Review: A convincing high fantasy presentation
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 10 23, 2013
This review is written by Nic's wife.At heart, I'm a huge fantasy nerd. So I really enjoyed this. Diack's written tone is very well suited to the genre: very dry, and focused on concise descriptions of action and scene. Some of the dialogue could have been a little more lively, and I have a personal pet peeve about using modern colloquialisms like "OK" in epic fantasy. There were some spots where the dialogue combined with the tone of characterization elements to make things a little too far on the "tell" end of the "show vs. tell" spectrum. But aside from those, it was a very solid presentation. I read a bit of one of Diack's earlier books, and the tone didn't mesh as well with the content as this does. If you're looking for something in the tone of Tolkien, or classic C.S. Lewis, you'll enjoy this. It's not a terribly light read, due to the weight of the tone, but the sense of gravitas suits it well.I did have a few nitpicks with the pacing, particularly in the beginning, simply because so much background and so many historical events were discussed before we reach the main thrust of the story. But even those were entertainingly written, and I didn't mind the detour.