<< 1 >>
Rating: 
Summary: Mildly disappointing.
Review: The first book of the trilogy of which this book is the second, "The Toybox", did a very good job of being a self-contained story, rather than obviously the first third of a trilogy. So I had hopes that this book would not suffer from "middle-book-itis", as so many second books (or movies) do. Even Tolkein failed in this regard; none of the books of his trilogy can stand alone. In the "Star Wars" movie trilogy (not counting the most recent prequel) the second movie, "The Empire Strikes Back" suffers from this fault. And this book, too, cannot stand on its own.Still, while it refers back to the events of the first book quite a bit, and doesn't really have a satisfying ending of its own, it does do a better job of at least ending at a reasonably plausible break-point than many middle books of trilogies do, and the writing is still enjoyable (if not quite as much so as in the first book) and the characters are as compelling as ever. Obviously, if you've read the first book and enjoyed it, you should continue with this one. But be forewarned; you won't find an ending here; one could plausibly have read just the first book, stopped there, and not felt cheated. One cannot do that with this book; it will be necessary to continue to the third book of the series.
Rating:
Summary: Mildly disappointing.
Review: The first book of the trilogy of which this book is the second, "The Toybox", did a very good job of being a self-contained story, rather than obviously the first third of a trilogy. So I had hopes that this book would not suffer from "middle-book-itis", as so many second books (or movies) do. Even Tolkein failed in this regard; none of the books of his trilogy can stand alone. In the "Star Wars" movie trilogy (not counting the most recent prequel) the second movie, "The Empire Strikes Back" suffers from this fault. And this book, too, cannot stand on its own. Still, while it refers back to the events of the first book quite a bit, and doesn't really have a satisfying ending of its own, it does do a better job of at least ending at a reasonably plausible break-point than many middle books of trilogies do, and the writing is still enjoyable (if not quite as much so as in the first book) and the characters are as compelling as ever. Obviously, if you've read the first book and enjoyed it, you should continue with this one. But be forewarned; you won't find an ending here; one could plausibly have read just the first book, stopped there, and not felt cheated. One cannot do that with this book; it will be necessary to continue to the third book of the series.
Rating:
Summary: i liked it
Review: Well, I do NOT play the rpgs, sorry so I can't tell you how this relates to that, but from an outsider's pov this was an interesting foray into another magical world. I don't think one should read this by it's self, rather read this in one sitting with the other two books.
<< 1 >>
| 
