This was a suprisingly "quiet" entry into the series. Most of the book was actually about beauty or joy, with the central conflict stirring underneath and resolved very quickly at the end. Yet it was very satisfying. More about people than action, my interest never flagged. Interesting to see the direction the series is going in as well. ( )

http://lonelymountain.net/books/apr09... ( )

(Amy) So, as I said in my review of the previous book in this series, this book is said to mark a turning point in the story - away from the romantic plotline, and settling more solidly into the speculative one. Well, having now read it, I suppose I don't entirely disagree - Dag and Fawn are boring old married people now, so romance readers wouldn't care about them. It still reads like a romance in the less restrictive sense of the word, though. Which is not a complaint, I just find it interesting - a book that is, reportedly, SFnal enough to put romance readers off is still romantic enough to feel more like a romance than like anything else, at least to this SF reader.

Which is not to say that the speculative elements are absent or unsatisfying. The Lakewalker abilities, as being discovered and expanded by Dag, our Designated Omnicompetent Protagonist, are adequately intriguing, and malices (Sirs, Madams, and Things Not Appearing In This Book though they may be) are still creepy as anything, and the Worldchanging Quest they have set out upon is near to epic in its scope. I have a hard time imagining how one would support a claim that it doesn't belong in the SF section.

As for the other protagonist, Fawn, she's a little irritating - I might have been a little more interested in this whole thing if it had been a Lakewalker woman and her farmer husband, rather than this way around. But I suppose someone does indeed have to cook dinner, and neither patrollers (of either gender) nor farmer men are particularly known for their cooking, in this world. Anyway, I suspect she has A Role Yet To Play, in the fourth and final book, in the fashion of fantasy worlds the genre 'round in which one comes into one's own with a bang, and usually just in the nick of time. We shall see if I am right about this.

I did quite enjoy this third volume, though. I don't know if it's the effect abovementioned or if the world and the protagonists are just growing on me, but whatever it was, I was hooked the whole way through this one, and am looking forward to the fourth.
( http://weblog.siliconcerebrate.com/ze... ) ( )

Just as savory as her other books. Yum ( )

Okay, so I slept on this one, and don't remember most of my likes or dislikes, but I’ll do my best to convey my general feeling toward this one as opposed to the first two books. Here goes:

I definitely like this one better than the first two, since the pacing was set better, and something rather exciting happens near the end, where I feel a good climax should rightfully be. Then again, I do remember reading that she meant the first two to be one volume—in that case, it might be a bit of a mistake to market them as two books, but seeing as how popular they are and how long it would be if it were marketed as one volume, maybe not so; I’m no marketing expert. I just know the first two books wouldn’t come off as so jarring to me if I had read them as one volume, but that’s one person’s opinion. I don't know. I’d wondered if I was reading about malices in the sideline, because most of it was concentrated on the two of them. It just felt like a romance in disguise, and that was not what I went into those expecting.

In any case, the pacing in this book justifies the earlier two, I suppose, and the slew of new characters were also very entertaining, if a bit hard to keep track of at times. The one thing I found myself getting annoyed at from time to time was the almost lack of communication between Dag and Fawn; sorry, but soulmates of any capacity just don't hide that much. Now maybe this is a more traditional interpretation of husband and wife, where the wife simply takes off her man's shoes every evening and cooks for him and etc., but the almost lack of any loverly affection between them throughout this book was just strange. Sure, he was protective of her and her of him, but that isn't a lot to go by.

All I’m saying is I like seeing healthy relationships in characters I like. And what Dag and Fawn have isn't it, yet; feels like they have a while to go, yet I keep hearing that the next book is the last installment. Kind of alarming to me, but well, I’m a reader and it’s not like I can change it, if that’s the way it’s to be. But now, onto the good things. The really good things, actually, because I just had to get those bad ones over with first.

I've mentioned before that books rarely get me to laugh out loud; at most, I’ll crack a smile. The first book showed instances of this humor that I really enjoyed (I mentioned their mishap on the horse, didn't I?) And now that their troubles with the camp are over, I’m finding more of that awesome humor in here nicely spread throughout the book; a good volume to keep up the mood, but not trying too hard. The catfish made me laugh outright; there were a lot more instances that I can't remember now that I’ve put some distance between myself and it, but I distinctly remember laughing. More to note on that later, if I remember. It was also amazing to see Dag go about changing people's ways of thinking, mostly Remo and Barr (most especially Barr). Those scenes, I imagine, must be especially hard to write, considering she has to be impartial to the argument somewhat to be able to write that kind of disdain convincingly. What else...? Hmm. Crane's story was a bit of a surprise in itself, to find that something so perfect could turn so wrong in an instant. Makes me wonder if he would've really killed Fawn? He of course, had nothing to lose, but wouldn't Fawn have reminded him of his own wife, especially considering that she’s bonded to another Lakewalker? Or would it have made him bitter and threw everything to the winds? Dag's experiments with his ground were fascinating, especially because now instead of fearing it, he's coming close to embracing what he might be able to do. I can't wait to see how he might find this helpful to any future malice fights.

And finally, the conclusion was also oddly satisfying. No need to go into it, since the next book is coming soon enough. Hope it ends with enough closure to be fully satisfying, but again, what can I do if it doesn't? Would be an awful shame, that's all. Until Book 4! ( )