Thursday, January 02, 2014

2014 book 3

Maria V. Snyder's Taste of Darkness
Sometimes I just don't have the time or inclination to reread the previous books in a series before the new one comes out, and that was a major problem here, because I didn't really remember all the various bad guys, their political machinations, etc, and this book does a TERRIBLE job of bringing a reader up to speed. I know it can be annoying if you've just read all the other books to be reminded of info you already know, but I needed a lot more than was given here. And the writing feels a lot clumsier than in the earlier books. I never really got into this, especially since it's just all war, war, war, journey, journey, journey all the time and the plot is all over the place and it's even more disgusting than the previous volumes. I'm also kind of over Avry and her special magicalness and her connection to the main bad guy--she's much more interesting as a straightforward healer than whatever it is she's doing most of the time here. On the other hand, I do like how the main romantic relationship is presented. It's not enough to make up for an anti-climactic ending and my general lack of interest in the goings-on, though. Too bad, this series had such a strong start. B-.

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