ghosttie

Dante Valentine is probably the most self-indulgent character name ever, but it makes sense coming from Lilith Saintcrow - probably the most self-indulgent nom-de-plume ever.

Dante Valentine is probably the most accurate portrayal of a woman I've ever read. She does completely illogical things at completely random times, and even she doesn't know why.

I stayed with the series through all five books, but I can't say I don't wish I hadn't.

After getting past the ridiculous character name, the first book had enough good ideas and was well written enough that I bought the second book, and so on. But by the fifth book I was thoroughly sick of Dante's garbage. If we had been dating, I would have dumped Dante in book five.

I found this book to be disappointing. You go into it expecting a subversion of the Wizard of Oz as you've seen it in the movie and read in the book, but that's not really what you get.

If you think about it, the Wicked Witch of the West isn't actually in the original story very much. She's a typical one-dimensional bad guy that attacks the heroes and then gets vanquished. There isn't really that much interaction between Dorothy and the Witch to subvert. Dorothy isn't even in 99% of this book - the story is just concerned with getting the Witch from being a sympathetic character to the point where she takes the actions we see in the original.

For most of the book you are getting to know characters and events that really never matter, because you know how it's going to end. It makes no difference what she did as a child. You go into the story knowing the climax, so it doesn't seem to even try to build up to it - things just happen.

A lot of questions are never answered. There are a lot of Why's outstanding and you never really find out what happened to half of the characters. A lot of plot points are introduced and nothing ever happens with them.

The book was also quite difficult to read. The language was quite dense. It had me reaching for the dictionary on occasion, but I usually appreciate that in a book. Somehow it was just annoying here. Having read the preview chapters of the author's other books included at the end of this one, he always seems to write like this. I will not be buying his other books.

I think that was the problem - it was hard work and there was very little reward at the end.

The first book by a new author is usually promising but shaky. This book is pure genius.

The characters are well rounded, the dialogue is natural, the world is detailed and realistic, the plot is layered and fearless.

I could not put it down.

The only thing I don't like about this book is the title, and the author has already done a lot better with the title of the sequel Red Seas Under Red Skies