Critiquing the Books I Read
The Waste Lands is a roadtrip book. The characters are constantly on the move, and their journey is peppered with notable incidents - gunfights, mental battles, even the odd sexual battle. (Yeah, that was pretty odd). It's not a bad book, but it's far too long and could have done with some paring down.
The problem with a privileged party taking up the cause of an oppressed party as a means of assuaging their own guilt is that the voices of the oppressed are once again passed over in favour of that of a member of the privileged class. In addition to this, Card's interpretation of history is still largely white-centric, for all his moral lecturing, and black characters are yet to become a major part of the story of Alvin Maker.
Mead's humour and comic timing is as ever on point, which makes the occasional hiccup in her writing style so much more bearable. The overarching story line continues to be paced off well, with Sydney and Adrian finally taking their friendship to the level of a tentative relationship, and with the appearance of a new antagonist more powerful than any Sydney has faced up until now. The Indigo Spell is a comfortable middle ground for a series - ferocious action combined with cheesy and heart warming romance and serious character development. And my favourite parts about the Bloodlines series are yet to come.
The vibrant and unique personalities of Eddie and Susannah Dean are what saved this book as far as I was concerned. Indeed, the further this series progressed, the more it became clear to me that of the eventual quintet, Roland was the least interesting, the least worth saving. While The Drawing of the Three is still pretty as far as novels go, the series is fast approaching decline, which is why I'd never recommend it to anyone. Unless they were stuck in Mid World with Roland of Gilead and had nothing better to do.
It's always difficult and problematic to write from a perspective that is not yours. It's not to say that one shouldn't, but one should also remember to add the caveat. To remember that the subjects of your writing may resent you for attempting to take over their voices and tell their stories on their behalf - again (Because lets be real, that's what happens when the winners write history). As for the rest, Red Prophet is perhaps one of the better (or the best) books in this series. It's decently written, suspenseful in all the right places, and has only minor plot holes. The subplots involving Governor Harrison, Tippecanoe, the curse of bloody hands, mystical whirlwinds that exist outside the time and space paradigm all fit right into the story. There are few, if any elements that jar the reader out of this world of magical fantasy and into reality.
Without a doubt, Golden Lily is still very much Sydney's story - her quest to discover the truths that her Alchemist bosses are hiding from her, the truths behind the cult of vampire hunters, her continued efforts to protect her little pack of Moroi and dhampir, her study of magic, and yes, her struggle with body image and eating disorders. And yet, it's also beginning to show us how Bloodlines is as much about Adrian as it is about Sydney. The Vampire Academy series was forever Rose Hathaway's story - there's no doubt about that. Everyone else, Dimitri and Lissa included, were supporting characters. But Golden Lily begins to dip into Adrian's family, his background, his psyche, building the set up for what I would call one of the finest depictions of battling mental illness I've ever read.
It has just enough background and slow plot to keep the reader interested, and it ends on a pause, not a stop. And just like with Alvin Maker, the Dark Tower series seems to spin rapidly out of control the further you get. I honestly cannot decide which series is worse - the pros and cons cancel each other out - but like with Alvin Maker, this book (and by extension, this series) shouldn't really be picked up by anyone who's going to feel cheated by an unsatisfactory ending which comes on the heels of pages and pages of word vomit.
A lot of GR reviewers have complained that this book is merely - and clearly - a set up for the rest of the series, and they would be right. Seventh Son is not a stand alone book - there is just a pause at the end, and a promise to continue the tale soon. The first book however, was interesting enough to suck me in - enough that I'd probably have hunted down the second book in the series if I didn't already have it with me. But - and here's the catch - the rest of the series doesn't live up to the promise of Seventh Son (let alone surpass it), so taking up this book (and by extension the rest of the series) would, in my opinion, be a waste of time.
Feminist Quill 