I really liked this book: the beginning is intense, the fantasy material is as original as its reputation would lead you to believe. The thing keeping me from really loving this book is that most of it is travel, and the scenes bleed into each other without much clear setup. That's just a stylistic thing that you can expect from a lot of seventies fantasy. If you would like to see what a great writer Donaldson is without this aspect, I highly recommend The Mirror of Her Dreams, which has a more modern feel. I am interested in reading more Covenant books, and despite the trudging, I do recommend reading this one.
An elegant, suspenseful book. I loved it and recommend it. Just don't expect to know what's really going on at any stage of the story.
I gave up on page 65, after two non-scenes, in which two characters ruminate on their situation while very little action happens around them. What action happens is barely narrated, and only serves as punctuation for the characters to ruminate about their crappy situation (which sounded interesting on the back jacket), mostly in first-person italics. It is repetitive, redundant, and repetitive, almost to the point of saying things twice, or three times. There is very little psychological depth.
I was disappointed because I wanted to get the idea of Mercedes Lackey's content, i.e. the “magic system” of Valdemar and I was excited to find book 1 of a series for free. But, this book spends 1.5 really long chapters on back-story and nothing happens. Chapter 1 is over forty pages long, and all that happens is a kid runs out on his master and cries in a tree. Don't waste your time.
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