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I'm going to finish this brick! Dedicated reading until I drive the metaphorical silver stake straight through the heart of this undying beast of a book.

I have been aware that this novel is a "rewrite" of a previous novel which served to expand the first book by way of prequel material.
I have just reached the point which I must believe is the transition point.
Feels like a completely different book, written by a completely different author to be honest. The style is so different.
Suddenly the book feels CONCISE and that is so refreshing at this point.

Well, it only took 300 pages for the book to finally become interesting enough for me to stop choking it down and actually enjoy it a bit. (Emphasis on the word "bit")

The Conqueror Worm: Something different here. Odd.

Unworthy of the Angel: The range of this author is fun. He really likes to play with all sorts of different ideas and themes.

Any complaints I made about the first book are completely washed by the intensity of the fruition that is the second.

Animal Lover was the first in this set of short stories I didn't really care for. It was alright. A lot of little things throughout it conspired together to diminish its potency.

The action let up for a brief stint to introduce new characters to the fray. It was brief though. This book has the ability to make you look back and think better of the first book.

The Lady in White was interesting. Smacks of old folk tales and ghost stories a bit.

Mythological Beast actually felt like a short story. That doesn't seem to noteworthy coming from a short story collection but Daughter of Regals was 80 pages long and felt full while Gilden-Fire was a removed segment of a complete novel set. 20 pages doesn't give you much room to play. Mythology and Science Fiction wrapped together at once.

Action! This book takes off at a pace unheard of in the previous novel. Donaldson is forcing me to appreciate a character I absolutely hated in the first novel.

Gilden-Fire was pretty good as well. I feel as though without having read the Chronicles of the Unbeliever previously or at least up through the Illearth War, a reader would have no idea what was going on. However, this excerpt details the actual taking of the Vow made by the Harukai and the events that led up to it in detail. It is primarily focused on Korik's journey through Grimmerdore on the way to Seareach.

I'm impressed. After reading the first story in this set of shorts, I feel a small amount of sadness that Donaldson didn't delve into this more. He is so good at doing things differently. Even when things are slightly predictable you want them to go the way you are predicting much of the time. Gilden-Fire is next. A removed excerpt from the Illearth War. Excited!

The book gets much better as everything begins to come together in the last 150 pages or so. It feels a little predictable to me as well but not in a bad way.

Almost there. It's frustrating that it all feels like it's just starting as this book comes to a close. I have the next one ready and waiting this time though so there won't be any disappointment.

I have such a hard time in the middle of this book. Perhaps if I didn't hate Terisa so much things would be different for me.