Review: Fantastic world building, wonderful female protagonist and delightful characters/creatures, beautifully written
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 03 16, 2012
I won this book from a member librarything giveaway in exchange for an honest review.I must admit, I had no idea what to expect from this book. What I got was surprising, and delightfully so. This book has two main protagonists, Llandry and Eva, and the story in alternating chapters follows each character and their journey. Llandry has discovered a new stone, istore, which everyone is clamouring for. But Eva as well as some supporting characters start to realize there is something sinister about these stones when they are stolen and people are attacked. But this is just the beginning of a fantasy wrought journey for both characters.I would like to first admit that I thought I was going to give this book five stars because of the book's immense strengths. English has developed a fascinating world with different characters and creatures and magical powers. I was sucked in very quickly. Her writing is beautiful and I could really picture each scene that she colorfully describes. I loved the character of Eva, a very strong, resourceful woman, who is the "upper class" in this book, but defies her stereotype and puts herself in danger to save the world she loves. We are introduced to a host of other mysteries; most particularly about the stone; the mystery did not let me down.The reason I was not able to give this book full five stars was for several reasons: My first issue is a small one (and wouldn't have tipped the scale). I don't think the use of the word "istore" was probably the best idea, because that gives me the image of an Apple computer store instead of a beautiful stone. This can be easily changed. The second issue, much bigger to me, is the ending. The epilogue is not an epilogue (it gives the reader the sense that we will jump into the future and resolve all of the mysteries that have been presented to us, at least in a way that will really close the book satisfactorily), it is timed right after the action in the previous chapter. And the ending was very disappointing because it wasn't an ending-- it just seemed like the end of another chapter. Indeed, when you read the snippet for the next book, again, it's as if we are just getting the next chapter in the book. I get the sense that this was a very large book just cut up in three (or more) pieces. I was disappointed because otherwise this is a real gem of a book.I think even with these issues, this is a must read for any fantasy lover and English has a huge potential to be a big name author one day!