Rating: 
Summary: FABULOUS STORY!
Review: This is one of the very best books I have EVER read! I am on my second read of this story that I found so very difficult to put down during my first reading of it. This enthusiasm comes from someone that's read a great many books in this genre over the last quarter century, for I've been a devoted reader of SF/Fantasy books for more than 25 years.I had an advance e-book copy for my first reading and now that I've received the real thing I am reading it again savoring it this time while I anxiously anticipate the next volume in this series. I must truthfully say that The Fifth Sorceress ranks high among the very best of the books I've read in my lifetime. My first reading found me instantly hooked. I could not put it down. The story line and the characters will capture you in the first paragraph or two. I very strongly recommend you buy and read this book. Set aside what you're reading now and start this one... you won't regret it. I look forward to reading Robert Newcomb for many more years.
Rating: 
Summary: Derivative and sexist
Review: If I had stopped reading this book after about ten chapters, I might have concluded that it was derivative, but harmless. Unfortunately, I read further, and my opinion only went lower. Readers will immediately notice a number of familiar elements, such as the extremely Gandalf-like inscrutable wizard character. Also note the magical force that has a light side and a dark side, and which the main character was born extremely gifted in, just like his sister. Then there are the overused turns of phrase. You'll quickly tire of hearing about things broken at "impossible angles" or about people's hearts "breaking" over this and that. Add to this a few large holes in the back story - if the kingdom is completely isolated, has had no contact with other nations, and has no religion, how do they know what "religion" is, and why do they have a word for it? On the good side (and this is why I did not give the book the lowest rating) there are no elves or orcs, thus avoiding some of the most overused fantasy tropes. The other monsters to be found are fairly original and interesting reading. Read further, however, and you will find this world an extremely harsh place for women to live. There are powerful magicians of both sexes, but the male magicians are all good and noble, and the female magicians are evil, insane, and sexual deviants. (The central kingdom of the books has forbidden women from practicing ALL magic, light or dark, for reasons that are not sufficienly explained.) The magically-gifted hero reacts to the main crisis of this book with action and bravery, while his equally-gifted sister simply become helpless and catatonic. A particularly disturbing scene is an early battle between the hero and an evil sorceress. She attempts to rape him, but he turns the tables on her, extending his special telescopic sword to its full length and slaying her. I am not sure what worried me more at this point - the idea that the author was not aware of the sexual symbolism in this battle, or the idea that he was aware, and wrote it anyway. I had hoped we had outgrown the idea that good women are weak, and strong women are evil. Even if the author had the best intentions in the world when writing this book, I think the final results send some very inappropriate messages.
Rating:
Summary: A Huddled Mess of a Story -- Classic? Hardly!
Review: The story of an ancient war with prophecies relevant to the present day, including a mean-spirited wizard mentoring the young, reluctant prince, who serves as a sponge to the wizard's teachings. Lacking a true "Dark Lord", the story delivers worse: Sorceresses, the female magic-wielding counterparts of Wizards. The portrayal of women as inately evil may put readers off (it did me). The author pretty much comes out and says that women, granted power, will almost inevitably use it for evil, while men would have the sense to use such powers for good. The writing is pretentious, even sophomorish in style. Newcomb has some pretty good visuals, but he often rambles on for pages of details when mere paragraphs would have been sufficient. This inflation of words devalues the total story. The book is full of awkwardly phrased sentences, typos, and annoyingly frequent repetition of phrases such as "impossible angles," or the use of "the old one" to describe the wizard. Additionally, the violence is brutally and graphically depicted without being at all kinetic or engaging, making even the battles a chore to read. When in doubt, leave it out! Too much hasn't been left out. This one is strictly for loyal fans of the author.**
Rating: 
Summary: Clumsy and annoying - can't stand the writer's voice!
Review: I could not bring myself to finish this, which was a sad waste because I had purchased hardback volumes I & II on the hype. Gee, brilliant idea: listen to the publisher's hype! Never again. Can't tell whether this series or Marcos' Eyes of God were more poorly written. two-dimensional, obvious characters, painful dialogue, a plot which you can smell coming a mile away...UGH! The concept is probably the only thing that doesn't bite. Honestly, reading this was like choking down over-cooked peas. My mind gladly leapt at the chance to dig into the new David Farland work. Do yourself a favor and skip this in favor of Russell, Martin, Farland, ...heck, even the formulaic but well-written Drake or Salvatore. If you already bought this, put it in your car trunk in case you roll off into a ravine and are stuck for a week with no food or something...
Rating:
Summary: who was the editor?
Review: To me this book feels more like a rough draft than a finished product. I liked some of the story and I think it was well written but it just felt wrong. It did not seem all that original to me. It has your standard hero who has to avenge his dead family. It has your wise old wizard to help guide him. The whole thing about women not being able to use magic because they will go crazy and kill everyone sounds like Robert Jordan's WOT series reversed.
I know this is a fantasy novel and the author can do what he wants in his world, but some of the stretches he makes are just absurd. Things just seem made up to move the story along. The one that bothered me the most is the one day pregnancy. It seemed like it was just stuck there to move the story. It's the authors world and they can do what they want to it but that doesn't mean I have to like it.
I bought this book because on the cover Robert Newcomb was compared to George R.R. Martin in the degree of realism he brings to fantasy. Whoever wrote this owes GRRM an apology. It's not even close.
Rating: 
Summary: Enough!
Review: Enough is enough.
I'm tired of reading so many cristicisms about Rob's work, and I'm going to stand up for him.
We live in a society today that has clearly lost it's wits. I'm sorry, but how anyone can say that a new author, with completely original concepts, is terrible, then I'm appalled.
Okay, so we have four women. They're the bad guys. All of a sudden we have a massive fuss about Rob being sexist. Is he?! Or are you the sexist ones? As a male, I've seen men portrayed as evil all of my life, and never even questioned it. It's normal for men to be evil.
So now we have four evil women, who steep to the worst kind of practises, and holy hell breaks loose! Are the critics so convinced that it must be 'this way' and 'that way'? If so, how we ever get anything original out of the book industry is completely beyond me.
These books are alive with detail. The characters are flawed, but hugely likeable. I've read Jordan, and I can say that his characters are certainly fleshed out, but they've been fleshed out to the point that they become boring and fade into the background.
Not Newcomb's characters. New revelations about their past, deadly secrets being kept from one another, and such a severe amount of bad luck striking the main characters that you want to cry for them. THAT'S how real they are.
And as for 'The unoriginal concept of good versus evil', well, you're right. It has been done a million times over. But when the Lord of the Rings movies were produced, I didn't hear people crying about the standard boring good versus evil plot. Did you?
Look, what I'm trying to say is that there is a lot more to Rob's books than meets the eye. Please don't let the negative reviews put you off, because you'd otherwise be missing a very good piece of storytelling.
And as for completely unoriginal, if anyone cannot understand the magical system in Rob's books, they need to go back to school. Seriously. It's not a hard concept to grasp, and it's described in wonderful detail.
I would gladly recommend this book to my friends.
Rating:
Summary: Forget the Critics - The Book Is Original
Review: I have to say I was truly hooked after reading "The Fifth Sorceress (Chronicles of Blood and Stone, Book 1). For any of the faithful fantasy readers out there who are tired of the endless repetition in Robert Jordan's "The Wheel of Time" series, this novel is a blast of fresh air. It only took Robert Jordan 4 books before his dim witted hero began to realize he was supposed to be the hero. How much soul searching can a reader be expected to endure..!!
Wig and Tristan are terrific lead characters. Both characters are actually portrayed in a realistic manner. Both characters have significant flaws that affect their decision making. Who doesn't make poor decisions every once in awhile? In addition, it was great to finally see the females villified in a fantasy novel for once. I am personally tired of women being portrayed as the Mother Madonna in the fantasy genre. I see nothing wrong with having sexually active, power hungry women portrayed as the villains in the book. I loved it!
Rating:
Summary: Never Listen To 'Critics'
Review: I actually found this book to be very enjoyable and entertaining. It's funny that most of these reviews said that it was 'sexist' depicting women as evil WRONG. For the most part I think most of these reviewers are gender biased themselves afterall Robert Jordan was never accused as being sexist why? Because in The Wheel Of Time the women are empowered and the men are considered 'evil' or too stupid for their own good. Of course that isn't gender biasism because a man wrote it right?
It does have evil females but it also has evil males as well. Don't forget that in his sequal mostly its men that are doing the evil not the women. Other than going off about Amazon reviewers I find that alot of books they highly recommend to usually be borring pieces of drivel such as "Johnathon Strange And Mr. Norrel." It seems that this series got massive good reviews but to me it was just a bunch of trash.
Was this the best epic their is? No, but it certianly is better than most of the books that the reviewers seem to believe are good series such as 'The Wheel Of Time' PLEASE all women are the same and far more sexist than anything Robert Newcomb could ever come up with.
Give it a shot and ignore these so called 'critics.'
Rating:
Summary: The most famous "eyebrows"....
Review: If I hear that the wizard "arched his famous eyebrow" one more time, I think I'll slit my wrists... let me help Mr. Newcomb out here:
-The wizard looked at him skeptically...
- `' `' `' `' `' ...cryptically...
- `' `' `' `' `' ... with disbelief ...
- Surprise showed on the face of the wizard...
- etc.
If I were the sorceress, my first method of torture would be to staple his friggen eyebrow down!
Newcomb earns points with his visuals and some concepts.
Making women evil, torture, sex... none of this bothers me. The poor writing does. It seems as though Wigg's ponderous explanations of everything are necessary to cover holes in writing.
The end was fairly anti-climatic...akin to a firecracker going off in their hand... oops they're all dead! Creation of the minions...crap- gene splicing and time enhancements!?
Where did the feathered minions come from!? Feathers vs. Bat wings.... How does that happen?... not even the same species! Why not gills?
Rating:
Summary: Fair concept, dreadful execution
Review: If plot is more important than writing style to you, you may just enjoy this book. Sure, the concept of a "Chosen One" of special blood who will right the wrongs of an ancient war isn't new. "The Fifth Sorceress" borrows many common fantasy ingredients in the plot and characterisation, and is therefore hardly original. But this is a failing of many books in the genre these days, and although tiresome, I can't condemn the book on this alone.
It is the fact that Robert Newcomb has the writing ability of a sixth grader which will frustrate any reader above a certain level of intelligence. Nothing is subtle or complex, you will not have to surmise or assume anything from what is written. Don't worry, the rules of magic and the history of the Eutracians will be explained in two syllable words at most, and the main facts repeated every five pages in case you had forgotten. The personalities of the characters are reaffirmed in every minor action (even the way they eat grapes), so that we can be sure who is good, bad, wise, ambitious etc. I cringed at the obvious way information was revealed and the characters stylised through their behaviour.
On a different note, although the anti-female undertones and graphic violence didn't bother me, if you find these unpleasant, it is probably best to avoid reading the book. And if you must read it, borrow it from the library or get it second-hand. Please don't buy it new and thereby give a message to publishers that it is okay (i.e. profitable) to print poorly written fantasy which insults the intelligence of readers and drags down the reputation of the entire genre.
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