Scan barcode
emtees's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
I was recommended this series because I’ve been looking for books that have more of an urban fantasy style but in a more traditional fantasy setting. I decided to start with this novella because it was short, so low commitment. That’s not always the best idea, but in this case I think it was okay. The novella was a good introduction to the characters and setting. The story follows Raine Benares, an elven seeker - basically a sorcerer with the ability to find missing objects and people - as she works a case alongside her pirate cousin and a dark magic wielding goblin casino owner.
On the bad side, there is a lot of cliche here: some very urban-fantasy-boom era tough girl talk (Raine doesn’t seem to have the chip on her shoulder that these characters usually do, but she still talks like she does), lots of people strapping on impractical numbers of weapons, chemistry between the lead and her love interest that doesn’t actually seem to be based on anything. There’s also a lot of telling rather than showing, including a few chapters that were just Raine summarizing what was going on rather than participating in it. And even by the standards of fantasy naming, the place and people names in this series are truly ridiculous, with no discernible pattern to them. The love interest’s name is Tamrais Nathrach. That’s not a name, that’s a random collection of letters.
But the good outweighed the bad for me, at least enough to make me want to read one of the longer books in this series. The world is a cool one - the main setting is a city, Mermeia (sigh), made up of five islands surrounded by deadly swamp. The main species here are humans, elves and goblins (which so far appear to be a silver-skinned race of extremely sexy people.) There’s a lot of different types of sorcery and the government may actually be sorceror-run? Raine comes from a family of criminals, and while she works well with law enforcement, she’s also got a lot of ties to the wrong side of the law and takes a very morally grey view. She has her own code, which mostly involves getting really angry at people who hurt innocents. It’s not original, but it’s still interesting. She also has a cousin, Phaelan, who is like a sibling to her and gets involved in her adventures. Phaelan was my favorite character. He’s a badass pirate who is afraid of sorcerers.
I’ll be picking up the first main book in the series.
On the bad side, there is a lot of cliche here: some very urban-fantasy-boom era tough girl talk (Raine doesn’t seem to have the chip on her shoulder that these characters usually do, but she still talks like she does), lots of people strapping on impractical numbers of weapons, chemistry between the lead and her love interest that doesn’t actually seem to be based on anything. There’s also a lot of telling rather than showing, including a few chapters that were just Raine summarizing what was going on rather than participating in it. And even by the standards of fantasy naming, the place and people names in this series are truly ridiculous, with no discernible pattern to them. The love interest’s name is Tamrais Nathrach. That’s not a name, that’s a random collection of letters.
But the good outweighed the bad for me, at least enough to make me want to read one of the longer books in this series. The world is a cool one - the main setting is a city, Mermeia (sigh), made up of five islands surrounded by deadly swamp. The main species here are humans, elves and goblins (which so far appear to be a silver-skinned race of extremely sexy people.) There’s a lot of different types of sorcery and the government may actually be sorceror-run? Raine comes from a family of criminals, and while she works well with law enforcement, she’s also got a lot of ties to the wrong side of the law and takes a very morally grey view. She has her own code, which mostly involves getting really angry at people who hurt innocents. It’s not original, but it’s still interesting. She also has a cousin, Phaelan, who is like a sibling to her and gets involved in her adventures. Phaelan was my favorite character. He’s a badass pirate who is afraid of sorcerers.
I’ll be picking up the first main book in the series.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child abuse
The main plot involves threat to children.
More...