Rating: 
Summary: Does anybody ever die???
Review: .... this book seemed to repeat the first 25 pages over and over and over again. Someone tries to kill someone. Some magical hero stops them. over and over. Bad guys always lose, good guys always win. Assassination attempt after assasination attempt is NARROWLY avoided, due to the last-minute revelation of one of the characters. I becomes quite annoying. How can the book contain any drama if you know the bad guys are always weaker than the "good guys?" I skimmed through half of the book.In any case, I have already purchased the entire series, on the merits of the first book ... so hopefully it will get better. Although,r eally, I doubt it. This author seems to have a tendency to repeat herself, and to make the good guys invincible.
Rating: 
Summary: A great addition to the story of the Dominion and Empire.
Review: Each time I expect this book to descend into stereotype, I am pleasantly surprised. Ms West avoids the cliche elements of most fantasy adventures and concentrates instead on the characters and their development. In this book, the action moves from the Dominion to the Empire, where the players who will oppose the self proclaimed rulers of the Dominion are being identified and assembled. The book uses a contest of 'warrior's skills to develop and illuminate the character of both familiar and new personalities. It also broadens the scope of the impending conflict by making it clear that more than the rulership of a single nation will be decided. I enjoyed the fact that we were not subjected to endless pages of fight or chase descriptions. Instead, the actual physical events were used to deepen and enrich the characters.
Rating: 
Summary: Developing the series beautifully.
Review: First and foremost, if you haven't read the first book in this series, go read it before you touch this. Though the author tries valiantly to make it friendly to someone coming into the series with this book, it's almost impossible to fully understand this one without having read its prequel. I must say that I was a little disappointed with the scope of this installment; where the first one shifted between the two countries, this focuses almost entirely on the northern Empire, specifically Averalaan. The action in this book moves significantly faster than that of the first, and not at the cost of character development, either. Many characters who were mentioned in the first book come back in force and help flesh out the story wonderfully. My only real gripe is that I wish the author had included a pronounciation guide with her little glossary as Janny Wurts has done. Many of the names seem Spanish in origin, but there are a few which simply stump me.
Rating:
Summary: Developing the series beautifully.
Review: First and foremost, if you haven't read the first book in this series, go read it before you touch this. Though the author tries valiantly to make it friendly to someone coming into the series with this book, it's almost impossible to fully understand this one without having read its prequel. I must say that I was a little disappointed with the scope of this installment; where the first one shifted between the two countries, this focuses almost entirely on the northern Empire, specifically Averalaan. The action in this book moves significantly faster than that of the first, and not at the cost of character development, either. Many characters who were mentioned in the first book come back in force and help flesh out the story wonderfully. My only real gripe is that I wish the author had included a pronounciation guide with her little glossary as Janny Wurts has done. Many of the names seem Spanish in origin, but there are a few which simply stump me.
Rating:
Summary: Good story, But the writing...
Review: I consider myself a person who is usually up to the challenge of a difficult read. But difficult just for the sake of being difficult...
Maybe it's the authors writing style, but this book is bogged down with details and an extremely slow narrative. All the action is killed my the passive voice. What makes me not like this series so far (I've read up to book 2) is the way the author takes very simple things and somehoe finds a way to present them in a twisted convuluted fashion. I mean, I understand if a situation is complex...it should be written so. But two characters having a mundane conversation should not sound like a passage from the bible.
Exmple:
"She opened the door, feinting as she stepped out"
Turns into
"She heard him say something, brushed his words away with the heavy wave of a hand, took a step toward the doors and teetered there, on the edge of night.
And fell in"
- Michelle West, The Uncrowned King
You don't really figure out that the character feinted until a few paragraphs later in the story. I'm not saying the author should have wrote in the way I wrote it above, but you get the idea. Almost everything is written like this, especially in Book 2! It is so annoying!
I personally do not want to read poetry when I am supposed to be reading prose.
*note, Book 2 is a little more interesting and I really want to find out what happens in the story, becuase it is a good plot, but the writing is killing me.
Rating:
Summary: Great series, but....
Review: I have read both this book and the broken crown and there are many similarities in them. In both i found the beginning to be confusing and/or slow. The middle of the book became very confusing when they mentioned things from the past (guess i better read the hunters books) abd i couldn't figure out what was happening. But then at the end, maybe the last 200 pages or so, it got really good and interesting and i realized why i like this series. I sometimes got the idea that West put some scenes in quickly because i would reread them about 4 or 5 times and still never understan what had happened. overall though i find this to be a very interesting series. Just sort of sad that i didn't get to hear more about Diora, though i liked Kiriel.
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful read!
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed reding this novel. While I loved Diora from Book 1, I liked seeing Valedan's & Kiriel's characters developed more. Kiriel strikes you as that intriguing mix of danger, death & vulnerability and Valedan definitely shows that he's more than a pawn of either the Empire or the Dominion. With Jewel finally accepting her destiny with the House Terafin -- after receiving hints of it from Hunter's Death -- there will definitely be a plot to watch there. Although I would like for her & Devon to be on good terms once more -- it's sad that their friendship was strained by something that I don't think Devon understands. If you enjoy intrigue and plots that you can sink your teeth into, this is definitely the book for you!
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful read!
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed reding this novel. While I loved Diora from Book 1, I liked seeing Valedan's & Kiriel's characters developed more. Kiriel strikes you as that intriguing mix of danger, death & vulnerability and Valedan definitely shows that he's more than a pawn of either the Empire or the Dominion. With Jewel finally accepting her destiny with the House Terafin -- after receiving hints of it from Hunter's Death -- there will definitely be a plot to watch there. Although I would like for her & Devon to be on good terms once more -- it's sad that their friendship was strained by something that I don't think Devon understands. If you enjoy intrigue and plots that you can sink your teeth into, this is definitely the book for you!
Rating:
Summary: Great story. The way a fantasy should be.
Review: I waited a long time for this, the second vol. after reading the first vol. My favorite character is Kiriel. I think Ms. West has created an intriguing character in Kiriel-- mysterious, powerful, yet somewhat naive at times. I only wish she has a bigger part in the story. If you read this, Ms. West, please give Kiriel a bigger role in your next volume. On the whole, the plot is interesting and absorbing. I highly recommend both vols. to all fantasy fans. Oh, well, I guess it's time to start waiting for vol. 3. There is one planned, I hope.
Rating:
Summary: The series continues with a narrowed focus
Review: In volume two of a series of unannounced length, Michelle West follows the characters in Averalaan Amarelas through a few weeks of action. She leaves the reader in ignorance of developments in the Dominion but details the forced growth of Jewel (the street child seer turned House Terafin power), Kiriel (half-mortal daughter of Hell god Allasakar turned against his Court) and Valedan (slave born heir to the throne of the Dominion raised in the foreign Empire) as plotters from the Dominion attempt to assasinate or discredit Valedan while he tries to garner Southern support by competing in the King's Challenge. Kallandras, Evayne, and Meralonne APhaniel and others familiar from earlier books play a part as the stage is set for larger scale action in books to come. I hope they come soon. While this book is solid and probably necessary to the evolution of the plot and characters, the scale is too large for the small scope covered and Ms. West sometimes resorts to summaries or descriptions of her characters' growth in lieu of demonstrating it by their speech, thoughts, emotions or action. She also makes suggestive comments throughout which render the reader eager to find out more about APhaniel and others and presumably foreshadow the developments to come. Very readable and enjoyable, but not as exciting as Volume One.
| 
