The Sorcerer Heir (Heir Chronicles, #5)

by Cinda Williams Chima

[ladygrey]

This is a really unbalanced book. Really, it's not so much a continuation of the first three Heir novels, Enchanter Heir and Sorcerer Heir are a duology where all the fireworks happen in the first book and all the exposition happens in the second.

Late in the second.

Because The Enchanter Heir opened up all these questions - about Thorn Hill, about shades and Weirstones and and how people would survive and family matters. Enough questions that they could have been answered gradually, some in Enchanter, and then most of the interspersed through Sorcerer. But instead it's all held until the very, very end of Sorcerer.

And all the character dynamics and tensions and EMOTIONS happen in Enchanter. That's the good stuff.

So, after all the answers are given, there should be the happy fireworks, the rewards of all that conflict. But it's like 5 pages. Like LITERALLY. ok, fine 19 pages. Which is still not nearly enough. There's SO much to deal with and so much recompense the reader has earned. And yes, by the end all the answers have been given. But I want to revel a little if you don't mind. And I'm not given that chance.

Also, the revelation of information wasn't as exciting as it could be. There's this one scene near the beginning where a character is learning something the reader already knows. And yet it's interesting because the conversation is charged with emotion and this shifting dynamic between the characters. Then later on there's another character to character revelation and its boorring because it's all facts and things I already know without the good character elements woven in. And it's almost half way through the book and still we've learned nothing new! Things have happened and old information has been rehashed. I have all these suspicions and pretty solid conjecture. I need answers! I was glad the answers finally came but I wanted more of them with that spark from the characters and not just information. To borrow the theme from the book, it's the difference between learning the truth from a lecture and hearing it in a song.

This duology also has a serious problem with secrets. It's a conscious problem and characters more than once recognize if the secrets hadn't been kept than a lot of things that went wrong would have turned out all right. And it's good that the characters recognize the damage secrets do to the story but it's a bit frustrating as a reader. Yes, revealing certain truths would have shifted the plot some. But I'm a little like Emma in that I'd rather people just told the truth and dealt with the consequences so 2 500 page books of secrets isn't much fun.

The characters, however, are pretty fun. Emma and jonah and Kenzie and Natalie, even familiar characters from the previous books are all interesting enough to want to keep reading the story, to be curious about finding the answers. But, again, I don't just want answers. I want to read how those answers affect the characters, how they feel and how it changes them and in the end after all the heartbreak and conflict and secrets, I want not just a promise of a happy ending but to actually get to enjoy some of that relief and happiness with the characters.

A sensible girl would not have been crying, grieving for the boy with the magic in his voice and the blues in his eyes