Review: Interesting Series
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 02 5, 2011
I'm giving this bundle an over-all 4 stars because it's a fairly good read and the bundle deal was too good to pass up for the price.  If I had bought the books seperately at a standard price I might be inclined to give them 3.5 stars if it was available.Over all the story line in these books was pretty good.  The third book was a bit of a departure from the first two with a whole different plot line going on but it was still well worth the read.The books have an interesting array of characters with completely different cultural and physical aspects which I found interesting.  The story is mostly limited to the city of Elantra with some areas, or fiefs, technically in the city but ruled by other various outcasts or fief lords that even the king wouldn't bother trying to dislodge. We also get hints that these fief lords in fact serve a purpose to protect certain old magic in those areas. I would like to see further development of some stories that include characters from other fiefs besides Nightshade and maybe inclusion or further development of stories based on the old magic contained in some of those fiefs.Some of the main characters, while not overly complex, caught my interest (Nightshade, Sanabalis) and I hope we get more of them in the future.  The emperor we hear about and I assume we'll meet him the future.Unfortunately the main character of the book, Kaylin, just comes across as developmentally disabled.  She's been with the Hawks (a law enforcement group) since she was a child and was basically raised around them.  Although, she admits she failed every class given unless it was, by her definition, practical (IE: weapons, fighting, law, Barrani Language), how could she not pick up many of the cultural or political terms and situations just by being around the people.  She continually asks stupid questions that any normal person raised in that atmosphere would know.  Of course everyone just looks at her like she's retarded and refuses to answer her questions... so she's stupid and you just keep her stupid.  It basically came down to an overdone character type of her being the "bruised and abused good hearted innocent hero, that basically saves the day by luck."Apart from that I got sort of tired of hearing about her being broke, needing food, and hating magic and refusing to learn because it's not useful to her... yeah magic would neeeeveeer help you out of a tight situation when you're in danger. LOLI'll keep reading in the future, just because I really do like the overall world and character building and I hope at some point Kaylin evolves a bit and actually realizes she had to learn to use whatever powers or skills she has and stops being a bumbling savior.