Archive for May, 2015
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Cliffhanger me once, shame on you. Cliffhanger me twice and I am finished reading your books!
This is a second book in a series that had promise. I don’t know many authors that can write action scenes like Amanda Thome. But when I read the cliffhanger at the end of book one I was forced to wait a long time to read the next book. By then I couldn’t remember the people or even the world left behind in book one. I spent more time online researching other reviews and blurbs to see if I could finally recall anything. By the time I did remember I almost didn’t care anymore. That Ms. Thome was able to still make me breathless as I read her action scenes and I cared that the people involved might get hurt among the bombs didn’t help me care enough to want to go through this again.
If a person knows they are writing a series, I think they need to write ‘cliff’notes to remind us all where we were and how we got there. But, PLEASE! leave us in a place where we can breathe and know that our friends are safe enough to live without our eyes keeping them alive.
If you like that sort of ending given in the Worlds Apart series. The books do read quickly. The second does need a bit more editing. And if you’re lucky enough to read book one and two in quick succession it may be worth being left out in the cold.
Dragon’s Time by Anne McCaffrey
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Well, this was a slower continuation of the last book I read, Dragongirl. Which wasn’t about a girl but rather a grown lady. Neither story let us in on the time Fiona was a girl. And this story takes place both after and before Dragongirl. Confused yet? Yeah. Get used to it. That is the problem in books of time travel. That is the problem of worlds that don’t have the same rules as our own.
Luckily, I was able to borrow the audio-CD version of the book to complement my hardback version. And I highly recommend others read the series this way. Emily Durante’s narration is superb! I love her acting. Since this book centers more on Larana who is older than Fiona and Emily’s voice sounds more aged and settled than Fiona’s often high-pitched excitable voice. And she is able to portray the male voices with differing styles. She is amazing! I have the Audible version on my wishlist now.
I do have to admit that this one was harder to follow for me and I often had to back up and re-read/re-listen to certain parts of the story to make sure I knew when and where the story was taking place.
But the love continues. The great love Fiona and Larana share with each other and planetwide, is what moves the story. Forgiveness plays a big part. There is much a person can learn from these last two stories about love and communication. Many who have reviewed these two books have been negative about the polyamorous viewpoints brought up here. But to me, this depth of love is needed for the problems that Pern is presented. The newly found abilities of moving back and forth in time solve and create other problems but without love it would have all fallen apart. Pern isn’t another Earth, it needs its own rules and answers. I think the McCaffrey’s came up with some great ideas… maybe we should institute many of these back here before our own world is caput.
Darswords 
You must be logged in to post a comment.