http://www.saltmanz.com/blog/2006/08/...

Saturday night (8/27/06) I finished The Golden Queen by Dave Wolverton. It's actually the first book of the Golden Queen trilogy, and though I put off reading it for a while because I don't own the next books yet, I eventually figured it would stand alone well enough by itself, so I read it.

It was decent. I won't describe the plot really, since most of it is slowly revealed as you read. I will say that it starts out in a rustic Irish setting on a backwater planet. That's where you first meet the main protagonists: Gallen O'Day, a swaggering but kindhearted bodyguard; his friend, Orick, an intelligent, talking bear; and Maggie Flynn, the girl who works at the inn and has a thing for Gallen.

It isn't long before some strangers arrive, danger breaks out, and the trio are whisked off on an adventure. Which is kind of too bad, because I think that first section of the book is my favorite part. After that, it gets pretty sci-fi-y, and though it's competently plotted and written, it just doesn't stand out as much as the initial chapters. The characters, though, are good -- especially those main three. The aforementioned strangers, Everynne and her bodyguard Veriasse, drive the plot, but never seem as fully fleshed out as Gallen and his friends. Now that I think about it, though, that's probably because (a) they're strangers to the rest of the cast for a good chunk of the story, and (b) it's really Gallen's story anyway.

Last year I read the more-recent epic fantasy series The Runelords by "David Farland", which is just Dave Wolverton's pen name. Knowing that, I could see definite similarities between the two, especially in the alien creatures: the Dronon (from Golden Queen) and Reavers (from Runelords). So far, Runelords is the better series; not surprising, as it's the more recent.

There was a slight twist at the end of Golden Queen that I kept waiting and waiting for, and when it finally popped up in the last two pages, it kind of fell flat for me. Other than that, I enjoyed the book. I'll definitely need to keep an eye out for the next two books. ( )

http://www.i-reports.info/b/B199911.h... ( )