Rating: 
Summary: Totally Unmemorable
Review: About a week after reading this book I was trying to tell a friend about it. Halfway into the conversation, I realised that the scenes I was describing had taken place in another book altogether and I could hardly remember a thing about this one.Resnick has obviously spent a lot of time setting up the society, philosophy, and politics, but she doesn't do a whole heck of a lot with them. The religious aspects are somewhat interesting, but essentially this is another book about an amazing swordsman, a reluctant hero, and political strife. Ho-hum.
Rating:
Summary: Beyond merely awful
Review: After reading the glowing reviews on this page, I'm honestly wondering whether I actually read the same novel as the people who poured out all those glowing five-star tributes. The book that I read was among the sorriest, most pathetic pieces of garbage ever written. "In Legend Born" is not a good book. It is not even a competent book. It's an exercise in overdone clichés, weak characters, and plain, old-fashioned stupidity. Our first character is Mirabar, a young female outcast who's capable of communicating with the dead, who inhabit yet another irritatingly ambiguous spirirt world. She receives a prophecy about a brave warrior who's going to arrive and liberate the people of Sileria from their oppressors, the Valdani. Next we are introduced to Tashen, a brave warrior who's just arrived to liberate the people of Sileria from the Valdani. In case you're too brain-dead to figure out that Tashen is the person who Mirabar saw in her vision, Resnick is very careful to spell it out again and again for the next two-hundred pages or so before she 'reveals' the big 'secret'. Anyway, Tashen hooks up with an angry peasant named Josarian (the name choice may be a reference to "Catch-22"), they raise an army and join forces with some friendly wizards and start to pummel the crap out of the Valdani. And I do mean pummel. The good guys win every single battle in the entire book with ease, regardless of the circumstances. We're expected to believe that a band of peasants with zero fighting experience would have no trouble slaughtering an entire army of trained soldiers. It's at times like this that you really wish that fantasy authors could be bothered to do a little bit of research before they begin writing. In real life, it takes years of training before you can learn how to use a sword or a bow properly. Resnick's vision of fighting is so off-base that at one point she even has a warrior single-handedly kill off seventeen guards (!) at one time while barely being touched. Some people may like the cheesy Hollywood vision of swordfighting; I prefer authors who at least attempt to put a little realism into it. But as bad as the fight sequences are, they're unquestionably more enjoyable than the rest of the book. Resnick provides the villainous Valdani with a long laundry list of sins: murder, genocide, torture, slavery, rape, high taxes, and religious persecution, to name a few, and she carefully eliminates any traces of any redeeming characteristics from all of them. The problem, of course, is that good villains need both good and bad traits so that we can watch a slower and more believable descent into evil. Authors who go so completely overboard in vilifying their bad-guy characters usually just end up embarrassing themselves. In addition, she goes to great lengths to emphasize the fact that every single Valdani is as dumb as a brick, leaving us to wonder how they came to control a gigantic empire when clearly not even one of them is smart enough to control their own sock drawer. As you can probably guess, all of the heroes turn out to be paragons of virtue, and largely devoid of any real personality. Oh, Resnick tries to make them interesting, but she just can't do it. For instance, Josarian was supposedly driven into recklessness by the recent death of his wife. In practice, the author completely forgets about the wife for most of the book, and then she suddenly pops up to drive him "insane with longing" at seemingly random points. The author's attempts to add humor by means of Josarian's horny cousin Zimran are best left unmentioned, and her romance scenes ... Oh, dear God! Better to not write any at all than to write ones this bad. I could go on griping about the overall stupidity of this book, but I think that you get the point by now. The important question is, is it worth reading? Is it entertaining? The answer is no. "In Lengend Born" in dreary and dull, includes tons of filler material, and the final hundred pages aren't a conclusion as much as an advertisement for the next volume. While I'll admit that there are a very few interesting plot intrigues and a couple of fairly touching scenes, they don't justify the book's gigantic length (730 pages), and as with Robert Jordan and all his other clones, Resnick's big blocks of dialogue should have edited, preferably with a blowtorch. Apparently there are some people who are eagerly anticipating the appearance of a sequel. Personally, I'll wait patiently for the next works by George R. R. Martin or Robin Hobb, and do my best to banish all memories of this particularly monumental mistake.
Rating:
Summary: Beyond merely awful
Review: After reading the glowing reviews on this page, I'm honestly wondering whether I actually read the same novel as the people who poured out all those glowing five-star tributes. The book that I read was among the sorriest, most pathetic pieces of garbage ever written. "In Legend Born" is not a good book. It is not even a competent book. It's an exercise in overdone clichés, weak characters, and plain, old-fashioned stupidity. Our first character is Mirabar, a young female outcast who's capable of communicating with the dead, who inhabit yet another irritatingly ambiguous spirirt world. She receives a prophecy about a brave warrior who's going to arrive and liberate the people of Sileria from their oppressors, the Valdani. Next we are introduced to Tashen, a brave warrior who's just arrived to liberate the people of Sileria from the Valdani. In case you're too brain-dead to figure out that Tashen is the person who Mirabar saw in her vision, Resnick is very careful to spell it out again and again for the next two-hundred pages or so before she 'reveals' the big 'secret'. Anyway, Tashen hooks up with an angry peasant named Josarian (the name choice may be a reference to "Catch-22"), they raise an army and join forces with some friendly wizards and start to pummel the crap out of the Valdani. And I do mean pummel. The good guys win every single battle in the entire book with ease, regardless of the circumstances. We're expected to believe that a band of peasants with zero fighting experience would have no trouble slaughtering an entire army of trained soldiers. It's at times like this that you really wish that fantasy authors could be bothered to do a little bit of research before they begin writing. In real life, it takes years of training before you can learn how to use a sword or a bow properly. Resnick's vision of fighting is so off-base that at one point she even has a warrior single-handedly kill off seventeen guards (!) at one time while barely being touched. Some people may like the cheesy Hollywood vision of swordfighting; I prefer authors who at least attempt to put a little realism into it. But as bad as the fight sequences are, they're unquestionably more enjoyable than the rest of the book. Resnick provides the villainous Valdani with a long laundry list of sins: murder, genocide, torture, slavery, rape, high taxes, and religious persecution, to name a few, and she carefully eliminates any traces of any redeeming characteristics from all of them. The problem, of course, is that good villains need both good and bad traits so that we can watch a slower and more believable descent into evil. Authors who go so completely overboard in vilifying their bad-guy characters usually just end up embarrassing themselves. In addition, she goes to great lengths to emphasize the fact that every single Valdani is as dumb as a brick, leaving us to wonder how they came to control a gigantic empire when clearly not even one of them is smart enough to control their own sock drawer. As you can probably guess, all of the heroes turn out to be paragons of virtue, and largely devoid of any real personality. Oh, Resnick tries to make them interesting, but she just can't do it. For instance, Josarian was supposedly driven into recklessness by the recent death of his wife. In practice, the author completely forgets about the wife for most of the book, and then she suddenly pops up to drive him "insane with longing" at seemingly random points. The author's attempts to add humor by means of Josarian's horny cousin Zimran are best left unmentioned, and her romance scenes ... Oh, dear God! Better to not write any at all than to write ones this bad. I could go on griping about the overall stupidity of this book, but I think that you get the point by now. The important question is, is it worth reading? Is it entertaining? The answer is no. "In Lengend Born" in dreary and dull, includes tons of filler material, and the final hundred pages aren't a conclusion as much as an advertisement for the next volume. While I'll admit that there are a very few interesting plot intrigues and a couple of fairly touching scenes, they don't justify the book's gigantic length (730 pages), and as with Robert Jordan and all his other clones, Resnick's big blocks of dialogue should have edited, preferably with a blowtorch. Apparently there are some people who are eagerly anticipating the appearance of a sequel. Personally, I'll wait patiently for the next works by George R. R. Martin or Robin Hobb, and do my best to banish all memories of this particularly monumental mistake.
Rating: 
Summary: A new Talent is Born!
Review: After reading this epic novel of magic, revolution romance and heartbreaking betrayal I almost wanted to be transported to the land of Sileria and pick up a sword for the cause of freedom.Resnick makes a passionate case for the the land of Sileria and their fight for independence from the brutal empire of Valada.She creates memorable but flawed heroes and heroines willing to face death for freedom of the country and gives us stirring scenes of battles, romance,magic and stunning treachery!One of the best first novel I've ever read that reminds me of Kay's epic novel Tigana.
Rating: 
Summary: In a war-torn land, five enemies unite to free their people.
Review: Although I've written about thirty sf/f short stories and (pat, pat) won the 1993 John W. Campbell Award as best new sf/f author, IN LEGEND BORN is my first fantasy novel. (Prior to this book, I wrote 13 romance novels as Laura Leone, and also one non-fiction book, A BLONDE IN AFRICA, as Laura Resnick -- which is my real name.) I tried to write the kind of story I love to read, an epic adventure about good and evil where characters are torn between love and duty, sacrifice and ambition, guilt and redemption. I love reading a page-turner and I think it's the obligation of every author, whether writing popular fiction or literary tomes, to keep the reader riveted. If someone can put down my book easily, then I haven't done my job well.
Rating: 
Summary: Bring On the Sequel...Now!
Review: As an addicted reader of everything from the captivating land of the Hobbits brought to us by Tolkein to the far reaching political jumble that is Dune, I was for some unexplained reason floored by this complex magical anthology by Laura Resnick. I am anxiously searching for the sequel!
Rating:
Summary: A real fantasy treat!
Review: Fantasy fans have a real treat coming up in Laura Resnick's IN LEGEND BORN, due out in August. I was asked to provide a "blurb" for the book if I liked it, so the publisher sent me a copy of the manuscript. I loved it! Lots of action, fascinating characters, really great world. I recommend it--and I'm looking forward to the sequel, IN FIRE FORGED.
Rating: 
Summary: Mediocre Fantasy
Review: First off, what is with the ridiculously inflated fantasy ratings on this site? I begin to worry how discriminating the average fantasy reader really is..
The only things this book has going for it are the storyline and world-building, which a previous reviewer noted. The story is decent, but I think the book suffers from too many viewpoints. Add to that the annoying tendency of not actually narrating the battles. But the story is somewhat interesting and not totally predictable or cliche'd.
What this book doesnt have is characters. Every single one is a cliche or one-dimensional. Tansen is the only character approaching being interesting, perhaps the book should have been told in his viewpoint. Having interesting, believable characters is very important for me in a fantasy book, and this one falls flat. Laura should give Robin Hobb / etc a call.
All that said, considering how AWFUL some fantasy is, this deserves 3 stars merely because I finished it.
Rating: 
Summary: Can't say I'll read it again...
Review: First the good news: Ms. Resnick has built her world in wealth of detail and depth. It's the sort of place you feel could really exist somewhere on the map of today's world. The bad news... the book often reads like a newspaper clipping. Page after page of how the rebellion is going. In spite of several of the other reviews, I did not find the characters particularly well drawn. I always felt some distance from them, and was never able to sympathize with them. I fact, I was often hard-pressed to determine if some of the characters were supposed to be heroes or villians. This may be real life, but when I pick up a novel, I'd like my heroes to be someone I can admire, someone I'd like to get to know and be friends with. I would have been much happier to see more immediacy in the writing, more sense of actually being there and experiencing the action and the feelings of the characters and less offputting narrative.
Rating:
Summary: Vivid story
Review: I am very impatiently waiting for the sequel (have been for a year now). Even though it's been awhile since I last read this book, I still remember it clearly due to the vivid writing style, and the colorful and realistic characters. Just recalling it makes me impatient for In Fire Forged, and starts me wondering about the fates of the main characters all over again. The heroes have their weaknesses and yet the story does not get bogged down with heros' problems, self-recriminations and so on. The pacing keeps the excitement going and the whole 'cause' is believable and worthy. The only reason why a star is missing in this review is because one development in the story I found unneccessary and off-putting. This development, however, does not ruin the book. So read and enjoy!
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