Rating: 
Summary: Best book I've read this year!
Review: Personally, I think that "Children Of Amarid" is one of the best novels that I've read in a while. Coe has an amazing way of creating characters & plots. You can just see Baden, Jaryd, Alayna & Satrol pop up out of the pages. In a single novel he creted a countries religion & history, a new form of magic, amazing characters, a war between two lands, and numerous other things that have taken other book series at least 4 novels. I give this book a perfect 5 due to its amazing writing & I deeply anticipate "The Outlanders."
Rating: 
Summary: Good writing, but too stereotypical
Review: The first thing you notice when reading "Children of Amarid", by David B. Coe, is that this guy can actually write. He has talent for describing beautiful landscapes and writing exciting action scenes that actually make sense. Throughout the book, you feel that the environment is real, and you understand the effects that is has on the moods and actions of the characters. One problem that plagues a lot of current fantasy is that the authors feel that they need to imitate language from earlier eras, so they throw in a lot of distracting, archaic words and phrases. Coe writes in a modern, straightforward manner. He also gives his characters names that are original, but still easy to pronounce.The problem with this book is its unoriginal plot and characters. It deals with a band of powerful mages, known as the Children of Amarid, whose are supposed to use their power to protect the people of Tobyn-Ser. Unfortunately, one of the strongest mages decides to betray the order and use his abilities to take over the land. (Don't you just hate it when that happens?) Luckily, we have a young hero named Jaryd who sets out on a quest to protect Tobyn-Ser. He's accompanied by a wise old mentor, needless to say. And there's a young female mage whose job is to fall in love with the hero. And there are many other boring characters and predictable plot events, but nothing that doesn't give you the feeling that you've read it or seen it many times before. The only original touch in this novel is that each mage is required to form a mental link with a hakw or owl, which then helps them in battle. Unfortunately, the birds are barely mentioned during the second half of the novel, so Coe doesn't really explore the possibilities presented by this concept. I'm not saying that "Children of Amarid" is a bad novel. It's an easy and entertaining read, and you shouldn't be intimidated by the 600-page length. It's a perfectly good way to waste a couple of lazy summer afternoons. It just isn't a memorable work of fantasy.
Rating:
Summary: Good writing, but too stereotypical
Review: The first thing you notice when reading "Children of Amarid", by David B. Coe, is that this guy can actually write. He has talent for describing beautiful landscapes and writing exciting action scenes that actually make sense. Throughout the book, you feel that the environment is real, and you understand the effects that is has on the moods and actions of the characters. One problem that plagues a lot of current fantasy is that the authors feel that they need to imitate language from earlier eras, so they throw in a lot of distracting, archaic words and phrases. Coe writes in a modern, straightforward manner. He also gives his characters names that are original, but still easy to pronounce. The problem with this book is its unoriginal plot and characters. It deals with a band of powerful mages, known as the Children of Amarid, whose are supposed to use their power to protect the people of Tobyn-Ser. Unfortunately, one of the strongest mages decides to betray the order and use his abilities to take over the land. (Don't you just hate it when that happens?) Luckily, we have a young hero named Jaryd who sets out on a quest to protect Tobyn-Ser. He's accompanied by a wise old mentor, needless to say. And there's a young female mage whose job is to fall in love with the hero. And there are many other boring characters and predictable plot events, but nothing that doesn't give you the feeling that you've read it or seen it many times before. The only original touch in this novel is that each mage is required to form a mental link with a hakw or owl, which then helps them in battle. Unfortunately, the birds are barely mentioned during the second half of the novel, so Coe doesn't really explore the possibilities presented by this concept. I'm not saying that "Children of Amarid" is a bad novel. It's an easy and entertaining read, and you shouldn't be intimidated by the 600-page length. It's a perfectly good way to waste a couple of lazy summer afternoons. It just isn't a memorable work of fantasy.
Rating: 
Summary: A highly skilled author's focused first work.
Review: The more I read, the more I'm hooked. Coe has a great desire to create a staple fantasy world where he can work out his passion to write his own, imaginary history. He left his career as a historian just to contribute his passion and talent to the fantasy realm, and it seems to be enough of a qualification to create a solid foundation for his story to take place. I think he succeeded. I'll be looking for the sequel at the bookstore before waiting to see if the library will stock it- a testament to the first part's intrigue and richness. We need more writers with his kind of thoroughness and insight.
Rating:
Summary: A well-written voyage into a new world.
Review: The reviewer from Kirkus has, of course, the right to his own opinion, but he was way too harsh. Personally, I just finished reading this novel and cannot wait for the next book in the series to come out. The characters are well-developed. Descriptions are vivid. Additionally, it lacks the extremely boring and long introductions often included by many so-called "talented" fantasy writers. I work in a book store and have recommended this novel to many customers, all of whom have responded with positive reviews.
Rating:
Summary: Magic for the birds...literally!
Review: The virtues of this book are in it's system of magic, while the strongest criticisms can be leveled at plot and character development. The magic is relatively cogent. Mr. Coe has done a good job identifying the place of magic in his society, the limits of divination, and the means by which magic is manifested. He becomes a little more vague in addressing the _source_ of magic. On the one hand, he seems to state in explicit terms that it always comes from within the mage, and certainly it appears to be in the blood. But then he goes on to make references to the Children of Amarid "drawing upon" their familiars. Which is it? That there must be a binding of bird to mage to work magic is obvious, but the exact function the bird serves in supplying the mage his power is never revealed. This leaves the familiars as little more than cardboard cutouts on the mages' shoulders, feathered batteries without any definition or character to speak about (until they meet some unpleasant end). In fact, Mr. Coe seems to have a great deal of trouble building relationships of _any_ kind in this interesting tale. He proposes that mages are "closer to their familiars" than to any other living being. Yet the hawks and owls have little in the way of personalities, show no real affection, idiosyncrasies, indeed, any indication at all that they are more than the winged automatons of the techno-horrific Outlanders. They hunt when the mage tells them to do so, fight when commanded, scout or hunt, all at the beck of their human master. What do they receive in return? For a close binding, this sure has the feel of a one-sided, parasitic relationship. The most character we ever see from a familiar in this story is that Badan's owl likes to be scratched on her chin! The _human_ relationships fair little better, especially the supposed young lovers. After a few awkward moments and adolescent spats, one flight into danger causes them to realize they are "falling in love." That seems a bit abrupt for two people who just met a matter of days previously and who avoided each other for most of the supposed quest. Mr. Coe has presented us with a believable system of magic and an intriguing yarn, but overall, he seems to have little patience for the slow building process that goes into relationships. Instead, he appears to put the characters out there, proclaims they are now emotionally close (or in love), and then presumes to present them that way without any of the communication and mutual exploration in between. To the reader, this just comes across as abrupt, as though the characters went from "hello, my name is so-and-so" to "yes, I'll take this person in sickness and in health" with the turn of a page. The villian had something of a "Snidely Whiplash" quality to him, an almost too conveniently evil demeanor, especially given how easily he covered his inner passions and duped everyone significant to him (especially Alayna, which is another relationship that is talked about in great length but never demonstrated in the present moment). However, in all fairness to Mr. Coe, I really liked Sartol because he scared me. I found him believable in spite of his limits, and figuratively let out a genuine Homer Simpson "doh!" when he intruded upon the workings of the living even after he himself wasn't. Despite its shortcomings, this book has enough suspension of disbelief and magic to keep me interested. I recommend it to any fantasy fan interested in wizards, and I fully intend to finish out the series.
Rating:
Summary: Wow!
Review: This book is an amazing debut novel. Coe's ability to write characters that seem real and set wonderful scenes without taking away from the action makes this novel a solid foundation to a long career. Hats off to David Coe.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book, with few downsides
Review: This book was excellent. Like Robert Jordan's series, it combines concepts of a technologically advanced civilization and compares it to one of magic and fantasy. The character development of this book was wonderful, and it was interesting to see all events from nearly ALL the characters' perspective (though, admittedly, this got repetitive once or twice). Definitely a good read, I can't WAIT to read the next one!
Rating:
Summary: Great Book, with few downsides
Review: This book was excellent. Like Robert Jordan's series, it combines concepts of a technologically advanced civilization and compares it to one of magic and fantasy. The character development of this book was wonderful, and it was interesting to see all events from nearly ALL the characters' perspective (though, admittedly, this got repetitive once or twice). Definitely a good read, I can't WAIT to read the next one!
Rating: 
Summary: Not Good.
Review: This book's language was ok, it was very normal english that everybody could understand. Finding the traitor was completely predictable, when you read his mad eyes with the time he lets his mad face come out in a meeting to friends, it pretty much clinched it for me. Characters were very poorly developed. They were all completely perfect, except for one or two flaws that did not make them seem too perfect, but the flaws were small. The character was amazingly insightful to everything which seemed a bit to (sorry to say this again) perfect for me. I almost bought the rest of the books in the trilogy, but lucky for me they did not have them in stock. It's 2 stars instead of one, because the last 20 pages were actually a little bit interesting.
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