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Contrarius's Reviews > Prisoner
Prisoner (Kria, #1)
by
by
2 1/2 stars. I'm feeling generous today, so I'm rounding up to 3.
This book is very popular amongst fans of gay romance/fantasy. For those of you who don't fit that description, don't worry -- there is absolutely NO sex in this book, of any description apart from a few sanitary kisses, and little romance over all. I think this book is popular, however, mostly because romance fans don't really have a firm grasp on what good fantasy is like.
This isn't really a baaaaad book. It's got three interesting cultures, two interesting (but in one case very poorly explained) magic systems, and interesting characters. But the cultures and magic systems are never really fleshed out, and there are lots and lots of niggling plot problems -- which I'm too lazy right now to specify one by one. Oh, and soooooo many times the author uses slightly the wrong word when trying to sound literate....that was really annoying. Like when a character asks "Shall I trod upon your toes?" instead of "tread", and many others that I'm also too lazy to look up at the moment.
Oh, also -- oddly enough, despite the fact that the author is female, the only two important female characters are (as at least one other reviewer has mentioned) a whorish general who slept with that country's ruler to get her position, and a shrewish Duchess -- who had potential, but was IMHO painted with excessively broad strokes. And why, oh why, did one of the countries -- the militarily aggressive one, of course -- have to be depicted as Germanic, complete with Germanic names and a Kaiser? The other two countries were anonymous-basic-Euro-foundation fantasy countries, but for some reason the big aggressors had to be Germans. Yeesh.
This book is very popular amongst fans of gay romance/fantasy. For those of you who don't fit that description, don't worry -- there is absolutely NO sex in this book, of any description apart from a few sanitary kisses, and little romance over all. I think this book is popular, however, mostly because romance fans don't really have a firm grasp on what good fantasy is like.
This isn't really a baaaaad book. It's got three interesting cultures, two interesting (but in one case very poorly explained) magic systems, and interesting characters. But the cultures and magic systems are never really fleshed out, and there are lots and lots of niggling plot problems -- which I'm too lazy right now to specify one by one. Oh, and soooooo many times the author uses slightly the wrong word when trying to sound literate....that was really annoying. Like when a character asks "Shall I trod upon your toes?" instead of "tread", and many others that I'm also too lazy to look up at the moment.
Oh, also -- oddly enough, despite the fact that the author is female, the only two important female characters are (as at least one other reviewer has mentioned) a whorish general who slept with that country's ruler to get her position, and a shrewish Duchess -- who had potential, but was IMHO painted with excessively broad strokes. And why, oh why, did one of the countries -- the militarily aggressive one, of course -- have to be depicted as Germanic, complete with Germanic names and a Kaiser? The other two countries were anonymous-basic-Euro-foundation fantasy countries, but for some reason the big aggressors had to be Germans. Yeesh.
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That trod thing would give me a seizure or something.
You really are feeling generous.