Kyrie
I really enjoyed the first book in the Scribes of Medesia series, Mark of the Mage. It was very much a comfort read for me - juuuuust the right sort of fantasy to make me ridiculously happy.
Tempest was a wonderful continuation of the story, and there was plenty of action. But...the story was a lot more focused on romance than the first book was.
Granted, the focus on the romance wasn't...well, it wasn't what you would expect going into a modern fantasy/sci-fi story. It wasn't all big eyes and melting and breathless kisses. There were certainly parts of the book that included those things, but it wasn't the overarching goal of the inclusion of a romantic subplot.
Let's just say that the book spends a lot of time dwelling on various interpretations of that old saying, "It's better to have love and lost, then never loved at all."That shift did change the pacing of the story, though, so that Tempest was a much slower read than Mark of the Mage.
The Sadeemian landscapes and culture helped make up for the slower pace, but there's only so much that descriptions of buildings and religious beliefs can do.
I enjoyed watching Cadeyrn see just how bad things were over in Medesia. Wow. That sounded bad. Okay, let me try to explain that, so it doesn't sound so much like I'm reveling in the pain of the characters.
Alright, so Cadeyrn, the Sadeemian military leader, and second youngest son of the king, has the ability to tell if someone is lying. When Stone and the other rebels eventually meet with him, and tell him about the horrible things that Raemon is doing to their country, he knows that they're telling the truth.
Instead of just resting on that fact, and saying “oh, he knows how bad it is over there - message delivered”, there are many small moments where Cadeyrn will see one of the Medesians react to something that shows him how bad things are. There's a scene at an inn where Cadeyrn is having dinner with the Medesians, and they're quickly wolfing (hehe) down their food. He asks if food is really so scarce in Medesia, and Stone tells him that honestly, the rations they ate as the group crossed the desert were more food than they generally saw.Small moments like that just made me so, so happy.
I really enjoyed the first book in the Scribes of Medesia series, Mark of the Mage. It was very much a comfort read for me - juuuuust the right sort of fantasy to make me ridiculously happy.
Tempest was a wonderful continuation of the story, and there was plenty of action. But...the story was a lot more focused on romance than the first book was.
Granted, the focus on the romance wasn't...well, it wasn't what you would expect going into a modern fantasy/sci-fi story. It wasn't all big eyes and melting and breathless kisses. There were certainly parts of the book that included those things, but it wasn't the overarching goal of the inclusion of a romantic subplot.
Let's just say that the book spends a lot of time dwelling on various interpretations of that old saying, "It's better to have love and lost, then never loved at all."That shift did change the pacing of the story, though, so that Tempest was a much slower read than Mark of the Mage.
The Sadeemian landscapes and culture helped make up for the slower pace, but there's only so much that descriptions of buildings and religious beliefs can do.
I enjoyed watching Cadeyrn see just how bad things were over in Medesia. Wow. That sounded bad. Okay, let me try to explain that, so it doesn't sound so much like I'm reveling in the pain of the characters.
Alright, so Cadeyrn, the Sadeemian military leader, and second youngest son of the king, has the ability to tell if someone is lying. When Stone and the other rebels eventually meet with him, and tell him about the horrible things that Raemon is doing to their country, he knows that they're telling the truth.
Instead of just resting on that fact, and saying “oh, he knows how bad it is over there - message delivered”, there are many small moments where Cadeyrn will see one of the Medesians react to something that shows him how bad things are. There's a scene at an inn where Cadeyrn is having dinner with the Medesians, and they're quickly wolfing (hehe) down their food. He asks if food is really so scarce in Medesia, and Stone tells him that honestly, the rations they ate as the group crossed the desert were more food than they generally saw.Small moments like that just made me so, so happy.