thewitchmorgana's review
2.0
This was...okay. There were some nice ideas, like a pregnant protagonist and the sort of "architectural magic", and it was occasionally funny. Magic animal companions are always nice, but I'd have liked to spend more time on them.
Which is at the heart of what's wrong here, I think. I needed more time to enjoy all this. I don't mean "I was enjoying it, so I'd have liked it to be longer." I literally mean that, in order to be enjoyable, it needed to be longer. The narrative never really slowed down to let me get to know the characters and orient myself in the world, particularly around the start. For instance, am I supposed to feel betrayed by Harik? Because I didn't have a clue who he was to Sera, so everything involving him felt a bit empty.
Really, it's a bit JJ Abrams-ish, always rushing you on to the next big set-piece as if afraid you'll lose interest. But that's counter-productive, partly because those action scenes end up getting old and blending into one another, and partly because you won't care about all of the people involved. Also, there's even a mystery aspect that doesn't seem to have much reason to be, so when the reveal comes it's just like, "Oh, okay."
And it's not like this is a long book. It could totally take a chapter or two (also: chapter numbers; those'd've been nice to have) here and there to introduce characters and such. Likewise, slowing down at the end might have helped, because I wasn't entirely sure what had happened in one respect.
Which is at the heart of what's wrong here, I think. I needed more time to enjoy all this. I don't mean "I was enjoying it, so I'd have liked it to be longer." I literally mean that, in order to be enjoyable, it needed to be longer. The narrative never really slowed down to let me get to know the characters and orient myself in the world, particularly around the start. For instance, am I supposed to feel betrayed by Harik? Because I didn't have a clue who he was to Sera, so everything involving him felt a bit empty.
Really, it's a bit JJ Abrams-ish, always rushing you on to the next big set-piece as if afraid you'll lose interest. But that's counter-productive, partly because those action scenes end up getting old and blending into one another, and partly because you won't care about all of the people involved. Also, there's even a mystery aspect that doesn't seem to have much reason to be, so when the reveal comes it's just like, "Oh, okay."
And it's not like this is a long book. It could totally take a chapter or two (also: chapter numbers; those'd've been nice to have) here and there to introduce characters and such. Likewise, slowing down at the end might have helped, because I wasn't entirely sure what had happened in one respect.
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