Melanie Rawn

Sorcerer-painters frolic in a pseudo-Renaissance Italian city-state. The three authors split the book into three sections, and I liked each section about as much as I like each author. The first section felt repetitious and redundant; the second section combined candy-colored central characters with the wonderfully Machiavellian maneuverings of the villainous protagonist; and the third section was good but marred by wrapping up all the threads introduced in the first two sections. All together, it was...eh.… (mer)

Dragon Prince is the literary equivalent of spraying EZ-CHEEZ straight into your mouth. The good guys brandish their cloaks while the bad guys twirl their oily mustaches.

The plot concerns a prince (Rohan) who has to maneuver through silly court politics in order to protect his kingdom from the tyrannical High Prince. And his girlfriend-with-magical-powers (Sioned) has to deal with a conflict of loyalties. And there's battles! And there's dragons! And despite various moments of violence -- rape, murder, incineration -- there's startlingly little dramatic tension.

… (mer)

75-percent of this book concerns people painstakingly discussing what they just did, what they're going to do, and what they might do. I'm not sure why. It's not like any of these people are brilliant Machiavellian statesmen. Their motivations/actions should be easily discernible. Also, there's dragons.

It's possible that this naval-gazing is a brilliant structural reflection of the main theme: protagonist Pol struggles with Hamlet's dilemma between satisfying barbaric violence and agonizing civilized reflection. The reader struggles right along with Pol. The fifteenth time that the characters earnestly discuss their inner feelings, the reader develops a headache.… (mer)