Review: Pales in Comparison to First in Series
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 08 21, 2013
Well, this book gets us where we need to go I guess?  To the child that will travel the wide world.  On its own, it's pretty much filler.  I really enjoyed the first book but without the interactions between the McLir and Renny, this is just...average.  Almost boring.Niamh is a sad character and she latches onto her abductor with quite a bit of Stockholm-ness; her hero never really does anything out of character or heroic. Some minor spoilers here:She's ready to follow him into any life he choses and will devote herself and all her resources and relatives to him, I'm not sure why.  He didn't beat her bloody or scar her?  His mother died so he was able to keep her even though she was childless and for that he deserves her eternal devotion? Or, they just plain have fun at the river?  This book is never as in-depth emotionally as the first was.It all felt like an abused person latching onto someone to give their life meaning and for the daughter of the book's focus, this just felt wrong.  Plus the idea of the blood feud and the lengths someone's relatives would go to to keep it up grows thin.  And the author missed a really great opening to explore religion circa 800 AD when she just had her leave the convent with no one ever discussing faith or beliefs, or - especially - the radical idea of the new ONE GOD.A large dissapointment after a great beginning.  I will still read the ending, IF it's ever mentioned when it's to come out so I can look for it.  I hope it is much more action oriented, with contrasts such as the first between classes, education and superstition, love and necessity, magic and rationality!