caedocyon's review against another edition
5.0
I saw this in the used bookstore near my work, and thought "yes, I *do* want to reread that for a dollar." It's been a long time since I last read the Dalemark books so things came back to me slowly and piecemeal in that pleasurable way.
I have Thoughts about the Adon's gifts as they relate to the tarot and the plot events surrounding:
Ring/pentacles/earth, money and career:
Cup/cups/water, relationships and emotions:
Sword/swords/air, intellect, logic, and thought:
Crown/wands/fire, action, inspiration, and energy:
4.5 rounded up to 5 for nostalgia. Now I really want to reread the other three! So I guess it'll cost me more than a dollar.
I have Thoughts about the Adon's gifts as they relate to the tarot and the plot events surrounding:
Ring/pentacles/earth, money and career:
Spoiler
Mitt's conversation with Alk about giving up theftCup/cups/water, relationships and emotions:
Spoiler
Mitt working through his feelings about HildySword/swords/air, intellect, logic, and thought:
Spoiler
Mitt and Moril solving the sword puzzle, and then realizing they shouldn't solve it and figuring out how to bungle itCrown/wands/fire, action, inspiration, and energy:
Spoiler
the conversation with Hern4.5 rounded up to 5 for nostalgia. Now I really want to reread the other three! So I guess it'll cost me more than a dollar.
thunguyen's review against another edition
5.0
I started this book feeling like completing a chore because the first 3 books are not that amazing and but I don't like not finishing a series. So listen to the audiobook version I did.
We all know that all the characters from the first 3 books would be brought together in this book, but surprisingly DWJ could bring in a brand new character from the future and it was utterly natural and not at all confusing. Because of that, we had a glimpse into the future from the beginning of the journey, yet during the book, there are enough distractions to stop readers from having a solid guess on who would be crowned king. I like this a lot about DWJ's books.
This book has a lot of DWJ's signature writing style. There were a million of characters and names. There were so many side characters, most so insignificant you wouldn't remember a thing about them. But, they're part of the world building, they make the story so real, so rich with history, cultures, and human societies.
I didn't expect the ending. Again, it was abrupt, a story cut short, readers once again robbed of an epic adventure like at the end of book 3. BUT, I am very fond of this ending, it was childish and romantic, and perfectly suitable for Maewen, our 13 year old heroine.
I'm giving this book 5-star out of sheer fondness for the author. I know her books are not epic, but I hold them very dear to my heart.
We all know that all the characters from the first 3 books would be brought together in this book, but surprisingly DWJ could bring in a brand new character from the future and it was utterly natural and not at all confusing. Because of that, we had a glimpse into the future from the beginning of the journey, yet during the book, there are enough distractions to stop readers from having a solid guess on who would be crowned king. I like this a lot about DWJ's books.
This book has a lot of DWJ's signature writing style. There were a million of characters and names. There were so many side characters, most so insignificant you wouldn't remember a thing about them. But, they're part of the world building, they make the story so real, so rich with history, cultures, and human societies.
I didn't expect the ending. Again, it was abrupt, a story cut short, readers once again robbed of an epic adventure like at the end of book 3. BUT, I am very fond of this ending, it was childish and romantic, and perfectly suitable for Maewen, our 13 year old heroine.
I'm giving this book 5-star out of sheer fondness for the author. I know her books are not epic, but I hold them very dear to my heart.
chenoadallen's review against another edition
3.0
WHY DON'T YOU GIVE US AN ENDING, DWJ?!? I loved the first three books. I liked this one but I'm SO MAD literally every storyline was left unresolved
littlelarks's review against another edition
5.0
WELL. That was an adventure.
While I haven't managed to put my Drowned Ammet feels down in writing yet, at the close of that book Mitt was one of my least favorite protagonists. Possibly ever. (Well. Second to Holden Caulfield.) It was so terrible that when I opened Crown of Dalemark and saw his POV, I almost wrote the book off as a lost cause. BUT THEN. Maewen appears like a glorious freckled breath of fresh air. Time travel is one of my most very favorite tropes in fiction, so as soon as I realized that was where the plot was headed, I just had this huge grin on my face and was swept away from there.
The presence of an encyclopedia in this volume was much appreciated and made the reading experience so much more pleasant than in the previous works. Trying to keep all the earls straight is tricky business.
But yes! Loved loved loved just about everything about this book. Even Mitt. I was downright fond of him by the last pages.
While I haven't managed to put my Drowned Ammet feels down in writing yet, at the close of that book Mitt was one of my least favorite protagonists. Possibly ever. (Well. Second to Holden Caulfield.) It was so terrible that when I opened Crown of Dalemark and saw his POV, I almost wrote the book off as a lost cause. BUT THEN. Maewen appears like a glorious freckled breath of fresh air. Time travel is one of my most very favorite tropes in fiction, so as soon as I realized that was where the plot was headed, I just had this huge grin on my face and was swept away from there.
The presence of an encyclopedia in this volume was much appreciated and made the reading experience so much more pleasant than in the previous works. Trying to keep all the earls straight is tricky business.
But yes! Loved loved loved just about everything about this book. Even Mitt. I was downright fond of him by the last pages.
kwugirl's review against another edition
3.0
Some of the character changes seemed to smudge over what happened in previous books, but the mythology of the world is neat.
travelgirlut's review against another edition
2.0
I wavered between 2 and 3 stars on this one. I wanted so much more from the final book in the series, and it just fell flat. The whole style of the story was completely different than the other three books. The main point of view would jump all over the place, sometimes changing mid paragraph. And bringing in a character from modern times was just weird. I was still really confused by all the different names the Undying go by, just like in the last book. I could've sworn the main Undying in this book was one person, and then it turned out to be another. It was all a little bit of a mess. And maybe it's just me, but having two main characters with similar names, Mitt and Moril, made me constantly have to stop and remind myself who was being talked about. Anyway, just a bit sad that this book didn't feel the way I wanted it to and that the series ended on such a low note.
nevafromtheswamp's review against another edition
4.0
A beautiful ending to this story that tied it all together in ways I did not think the three books before it could be tied.
Really enjoyed having a girl protagonist fro DWJ, too. The way she writes women is deligthful, and they differences warm my heart.
Took me very long to finish, not because of thw book itself, but the stress of life. You cannot read this without thought, because you have to remember and think about rhe three previous books while reading to undersrand what's happening.
Really enjoyed having a girl protagonist fro DWJ, too. The way she writes women is deligthful, and they differences warm my heart.
Took me very long to finish, not because of thw book itself, but the stress of life. You cannot read this without thought, because you have to remember and think about rhe three previous books while reading to undersrand what's happening.
quoththegirl's review against another edition
2.0
Agh, I'm conflicted! I feel badly about giving this only two stars, but...it's a mess. You know how Diana Wynne Jones endings usually fall apart a bit? Since (I assume) this was the last book in the quartet, the entire thing seemed to be falling apart from the get-go. There are lovely characters, both new ones and ones I already adored from earlier books, and I can see that she tried to tie everything from the previous three books together, but the whole thing got WILDLY out of hand and ran careening down the hill until it smashed to pieces at the bottom.
For build-up and characters, you can't beat DWJ, and in the earlier books, my enjoyment of those aspects easily carried me through (especially for the first two books). The fourth book of necessity was less about build-up or characters, so it wasn't nearly as enjoyable. DWJ's weakness is in any kind of plot-related revelation, and this book is mostly that--and thus mostly incomprehensible, at least on first read. The glossary at the end is helpful, but a story shouldn't be so unnecessarily obfuscated that you have to read the glossary to figure out what it was trying to say!
For build-up and characters, you can't beat DWJ, and in the earlier books, my enjoyment of those aspects easily carried me through (especially for the first two books). The fourth book of necessity was less about build-up or characters, so it wasn't nearly as enjoyable. DWJ's weakness is in any kind of plot-related revelation, and this book is mostly that--and thus mostly incomprehensible, at least on first read. The glossary at the end is helpful, but a story shouldn't be so unnecessarily obfuscated that you have to read the glossary to figure out what it was trying to say!
shoelessgirl's review against another edition
4.0
This was a good if slightly oddly paced end to the series - I struggled with the end (another reviewer points out that DWJ often struggles with endings, to which I agree).