Taste of Darkness (Healer, #3)

by Maria V Snyder

[ladygrey]

I think third books are hard, especially when readers binge the series. Because I liked the first book, enough to keep reading the series. But most series lose focus through the second and third books, the character arcs either don’t change them enough (Avery being stubborn and making the same choices again and again got old fast). Or the character arcs change them in a direction that loses everything you liked in the beginning.

And the plots have to expand without losing track of the early interesting elements. Avery’s healing ability becomes less of a focus in this book which is ok but there’s a ton of questions—about magic and bonds and the lilys and their role in the plague and their function in general, there’s new aspects of magic introduced (Noak) and offshoots (Flea) and while there’s answers in the end they aren’t revealed with any depth and feel like they lack some cohesion. These are the big questions of this world and they consume a significant amount of time as Avery broods about them and asks the same questions again and again and then it’s like two lines in a conversation “by the by what do you think of this” “oh right is just that” and then it’s done.

Plus have I mentioned that I don’t like Avery’s perception of Ryne and how she gets mad at him for doing exactly what they wanted him to do? There’s so many realms and leaders in this war and a lot of the action happens off stage that it’s hard to really be invested in it. The personal conflict with Tohon and Avery and Kerrick and Ryne and the other players is so much more interesting. A little less “muaahh” from Tohon and a little more dimension from Ryne and it could have been really interesting. Also, Danny and Flea are more interesting than the war and the movements of troops or whose in what mountain range or realm or whatever.

And yet, Kerrick and Avery haven’t been that interesting since the first book. Not because they were fighting in it but because they were interacting. They’re separated almost the entire second book. And a good portion of this one too. And when they are together they don’t talk much, because anything they’d say would just be a recap of what they went through separately and the reader already knows that. Or they’re riding horses or they’re fading to black. It’d have been more interesting if they worked together more to figure out the story questions or... I don’t even have an or other than do something more than kissing and recapping and then go off on their separate ways. Interact in some significant way that makes the story happen.

All that being said, Snyder balances a pretty big cast and a fairly big plot with mostly interesting characters in a very well developed world. For all my complaining there are worse things you can read. I think it’s just one of those things where I liked the characters quite a bit and there was so much potential that I wanted it to be good enough to live up to all that. And it’s more disappointing when it could have been really good.