namulith's review against another edition
2.0
Meh, through and through. It's not an awful book and it's definitely not a good book. It's just meh.
hotsake's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
This book and Weis and Hickman seem to get a lot of hate these days and I'm not sure why. The characters are decently written and the world is fleshed out if a bit unusual, most of the book is set up to the point that the whole thing feels like a prologue but I was okay with that since the story was planned as a trilogy from the start. Now a story like this would've been either a single 900-page tome or stretched out into a 5-7 book series maybe even with a couple of novellas thrown in. I enjoyed this and I'm looking forward to reading the second volume.
arilaurel's review against another edition
2.0
Confession: I don't like fantasy. Especially high fantasy. High fantasy seems nearly always to be either extremely orientalist or extremely white. This one was of the extremely white variety. Weis and Hickman included some interesting commentary in this book about religion and the struggle between subjugated people who wielded no magic (I called them muggles), and what was definitely a magical stand-in for the Catholic church. Yet, I felt the same humdrum way about this novel as I do about other high fantasy stories. Every time the brooding teenage character "spoke cooly," or "sneered," or "interrupted coldly," his thick dark brows "knitted together" in quiet rage, I started raising my voice when one of those same character descriptions popped up, which was frequently. I think it's partly my own fault that I'm a literary snob and have certain expectations that characters not need the same dialogue tags for everything they say. Does he sneer needlessly on every occasion? It sure seems like it. "Goodnight, mother," the boy sneered as the woman tiredly tucked him into bed. However, possibly because of the consistent characterizations, I didn't get any of the characters mixed up like I usually do reading high fantasy novels. I do think it was a well crafted story with interesting world building. I knew I could have called it quits at any time, but I found I enjoyed myself enough to press on to the very end, even if it was because I had to poke fun at the book to get through it.
jonathonjones's review against another edition
3.0
It's fine, as a piece of generic fantasy. The characters were mostly boring and shallow; I never really got a great feel for any of them. Description would tell me that Joram had various personality traits, for example, but they weren't very strongly used.
The main thing that kept me going is that there are various mysteries around motivations and events. It's not clear how exactly Joram got where he is, or what Vanya is planning, or what in the hell is going on with Simkin. And none of that is resolved at all in this book, so it's possible that I would try the next one. But I'm not going out of my way for it.
The main thing that kept me going is that there are various mysteries around motivations and events. It's not clear how exactly Joram got where he is, or what Vanya is planning, or what in the hell is going on with Simkin. And none of that is resolved at all in this book, so it's possible that I would try the next one. But I'm not going out of my way for it.
night_starry's review against another edition
3.0
2021 re-read
Things I noticed after re-reading this book from when I was a teenager:
Joram is an asshole. Taking into account his upbringing and history but still to his close friends (friends who are close to him not the other way around) and Catalyst he is so cold and abrupt. The woman who raised him is to blame for Joram's attitude but still he is a very unlikable character. I remembered him differently as having a following of friends.
The story did not center on Joram as I remembered but more on Saryon the Catalyst so character development of Saryon took up most of the book. Simkin character adds a much needed dose of comedy and intrigue. I remembered the book being more fast paced and fun; not so long and sometimes tedious.
Things I noticed after re-reading this book from when I was a teenager:
Joram is an asshole. Taking into account his upbringing and history but still to his close friends (friends who are close to him not the other way around) and Catalyst he is so cold and abrupt. The woman who raised him is to blame for Joram's attitude but still he is a very unlikable character. I remembered him differently as having a following of friends.
The story did not center on Joram as I remembered but more on Saryon the Catalyst so character development of Saryon took up most of the book. Simkin character adds a much needed dose of comedy and intrigue. I remembered the book being more fast paced and fun; not so long and sometimes tedious.
korteneva's review against another edition
3.0
Nostalgy rate: high. I recall that I did enjoy more of this as an adolescent, but it still was pretty solid might & magic fantasy.
evanbernstein's review against another edition
3.0
I remember loving this series as a teenager, but it did not hold up as an adult. I enjoyed reading/skimming my way through the books (and I'm going to read the 4th book that was written about a decade after the originals that I never read) but I wouldn't recommend this to other adults. I'm not sure if I'll recommend these to my kids when they get older. Maybe. I think I remember being entertained by things that now I didn't like as much. But maybe these would seem quaint to them based on other books/movies that they'll now have access to.
This book is the best of the 3. The characters have their most agency and choices and conflicts in this book. In the rest they are just pawns of the plot. In this book, they have room to be characters. A bit.
This book is called Forging of the Darksword and that doesn't happen until the end of the book. It would be a spoiler (if the Darksword actually really meant anything to the series other than a Mcguffin that is basically never used). Saryon, Anju, Joram, and other characters get to have a bit of depth in this story (that they greatly lack in other stories). Vanya's choices make a bit of sense. Simkin still seems like they might make sense in this story.
Even on this re-read, I wasn't sure who Vanya's spy was. Maybe it was the "evil" rebel leader. Maybe it was Simkin. I didn't remember entirely and I could conjure up different ideas.
The story sort of works
The story of finding the darkstone, and the forginging of the darksword, and the final confrontation using the darksword is actually kind of exciting and makes sense. And gives a sense of wondering where this story is going and how the darksword is going to be used going forward (spoilers: nope)
One of the biggest things that makes absolutely no sense is the magic system. There is all this time spent explaining that Saryon is amazing at math because he is a catalyst and that that is how he understands the math in the darksword instructions but this makes no sense. Catalysts simply transfer Life to the magicians. They don't use it. Saryon (or any catalyst) can do all the calculations they want about how to efficiently use the Life well so that it is used sparingly and it won't matter unless the magician actually uses it that way. Based on how the magic system is explained, it is the magician that would need to do these calculations, not the Catalyst. Plus, his math skills are never mentioned again or used in any of the subsequent stories. This just didn't work for me and is leveraged less and less throughout the rest of the series, so it seems it was really only included to make Saryon understand math so he can read the numbers to craft the sword...
This book is the best of the 3. The characters have their most agency and choices and conflicts in this book. In the rest they are just pawns of the plot. In this book, they have room to be characters. A bit.
Spoiler
This book is called Forging of the Darksword and that doesn't happen until the end of the book. It would be a spoiler (if the Darksword actually really meant anything to the series other than a Mcguffin that is basically never used). Saryon, Anju, Joram, and other characters get to have a bit of depth in this story (that they greatly lack in other stories). Vanya's choices make a bit of sense. Simkin still seems like they might make sense in this story.
Even on this re-read, I wasn't sure who Vanya's spy was. Maybe it was the "evil" rebel leader. Maybe it was Simkin. I didn't remember entirely and I could conjure up different ideas.
The story sort of works
The story of finding the darkstone, and the forginging of the darksword, and the final confrontation using the darksword is actually kind of exciting and makes sense. And gives a sense of wondering where this story is going and how the darksword is going to be used going forward (spoilers: nope)
One of the biggest things that makes absolutely no sense is the magic system. There is all this time spent explaining that Saryon is amazing at math because he is a catalyst and that that is how he understands the math in the darksword instructions but this makes no sense. Catalysts simply transfer Life to the magicians. They don't use it. Saryon (or any catalyst) can do all the calculations they want about how to efficiently use the Life well so that it is used sparingly and it won't matter unless the magician actually uses it that way. Based on how the magic system is explained, it is the magician that would need to do these calculations, not the Catalyst. Plus, his math skills are never mentioned again or used in any of the subsequent stories. This just didn't work for me and is leveraged less and less throughout the rest of the series, so it seems it was really only included to make Saryon understand math so he can read the numbers to craft the sword...
scamp1234's review against another edition
3.0
This was one of my favorites when I was growing up. Rereading though it came upon average. Merely like turning someone's d&d adventure to life. And at that time I was really into that.
eirenophile's review against another edition
1.0
God, I KNOW Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman suck. Man, my middle school obsession was Dragonlance, for goodness' sake! But it was just sitting there in my office while I was babysitting the copy machine, so I picked it up. And, just as I remember, every character is undeveloped, every event forced, the only thing they've got going on is some half-decent worldbuilding and the sorta pathetic twist that the "evil Sorcerors" (secretly the good guys, right?) are actually NON-magic users in a world of magicians. Color me unimpressed. Still, it was more interesting than watching the copy machine copy for four hours, so I'll give it at least one star.