Quote:
Originally Posted by pdurrant
I'll have a think about what to read next while I get on with some work.
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At lunch I thought I'd try a modern fantasy,
Daughter of the Blood by Anne Bishop. I bought it in June last year from fictionwise, thankfully in one of their 100% rebate sales, so I can count it as half price.
Because, although I'm only a little way in, I'm decidedly unimpressed.
Ok, first page after the front matter, there's a list of jewels, apparently in order of colour, from white through gradually darker stones to Black. I'm not sure why it's there. It's 13 items long. Am I expected to remember the order, so I can instantly know whether Tiger Eye is lighter than Sapphire*? Or whether Purple Dusk is darker than Green**?
I don't mind this too much. It gets quickly worse - we get some complicated rule about how far a person can descend from their birthright jewel (sorry, Birthright Jewel). (Three ranks at most, it seems.)
And then what almost made me stop reading before hitting the first chapter
'AUTHOR'S NOTE: The "Sc" in the names Scelt, Sceval, and Sceron is pronounced "Sh".'
WHAT! Can the author
possibly be serious? There's no justification given for this weird pronunciation, no indication why it matters at all to the author how a reader chooses to pronounce a name. And no reason at all given for why these three names aren't just spelt Shelt, Sheval, and Sheron.
And then we're given a list of personal rank, five for each male, six for female, from "landen", (commoner, apparently, "of any race") up. Oh - and one is "Blood male" and one "Blood female" Ummm.... why not just "Blood" for both? Do people in this fantasy really go around saying things like "What rank are you? I'm a Blood male." :-)
And then the first few pages of the prologue didn't grab me. (No, I haven't got to the first chapter yet!)
In fact, in writing this, I realise I should just cut my losses and stop reading.
Unless anyone can tell me that this series is actually rather good, despite this inauspicious start?
* It is.
** It isn't. Obvious, eh?