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Submitted by Luisa 
(Feb 22, 2005)The characters in this book are really great and the action and imagination behind the stories is excellent.
However, the writer's literary skill, while certainly above average, isn't compelling and I'm left with a feeling that this series could have been a whole lot more. Furthermore, the end of the fifth book was disappointing - if I didn't know better I would have said that there is another book to come after it.
If you are looking for action and adventure, where each book has a conclusion and not looking for a particularly thought provoking or beautiful read, then this series should be worth a try. I'm happy to have read it, as it introduced me to my favourite fantasy character (although the potential wasn't fully realised by Mr Drake).
Submitted by Clutch Money
(Aug 23, 2000)This is not good writing. Some of Drake's military fiction is quite interesting, but this series started awkwardly and quickly got worse. From the outset, in the first book, the characters are astonishingly thick-headed about the events engulfing them -- central character Garric's sister is escorted away from their humble village, having been apparently identified as a long-lost heir to the crown. Does he wonder how this might reflect upon his own ancestry? Nope. Does he even ask his father? Nope. The first two books are ragged with this sort of gaping hole. Worse, as the story progresses, the narrative turns into a series of arbitrary struggles for the characters to return to where the story's climax is set to happen. Each character is repeatedly zapped by wizardry onto this magical tangent and that one, with no intelligible connection to any overall plot. Finally, at the end of Book Two, the main antagonist dies for absolutely no discernible reason. It appears that she gets bad news, and this is enough to kill her. I usually have a pretty high tolerance for wooden writing when it comes to fantasy. But this just doesn't reward the effort on any level.
Submitted by DBZMan64@aol.com
(Aug 08, 1999)I like the two books that I have read so far. Good choice to read except the characterization is not all that
good. David should of/should told/tell us more about the characters (sort-of in the way awesome writers as
Terry Goodkind and Margaret Weis does it miraculously). That would make the book(s) a lot better.
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(3 ratings)