Rating: 
Summary: This book started something for me!
Review: My experience before this book with fantasy fiction was the Hobbit series (when it first came out)! So, now that I've dated myself, let me say that I really enjoyed this book. It was left on an airplane by someone, and I picked it up because I had a long airport layover in front of me. I was truly surprised at how engaging the characters were. I liked how the author jumped around in parallel story lines. It kept my attention, though if I let a day or so go by without reading some, I usually had to refresh my memory of what the characters were facing. Since reading this book, I've read Queen of Demons, and I am about to start Servant of The Dragon. I guess now I would be considered a fan of David Drake's writing.
Rating:
Summary: This book started something for me!
Review: My experience before this book with science fiction was the Hobbit series (when it first came out)! So, now that I've dated myself, let me say that I really enjoyed this book. It was left on an airplane by someone, and I picked it up because I had a long airport layover in front of me. I was truly surprised at how engaging the characters were. I liked how the author jumped around in parallel story lines. It kept my attention, though if I let a day or so go by without reading some, I usually had to refresh my memory of what the characters were facing. Since reading this book, I've read Queen of Demons, and I am about to start Servant of The Dragon. I guess now I would be considered a fan of David Drake's writing.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Book
Review: This is a great book. The story is in the style of Tolkien, Jordan, and Goodkind. Can't wait to read the sequels.
Rating: 
Summary: Where is the 'why?' David?
Review: As I plodded through this story that seemed to go nowhere I was struck by the question why? why is all this stuff happening? I was looking for why a character has a dead soul which inhabits him from time to time, or why anything in this book happened other than to move the story along. I got to the end and I felt like I had just read a bunch of words, with no real meaning behind it. Having enjoyed works by Feist, Tolkien, Pratchett, Goodkind, Jordan and others, this was far below their best or even worst efforts. This opinion is of this work only, and is the only work of Drake's I have read so maybe his other works are better. That is not for me to judge, but my opinion of this book is what I have written.
Rating: 
Summary: Not a happy chappy!!
Review: Extremely disappointed in this book, not what one has come to expect from books written by David Drake. I don't think this book could hold the attention of a three year old at bed time stories. Plot and character development extremely weak, could only bear to read a couple pages at a time. I'm sure hoping this is a one off David!!
Rating:
Summary: Not Jordan or Eddings but almost !
Review: I certainly enjoyed reading this book and the sequel very much. The further along I read, the better the story seemed to get. I would not rate the story up with the best I've read, but I would put it on the tier just below. I am glad I didn't miss the chance to read this book. I would highly recommend reading this novel.
Rating:
Summary: Jordan ripoff
Review: It seems that Tor's 'submission guidelines' should read:'Your work has striking similarities to the Wheel of Time'. It worked for Terry Goodkind; it appears it also worked for David Drake. The similarities are not exactly subtle: Poor shepherd turns out to be descended from such and so, and his friend has weird powers (shades of Rand and the ta'veren? Nah). Mysterious women show up at the sleepy village and start the ball rolling (Moiraine, Moiraine, and Moiraine). One woman turns out to be descended from a different such and so, or so she thinks (Egwene, Nynaeve--we can channel!). Everyone's voices and faces are described at some point or another as being chipped off ice or carved from ice (though more poetically, of course). And the voice of King Carus is ALWAYS laughing in Garric's head--it's so nice to see Lews Therin cheerful at last! Lack of originality was not the only problem. The characters are almost totally unsympathetic; the most emotional attachment the reader can feel is 'Gee, if she died, that would make it more interesting'. The women, especially, have no personality, especially Liane. It's obvious that Drake is playing up her relationship with Garric as a deep romance, but come on, so they like the same poetry. Big deal. The action sequences are frequent and seem like a hasty plot device to avoid having to deal with anything of depth whatsoever. I got really tired of Cashel bashing up an entire city with his staff. But the worst is the repetitiveness of the plot. Sharina, Nonnus and co. are attacked by something--Meder kills something to do some horrendous magic. Sharina hates his guts. Sharina, Nonnus, and co. are attacked by something else--Meder does horrendous magic. Sharina hates his guts....Am I the only one who's bored of this? Then there's the Garric plot. Liane gets kidnapped by a demon in the cemetery. Tentoctris opens a doorway for him to go into another dimension to get her back. Liane gets kidnapped in the cemetery, AGAIN. Tenoctris opens.....Aaaargh! I was so annoyed at myself for plodding through this book, I skipped the last two pages. It also was never really clear what exactly the conflict was. Something to do with cosmos and the Hooded One, but that's as much as I ever understood. And why are so many people walking around with all that power and with no idea they have it? Enough already. I would, however, like to give Drake some credit--it's obvious that he has done a lot of research, and without overloading the story with info-dump he gives some rare accounts of medieval proceedings which most authors cannot. He also doesn't reduce women to sex objects, which is even more rare. If he would just go back and learn about character and plot, I think he has the potential to produce something better. But for those who want *good* fantasy with complex characters, steer clear of this one.
Rating:
Summary: *shudder*
Review: Wow. This is the book I would have written back in high school. Hyperbolic, shallow, all the characters painfully one-dimensional. I kept hoping Drake would settle into something better, and stop using the inane analogies over and over. I mean, if I had a dime for every time he compared something to "back in Barca's Hamlet", I'd have enough to go buy a better written novel. For kicks I actually read the sequel to see if it was an improvement. Nope. In fact, I think once he'd run out of introducing us to and attempting to develop the characters, all that was left was to have them deal with one predictable and clichéed scenario after another. It wasn't until I finished both and moved onto Robin Hobb's excellent "Assassin" series that I realized how painful these two Drake books were. Maybe he's an acquired taste, but I gave him two books to try and win me over and all I got was a sigh of relief once I'd finished.
Rating: 
Summary: Good, but in no way great
Review: Drakes style does not leave room for fine caracter development or subtle plots. This leaves your mind wanting more but makes an exelent "easy reading" fantasy book. This goes for the world as well. It feels as if the author first wrote a number of interesting scenes and then put them together without thinking about whether or not the storyline would hold for the sudden shifts. Something I found both irritating and amusing is the way Drake borrows from Gilgamesh (the spelling of this name is as the spelling of everything else i write a complete guess). For example the two (male) main caracters would together make up an exellent Gilgamesh. Cashels size and habits (wrestling demons and the like) and Garrics mind with its royal connections only makes me wonder what happend to the fear of death that plagued that ancient legend. After reading the book I must say that it does work, barely. This is not a bad book, but there is nothing in it to make it great. The story holds together (unless you think to hard, but very few fantasy novels holds up to that), the caracters might not be belivebul but they are amusing and so on. This is a book I would recomend someone who reads more fantasy then is good for them and needs something to keep them occupied while waiting for the next very good book.
Rating:
Summary: a great adventure
Review: I really enjoyed reading this. The main characters were likeable and interesting, although I wouldn't go as far as the quote on the front cover. The story begins with four main friends who live in a secluded village. We are told of a magical force that is getting stronger and stronger by an old female wizard who has travelled from the past. The arrival of this wizard is the beginning of the change in all of their lives as they learn of the fate that they must lead. There is a lot of magic and a little bit of fighting, and the characters and storyline become more appealing as the book is read. I think a lot of you will like it as well!
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