Book Review: Eldest and Knife of Dreams
I have just finished reading two books, Eldest by Christopher Paolini (the second book in his trilogy) and Knife of Dreams by Robert Jordan (book eleven of his Wheel of Time Series). Both of these books were better than their predecessors.
Eldest is the sequel to Eragon and is about a boy who finds a dragon egg and bonds with the dragon when it hatches. Of course, the evil sorcerous king, also a dragon rider, wants the boy and his dragon either killed or converted to his cause.
The main problem that I had with the first book is that everything came too easy for the main character. Take swordplay, for instance. The main character went from never having seen a sword to a swordmaster within a few short months. True, he was trained by a swordmaster, but the training occurred while they were traveling and only lasted for an hour or two each night. And it was in addition to other training, some of it quite hard, such as the study of magic.
All in all, I liked the book and the world that the author had created. Enough so that I bought and read Eldest. That book fixed most of the problems that I had with the first book. The main character tried and failed at almost everything that he did. He made stupid decisions that cost him a good friend and a broken heart. That's a lot better. I'm looking forward to the next (and last) book of this trilogy.
Robert Jordan has been writing the Wheel of Time Series for well over ten years. This is by far the biggest and the most popular fantasy series of all time. I think that the only comparative fan base would be for Tolkein's Lord of the Rings.
Unfortunately, Jordan's books have set into a trend. The last seven books or more have been long arduous reads with all of the excitement crammed into the last hundred pages of these six hundred plus page books.
I understand that the information in the beginning and middle of the books is vital, and that keeping track of all these characters takes a HUGE effort. I also understand that a LOT of things are going on and that the story is moving along at a pretty quick pace, it just seems longer due to the amount of stuff that's going on.
With all that in mind, I have to say that I found the Knife of Dreams to be fast paced and action packed. The prologue itself is over a hundred pages long but it, like the rest of the book, is fun of cool things.
I don't wanna spoil the book for my friends that haven't read it yet so I'll just say this:
You get to find out if Moiraine is alive or dead.
Aviendha develops the coolest power of any Aes Sedai in the series.
Rand gets screwed.
Mat gets hitched and then loses his wife.
Galina gets what was coming to her.
As does what's-her-butt, the chick in charge of the Seanchen Return who is a Darkfriend.
Matt, Rand, and Perrin each go to war. Except for Perrin, they do this before the end of the book.
Once it was over, I wanted to read the whole thing again, not just the last hundred pages.
Eldest is the sequel to Eragon and is about a boy who finds a dragon egg and bonds with the dragon when it hatches. Of course, the evil sorcerous king, also a dragon rider, wants the boy and his dragon either killed or converted to his cause.
The main problem that I had with the first book is that everything came too easy for the main character. Take swordplay, for instance. The main character went from never having seen a sword to a swordmaster within a few short months. True, he was trained by a swordmaster, but the training occurred while they were traveling and only lasted for an hour or two each night. And it was in addition to other training, some of it quite hard, such as the study of magic.
All in all, I liked the book and the world that the author had created. Enough so that I bought and read Eldest. That book fixed most of the problems that I had with the first book. The main character tried and failed at almost everything that he did. He made stupid decisions that cost him a good friend and a broken heart. That's a lot better. I'm looking forward to the next (and last) book of this trilogy.
Robert Jordan has been writing the Wheel of Time Series for well over ten years. This is by far the biggest and the most popular fantasy series of all time. I think that the only comparative fan base would be for Tolkein's Lord of the Rings.
Unfortunately, Jordan's books have set into a trend. The last seven books or more have been long arduous reads with all of the excitement crammed into the last hundred pages of these six hundred plus page books.
I understand that the information in the beginning and middle of the books is vital, and that keeping track of all these characters takes a HUGE effort. I also understand that a LOT of things are going on and that the story is moving along at a pretty quick pace, it just seems longer due to the amount of stuff that's going on.
With all that in mind, I have to say that I found the Knife of Dreams to be fast paced and action packed. The prologue itself is over a hundred pages long but it, like the rest of the book, is fun of cool things.
I don't wanna spoil the book for my friends that haven't read it yet so I'll just say this:
You get to find out if Moiraine is alive or dead.
Aviendha develops the coolest power of any Aes Sedai in the series.
Rand gets screwed.
Mat gets hitched and then loses his wife.
Galina gets what was coming to her.
As does what's-her-butt, the chick in charge of the Seanchen Return who is a Darkfriend.
Matt, Rand, and Perrin each go to war. Except for Perrin, they do this before the end of the book.
Once it was over, I wanted to read the whole thing again, not just the last hundred pages.
posted by Keko at 10:28
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