Gavin’s Reviews > Lord of the Isles > Status Update
Gavin
is 35% done
I’ve decided to restart another epic fantasy series from my early fantasy years. I’m not sure I ever finished this series the first time around. I’m about 50/50 with series from my teen years.
The bad news is I’ve been struggling a bit in the early stages. This has been a bit dull and the writing is more confusing than engaging. Seems to be picking up a bit now but I’m not sure it is ever going to be great.
— Dec 21, 2023 11:50PM
The bad news is I’ve been struggling a bit in the early stages. This has been a bit dull and the writing is more confusing than engaging. Seems to be picking up a bit now but I’m not sure it is ever going to be great.
10 likes · Like flag
Comments Showing 1-2 of 2 (2 new)
date
newest »
newest »
message 1:
by
Jen
(new)
-
rated it 2 stars
Dec 22, 2023 10:49AM
I’m trying to do the same thing with this series. Is it worth it? I’m having a hard time getting into the first book. Good luck!
reply
|
flag
Sorry for the delayed reply. I decided to wait until I was a bit into the second instalment before answering because I could never quite make up my mind if this story was worth it or not. Now that I’ve gotten a good bit into Queen of Demons I’m going to say it is probably not worth the effort of finishing that first book! Things definitely get better from the early stages. The story picks up when the kids get out of their village and start on their various quests. It has a sort of WoT-lite feel to both in terms of the characters and the story. Despite that is has never managed to fully engage me. There are the odd moments it sucks me in and then it loses my attention again. The most frustrating thing is the characters just seem to jump from nebulous place to nebulous place with next to no cohesion so it can definitely get a bit confusing to follow.
Meh…I’m sort of disappointed as I recall enjoying the first 3-4 books in my teen years! I’ll press on and finish the second book as I’m halfway through it as this point but I’ll take a break and read something else before deciding if I want to press on with the third book. This is not completely awful and the hints of a good old school 80s or 90s fantasy story is definitely present so I’ll have to decide whether I want to carry on or just DNF the series and try a fresh fantasy series. I probably should just pick something new, and potentially a lot better, as it is not like my to-read list is short but I’m honestly the absolute worst at starting new stuff so I might yet be lured by the familiar averageness of Lord of the Isles!
That said, I definitely recommend showing more sense than me and just dumping it. Plenty of other really fun stories just waiting to be found!
