[Sammie]

Discussion open....

I have so much I could say about this book (and believe me I will), but i haven't time to rant it all now, so someone else can get things going.... :)

[juzzza]

Alright, I will kick it off as I really enjoyed this book.

One of the strengths is the relationship between the Raven. The dynamics are excellent and the camaraderie and love the characters feel for each other practically leaps from the pages... I almost phoned my best mate to tell him... OK enough of that. Seriously, this was extremely well executed and I find rare in fantasy.

I also enjoyed the magic system, I have found magic messy in many books and by that I mean the ability to weave it was just a given with no explanation. In Dawnthief, it sat very comfortably in my warped mind.

Tension was excellent and built nicely, especially towards the climax.

Thumbs up from me.

Only downside, some of the dialogue was a little forced and seemed to be used to move the story along or fill gaps.

[rune]

I did like the relationship between the Raven members, and enjoyed how the magic was used in the story.
However, on a whole I found this book didn't hold my attention, and I tried reading the subsequent books, only to put them down.

It had promise, but was a little slow for me.

rune

[juzzza]

Really!?!

I found it very fast paced for a fantasy book and I am used to reading Matthew Reilly...

Can you give me some examples of books you found fast paced Rune?

And I am not challenging you, I am genuinely interested because I like fast paced and this is one of the reasons I like Dawnthief.

[rune]

Originally posted by juzzza
Really!?!

I found it very fast paced for a fantasy book and I am used to reading Matthew Reilly...

Can you give me some examples of books you found fast paced Rune?

And I am not challenging you, I am genuinely interested because I like fast paced and this is one of the reasons I like Dawnthief.

Robin Hobbs Farseer and Tawny Man series is fast pace and a good read.
Laurell K Hamilon's Merdith Gentry series flows really well and I found quite gripping.
James Clemens The Banned and the Bannished series I found gripped me better too, and had plenty going on without slowing too much.
Mark Anthony's The Last Rune series is pretty good, and reasonably action packed, a real page turner.
Sarah Zettel, Isavalta Trilogy (2 books out of this so far ) is pretty good, lots going on and I thought flowed well too :)

None of the above a particularily war/battle type books. There is fighting invovled, but not so intensive as the war like feel of Dawnthief. :)

Hope you find these helpful.

rune

[Rob B]

I, obviously to many long standing members here, liked Dawnthief.

There were many strengths to the novel, absolutely driving to the cream of the fantasy crop


Characters
The characters were great, the Raven truly act as a team. They are older, experience, a bit cliched, but what in Fantasy really isn't. Hirad and the Unkown, all of the Raven really drive the book. I really like how JB decided to portray an experience group of characters rather than a young group.

Magic presented logically, realistically. Rules govern the magic here. This can be tricky especially since often, magic is, mystical, but the conceit of the colleges is quite good.

Dragons rarely have I seen Dragons in fantasy protrayed so well. Again, JB takes much of what we have seen of Dragons in fantasy, and adds his own spices to craft a very good breed here.

World Balia is truly alive. That itself is a cliche, but it is true. The colleges, the world itself brim with life.


Not to hint too much at future books, but the events in each book really carry over into the subsequent volumes, there is a great internal consistency and sense that nothing just happens, it all has a rippling effect.

[Khallandra]

I'm not sure what it was about the book that grabbed me but the begining just drew me in and before I knew it I had read all the first series and was awaiting on Elfsorrow with anticpation.
The beginning of the book didn't dally about and just got straight to the action and the point. The Raven are such a wonderful group of people and they have great dynamics
I like the Colleges Idea and anything with a mercanary, mage Elf in it has my vote :)

[Erfael]

Well, I have to say I enjoyed this one quite a bit. It's not my typical favorite type of fantasy, rather the kind of thing I would read when I needed a break from the old grind, but it was an extremely fun read.

The thing I liked most is the whole concept of Raven. It doesn't matter if things are good for the world at large. Unless they fit in with the Raven, the Raven will not participate in them. The exploration of this concept through Denser's interaction with the Raven were fairly interesting. I would have liked to have seen a little more of the inside of Denser leading up to the point where he told Hirad that he understood Raven, but I don't think it was particularly poorly expressed as was.

I would also have liked to have seen a resolution to the stealing of the amulet at the beginning. I felt a little like te exchange between Hirad and Sha Kaan was left unresolved in the course of the novel. Perhaps it's resolved in later novels, but I always prefer closed systems to things that rely on series to make sense. i felt that a lot of time was devoted to that encounter to have it not contribute to the rest of the book with the exception of a few of Hirad's feelings throughout.

I was not really looking forward to reading this one, both for the $14 price tag and the, in my opinion, really awful cover art. Some cover art just gives me the feeling of a really bad TSR novel, and this was one of those. As good as most of the book was, I had the hardest time shaking the feeling that I was reading a cheesy adventure novel through most of it.

I think Barclay, even though not my usual cup of tea, has filled my something to read when not reading my usual cup of tea books books space.....did that make any sense. I am curious to read of the further adventures of the raven. I wish there was just a little more meat to the pollitics and philosophy to these books, as then they would be among my absolute favorites. I am curious to hear what a few more people think, as I know we had similar feeligs coming into this one.....Ficus??? Come out of hibernation and tell us what you think.

[FicusFan]

Erf,

Sorry for being among the missing - I have been busy with real life :)

I did read the book and will try to post later tonight. I am being naughty and posting at work now:D

[Erfael]

No problem, Ficus. I'm just interested in your take, knowing that we had similar views coming into this one. Take your time. I certainly understand when real life creeps up. I try and post a rear guard to try to prevent that from happening. Usually it just plows through the rear guard though, or performs some sort of flanking maneuver and comes at me from the side.

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We're just having sort of a sparse discussion on this one so far, maybe due to the lack of non-action meat....

We could: I thought it was awesome when that one dude sliced that other dude in half and then got killed by that other guy. Then again, I suppose not.

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I also would have liked to have received the resolution to the Stylian conflict. He's still outside waiting to steal Dawnthief, isn't he?

Fairly often in fantasy we have the "good guys" learning that the "bad guy" isn't so bad. It seems we have this same type of thing in Dawnthief, but rather than telling that from the perspective of the good guys, it seems that Barclay shows most of that growth through Denser's eyes.

Perhaps the final two things that seemed a little unexplained to me were (left my book at the girlfriends last weekend, forgive this if it's wrong) Erienne's sudden love for Denser and the sudden organization of the "new Raven;" Thraun, Will, Jandyr(?).

Erienne is totally destroyed by her family's demise, yet within the next few days all that seems to be forgotten and she's making a child with Denser and subsequently falling in love with him. This I could not figure out.

As far as the new Raven goes, at their introduction the elven bowman goes through everything about why they can't work together as part of a team. They all seemed like reasons that wouldn't necessarily be resolved just by joining the Raven. Yet as soon as they are members, you hear nothing at all about the problems they had before. Are we to assume that simply becoming Raven worked out all of their issues?