A review by thistlechaser
Twilight of the Elves by Zack Loran Clark, Nick Eliopulos
2.0
The first book in this series was one of my favorites from last year, but unfortunately this second one just did not work for me.
In the first book, we learned about the setting: Some fantasy world (or future Earth?), where "Dangers" (monsters) have taken over. Almost all people (humans, elves, dwarves) have been killed by the Dangers, just a few cities are left, protected by walls, men, and magic.
In this second book, the main characters from the first book set out to try to save one of the cities lost to Dangers.
Right from the beginning, I had problems with this book. I'm sure as an author, it's hard to balance how much recapping to do in a series -- do you add enough recap to bring people who haven't reread the earlier books up to speed? Or do you write for some future reader who is reading all the books one after another? Unfortunately the authors used the latter choice, and so I spent most of the book going "Wait, who was that again? Why is he here? Is this a new character or just one I forgot?".
I never hated this book, but from early on, I was bored with it (not helped at all by not knowing/remembering who most of the characters are). I could have reread the first book, so maybe that issue is on me. Because I had enjoyed the first one, I stuck with this one a lot longer than I usually would have, finally giving up at the 84% mark.
When the third book comes out (assuming there is one), maybe I'll reread the first two before I check it out.
In the first book, we learned about the setting: Some fantasy world (or future Earth?), where "Dangers" (monsters) have taken over. Almost all people (humans, elves, dwarves) have been killed by the Dangers, just a few cities are left, protected by walls, men, and magic.
In this second book, the main characters from the first book set out to try to save one of the cities lost to Dangers.
Right from the beginning, I had problems with this book. I'm sure as an author, it's hard to balance how much recapping to do in a series -- do you add enough recap to bring people who haven't reread the earlier books up to speed? Or do you write for some future reader who is reading all the books one after another? Unfortunately the authors used the latter choice, and so I spent most of the book going "Wait, who was that again? Why is he here? Is this a new character or just one I forgot?".
I never hated this book, but from early on, I was bored with it (not helped at all by not knowing/remembering who most of the characters are). I could have reread the first book, so maybe that issue is on me. Because I had enjoyed the first one, I stuck with this one a lot longer than I usually would have, finally giving up at the 84% mark.
When the third book comes out (assuming there is one), maybe I'll reread the first two before I check it out.