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Dark Moon Defender Review
Jan. 6th, 2007 09:22 amSharon Shinn keeps the enthusiastic thumbs up prompted by the first of her books that I read a few months ago. I've now read both the other available books in what I thought was a trilogy - and it turns out the series isn't done yet!
The Thirteenth House took me by surprise because it wasn't about what I'd expected, and herein lies the only problem with Shinn that I've discovered so far. She has a tendency to end one book in a series with something interesting about to happen, and then the next book starts later on, when that thing has already been and gone. This annoyed me a bit in the Thirteenth House because I thought it was going to follow the two main characters of Mystic and Rider on the journey they were about to start at the end of that book, but it started after they'd already come back.
Still, The Thirteenth House was an excellent story, without a happy ending, which impressed me because it made a lot more sense that way and I was glad she didn't cop out and go for the sentiment.
The whole series is very 7th Sea, in that it has a group of disparate characters working together to uncover a political plot to overthrow the king, but each book singles out one of the characters and gives them a very personal story to work through, involving all the others to varying degrees along the way.
Once I'd figured out this was how it worked, I hoped Dark Moon Defender was going to be about a particular character I liked - and it was. The over-riding political plot carried on in the background, while Justin went on a solo mission, fell in love and adventures ensued.
There are only two characters in the group who haven't had focus in a book yet, and one of them is already paired off, so I'm betting book four is going to be about Cammon, the sweet young mystic who can read people's emotions, but who never gets any attention himself. Can't wait!
The Thirteenth House took me by surprise because it wasn't about what I'd expected, and herein lies the only problem with Shinn that I've discovered so far. She has a tendency to end one book in a series with something interesting about to happen, and then the next book starts later on, when that thing has already been and gone. This annoyed me a bit in the Thirteenth House because I thought it was going to follow the two main characters of Mystic and Rider on the journey they were about to start at the end of that book, but it started after they'd already come back.
Still, The Thirteenth House was an excellent story, without a happy ending, which impressed me because it made a lot more sense that way and I was glad she didn't cop out and go for the sentiment.
The whole series is very 7th Sea, in that it has a group of disparate characters working together to uncover a political plot to overthrow the king, but each book singles out one of the characters and gives them a very personal story to work through, involving all the others to varying degrees along the way.
Once I'd figured out this was how it worked, I hoped Dark Moon Defender was going to be about a particular character I liked - and it was. The over-riding political plot carried on in the background, while Justin went on a solo mission, fell in love and adventures ensued.
There are only two characters in the group who haven't had focus in a book yet, and one of them is already paired off, so I'm betting book four is going to be about Cammon, the sweet young mystic who can read people's emotions, but who never gets any attention himself. Can't wait!
