fiction / fantasy
731 pages / 3539 KB
3 Stars
I 'bought' the boxed set for free. I got what I paid for.
Terah Edun has a great imagination, and with a good editor, she'd have some
terrific stories. She gets 3 stars from me because that's the average of an
almost 5 star storyline and a 1 star grammar line.
The books almost read like a first draft, though I'll give
her the benefit of the doubt on that one.
Ciardis, our heroine, is an orphan and grows up scrappy in
order to survive. A Companion comes to town and takes her to the Guild to be
trained as another Companion. The training fell flat in many areas, Ciardis was
always being told to watch herself, but no one ever explained HOW or WHY she needed
to act, only that she needed to change. No one really explained to her (or the
reader) what a Companion was, either. A Broodmare? A 'Trophy' wife? Someone to
accompany the highest bidder to the ball? A Helpmeet? Lots of hints but nothing
concrete. She reads the dossiers of her 'suitors' but what is she looking for?
And why?
On her 18th birthday, her magic powers come to fruition. She
is a powerful mage, and again, is not given the training she needs, just told
she needs to behave herself.
Outside of the grammar mistakes on nearly every page, the
biggest problem for me was there was no cost to any of the mages for the use of
their magic. Only the Prince Heir, at the last, paid a price for his magic.
Magic was so freely used in these stories it became, well, mundane.
There were characters introduced who disappeared, characters
I would have enjoyed seeing more of, especially the dragons.
A lot of action, but not all of it explained well. A lot of
Ciardis acting like a snot-nosed brat, a lot of her going off on her own. She
doesn't grow much, and she doesn't pay much of a price for it. Oh, she's on the
death list of someone, but we know she'll survive.
Some romance, but not a novel of romance. Ciardis, the
orphan discovers she has a brother, and then discovers her mother still lives,
but has lived while hiding in plain sight.
If you like high fantasy, don't mind some of the plot holes,
and can deal with the grammar errors, I'll recommend this set, especially at
the price. I think this author has a lot to offer, especially if she teams with
a good editor.
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