Rating: 
Summary: Solid craftsmanship, no real spark
Review: This is the second Sharon Green book that I've read, the first being the first book in this same series, and I have to say that I find her work rather puzzling. She *definitely* knows how to write a hook. Despite all the flaws in this book, I'm still curious (actually against my own will) about what happens in the next book. However, her writing is curiously flat and the plot is relentlessly repetitive. It was as though she sat down and set herself an exercise titled 'writing a series about magic competitions.'As the title suggests, this book is about competitions. There are multiple and repeated competitions throughout the book. They do not vary (except in character and magical power) and the fact that they do not vary kind of neatly removes anything like dramatic tension. The characters are simple and more or less one dimensional. They've all got some pretty clearly defined emotional handicaps that they're also pretty clearly going to have to get over before they can go on to succeed in the later books. Oh, and the bad guys are (you guessed it) really really bad and spoiled and cruel and awful and stupid. So, the question is, why did I finish it? Why am I probably going to read the next one? The answer is in the plot itself, I think. She neatly incorporates some nice mystery about the set-up and never really gives you the sense of a complete book so you really are left with this annoying sense of wanting to know how the darned thing ends. Like I said, it's a puzzling book.
Rating:
Summary: Get thee to an editor...
Review: Well well, at least it's not as redundant as the first book. You can still guess the entire pattern of the book before you pass page 20, but there aren't any word-for-word repetitions of conversations as in book 1. Maybe it's just easier because you can skim through the repetitions after the first time. Our heroes, though they seem to be bright enough to deal with the challenges of their situation, are reduced to acting like a bunch of 13-year-olds when it comes to relationships. (hint: when it takes the characters dozens or hundreds of pages to figure out things anyone with some common sense could settle in five minutes, there's something wrong.) I guess this is supposed to create some drama, since there is none in the main story line. Our heroes are still good, honest people. Everyone else in the entire world is still two-dimensionally evil. The opponents are given one personality trait each, and never stray the slightest bit from it. And yet, though I'm not proud to admit it, I'll probably read the others. This series is good for mindless brain-candy reading when I don't have the mental energy to deal with a real plot and three-dimensional characters. The ludicrous dialogue is still amusing (e.g., Rion and Naran's declarations of love - I wasn't sure whether to laugh out loud or weep at the possibility that someone may have written it seriously). It's a generic romance story given a fantasy background. Once we pass the drawn-out setup stage, perhaps it'll even grow into a real story instead of a teen 'drama.' I remain curious.
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