Touchstone

...despite the enjoyable aspects of this novel, there are some parts of it that do not sit well with me at all: specifically, certain aspects of the worldbuilding. While the concept and the characters are a great joy to read about, the world itself does not do it any favours. The pseudo-European setting, as well as the mind-boggling number of fantasy races, some of which do not make a lot of sense (how can a Wizard be considered a separate race entirely from Human?), are not particularly interesting, and add very little to the story beyond explaining why certain characters are good at certain things and bad at others.

I am also not entirely pleased with the near-absence of any strong plot in this novel. To be sure, there are very strong hints of what the next book might be about, but that???s for the next book, not this one. While the travels and travails of Cade and the rest of Touchstone make for pleasant-enough reading, it does not have sufficient heft to carry a book on its own. A part of me thinks that this book could have been half as long and still been fun to read; if it were not for my interest in the characters, I think I might have set this aside halfway through and not given it a second though.

Full review here: https://wp.me/p21txV-Fr