Rating: 
Summary: Be forwarned: this is not a PC review
Review: The basic story and character development are good - Pinto has a style all of his own and is a good wordsmith.Unlike other reviewers, I found the entire portrayal of human life as base and the level of subservience as warped, and akin to the Norman/Gor stuff. I confess to having liked the Gor series when I was in High School, but I was too young to know D&S when I saw it. Also unfortunate (for me) is that while Norman's characters have a hetero worldview, Pinto's main character is gay. I don't consider myself a homophobe, but this perspective does nothing for me. On the whole I found the book disturbing and will not purchase any further works by the author. PS: I would not buy any Norman books either...
Rating:
Summary: The editor slipped up
Review: The basic story line is quite interesting. The characters have depth and complex relationships. The plot is a little predictable, but it is interesting. The pace of the story is excruciatingly slow, with a great deal of unneccssary detail and repitition of the same stuff every 4-5 pages. A good editor is supposed to help identify these types of wrinkles and smooth them out. The author is on the right track, but this edition is 100 pages too long for the story it tells. There's nothing wrong with having the extra 100 pages, it's just a good idea to write them in a manner that keeps the reader driving to the next page instead of dragging into it,
Rating:
Summary: Somewhat interesting book
Review: The interesting story in this book is the discovery of Carnelian of his own race, and of how they live, and, in particular, of how they treat others. What I didn't like about the book was the slow pace, and the poor illogical ending. Two notable things happen in the book: (1) something happens to his father on the trip home, and (2) Carnelian's gay-love-fling adventure. The rest of the book is about Carnelian learning how to live as one of his race, and his reaction to own others of his race react. For instance, the boat ride which consumes a very large portion of the book, consists of Carnelian getting seasick, and being replused by the actions of his own race. The ending seems to be something I have come to expect from any TOR published books, and that is an incomplete ending which requires a sequel. Considering the rigid society, all the rules (none of which that apparently require the god to be to be attended at all times), and the amount at stake, I find the ending illogical, and nothing more than an attempt to come up with a need for a sequel.
Rating: 
Summary: Well-written, fascinating... but not for me.
Review: The story takes place in a world that makes me think of the Aztecs---rulers who are considered the descendants of gods, magnificent monuments, ritualistic human sacrifice. Carnelian is the young son of one of the Masters, the ruling race of this society, and a full-blooded Master himself. His father, however, was exiled from the center of the Masters' society, in the great city of Osrakum. So Carnelian has grown up with only a theoretical knowledge of all the rituals that govern a Master's life. Masters are not supposed to look like commoners, so they avoid the sunlight, which will "taint" their inhumanly white skin. They go abroad covered in masks and body paint---and if any commoner should see their unprotected skin, then the commoner's eyes must be removed. This is meant as a punishment against the Master, to reinforce the stricture against revealing their skin. However, most Masters have reached the point where they no longer care whether people are blinded after looking at them---they're just commoners, after all, and their lives are a dime a dozen. It's a good example of the elaborateness of the corruption in this society---rules and strictures designed to reinforce the notion that the Masters are gods create terrible hardship for the common folk, and the Masters have hardened in response to it, to the degree that they not only don't consider themselves human, they don't *act* human. Carnelian, who's grown up playing with servant-children and living in relative freedom, is unique in that he does. However, things change when three Masters from the city come to ask Carnelian's father to return from exile. The emperor is dying, and the succession is likely to be ugly. So Carnelian and his father return and enter the den of snakes that is the center of the Masters' society. Carnelian gets a number of brutal, fast lessons in proper Master behavior, and the way these supposed gods really work. He also discovers that not all the Masters are bad, however, when he meets Osidian, a mysterious boy who's obviously high-ranking, but who won't reveal his background to Carnelian. It doesn't matter; they become lovers, because Osidian seems to be the only person in this world who understands how Carnelian sees things. The story ends with several surprises and a clear setup for the second and third novels of this soon-to-be trilogy. This book had all of the elements of a great read: an elaborate fantastic society; an interesting (if flawed) main character; likeable secondary characters; intrigue, suspense, the whole shebang. I've loved other books of this nature. But somehow this one just... left me cold. I think it may have something to do with the brutality of the society, and the dewy-eyed cluelessness of the protagonist. One would think that after the first massacre he inadvertently triggers, he'd learn to be more careful---but he goes on making blunders like this throughout the book. He also never begins the inevitable hardening that *must* happen at some point, in a society as cruel as this one. It's understandable for the first half of the book, but by the second half I expected to see some change in his personality. No one can live in a society this corrupt and remain uncorrupted themselves; it's not plausible. The innocence is not really his fault; for some unimaginable reason it seems his father has not fully prepared him for life among his fellow Masters. This is something else implausible and unfathomable to me, especially when it's revealed that his father wasn't really in exile---he'd been asked to go somewhere and wait for the succession to begin. So it was inevitable that someday Carnelian would have to return to that world. His father was cruelly negligent, I believe, in allowing Carnelian to develop such a warm and fuzzy personality, but Carnelian shares some of the blame when he clings to that fuzziness even after it becomes increasingly dangerous for him to do so. So for these reasons, Carnelian really grated on my nerves after a while. However, I can also admire the things that do work in this book. This is an unbelievably elaborate world that Pinto has created, leaving plenty of plot-threads to follow into the second and third books. The characters are fully-realized, such that even though I hated Carnelian, I hated him for all the right reasons. ^_^ I feel bad even criticizing this book because it's so well-written, but I think hating the main character might be a significant problem for some readers, so I think it's worth a mention.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating world, but somewhat implausible
Review: The world in this book is a fascinating and disturbing place. There is a lot of detail put into the social aspects, but little else - leaving you with a feeling that the world is a bit of a cardboard backdrop. The world is a harsh place, with a highly stratified caste system in which masters rule over all with absolutely no regard for the lives of anyone but their own peers. If anyone of a lower caste even sees a masters face, he must be slain. (and plenty are throughout the book). When I read a book, I like to identify with the main character. However, in this book I was unable to identify with Carnelian. Specifically, I was quite turned off by his explicit homosexual affair with the the boy Osidian (Nephron), and all the applied homosexuality throughout the book. (I kept thinking "Go for the girl!", while he's looking at the boys). I feel as if the author is trying to give us a message here. Still, the concept of the world is intriguing, I just wish the author had fleshed out other aspects a little better.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting but... Boring.
Review: There is nothing that I can add about the book that wasn't already written here, except that the book is boring. The author just likes to keep describing and describing and describing with no story advancement. But what is worse is that he just exagerates! It's really annoying! Too many short sentences in a row. Too many descriptions. And even the way he describes is not very appealing... Because it's too much! I really wanted to love this book, but for the first time in my life, i was very tempted to skip pages or even not finish the book. If you like something like this: a man is walking toward his home, which is 20 meters away. The author would describes his clothes, the way he walks, how the sky is beatiful and how beatiful is the sky. Then he would describe his house from afar, its garden and even a small snail in a plant, a described plant, off course. Then the man would take a step. Wow. Let's describe all again! Yep... That's it.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful, fascinating, but somehow... lacking.
Review: This book had all of the elements of a great read: an elaborate fantastic society mingling elements of Aztec and Chinese aristocratic ritual; an interesting main character; likeable secondary characters, including Carnelian's mysterious lover; intrigue, suspense, the whole shebang. I've loved other books of this nature. But somehow this one just... left me cold. I think it may have something to do with the brutality of the society, and the dewy-eyed cluelessness of the protagonist. One would think that after the first massacre he inadvertently triggers, he'd learn to be more careful---but he goes on making blunders like this throughout the book. He also never begins the inevitable hardening that *must* happen at some point, in a society as cruel as this one, in which servants' eyes can be ripped out for the crime of seeing their master's skin. It's understandable for the first half of the book, but by the second half I expected to see some development in his personality. No one can live in a society this corrupt and remain uncorrupted themselves; it's not plausible. The innocence is not really his fault; for some unimaginable reason it seems his father has not fully prepared him for life among his fellow Masters---something else implausible and unfathomable to me. But for these reasons, Carnelian really grated on my nerves after a while. However, I can only admire the things that do work in this book. This is an unbelievably elaborate world that Pinto has created, leaving plenty of plot-threads to follow into the second and third books. The characters are fully-realized, such that even though I hated Carnelian, I hated him for all the right reasons. ^_^ I feel bad even criticizing this book because it's so well-written, but I think hating the main character might be a significant problem for some readers, so I think it's worth a mention. I should note, however, that I'm probably going to sell my hardback and then go ahead and buy this in paperback form, and continue reading the series when it comes out. I buy hardbacks to add to my collection so I can keep them forever; paperbacks, for me, are just for casual reading. So it's not great, but it *is* good, and I'm looking forward to the rest if only to see how Carnelian ultimately turns out.
Rating:
Summary: Slow is an understatement
Review: This book has some new ideas and interesting characters. That is why is is so sad that the story is so dull. Stay away from this book unless you are a masochist or need help falling asleep.
Rating: 
Summary: Fictional Anthropology
Review: This book is a rare treat to read. There is some many layers to the societies in this book that anyone, who even remotely likes Anthropology, will love to sink their teeth into this meaty trilogy. Although slowly moving at some parts, the author needs to do this in order to fully realize the landscape and atmosphere of the world, the book is amazing. I hate comparing writers to other writers, and in this case I don't really have to because very few writer's have ever created such a fully realized, intricate world. This trilogy is also not safe reading; you get the sense that there might not be a happy ending to the story, but that seems not to be the point; instead, it is what happens along the way that is important. This is hi-caliber, adult Fantasy, at its best!
Rating:
Summary: Fictional Anthropology
Review: This book is a rare treat to read. There is some many layers to the societies in this book that anyone, who even remotely likes Anthropology, will love to sink their teeth into this meaty trilogy. Although slowly moving at some parts, the author needs to do this in order to fully realize the landscape and atmosphere of the world, the book is amazing. I hate comparing writers to other writers, and in this case I don't really have to because very few writer's have ever created such a fully realized, intricate world. This trilogy is also not safe reading; you get the sense that there might not be a happy ending to the story, but that seems not to be the point; instead, it is what happens along the way that is important. This is hi-caliber, adult Fantasy, at its best!
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