cavalary's reviews
269 reviews

Setting fantasy in modern times really seems strange; restrains the writer from a lot of what fantasy should mean, if you ask me. But, even with this problem, I did like it. Well written, nice enough story and quite well built characters. Got to more or less hate Joan, like Miriam, try to understand Gillian and, believe it or not, didn't get to dislike Amadan.
Good enough overall, but, as I said, fantasy set in modern times isn't really my thing.

Fantasy set in "reality" and written well. The world is completely new, but created so well it is believable from the very beginning.
I remember saying I hated one character from "Crystal Sage" because she kept being down-to-earth and wouldn't accept that what was going on around her was really happening. Of course, the amount of unexplainable things and their scale were lower than in "Weaveworld", but nevertheless I really liked the fact that every character in this book accepts the unexplained and gets involved, even down-to-earth, unbelieving Hobart, after pulling fire out of Shadwell's coat.
And Shadwell... He's an excellent character, seems to symbolize the entire humankind if you ask me, all the sweet talk and hidden intentions, all the greed and deceit, all the dreams and fears, all its searching, all its guilt and, ultimately, its own undoing. In spite of Cal and Suzanna being the main characters, I think Shadwell is the best built one.
But there were a few things that happened to save the main characters that would have been very unlikely even in that unlikely world. Things that made me think "aw, come on, next you'll tell me the aliens appeared and beamed them out of harm's way".

Spoiler

Also, I didn't like the lack of a relationship between Cal and Suzanna. What do you mean they share so much they're much more than lovers, so they can't be just that? What is more than love? I'd say sharing all that would make a relationship with anyone not involved impossible. At least Suzanna had Jerichau there for a while; she got the better deal.

And... I still didn't quite understand exactly what was with The Scourge/Uriel. Little comfort in the fact that it didn't either until the end.

Uh... Short stories... Hard to get anywhere near the amount of detail and complexity that I look for when I read something, in a short story.
The first one was OK, but not much more than that. The next three and the sixth were average at best. The seventh was odd and nothing more. The last was actually a bit disturbing... The one I liked most was "Time of the Tree", but most likely just because it treats the problem of humans destroying the Earth than because of the way it was written.
In conclusion, decent for a collection of short stories, but not much more. Really dampened any interest I might have had in reading the Mythago Cycle.

To put it shortly, it is the readable version of a Book of Shadows that might have been written by a skilled witch, Wiccan perhaps. Then again, it isn't, being too fantastic to be believable if you take it by Wiccan concepts.
I can see a potential here, but the writer obviously doesn't know where to stop. Reading this book got one phrase swimming through my head: "This is what nightmares are made from."
Seeing the praise from Anne Rice on the cover made me expect a lot from it and it didn't meet those expectations. The story all in all is too short and too drawn out, too creepy, too unbelievable for me to be able to immerse myself into it as much as I'd have liked, and maybe it is like that not because of the facts and characters depicted, but because things are not explained well enough. And, what bothered me most, the author doesn't change writing styles when switching from Herculine to Sebastiana.
In spite of all that criticism, I didn't dislike it. It's quite OK actually.

Dune is... Dune. Excellent at revealing the innate evilness of mankind. Very well written, but I hate it; I know humans are like that, don't need to also read about it.

So I finished the series... All I can say is what I already said for the others. Extremely well written and showing a great vision, but utterly disgusting! The only choice at any moment is between two or more evils, and I have a hard time deciding what the lesser one is, if any. No doubt that something like this will happen if humans will be given the chance to make it happen; it's a perfect picture of all the filth and innate evilness of humans.
Few things could make me hate humanity as a whole any more than I already do, but these books did it.
An extraordinary achievement, but absolutely horrifying and utterly disgusting every step of the way!

Same old Dune... So annoyingly real in revealing the evilness of humans.

Read it in the hardest moment of my life and it still managed to capture me.
Sure, Marius is not Lestat, no vampire could ever be, but, still, spectacular... And heartbreaking.

Bad things:
1. Let me get this straight; Marius is blaming television for Akasha's attempted reign of terror? That's just bull.
2. What exactly is Sanhaim? If it would have appeared just once in that form I'd have assumed it to be a typo, but it's spelled like that every time.
3. Ending too abrupt and unclear.

Spoiler

I wonder how it is to be separated from the one you love for 1500 years, then be reunited for just one night, then separated again... Guess I'm on my way to finding out, though on a smaller scale since we're talking mortal years.

At least that's true; once you truly love someone, it will never fade.

I'm really starting to like Indian writers. Not that I read many, but what I read I liked... Well written and funny.
In the end, he just wanted to be left alone...

It's extremely well written and very "real"; it strikes me as exactly how mankind would develop, given the chance. You have all the filth, meaningless hurting of others, scheming, lying, deceit and downright evilness that humans are capable of. So I hate it! I know all those things; don't need to also read about them!