Review: The epic journey of incompetence continues
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 10 29, 2011
In this book, Flare splits up his squad and gives two others independent command. And they each proceed down a road of incompetence. They are still angry teenage brats. Though they started with some devious plans, the whole story arc devolves into mediocrity. Rather than a struggle to survive, I feel that the branches wander around aimlessly.I had reviewed the first book and mentioned the fight scenes are terrible. I figured out why: the author writes in details that don't matter, and fails to write details that do matter. Many details relate to things such as bodily functions, or shifting packs from one shoulder to another. However, if you get those details wrong, then you break out of the story immersion. All the melee combat scenes reads like that -- details that don't matter, and ones that are outright wrong.The magic scenes had been good up until towards the end of the book. An elf casts a spell to make his hands glow red, then sets two soldiers on fire. That's basically ripped from the Dungeons & Dragons spell, "Burning Hands", one of the most useless combat spells ever devised. (You're not going to throw a mage into melee, and if you are, he is going to sneak up on the enemy).Plot is still interesting: let's see what happens at the end of this trilogy.