I read this series when I was in college and it has been one of my favorites that I reread every few years. ( )

Summary: Quite well written, dungeons and dragons style romp/coming of age hero story. Female protaganist and nice dialogue kept me in it till the end.

Things I liked:

Bodycount: Author wasn't afraid to introduce a character then kill them pretty soon after without much song and dance. This kept the book gritty and real for me.

Lots of little adventures: Rather than one big epic quest write from the start with the fate of the world on the line. The action was built and constructed using lots of little adventures (more like a harry potter style). This made it a fun read with lots of little payoffs along the way.

Things I thought could be improved: A lot of the source material seems to be very 'in the style of dungeons and dragons'. I read that the author was somewhat inspired by a bad RPG session she overheard once, but I think it would have been more immersive if she'd strayed from the material a little further. In particular a lot of the magic is explained like rules out of gamebook rather than the more organic pattern of other sci-fi fantasy.

Highlight: Paks on the run as a coward was a great theme. That and times when it was 'Paks against the world' were my favorite bits for sure. When she was allied up with others it got a bit boring (realtively speaking). ( )

An epic that merges the three books of Paks's adventure into a seamless story. The heroine truly demonstrates strength in adversity, kindness in evil, and courage in fear. Does not disappoint, though be aware the series does contain graphic themes. ( )

I'm so glad I had the whole set. The first book is a bit of a slow burn, but together this is fantastic, and different from the classic fantasy, not just because of the female primary character. So glad i came across this series. ( )

I've never seen such a disjointed trilogy

The first book is military fantasy for people who don't like military fantasy? There is way to much guts and torture to be YA, but the protagonist all the good guys are so disturbingly blandly flawless that it feels kinda juvenile and happy-go-lucky? Nobody ever questions anything. Nobody ever does anything selfish or lazy or corrupt or hasty. Nobody ever has misunderstandings. Oh, and it starts of with troperiffically stereotypical 'running away from home' and 'attempted rape of the female protagonist' scenes. (don't worry, everyone but the rapist is super-duper sympathetic and right-thinking and goody goody and everything turns out hunky-dory because they're all so gosh-darned wholesome.) Honestly, this book is kind of terrible. It's probably possible to skip it with only minor confusion.

The second book Is like someone's disjointed D&D campaign? We actually have some character development of both the protagonist and some NPCs, which is new. The protagonist has some original thoughts, which are also new. And things are interspersed with a few trips into what I can only call 'dungeons' which I can't put quite into words what feels so disjointed about them, other than that they are obviously made according to rules published in a handbook from the 70s. This book has it's flaws, but is OK overall.

The third book does some real delving into the true meaning of 'good' and self and what it means to be brave. It's definitely still drawing on the D&D idea of a paladin, but it's doing some real work on how that might play out. We've also got a compelling plot for once, going on a quest and accomplishing things. Plot is predictable and side charactes and pretty one-dimensional, but ti's pretty decent if you like heroic fantasy. ( )