Cate Glass

Read this if you like Robin Hobb. I personally don't. This strikes me as being tragedy porn. Terrible things happen to our heroes, both in the past and the present because it is being told non-linearly. Two of the characters are a magical macguffins. This is tagged as romance, and it has two people that love each other a lot in it, but in my opinion that is different from a romance, especially if you read Romance with a capital R. But I will acknowledge that it is well written, even though it is told from the 1st person pov, which, in my opinion is the worst pov.… (more)

It's difficult to relate what I found unsatisfactory about this book without revealing more than I would have cared to know, prior to reading the book, myself. I’ll avoid spoilers by saying this - The standard plot ( Protagonist, of the “Guy redeemed from ill use/bad habits” sort, moves a step up from his former nature/life to better strength and wisdom before some terrible cliff-hanger ensues.) that is found in most series; is rather absent from this second book: Revelation. It's almost refreshing, really, in that this book doesn't follow a reader's anticipated patterns of character and story development. Unfortunately with all of the mistakes, suffering, pain and torture (lots of the last three) undergone by the characters, in this book, reading its first two thirds, was like like re-reading the first two thirds of the previous book (Transformation). In that book our Hero spent most of his time enslaved. He’s free now, but here again, there is great attention paid to depravation, humiliation and bleeding. And all of this misery comes without the “"better make sure they'll read the next book" pay off of his achieving freedom that we got at the end of the first book.

Carol Berg writes well. Her prose is good and her characters draw one's attention. There is a good story here, which carried me as far as completing this 2nd volume of the series, but I guess the 'revelation' for me is that I just can't enjoy where this author takes her characters, nor how long she leaves them there. When torture becomes boring it is decidedly overdone. Ultimately, I found this book a slog and I won't be staying on for the third book, Restoration. If you choose to read beyond the first book, I hope that you can ride the story on without getting stuck in the muck. Perhaps the ending makes it worth all the pain; I’m not going to find out. Good luck.
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Quick Word:I adored Carol Berg’s previous novels and I have devoured every one. Yet, I spent a month attempting to read this one. The characterization and world building was decent, even solid. Yet my pleasure in a good novel must come from either brilliant plotting or enjoyable characterization. Valen was miserable to read about; he was a survivor (I’ll give him that) but he was also a compulsive liar, a drug addict, and lacking morals. There was a certain sense of… hopelessness… in his situation, and the land he lived in was brutal, unforgiving and crude. Unlike Seyonne, who also endured a civil war, Valen lacks a sense of humor, and this, I feel, is the first greatest flaw of the novel. As tired, troubled, angry, and frustrated Seyonne was, he always had a dry comment or keen observation to make that kept me rooting for him. Valen just cursed the world and took advantage of the kindnesses presented to him. And then there’s the fact that Seyonne was always fighting for something worthwhile: his people, his soul, his dignity, his wife, his son. These things made him a hero, that even when he was looking out for himself, he was faithful to his beliefs as he could. Valen was merely interested in saving his own skin. And then there is the situation of the villains who populate Flesh and Spirit. A credible villain can be motivated by anything from simple greed to self-preservation, from patriotism to revenge, from religious fervor to ambition to romantic love. Vallen’s nemesis (actually, all of them) were motivated by… evil? Sadism? Empty pride? Villains should be people. Not twisted figures of darkness or caricatures of ignorance and conceit. I realize that it could be argued that Valen is just human, and realistic to boot. But you know what? Who cares. Sorties aren’t good just because they are realistic, they should say something of importance too.… (more)