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Loading... Legends of the Dragonrealm: Shadeby Richard A. Knaak
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. I won a copy from the Goodreads First Reads giveaway. My son is very excited that I won this book. He loves Richard A. Knaak's books. 5/3/13 - I finally managed to dig this out of my son's room and read it myself. I enjoyed this book a lot. It was good and well written. I do wish that I had read the series prior to this book. I feel like the story was complete enough and interesting enough, but it definitely felt like I was missing some background story. It made me want more, that's for sure. no reviews | add a review
Belongs to Series
An exciting new novel set in the fantasy world of New York Times bestselling author Richard A. Knaak's Dragonrealm series. New York Times bestselling author Richard A. Knaak's unforgettable Legends of the Dragonrealm series continues with this spellbinding tale of a powerful sorcerer trapped in a purgatory of his own making. Survivor of a once-mighty race of sorcerers, the spellcaster known to those of the Dragonrealm simply as Shade struggles to find an end to the curse he brought upon himself millennia ago in his hope to escape death . . . and worse. Instead of immortality, he was condemned to an endless series of lives alternating between darkness and light, with "death" only resurrecting him over and over. His blurred features and unstable but terrible powers a threat to friend and foe alike, the hooded sorcerer must defy not only those who would manipulate him, but also his very self. Worse, he must do so always aware that even the land itself may have sinister designs upon him. . . . No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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The plot, after an initial introductory period, was also very solid. This book is definitely a page-turner. There's dramatic tension in spades, and most chapters end on the sort of cliffhanger that demands you go ahead and read the next five chapters too.
HOWEVER:
I largely despised the main characters. Valea is such a stereotypical, thoughtless damsel only concerned with her man (while at the same time trying to maintain that he is not her man to instill some sense of non-existent romantic tension) that I just could not take her seriously. And Shade himself fared little better; he was arrogant and condescending. The narration tried to preface nearly everything anyoen else did with an unironic declaration that 'Shade already knew this of course. Shade was (insert praise of your choice here). But he was impressed with the talents of this lesser being and knew that they were of a good bloodline/of great power/random plot device.
Ugh.
Cabe Bedlam, who was to my knowledge also supposed to be one of the story's kick-butt guys did exactly... nothing in the realm of greater plot. He literally serves to show up and fail at whatever he tries to do, just as Valea is supposed to be the damsel in distress and Shade is supposed to be our distressingly effortlessly superior knight in featureless armor.
The villains managed to be less onerous, but come on. Richard Knaak is supposed to be a bestselling author. I expected better.
Also, there are aspects of the plot that did not feel fully and sufficiently explained. I grant you that I read this book pretty quickly, but between all the declarations of what the narrator thinks he/she knows, what they know but aren't telling, and what they don't know, I spent a lot of the book feeling lost about the finer details and abandoning all sense of knowing what was going on for the more immediate 'our heroes are being attacked by dwarves. Gasp in shock and awe.'
Maybe I just went into this experience with expectations that were a little bit too high, but this was not a very enjoyable read to me. I give it 3 stars for keeping me interested in spite of my complaints, but I don't recommend it to people unless they're staunch Knaack fans. ( )