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A review by jamrock
Goldenhand by Garth Nix
3.0
If you read Mistborn trilogy, cried a river and then, desperate for more, read The Alloy Law trilogy you will be familiar with the still-hungry tale of disappointment that follows...not that the Wax & Wayne books weren't fantastic, they were, but after the original Mistborn it felt a little *too* YA and much too shallow and all of this is only because both authors surpassed all standards-of-ever with the immense world building in their first series.
If this book had come out a year or two after Abhorsen then all would be well and this would be five stars, maybe four. It didn't though and as it has taken ten years we expected more. This is a continuation of the story, carrying on just a few months after the ending of Abhorsen, with many of the same characters (the ones that survived that final battle anyway) but with two key exceptions, Mogget and Kibbeth.
Okay, so Mogget was freed for playing his part in the battle against Orannis and Kibbeth went deep into Death to rescue Nicholas and lost her her physical body. Fine. But not fine because those characters, in the main, were the ones who told the story of the Charter, the Bright Shiners, the building of The Wall. Christ, they actually were Free Magic beings. It was the world-building that set the original trilogy apart and that made all of us Old Kingdom fans desperate for more.
What we get here is a novella, a longer version of The Creature in the Case and, in part, that's okay because there is really strong link that, along with Clariel, weaves through all of the books to tell the complete story of Chlorr of the Mask. As a set of five books they sit nicely together but WE NEED MORE.
I could only give this four stars if I knew that another trilogy had been written, three books of AT LEAST 1000 pages each that told the full story of the Nine Bright Shiners, why Mogget refused to take part in the binding of Orannis, the building of the wall, the joining of The Old Kingdom to Ancelstierre, the founding of The Clayr and the making of the bells. That trilogy if it ever comes will be the five stars...but I won't cast a Charter spell to create an oxygen bubble because I will be holding my breath for too long and will have passed the Ninth Gate and onwards to final Death.
Maybe 3 1/2 stars, but not quite.
Somebody tell me I am wrong....
If this book had come out a year or two after Abhorsen then all would be well and this would be five stars, maybe four. It didn't though and as it has taken ten years we expected more. This is a continuation of the story, carrying on just a few months after the ending of Abhorsen, with many of the same characters (the ones that survived that final battle anyway) but with two key exceptions, Mogget and Kibbeth.
Okay, so Mogget was freed for playing his part in the battle against Orannis and Kibbeth went deep into Death to rescue Nicholas and lost her her physical body. Fine. But not fine because those characters, in the main, were the ones who told the story of the Charter, the Bright Shiners, the building of The Wall. Christ, they actually were Free Magic beings. It was the world-building that set the original trilogy apart and that made all of us Old Kingdom fans desperate for more.
What we get here is a novella, a longer version of The Creature in the Case and, in part, that's okay because there is really strong link that, along with Clariel, weaves through all of the books to tell the complete story of Chlorr of the Mask. As a set of five books they sit nicely together but WE NEED MORE.
I could only give this four stars if I knew that another trilogy had been written, three books of AT LEAST 1000 pages each that told the full story of the Nine Bright Shiners, why Mogget refused to take part in the binding of Orannis, the building of the wall, the joining of The Old Kingdom to Ancelstierre, the founding of The Clayr and the making of the bells. That trilogy if it ever comes will be the five stars...but I won't cast a Charter spell to create an oxygen bubble because I will be holding my breath for too long and will have passed the Ninth Gate and onwards to final Death.
Maybe 3 1/2 stars, but not quite.
Somebody tell me I am wrong....