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Rise of Cithria #2
The Descent
The fragile truce between the three kingdoms is no more. The armies of Andua, Bergmark, and Caldera wage war against each other on blood-strewn battlefields, but it’s the mysteries below that summon our heroes ever deeper into the unknown.
The disgraced soldier Aiden and his ragtag Calderan allies have ventured north, into the deadly lands between Caldera and Andua, only to be waylaid by both Anduain and Bergsbor armies. In the caves below Teekwood Forest, the timid Eilidh gathered Anduain friends to help her find her lost love, only to run away during their darkest hour. And Pjodarr, Gruesome, Tarac and Blade, proud warriors of Bergmark, continue their dangerous hunt for rampaging havtrols, even into the bowels of the world itself.
Death, danger, and despair await our heroes as they embark on a journey that will take them not only into the depths of a lost city, but into the twisted remains of their own past. Something terrible has chosen them, and now they must face their destiny. Cithria is rising, and a dark power rises with it.
The sequel to The Chosen, written by Kris Kramer, Alistair McIntyre, and Patrick Underhill.
The disgraced soldier Aiden and his ragtag Calderan allies have ventured north, into the deadly lands between Caldera and Andua, only to be waylaid by both Anduain and Bergsbor armies. In the caves below Teekwood Forest, the timid Eilidh gathered Anduain friends to help her find her lost love, only to run away during their darkest hour. And Pjodarr, Gruesome, Tarac and Blade, proud warriors of Bergmark, continue their dangerous hunt for rampaging havtrols, even into the bowels of the world itself.
Death, danger, and despair await our heroes as they embark on a journey that will take them not only into the depths of a lost city, but into the twisted remains of their own past. Something terrible has chosen them, and now they must face their destiny. Cithria is rising, and a dark power rises with it.
The sequel to The Chosen, written by Kris Kramer, Alistair McIntyre, and Patrick Underhill.
- GenresFantasy
502 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 16, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 30, 2013
This second installment which began with The Chosen (Rise of Cithria #1) picks up fairly closely to where the previous book left off. It is, again, a triple dose of the same authors presenting expansions on their previous stories.
Where the first book suffered heavily from lengthy exposition that did little to clarify what races were part of which nationalities opposed to who... This book has almost no exposition at all on those matters and therefore must almost certainly be read following the first book. There are an abundance of races, denominations, factions, branches of wizardry/spellcasting and more. It may help a reader to draw a diagram to keep things straight.
As the first book struggled with a bit of a slow start on each segment, this work hit the ground running on all three counts. Many of the backgrounds for the characters that were left mysterious or unfinished before are revealed quickly in flashbacks that bring up past events to converge on the present. Unfortunately, there are a number of these setups arranged through the stories and even some on new characters being introduced. This coupled with the medley of deranged, delirious, or confused individuals strewn throughout the more than twenty characters makes keeping track of what is going on at what point a bit of a chore. There are a few moments where it begins to feel like short stories within short stories braided together.
With all that said, the writing is fairly decent and many of the characters are still very intriguing and fun to follow along. However, some of the characters begin to lose a touch of their previous magic as many of the themes built in the first book are passed over quickly or resolved rather quickly, only to be replaced with great mountainous heaps of action scenes. The healing goes from being a point of interest in the first book to being almost tedious in this one as battles are reduced to whether the healer has the stamina to out heal the wounds dealt by their adversaries. It feels very messy.
At the end, each story is still very much its author's own piece. Each still carries a set of strengths, weaknesses, and flavors instilled by the unique talents of each of the writers.
One question begins to come to the surface as much of the subplots are finding conclusions and fruition.
What's the point? <-- With three separate plots, three sets of large casts, and three wandering paths one must wonder... Is there a point? Does it all come together as random adventures in cave.
2 Stars for another OK read. Improved in some aspects of story telling, but perhaps worse in overall story development.
Where the first book suffered heavily from lengthy exposition that did little to clarify what races were part of which nationalities opposed to who... This book has almost no exposition at all on those matters and therefore must almost certainly be read following the first book. There are an abundance of races, denominations, factions, branches of wizardry/spellcasting and more. It may help a reader to draw a diagram to keep things straight.
As the first book struggled with a bit of a slow start on each segment, this work hit the ground running on all three counts. Many of the backgrounds for the characters that were left mysterious or unfinished before are revealed quickly in flashbacks that bring up past events to converge on the present. Unfortunately, there are a number of these setups arranged through the stories and even some on new characters being introduced. This coupled with the medley of deranged, delirious, or confused individuals strewn throughout the more than twenty characters makes keeping track of what is going on at what point a bit of a chore. There are a few moments where it begins to feel like short stories within short stories braided together.
With all that said, the writing is fairly decent and many of the characters are still very intriguing and fun to follow along. However, some of the characters begin to lose a touch of their previous magic as many of the themes built in the first book are passed over quickly or resolved rather quickly, only to be replaced with great mountainous heaps of action scenes. The healing goes from being a point of interest in the first book to being almost tedious in this one as battles are reduced to whether the healer has the stamina to out heal the wounds dealt by their adversaries. It feels very messy.
At the end, each story is still very much its author's own piece. Each still carries a set of strengths, weaknesses, and flavors instilled by the unique talents of each of the writers.
One question begins to come to the surface as much of the subplots are finding conclusions and fruition.
What's the point? <-- With three separate plots, three sets of large casts, and three wandering paths one must wonder... Is there a point? Does it all come together as random adventures in cave.
2 Stars for another OK read. Improved in some aspects of story telling, but perhaps worse in overall story development.
August 15, 2015
Good, in general, but needs some tuning....
I found both the Rise of Cithria books to be great stories, with a lot of promise. I have two main issues with the books: too many characters and the inconsistent voice used in the story.
While many of the characters were well defined, I feel that there were simply too many of them. A book is defined by its characters, but these books have dozens of characters. This makes it difficult to really get attached to even a few. Each sub-story had its own set of characters, its own environment, it's own good-guys and bad-guys. Each character had their own back-story, their own motivation, even their own agendas. Instead of using the sub-stories to pull the characters together, I feel like they did just the opposite. By the end of this book, the waters were so muddied by diverging storylines and an endless stream of characters, it was hard to remember why I picked up the books in the first place.
The other issue I have is the profound lack of a cohesive voice. It's obvious that there were three authors, each responsible for a different sub-story. While I normally don't have a problem with authors working together, the styles of the authors were so different as to be jarring. Even the slang used was so different from one chapter to the next, that it was really hard to shift gears. Where one author went to great pains to describe the scene, the next could well have been describing the inside of a cereal box. Where one author spent a great deal of time developing the characters, the next seemed content to plop as many characters into the story as possible, with a minimum of effort devoted to explaining who they were or why they were there.
All in all, I do think the series still has promise, but the task of pulling these stories and characters together is nearly Herculean in scope. I hope the writers manage to do just that, but I'm not sure very many people will bother to pick up a third, when the first two felt so.... schizophrenic.
I found both the Rise of Cithria books to be great stories, with a lot of promise. I have two main issues with the books: too many characters and the inconsistent voice used in the story.
While many of the characters were well defined, I feel that there were simply too many of them. A book is defined by its characters, but these books have dozens of characters. This makes it difficult to really get attached to even a few. Each sub-story had its own set of characters, its own environment, it's own good-guys and bad-guys. Each character had their own back-story, their own motivation, even their own agendas. Instead of using the sub-stories to pull the characters together, I feel like they did just the opposite. By the end of this book, the waters were so muddied by diverging storylines and an endless stream of characters, it was hard to remember why I picked up the books in the first place.
The other issue I have is the profound lack of a cohesive voice. It's obvious that there were three authors, each responsible for a different sub-story. While I normally don't have a problem with authors working together, the styles of the authors were so different as to be jarring. Even the slang used was so different from one chapter to the next, that it was really hard to shift gears. Where one author went to great pains to describe the scene, the next could well have been describing the inside of a cereal box. Where one author spent a great deal of time developing the characters, the next seemed content to plop as many characters into the story as possible, with a minimum of effort devoted to explaining who they were or why they were there.
All in all, I do think the series still has promise, but the task of pulling these stories and characters together is nearly Herculean in scope. I hope the writers manage to do just that, but I'm not sure very many people will bother to pick up a third, when the first two felt so.... schizophrenic.
August 21, 2014
Since they allow authors to leave reviews, I'll embrace the opportunity to thank the readers who make this all possible!
Thanks! Hope you enjoy book 2 in the RISE OF CITHRIA series.
Thanks! Hope you enjoy book 2 in the RISE OF CITHRIA series.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews