I heartily enjoyed this addition to the Penric and Desdemona series. For a while with this series, I’ve been disappointed with how low-stakes it is. I felt like this book had higher stakes, and thus enjoyed it more.
It’s hard to say to a perspective new reader ‘You should read all 13 books in this series,’ but if there is a series to say it to, it’s this one.
I struggled with the first two books in this series. They were in that zone of being ‘I see why other people like this, but I don’t like this.’ After reading Dungeon Crawler Carl, I’ve come to the realization that I’m being too demanding on LitRPG and Progression Fantasy. I like books with neatly defined structures (3 Act format, 5 act format, etc.). LitRPG and Progression Fantasy usually doesn’t have that, because they’re episodical. These genres are generally published one chapter at a time, one day at a time online through Royal Road and the like. As a result, this alters the narrative structure. I can’t demand these books have neat structures when lack-of-structure is how this genre works on a fundamental level.
After DCC, I decided to give Cradle another try. I give this book 4 stars. Best in the series so far. I’m re-subbing to Kindle Unlimited so I can finish this series and DCC as well.
I enjoyed the Divine Cities series by Bennett (speaking of which I need to go back and finish book 3 in that series, and read Foundryside). I enjoyed this book too.
This is a Sherlock Holmes mystery, with a bit of Nero Wolfe thrown in for good measure. We have an oddball detective who’s an agoraphobe, preferring to stay at home while she sends her Watson-type aide out to crime scenes and gather evidence. Not super innovative, but fun. I must highly praise Bennett for successfully writing a true murder mystery, and not making a hash of it like so many fantasy authors do when they try to write mysteries. I’m not damning with faint praise; I put a hold on ‘Drop of Corruption’ from the library.
I give it 3.5 stars, almost 4 stars. (I default to giving good books 3 stars.) Excellent worldbuilding, some of the best in the industry. A solid, clearly foreshadowed murder mystery. Good characters; I listened to the audiobook, and the narrator really captured Ana.
Re-Read. I wanted to read a good book. I’m writing a dragonrider story mixed with LitRPG right now, and I wanted to go back to the best dragonrider story I’ve ever read. 5 stars. I enjoyed it due to the author’s talent at depicting a foreign culture on the page.
Re-Read. I wanted to read a good book, and this is a good book.
Re-Read. I wanted to read a good book, and this was a good book. I didn’t enjoy it as much as I usually do, because I’ve read it too many times and pretty much have it memorized at this point. It’s a comfort read I’ve been reading for 20+ years. (Fuck I’m old.) I think I need to quit reading this book for 3-5 years or so to let it grow fresh again.
Re-read, but I’ve not read it in 20 years so I’ve basically forgotten the book and only remember the movie. I’m re-reading the entire series right now, and will do a critique for the whole thing.
Coming at this with fresh eyes, I have to say the series is good. One of the better quest fantasies I’ve read. If I’m to compare it to it’s successors, I personally enjoyed ‘Riddle Master of Hed’ more, but being honest ‘Fellowship’ probably has better prose. You can see why this book/series were a cultural juggernaut for generations. And ‘Fellowship’ is still better than a vast majority of the books which are published these days.
It’s not a flawless book though. Going back to what I said in the ‘Blackflame’ review, I enjoy books with solid structures. ‘Fellowship’ does not have a structure. I’m inclined to forgive it, because this book is so old that it basically predates the modern codification of structures.
I’m in the middle of ‘Two Towers’ right now, and I have to say I don’t like the Andy Serkis audiobook as much as Rob Inglis. Something about Serkis’ Aragorn just doesn’t sit right.
John Mendez- Book Reviews and More 