One of the best series I have ever read!: The coldfire trilogy is one of the best series I have ever read. And I have read thousands of sci fi and fantasy books over more than a quarter century. Five stars all the way! Be sure to check out the rest of her books too. Without exception they have all been unlike anything else I've read. It's refreshing to read truly original works!

Pre09:
Pretty sure this was the travel book to the other continent.
Still good stuff. Not as solid as the other two. ( )

The continued adventures of the unlikely duo of Tarrant and Vryce. Simultaneous Enemies & Allies. In truth, nothing new that you haven't read in the first book, just more color and geography as they range further out across Erna. ( )

I know that there are folks out there who are huge fans of these books, and frankly I can imagine that I might have really loved this series if I had read it when I was 12 years old or so. But I didn’t, and coming to story at this point left me rather disappointed. I find Tarrant to be utterly unbelievable and Vryce’s struggles with the moral dilemma of working with Tarrant get old fast. These are shallow characters inhabiting an unconvincing world battling a more or less nonsensical nemesis.

Still, there were a couple of effective scenes (I was surprisingly moved by the sea captain's religious conversion). And it’s better than Terry Goodkind at his worst (if that's not damning with faint praise I don't know what would be). ( )

Please see my "Black Sun Rising" review for thoughts on the series. ( )