Review: Non stop action
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 03 23, 2014
I read this novel for a GoodReads discussion group.This fantasy action novel starts with a fascinating premise, that the two main characters have lived thousands of lives and the memory of each life is retained in their current incarnation. The action is non stop from the first chapter to the last and is well done. The fantasy world is believable. The writing is very descriptive and flows nicely. I found one of the two main characters hard to enjoy as he was always angry. It is an existential anger (he was mad at the gods) which I though was never sufficiently explained (beyond he thought he was always being manipulated by the gods but I didn't see anything events that would give me that impression). The characterization however was well done. I am not a fan of action novels so the first half of the book was slow for me as it seemed to be mostly action and only modest plot progression. With an introduction of two more main characters after the first half of the story the plot pace improved and my interest in the story increased. There was one scene toward the end that was very suspenseful which really had my attention wondering if the two main characters would escape their captors. The answer was unexpected and well done. There is no cliffhanger at the end (thank you) but the main plot remains unresolved for continuation in book 2 (its a trilogy). I was somewhat disappointed that the premise of remembering thousands of past lives was not developed more fully (other than they were immortal). I would have thought that would mean the characters would be wiser. It seem they did not learned much from all their past lives other than to be paranoid about the bad guys that were always after them. No insights into karmic payback or the true source of happiness. If you like action then I think you will enjoy this book. For my rating I am going to ignore that I am not a fan of action novels and rate the book as if I was.