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A review by songwind
A Dragon of a Different Color by Rachel Aaron
3.0
On the one hand, I enjoyed seeing where the next phase of the Heartstrikers went. As usual, there was some pretty decent humor, relationships and action.
On the other hand, I felt that this book was a step down in terms of plotting, characterization and internal logic.
The writing was solid but not artistic, as usual.
The Marci/Amelia/Empty Wind thread seemed to work, mostly. The world building/history about Merlins and the sea of magic were both interesting.
The Julius/Golden Emperor/Chelsie storyline, however, had trouble holding up under its own weight. The biggest trouble was the luck dragon himself, whose powers were presented an nearly omnipotent in one moment, but very poorly applied in the story. When one of your characters is a walking deus ex machina, it makes it hard for me to buy into the conflict.
I'm still not sure what to think about Bob and the Black Reach. I feel like the author has done a lot of telling me that Bob's plots are dangerous and BR may have to kill him, but no showing. We've yet to see anything that approaches the forbidden paths (i.e. forcing a future), but we're told Bob's right on the precipice.
For the audio edition in particular, this was not the series' finest hour. The narrator is terrible at pronouncing Asian names, and this book is full of them.
On the other hand, I felt that this book was a step down in terms of plotting, characterization and internal logic.
The writing was solid but not artistic, as usual.
The Marci/Amelia/Empty Wind thread seemed to work, mostly. The world building/history about Merlins and the sea of magic were both interesting.
The Julius/Golden Emperor/Chelsie storyline, however, had trouble holding up under its own weight. The biggest trouble was the luck dragon himself, whose powers were presented an nearly omnipotent in one moment, but very poorly applied in the story. When one of your characters is a walking deus ex machina, it makes it hard for me to buy into the conflict.
I'm still not sure what to think about Bob and the Black Reach. I feel like the author has done a lot of telling me that Bob's plots are dangerous and BR may have to kill him, but no showing. We've yet to see anything that approaches the forbidden paths (i.e. forcing a future), but we're told Bob's right on the precipice.
For the audio edition in particular, this was not the series' finest hour. The narrator is terrible at pronouncing Asian names, and this book is full of them.