Review: A ZERO then it got better
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 05 14, 2014
I was somewhat surprised when I read the authors forward that focused on how she had edited Shadow Magic, first in the Lyra series.  I was a bit worried when she showed how seven paragraphs were brought down to two or three lines.  The forward was too long but I was glad to read that Shadow Magic had been edited but...it wasn't.I was so annoyed with Shadow Magic that I almost didn't read the rest of the series.  I am a technical writer, not a novelist and I wanted to get out a red pencil and edit, edit, edit.  Shadow Magic was also an incomplete, inconsistent story as far as I was concerned.  Two characters get married at the end after spending all of an hour or two playing a knife game.  Really?  And one of the main characters is a trader but he is always in on the meetings with the head of a noble family and seems to know military maneuvers better than trained soldiers.  Again..really?  I realize it is fantasy but there has to be a back story to explain all of the parts.  The lack of adequate dialogue coupled with rambling explanations drove me crazy in Shadow Dancer and made me wonder where all the author's editing went.  As a result I almost didn't read the rest of the series.  After a couple of days I decided to give it one more try and was pleasantly surprised by the next book in the series.Characters began to have depth. They became more believable and likeable.  Dialogue, action and description were crisper and the stories moved quickly.  I liked the authors' decision to write a stand alone story but one that linked with all of the others in the Lyra series because it was on the same world.  As the series continued the stories and the writing continued to improve.I liked the strong female leads who had to make some tough decisions.  It was easier to understand the emotional underpinning to some of their decisions that appeared to be contrary to logic.  I also liked the balance between the male and female characters.Teenage readers who like sci-fi fantasy, because this is fantasy, and are not ready or don't like the complexities of Tolkien or Herbert, will probably enjoy this series.  Just don't read Shadow Dancer until it is fully edited by the author.