As fantasy writers go, Robert Newcomb has a pretty good imagination and can apply it to a plot. But unfortunately, that's his only attribute as a writer. I have read nearly 150 fantasy books in the past 5 years and for me this was bottom of the pile by a long way. The only reason I managed to finish it at all was because it was so unremittingly bad that that began to hold a sort of fascination in itself.

His technical writing skills are very poor indeed - continual repetition of pet phrases and vocabulary, interminable background information dumps in the form of daydreams and reminiscences and a POV that flitters around like his butterflies.

His idea of suspense is introduce a new scene of carnage with words like "what he saw next would remain lodged in his memories forever". Or, as an alternative in plot suspense, characters around the protaganist, Tristan, hold back vital information while thinking thoughts like "If only I could tell him the real truth" - without ever presenting a compelling reason why they shouldn't.

Characters are cardboard thin and evoke very little empathy or antipathy - even when taken to comic extremes of good and evil. I was shocked when it was first revealed that Tristan was a philanderer and it took me a while to realise that this was because Newcomb's best attempt at producing a dissolute, disaffected 29 year old king-in-waiting had actually succeeded in conveying a sulky 12 year old brat with about as much strength of character and kingliness as - well.. a 12 year old sulking brat. OTOH, Necomb's Gandalf fascimile, Wegg, is ancient and gruff - we know this not because of what he says or does but because of his 'infamous eyebrow' and his 'ancient fingers'.

Newcomb may endear himself to some readers with his graphic depictions on depravity and torture - the only time when the writing seems to have any gusto. Unfortunately this is done against a backdrop of unrelenting misogynism - his female characters are either ludicrously evil or Miss goody two shoes - there isn't a rounded female character in sight.

Thank goodness that in the real world there are characters like J.V James, Lois McMaster Bujold and Cecilia Dart-Thornton, as far beyond Newcomb's writing as his characters are beyond belief.

Good premise? Yes. Good array of characters? In a way, yes. Bad execution? Oh yeah!

You can't help feel that Newcomb thought he was really onto something when he first came up with the idea for the Fifth Sorceress. Personally, I think he was onto something. There are several ideas put forth in the book that are rather interesting but loads of things bring it down.

Newcomb doesn't seem to understand weapons at all. The Minion sword would be laughed at by most swords smiths in our world. Swords do not have moving parts! If a minion sword was real it would have to be hollow, I don't think I need to explain why thats a bad thing.

Also the Minion commander mentions his returning wheel still having the blood from those he killed weeks ago, have they ever heard of cleaning their weapons? Whether it be bronze, iron or steel, blood ruins the blade if left on for too long.

Is it just me or is there sex mentioned in every chapter? Also at the end Wigg uses some magic after 1) Having his magic torn from him (although I could suspend my belief and say that when the coven dies he regains his power) BUT 2) The paragon is not active, it's being 'virginised' in the thing (been a while since I read it so forgive me) The whole reason the Minions first gained their advantage was because the Wizards couldn't use magic while the paragon was in this state.

Characters are bland in some cases and the story plods on for what seems like an eternity!

Like myself and others have said, good idea but badly written.

I try to be opened minded when reading fantasy, since it is fantasy. The Fifth Sorceress appears to me, however, to be in the "idea" stage, and not ready for publication (as seems the case for many Del Rey books lately...). I had high hopes for this book because the story sounded unique. However, instead of getting a comfortable amount of familiarity mixed with new ideas, I feel we got a collection of cliches by a guy who, it seems from his writing, never read more than one or two fantasy books in his life and woke up and said one day... "Hey, I think I'll write a fantasy book."
The one thing that made me quit reading it was several passages where references was made to "china" as in a china plate or tea cup. This jolted me from the Eutracia to modern Earth. Is there a country in Eutracia called china that boneware is named after? I think not! For goodness sake, where were the editors for this book? This is a skip-it. Save your time and read something else.