Reviewed by KitsuneBae on
Is it over? Whew! I never thought that I could endure such torture. Right, if I wasn’t a woman of my word, the most sensible thing that I can think of at this moment is to stop myself from spending more time laboring about this book. I will have to make this review brief and concise because the thought of the opposite will surely ruin me forever.
After reading the two first books, I was really hoping that things would improve with this one particularly that I gave the second book a 3-star rating. But no, this conclusion to the whole Jake West series plummeted into the void and hopefully, never to be seen again.
The novelty of the magnificent world-building has finally worn off. The book has already achieved its maximum limit to impress me further. I felt that everything in this book was written to vex my patient nature. The whole time I was reading it, I was gritting my teeth and I was on the verge of deleting the whole file for good to preserve my own sanity.
As much as I would like to write glowing paragraphs about the things that I loathed in this book, I cannot bring myself to do so, thus please let me have it in the simplest way.
My complaints...
1. Character development- Throughout the whole story, I’ve been silently cursing every character that I came across with. I totally failed to connect even with Zephany, the Princess of Rhuaddan (whom I learned to like from the second book). They remained flat no matter how the author tried to make them lovable characters. They just lacked that X-Factor. Regurgitating my own observations from the first two books, I hated Ben. I hated how he tried so hard to be an annoying little git that it didn’t suit him. I hated the villains for being so dry and dull. They’re so crap that they do not deserve to become villains. >,
2. Jumbled train of thoughts- This was the strongest flaw of the book. Countless of times I have found myself re-reading stuff just because I was suddenly lost. Different POVs were inserted in one paragraph that it was hard to follow the character’s train of thought. For the first two books, I was lenient about this issue but this time around, it's difficult to make considerations especially if we're talking about the finale of a series.
3. Unnecessary talking and melodramatics- This book is brimming with these. Even if it is not needed in a scene, expect that you’ll come across a lot of unessential talking and cringe-worthy melodramatics. I was even caught dumbfounded upon reading a scene where one of the villains is talking like a scorned woman even when he’s in close combat. It was very unbecoming for such a villain who evoked fear across Estia. I don’t know if this is an attempt at humor but if it is, then I’m sorry that the punchline was delivered too early or too late.
The melodramatics was worst. Every talking or thinking chance the characters get, they will readily jump into endless dramatics. It was excessive that it was sickening. Was this an attempt to sound deep, philosophical, inspirational and prestigious? I don’t think so because all these rather failed to surface at the right moments.
4. Repetitiveness- Another strong flaw of not only this book but also the previous two. The story was full of verbosity that it was becoming a nag. It failed to provoke my thought in a positive way. Instead, this repetitiveness made me feel like a 3 year old kid who cannot understand a thing and my mother has to repeat herself again and again to ensure that it sink in.
5. Some sentimental moments weren’t given their right time and place- There were some sentimental moments in this book that would have been remarkable. But for some reason, it failed to make my heart stop. The timing was all wrong and the way it was delivered, it was all…. Ahmm…errr… Should I be crying now? Whatever.
6. Sudden appearance of new characters at the end part- Gaaah! If all else was unsuccessful and the main characters failed to provide solution to their problems, just create another character/s to solve the seemingly impossible task. Easy peasy!
On the other hand, another character was also created at the end part to emphasize the grandness of the battle that was taking place. This could have worked if it wasn’t just too late. Read on the next bullet for clarification.
7. Abrupt insertion of unnecessary scenes at the end- So after thinking that the lengthy battle has been won and all the important characters have given their all, another battle scene was inserted which was facilitated by the introduction of the new villain (read previous bullet). Why so sudden? Was it an attempt to make the book more action filled or to make the war larger-than-life? Perhaps an attempt to provide a twist to the story? Sorry, but it epically failed. Too much action can also be boring especially if there’s nothing new to it.
8. Overall story- Predictable and cumbersome
What I liked...
1. The dragons- Their roles might be short but they’re the only ones that I liked in this book. Perfect tone, perfect dialogue and perfect timing of appearance.
Verdict: I tried my best but things didn't really work out between me and this book.
Reading updates
- Started reading
- 6 August, 2013: Finished reading
- 6 August, 2013: Reviewed