A Treasure For The Book Lover

[#1]

I would only recommend this book to those who normally enjoy the kind of literary faire that others find tedious.

This book was getting rave reviews when it first came out, and was highly recomended to me by a bookseller who knew I enjoyed fantasy literature and historical mysteries. 

Page after page, I waited for the story to grab me, but it never did.   Most of my friends stopped reading it after the first hundred pages, unwilling to torture themseves anymore.   I persisted and read to the end, wading through footnotes, distracted by glaring anachronisms, still hoping for a spectacular ending.  But for all that, the ending was dark and left me cold. 

I then read it again, as I generally do with tightly crafted intricate plot-twisting stories, but I still did not enjoy it. 

Normally, I'm a bit of a pack rat when it comes to books, but the day after I finished the second read, I donated it to my local library.   I have no intention of ever reading it again.

[#2]

I have to agree with Psychee.  There's a really good 200 page book somewhere in this 800 page book.  With more editing, this could have really been something.  As it is, there's too much pretentious fluff around the actual story. 

I've asked several people who have read this and we all agreed - you have to get about 100 pages past the main plot point of the story before you realize that's what it's suppose to be about. 

 I'm keeping an eye on this writing because I think there is some talent there.  I'm hoping it shines better in her next work.  

[#3]

This series was, in my opinion not worth the paper it was printed on.  I did read the entire series, only because I was hoping, somewhere along the line Clarke would develop her own voice. 

My children could have mimiced another author in a creative writing class as well as Clarke did with this series.

I too, am reluctant to lend from my own personal library, but gave the entire series away as soon as I possibly could - with the mandate that they not be returned to me under any circumstances.