I recently finished the Collegia Magica Trilogy by Carol Berg. I had had the first book sitting on my "To Be Read" pile for several months, and decided to take the leap last week when I saw her participating in the Roundtable here. I found the characters to be distinctive, if not quite as detailed as I would have liked (though I think that I have been spoiled in that regard as of late). But I quickly acclimated to the writing style and quite liked the fact that this was much more of a mystery tale.
I thought that the first book, The Spirit Lens, came together quite well and was my favorite of the three. It took me a bit of time to adjust to the different pov in the second book, The Soul Mirror, but once I did so I thought that the majority of it was a worthy follow up. I didn't entirely love the ending, finding it a bit rushed (and unsatisfying to me personally in a couple of small ways), though that seemed perhaps the author's intent. In the end I did enjoy Book Two. Book Three, The Daemon Prism, was for me the worst of the lot (and in the cover department as well). I didn't find it bad, but I think that I would certainly say that I found it to be the least impressive. The main pov was my least favorite, and I wasn't engaged in the story to the extent that I had been with the previous two books. That being said, it did wrap up the major questions and most of the characters from the series well.
Overall, I'm quite glad that I read the first book and did enjoy the series as a whole to the extent that I felt it to be a worthwhile read. This was my first experience with the author and I will try another of her series in the future, hopefully at some point later this year.
I think it's the shortest book in the series - it's certainly a little thinner than Lure.
