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Alaundo
Head Moderator
United Kingdom
5696 Posts |
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Lord Rad
Great Reader
United Kingdom
2080 Posts |
 Posted - 26 Apr 2006 : 20:50:59
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Quite amusing how Yulda was thinking about Yurtz's treachery when she saw him leading the band... yeah, like goblins are so reliable normally 
A bit of a cliche when she said "yes, my pretties" as she sent off the spiders to attack... a bit of a flashback to the Wizard of Oz for me
I loved the whole scene with the spiders and ogres on the bridge. It gave a feel of an emmense cavern and precarious bridge spanning over the chasm.
I was quite happy to see Taen use his bladesinging skill at last. I was only just beginning to wonder when the books namesake would come into play Still not enough though, I hope there's a lot more to come.
Beautiful touch when Marissa was bitten by a spider and started to heal herself.... only to be interrupted as she is bitten again. Well done how it described the purple poison coursing through her veins.
And what a cliffhanger as she is carried up into the caverns all cocooned up!  |
Lord Rad
"What? No, I wasn't reading your module. I was just looking at the pictures"
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Lord Rad
Great Reader
United Kingdom
2080 Posts |
Posted - 27 Apr 2006 : 17:09:08
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Nicely done how Taen had been so wrapped up in his own grief that he had forgotten how all the rest of the band were feeling, and when he actually took time to take notice when were quite sudden and glum.
I liked the point when the next scene opened up and a sword being withdrawn from a ghoul. Quite cinematic to join the battle at it's end.
...and what on earth are those bone creatures with the chainmail on?? Simple skeleton warriors or something more? |
Lord Rad
"What? No, I wasn't reading your module. I was just looking at the pictures"
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Braveheart
Learned Scribe
Austria
159 Posts |
Posted - 03 May 2006 : 10:55:05
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What irritated me a bit is, that Taen never seems to replenish his spells and there's no mentioning of a spellbook in the first 24 chapters . But on the whole a smooth read and I'm excited to find out how the story ends  . |
Jarlaxle: "Do keep ever present in your thoughts, my friend, that an illusion can kill you if you believe in it."
Entreri: "And the real thing can kill you whether you believe in it or not." |
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dannyfu
Learned Scribe
USA
108 Posts |
Posted - 11 May 2006 : 16:53:09
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| I've finally gotten around to some reading this week and I am really enjoying this book. I have read that some people would have liked to see these characters and this story presented as a trilogy and I agree. Keith tells a great story and is a good writer and is doing a great job with the one book limitation that he has. I feel the likes of Taen and Marissa are begging to have another story told about them. At this point in the book we finally get to see some bladesinging action (besides the flashbacks of course) and, with less than a hundred pages to go I was hoping to see a lot more of the books namesake. Hopefully Keith will get to write more with these characters because it's a job well done. |
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Rinonalyrna Fathomlin
Great Reader
USA
7106 Posts |
Posted - 22 Feb 2007 : 18:29:08
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I'm sorry to say that I'm on Chapter 20 and this book is really starting to drag for me. First of all, as some others have said, even so late in the book, I still don't exactly know what's "eating" at Taen. How is he a failure, a murderer, and so forth? Obviously, we learn the answers before the end of the book...but by then it's too late; Taen's earlier navel-gazing is hard to sympathize with when one has no clue why he's so self-absorbed. Also, I don't really get how Marissa is a "broken one" herself, other than the fact that she lost her arm (and frankly, she seems to have gotten over it!). The relationship between Marissa and Taen isn't written in a way that makes it overly compelling to me...I can kind of understand Taen's pining, but Marissa seems to stand just fine on her own two feet.
The story itself is incredibly straightforward and for the most part seems to consist of a lot of walking (and fighting) to get from point A to point B. As dubious as Amazon.com reviews can be, I can kind of understand one reviewer who said that the novel feels a bit like a short story in novel form. Another problem is the villain--I kind of liked Yulda when she appeared at the start of the book, but by now she just seems like yet another snarling, cursing antagonist who is evil and powerhungry for no other purpose than the sheer fun of it. How many times will we be told how "foolish" those "fool" heroes are? Yulda is a villain so ubiquitous that she is both tiresome and absurd at the same time.
I do like the flashback scenes, though, and wish there were more of them. More insight into Roberc and Marissa would be nice, as well.
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"Instead of asking why we sleep, it might make sense to ask why we wake. Perchance we live to dream. From that perspective, the sea of troubles we navigate in the workaday world might be the price we pay for admission to another night in the world of dreams."
--Richard Greene (letter to Time) |
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Kyrene
Senior Scribe
South Africa
757 Posts |
Posted - 23 Feb 2007 : 05:13:05
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All I can say, having read this book quite a while back, is it all comes out in the wash. It may seem like the book is a bit slow in pace, but overall (and not to spoil), the pace is just right. These are after all a band of heroes/adventurers crossing most of Rashemen to get to within sight of the villian.
What I liked most, as others have mentioned, is the flashbacks. The insight into the elven psyche and society (their racism as an example) is very well done and is the motivation for what Taen goes through and does.
Wait and see... |
Lost for words? Find them in the Glossary of Phrases, Sayings & Words of the Realms
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Rinonalyrna Fathomlin
Great Reader
USA
7106 Posts |
Posted - 23 Feb 2007 : 18:28:42
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quote:
Originally posted by Kyrene
All I can say, having read this book quite a while back, is it all comes out in the wash. It may seem like the book is a bit slow in pace, but overall (and not to spoil), the pace is just right. These are after all a band of heroes/adventurers crossing most of Rashemen to get to within sight of the villian.
You're right, although I think I would have prefered if something more happened. As I said, the plot was extremely straightforward--that isn't good or bad in itself, but I don't think it turned out to be all that...interesting?
quote:
What I liked most, as others have mentioned, is the flashbacks. The insight into the elven psyche and society (their racism as an example) is very well done and is the motivation for what Taen goes through and does.
Wait and see...
You know, I have finished the book, and I do have good feelings about it as well as bad. Taen's reason for being so upset is valid (and was very well-written and effective, too). I'm still surprised that that his accidental killing of Talaedra is still the defining event of his life even though it happened thirteen years ago...but still, it makes sense that something like that would eat at him. And yes, the flashbacks were the most interesting parts of the book. Honestly, I thought a book about Taen's earlier life would have been more interesting than the one between the covers of Bladesinger. Or, for that matter, a political story about how Yulda actually got into the position of power that she had, before she degenerated into a cackling, cliche-spouting cartoon villain. |
"Instead of asking why we sleep, it might make sense to ask why we wake. Perchance we live to dream. From that perspective, the sea of troubles we navigate in the workaday world might be the price we pay for admission to another night in the world of dreams."
--Richard Greene (letter to Time) |
Edited by - Rinonalyrna Fathomlin on 23 Feb 2007 18:30:04 |
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Bladesinger: Chapters 20 - 24
