Loren Szendre > Recent Status Updates

This is dense writing and in spite of the brilliance of the writing - I find myself itching to get to the end. Enough joking around, enough wit, just get to the end. These people are provincial and profoundly ignorant - demonstrated for the thirty-sixth time. I got it. Also would really appreciate some chapters. Not all of us can sit down and read a book through to the end. Some of us grab 5-min chunks here and there

Amazing writing, thicker than molasses, multiple laughs embedded in a single sentence.

159 pages of the boring repetition of "oh, I'm going to pretend like I'm not attracted to him" before their first attempted sexual encounter, only to finally start the quest for the missing card. Give me a break! I just want this book to end, so I can move on to a meaningful book. But I hate to dnf, so on we plod

The adults in the book are almost completely missing in action. They are robots who freeze in place until needed for some small role. The fight scenes are not well written.

The entire story (so far) takes place in a small town that has been isolated from the rest of the world by magical mist. That's when Vin and Elend - oh, wait, this isn't Mistborn. Oops. The townspeople live in a northern zone, based on the trees and other flora. But then the townspeople are enjoying lemon pastries - where did the lemons come from if they are cut off from the world?

So far the book is a huge contrast to the last 30 books I've read. Elspeth is a bit spastic, but interesting. We have Magic: the Gathering having a baby with Cinderella, a TCG nosing its way into the Brothers Grimm. The jury's still out on this one.

Only one comment - the author totally sucks at love scenes. I actually broke out laughing very loudly at the ridiculous and cheesy descriptions :) You are reading along, it's an interesting book, and then when you least expect it - a bucket full of stinky cheese. It's like a quick switch to a different genre.

This story is very enjoyable, and the desert world is full of wonder. The author evidently didn't know where he was going in the first two chapters, then made a decision in chapter three and never went back to correct the mistake. The names are fantastic. I love the use the Turkish letter Ç. The flora and fauna are really interesting. I'll definitely finish this book.

What the heck? Massive flaw, Chapters 1 & 2. Our protagonist is a gladiator defeating a much larger, stronger and male opponent. Fine. But after the match the owner of the gladiators descends to her locker room and they have sex while she is licking her wounds and catching her breath -- and oh, the author just has to describe her wiping the sperm off her thighs afterwards. Then the book switches to its actual arc.

So far so good. The only downside is the multiverse - immortals sneaking in every 200 pages. Easily could have written this book without the multiverse. Also don't like the use of first person in the flashbacks. But we're still on track for five stars.

Soul casting - over the top. Dazen is behaving in a way inconsistent with the previous books. Never has this series felt more like it is spinning out of control.

And the sea dragon, lifted directly from Silverberg's Majipoor Chronicles, opened a whole book dramatically and then disappeared. Maybe Brent is saving him for later so that Kip can become the sea dragon whisperer and save the world.

Did not expect the first part of the book dedicated to Kip's sexual coming of age in his arranged teenage marriage. The book seems more thrown together than the previous three installments. But it reads very fast and there's still the drive to know how it all turns out. I'll withhold judgment till the end.

I feel like this book is getting away from the author a little bit. There are new elements coming into play all the time. And I just read that the noble families "vying... to see who could ride better". But he just said that those children live on Big Jasper full time. It's one big city. Where would they learn to ride? The book is still fantastically interesting, so I'm still on track for 5 stars.

The author used the Hebrew alphabet directly as Old Parian, but he tried to do Ancient Hebrew
As such the letter Vav should have been Waw. But Yod was good :) The inclusion of phonetic symbols for Arabic don't work very well - recommend not using them in the future. One out of ten thousand people will understand them. Just use the base letters. Your editor will appreciate it too. The book is great!

The author goes into second person very early. It's soooooo annoying!!! I bought the first two books in the series because of so many rave reviews. But if this second person madness keeps up for much longer -- I'll have to put this book down and never come back to it.

You do this. You feel such a thing. You wander around. Enough capitalized Yous already!

So far I find it tremendously interesting, but with one huge, enormous flaw. I am anxious to finish the book to see if the flaw will be remedied