A fantastic book! Relatively easy to read (saying a lot for some 19th century literature) and the sheer imagination involved given the time is, at times, breathtaking.
One of the most unremittingly bleak books I have ever read.
The book is well written but suffers from the common 19th Century flaw (in my view) of going off on tangents that do little or nothing to advance the story. It can therefore appear to be turgid in places.
In this final book in the trilogy, the author goes into more depth as to how magic works, philosophises about the nature of balance and pulls together some earlier themes and events.
Again, this is very easy to read but I found the ending a bit of an anticlimax. I kept expecting the overall title of the trilogy (Delver Magic) to be explained more but it wasn't, leaving me with a feeling that there should be still more to come. There were also a lot more typos/spelling mistakes in this volume than I noticed in the previous ones. Having said that, it's still a pleasant enough way to burn a few hours. It's just a shame that some of the ideas weren't explored a bit more.
In this second book of the saga, the author examines some of the upheaval and chaos that the return of magic to Uton has caused. Once again from the word go, his easy writing style makes the story accessible and highly readable. There are a few places where he seems to conclude the action a bit too soon to my view (for example, I would have liked it if we had seen more of the magic users effects on the Lacobian Desert). Having said that, if you're looking for a pleasant, easy read to top up your fantasy-loving quota, this is definitely worth your time.
A highly readable, decent story. This book avoids the deliberately-being-obscure-for-the-sake-of it that so much fantasy fiction falls into the trap of. From the word go, it's extremely accessible. Whilst some of the themes are familiar to regular readers of this genre, there are also enough new ideas to add to the suspense. I would not class it with great literature but it's a lot better written and more readable than other books I have read.
Debbie McCarthy’s book reviews
The book is well written but suffers from the common 19th Century flaw (in my view) of going off on tangents that do little or nothing to advance the story. It can therefore appear to be turgid in places.
Again, this is very easy to read but I found the ending a bit of an anticlimax. I kept expecting the overall title of the trilogy (Delver Magic) to be explained more but it wasn't, leaving me with a feeling that there should be still more to come. There were also a lot more typos/spelling mistakes in this volume than I noticed in the previous ones. Having said that, it's still a pleasant enough way to burn a few hours. It's just a shame that some of the ideas weren't explored a bit more.