annoyed to keep going.

So, a potentially good story, but the author doesn't tell it well, making it too much work for the amount of enjoyment I got out of the story.

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