Shadowfever by Karen Marie MoningMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Wow, this book was a lot better when I skimmed it!
I originally checked this book out of the library on March 28, and I started reading it almost immediately. However, I stalled out on page 53. For those of you that have read the series, you know what happened at the end of Dreamfever. Mac spent the first 50 some odd pages of this book whining about the choice she'd made at the end of the last. While I do understand the emotional trauma involved, and I would not have liked to see Mac brush off the event, Moning's treatment of it left much to be desired. It felt as if Moning want to convince her readers of Mac's trauma through sheer repetition. It was too much for me, and I had to put the book down.
Today, April 25, I picked up the book again. I wanted to know how this series ends, dammit, and the book was due back to the library today. So I decided to skim. I avoided any long passages of exposition as they uniformly seemed to be of Mac whining. Instead, I looked for scenes with conversation. I was quickly able to skim through the book, getting the jist of the plot while running from Mac's thoughts. With that method, I read this nearly 600 page book in four hours. And I liked it.
Apart from Mac's near-constant whining, the book provided a satisfying ending to the series. I liked the choices Moning made regarding the change in the world. A few of the revelations were moderately surprising, but they did not come from left field. They had been foreshadowed--as pretty much everything in this series was foreshadowed--but Mac hadn't given enough hints to truly lay bare her entire plot.
I'm glad I didn't spend money on this book. Heck, the only one that I ever owned was the first book (originally as a mass market paperback, but I gave that away in the swap when the publisher offered it as a free ebook). I do think this series is inventive and reasonably brave. Not many writers have the courage to torture a character as thoroughly as Mac was tortured. But that's also part of the reason that I don't want to return to this series. Bad things happen in this world--and bad things happen to Mac. I did not enjoy following her on her journey from Mac 1.0 to Mac 5.0. While I do think these books are good, they're not fun in the way I like my books to be fun.
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2 comments:
This has to be one of the most wonderful series I have had the priviledge to read. This storyline will keep you on the edge of your seat. I am now at a loss as to what to look forward to reading now that I have finished them all. You definitely have to start from the first book to understand it all, but I have never in my life looked forward to each new installment as I have with this series.
Hi Danmark,
Thank you for your comment on my blog!
I agree with you--this book would not work without the four that came before it. As it was, I did like it. I just wished that Mac didn't whine quite so much (although she does have good reason to whine--it's just irritating to read after a while).
As for what to read next, have you tried Kim Harrison's Dead Witch Walking? I truly love that series. Another really good series is Patricia Brigg's Mercy books. The series starts with Moon Called. If you'd like a little more romance, I also liked One Foot in the Grave by Frost.
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