Sister of the Dead

Sister of the Dead begins the morning after Thief of Lives ends. This is a series that absolutely must be read in order or it will make no sense. I am so glad that I am reading the books now instead of when they first came out because a waiting a year between books would have ruined the flow of the story for me.

As I get deeper into this series, I am enjoying it even more. The characters are all complex. They all have their own secrets and moral codes. Each has a past that they would rather forget but which calls to them. The choice of whether to continue on their current path or step off into the darkness doesn't simply occur once but instead over and over again in so many small choices that are made. Unknown forces try to shape events show more to their purpose but must contend with free will at each crossroads.

The action seems to be non-stop even when I thought Magiere and Leesil were going to get a small break to rest or talk things over. Their journey was full of obstacles and the simplest of tasks became difficult. Emotions are constantly running high, leading to short tempers and inner conflict.

Each time I thought I knew where the story was heading the authors threw in another twist. Once it happened I could see how things were leading up to it even while pulling me toward a different idea. This kept the book and the series unpredictable.

This is a great dark fantasy series and I'm looking forward to reading the next book. show less

Still impressed. It's not the most convoluted story, but the various characters are becoming more and more complex and developed and less and less plot devices and standard fantasy roles.

The chase continues... or rather the side bar to the chase, but various bits are revealed and coped with, or not. There's even a nice post-modernist moment when they're starting and ending the book in a very similar setting and commenting on it; but it's worked in as reasonable comment for the characters too, a trick that too few people pull off.

Now that I finished it, I'm a little torn.

Cons:
The flashback technique, not really working for me. Didn't like how it was handled in the first book, didn't like it here.
The heroine is an annoying whiny ungrateful brat, more often than not, although she's growing on me.
The sage Wynn in this book is even worse! Good grief she's unlikeable. Even if I do continue to read the series, I won't be reading her offshoot.
I just can't help thinking each of these books would be better if 50-100 pages were knocked off. The pacing veers between brilliant and ridiculously slow, like it can't decide, and it makes them feel a little disjointed. I find myself skipping through entire sections and not, as you might think, the descriptive sections, because show more the world building here is spot on, but rather the multi-page descriptions of rituals being performed by Wynn who I dislike are just... boring. I don't care how she takes her tea, even though it's a plot point later, it could have been easily handled by "Wynn dropped some mint leaves into her tea, as was her habit" (and there's tons more examples like this).

Pros:
Chap!!
Leesil is interesting, and a whole lot more likeable than Magiere, even though he's just as damaged as she is.
Damaged heroes that aren't just magically over it one day - Probably the reason Magiere is growing on me, she's got some really crap baggage and it's broken her, so the more we learn, the more we understand why she is how she is. From that perspective, the character is really working, and the writing is really quite good.
The world-building is really paying off. There is a real sense of an actual world, with different countries, with different cultures, races, and even species, well thought through and planned out.

Overall: I like the series, well enough that I will try to find the rest of it, but they are on my "someday" list, rather than the "oh my goodness I have to find out how this ends RIGHT NOW" list. show less

After finishing their work in Bela, Magiere and her companions head to the village where Magiere was born in search of answers. With the help of Leesil, whose love keeps her strong, Wynn, who injects a much-needed though often resented touch of humanity, and Chap, who forsakes his own kin to stand by her side, Magiere faces the terrible secrets surrounding her own creation and her mother's death.

I liked the fact that Chap got more face time and that some of Welstiel's interest in Magiere was explained. The new villains were satisfyingly difficult to overcome, and the new knowledge gleaned helped flesh out the story. I found Wynn irritatingly naive and unwilling to attempt to understand Magiere (hypocritical too), but I do appreciate show more her calling for less violence and more humanity as well as judgments of individuals.

The book had many irritating spelling, grammar, and printing mistakes that could have easily been corrected by careful editing. This seemed like it was rushed to the printer's without proper proofreading. That always irritates me in a printed work.

The bottom line, though, is that I enjoyed this book and how it left a good hook for the sequel without forgoing a satisfying conclusion of this installment. show less

The Noble Dead series grows more interesting. There are still many unanswered questions regarding Magiere's destiny as there seem to be at least 2 opposing forces attempting to make Magiere their ally. Neither side's motives have been explained but both have meddled greatly with Magiere's life, as demonstrated when Magiere was sired and Chap's pushing of Leesil into Magiere's life. And yet, neither side maybe absolutely wrong in what they believe about Magiere's nature. As Magiere discovered when Ubad attempted to coerce her into consuming the element of Spirit, she was in fact unable to do so. And it is these questions which continue to make the series interesting.

Another interesting aspect of the series is the role reversals between show more the male and female lead. In Sister of the Dead, Magiere is the hunter while Leesil is the nurturer. Often, Magiere is the one who fights the undead while Leesil is the one who keep her from giving in to despair over her nature.

Apart from that, the addition of Wynn makes Magiere and Chap's view of the undead creatures they fight seems at times too harsh. While Magiere is intent on denying any possible human emotions attributed to vampires, Wynn believes otherwise and the vampire Chane who has rescued Wynn twice because he cares for her seems proof of this. It certainly makes one wonder who is right in this case. show less

I enjoyed this book, but for some reason it didn't hook me as much as I'd hoped. I wanted more of the past than I got in one chunk, so I had a tendency to flip forward until I found the next flashback, and then have to go back and read the stuff in-between.

Magiere the half-vampire has set off to her homeland of Droevinka to learn more about her own history; even her own birth seems to have been a planned event, and she wants to know why. She and her partner Leesil the half-elven assassin are joined by a young sage named Wynn as they follow the trail that leads back to the sorcerer who planned her very existence.

Adding Wynn to the party makes the relationships of the characters even more complicated, as her scholar's perspective leads to conflicts with the more battle-seasoned Magiere. We also begin to see the stakes in the whole game, and see some of the more compassionate side of a character who was looking quite ruthless.