Review: I am torn about this book
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 02 19, 2013
Friend kindle loaned this book to me.First and foremost there is almost no explicit violence happening in the story, Tarro tells us some of the things that happen to him, but I do not think that in that sense the story is painful to read. I mean it is, but not because it shows you lots of violence if that makes sense.As one of the reviewers mentioned this book relies very heavily on the narration and if you will like Tarro and it will be enough for you, I think you will enjoy the book more than I did. I mean, do not get me wrong, I liked him well enough, I certainly did not hate him or was annoyed with him.At the same time, I really really wanted to get to know other characters at least nearly as well as I got to know Tarro. Maybe that's it, I do enjoy first person narration, and think that technically this one was pretty well written, but at the same time Tarro is mostly concentrating on himself - which I do not blame him, but at times it was kind of boring to me. Even Nerrin I did not get to know nearly as much as I wanted to and I feel that good writer can tell us as much about non POV main character through the eyes of another person.Another issue I had with this book was the matriarchal society structure. Do not get me wrong, I can really enjoy those, but I want to see that the society operates as well under matriarchy as it could under the power of men, if that makes sense. Otherwise I feel that a) it can read as a wierd revenge story and/or b) it can still demonize women in a sense - in a "look, all they can do is to abuse men under their power" kind of thing.And at the end I saw the society which had good and bad things happen under the rules of women, same as men, so I was happy with that, but for a while the only visible women in the story is Tarro's dead wife and Tarro's mother in law and these characters, well I could not stand them.3.5 stars I guess.