cavalary's reviews
269 reviews

Great for the first eight chapters... Odd after that.
Anne Rice is amazing when she writes about vampires, but when she adds religious characters into the mix, everything gets blurry. "Memnoch the Devil" was superb, as both style of writing and ideas, but she should have left it there.
To add something else, Lestat is Lestat. After reading "his" books, he will always be The Vampire to me, not only when it comes to Anne Rice's work, not only when it comes to books, but in general. Seeing something else, especially if it's by Anne Rice, that tries to raise another vampire close to Lestat's level simply seems wrong now.
You might also notice some discrepancies. For example Lestat and Louis said they have a hard time remembering what happened before they became vampires, save from a few important moments of their mortal lives that were stuck in their minds. But then Vittorio talks quite at length about his mortal life, and let's not mention Pandora, as in her case just about the whole book is about her mortal life. And Lestat, Louis and even Pandora describe the process of turning into vampires as painful and taking a while, but then you have Vittorio who drinks Ursula's blood and immediately notices his skin turning white and the thirst for blood and is able to spring into action and fly after Ursula! How long did any other of Rice's vampires take before they were able to fly?
And a question... What is Vittorio still doing "alive" anyway?

Spoiler

In "Queen of the Damned", Akasha killed all vampires, except the ones who she spared for Lestat's sake and "some young rogues who hid well enough and a few ancients who refused to interfere", to quote from memory. Vittorio doesn't know Lestat, is not a young rogue and is not one of the ancients, so will someone please explain why is he still "alive"?

To conclude, the strictly vampire parts are superbly written, but the other things thrown into the mix at the wrong moments and the discrepancies with her other books reduce "Vittorio"'s value somewhat.

Apparently Anne Rice discovered computers and wrote the book under WordStar... But one thing struck me: How exactly do you make a folder named CHARACTER under DOS?

What is there to say? Rice's old obsessions are still there and... Wow; Mona started her sex life at 8 and knew all about birth control! We'd sure need more like that around! But I don't see anyone knowing anything about STD prevention in this book...

Spoiler

I knew the Talamasca had a hidden purpose and I knew Lasher wasn't at all evil deep inside. Just a being with a purpose, who went through too much pain to get here. And what's so bad about letting Taltos live? What would be so bad about letting them inherit the Earth, as in humans no longer having children? They seem like a superior life form, in most ways. As long as they wouldn't wipe out humans before they'd die out by themselves... Though they'd have every right to do so, actually, from the story in the book. Which is one more proof of the evilness of humans, for me at least.

Just struck me, it'd be very interesting to have a conversation with Anne Rice...

This book might have gotten a higher mark, but I'll always hate it due to the mental connection with what I was going through while reading it and couldn't really rate it, so I just gave it something that seems good enough.

Full disclosure: I received this book through a Goodreads giveaway. This has in no way influenced the opinions expressed in this review.

I became interested in Heiress of Healing hoping it was the start of an epic fantasy series and began reading it fearing it may in fact be merely paranormal romance disguised under a thin veil of more "proper" fantasy. On both counts, I was right and wrong at the same time, because it is something between the two, featuring a decent enough actual fantasy side and a paranormal romance part that, though I generally have no interest in or experience with the genre, I have to recognize as outstanding.

To get this out of the way, yes, that means there is sex as well. No, it's definitely not used for cheap thrills. Whether we're talking about main or secondary characters, and whether it's making love, merely fucking or something in between, each sex scene has a clear purpose, is relevant for the characters and the story, and is portrayed almost perfectly. At times, when this approach is needed and possible, you'll find rather detailed descriptions, while other times you'll see no more than brief mentions. Perhaps most notably, however, the author recognizes when mere words would prove inadequate in conveying the emotions experienced and the bonds created during such an encounter and allows and trusts the reader to understand the moment's intensity and significance on their own.
In fact, Heiress of Healing is greatly aided every step of the way by good writing and a significant amount of polish. Without this being in any way meant as a criticism against the actual contents, it can be said that the writing style was the main reason why I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, and it definitely was the reason why my initial concerns were quickly forgotten. Sure, those reading with a critical eye or who simply have a penchant for nitpicking may notice the odd style issue here and there, particularly after the first part, but you do need to search for them in order to do so, the overall quality of the writing exceeding not only what one would be tempted to expect from a new and unsigned author, but that found in many well-known and popular works as well.

If I'm to mention some complaints, I must begin with the frustration caused by the behavior and personality of the lead character. I could probably muster some shred of empathy even for the queen, but definitely not for Iminique, particularly since she's usually not the only one paying the price for her actions or inaction, and at times not the one paying the price at all. True, I can't say I found any characters truly worth cheering for, but she's the main one and supposed to be the champion of good, inasmuch as this story has one, which only makes it worse. At the same time, none of this can exactly be said to be a flaw of the book, the author very accurately portraying personalities that one would reasonably expect to find in those positions, considering the world the action takes place in.
As such, perhaps it would be fairer to complain about how jarring it sometimes is when the story jumps forward in time, especially when this is also associated with changing the location and characters. The first time this happened was actually quite a shock for me and I can't exactly say I ever got used to it, so I'm sure there is a better way to do something like this.
In addition, at least one storyline introduced in such a manner not only doesn't get resolved in any way, but doesn't even appear to have an actual purpose, though that becomes understandable once you remember that Heiress of Healing is the first in a series and therefore parts of it are expected to be little more than introductions for the following books. Yet viewing it this way may make one expect it to include details that are not to be found here, the author at times making use of some shortcuts and simplifications that may give those used to complex stories and detailed worldbuilding some reason to frown. Whenever this happens, however, one would do well to remember the genre Heiress of Healing is meant to fit into.

To conclude, if you're looking solely for the next great epic fantasy series, you won't find it here. If, on the other hand, what you're searching for is a character-driven fantasy story that won't give you headaches while trying to follow all that's going on, or perhaps simply some well-written and, at least for a new and unsigned author, surprisingly polished escapism, you could do a whole lot worse than Heiress of Healing. Most importantly, however, if you aim to find an ambitious mix of romance and fantasy that seeks and, for the most part, manages to go beyond many of the limitations one may consider typical of paranormal romance and, as my case proves, may well be thoroughly enjoyable even for those who'd normally stay well away from the genre, then seriously, do yourself a favor and pick this up!

The author seems to have become rather weary of the series after five books, but this does at least mark a welcome improvement over the sixth. The length and the issues noticed may have made me go with three stars, but I'll stick to four because the dragons and the main human characters are still pretty much themselves, their interaction continues to be interesting, occasionally amusing and, if perhaps less than in earlier books, every so often even raising a few important issues, and the few surprising moments are used well enough.
Admittedly, I read with a critical eye in recent years, so I tend to notice more problems than most, but I doubt such attention is even needed to have reason to complain about the rushed ending or some other simplifications, and I must also mention that at least a few things don't quite add up properly. However, overall Crucible of Gold does at least give some reason to hope that the series won't end with a whimper.

Perhaps the best book of the series? I'm not entirely sure, but I think I'd call it that. Most humans portrayed are still as rotten as ever, because that's how humans really are, but there are some truly interesting characters in addition to the different dragons and good action parts. The multiple locations also give an added depth to the story, showing what's going on in different parts of the world.

Such series tend to start out rather slow, and that's what this does too, but that doesn't make you lose interest or focus. It paints the characters and develops the story rather well, and I keep finding myself wishing to just do without all the other annoying humans and focus on the dragons, and perhaps some of the better captains.

I think this might have been a little worse than the others in the series, even if only because it features more interaction with humans, a traditionalistic society and all the associated filth, but it is nevertheless a necessary part of the entire story, bringing added depth to the dragons, plus some of the few worthy human characters.

The story seems to turn harsher, and humans once again play a major part. There seems to be little enough actual action, which makes this book appear to be more like book one of part two of the series than book four of the series, but the supposed cliffhanger at the end most likely is no cliffhanger at all. Truth be told, I finished it quite some time ago and I barely remember anything about the first half of it, so it's a very important part of the overall story and reveals even more about the characters, but the action is not so memorable in itself.

I must say there were moments while reading this book when I had to take short breaks because I was too excited or too busy mentally praising this or that scene or line to still be able to focus properly. The action is decent, but the calmer moments are even better, offering the great characters a chance to shine even more, portraying the world in perhaps unnecessary but definitely most welcome detail, and touching upon major issues or sharing words of wisdom for those who care for deeper meanings.
On the other hand, while the chapters are particularly long, the book itself is far shorter than I think a fantasy book should be, or at least far shorter than I prefer one to be, regardless of the fact that there are several of them in the series. Perhaps for that reason, some moments seem treated too shallowly, in contrast with the overall atmosphere and attention to detail. And I definitely disliked the untranslated Elder speech, especially when there was a significant amount of it.

At least the only character that really pissed me off in this one was Hermione, and even that was past halfway through the book.
Either way, nice enough, and the books in this series are certainly no longer children's books, only the first three could have been that, but... something in between now, not being quite complex or realistically harsh enough for the next step.
Have to admit my guess as to the identity of the Half-Blood Prince was wrong, but otherwise the ending was entirely predictable.

Spoiler

Would say the "good guys" emerged too... whole out of that situation; such a fight should have left far worse casualties.