This would be 4 stars except for all the weird couplings that went on. Every story had a romantic tilt on it, which normally I like from Anne McCaffreThis would be 4 stars except for all the weird couplings that went on. Every story had a romantic tilt on it, which normally I like from Anne McCaffrey, but when you only have 75 pages from beginning to end, something is really lost in the romance there....more
I uttered a sigh of relief upon starting what I knew would be the last novel in this series. I grew bored of it in book 2, although this book was muchI uttered a sigh of relief upon starting what I knew would be the last novel in this series. I grew bored of it in book 2, although this book was much better than its predecessors, it still left me a bit flat.
Again with the terrible brown text on cream paper. The cover for this one is quite pretty, although I'm not sure where the dragon's left arm went. Looks like an action book and that's what we get.
A lot of the negative reviews in young adult novels nowadays is because of how sexist they are. The girl main character gets with a guy, is ok when he is abusive, and generally shows extremely disturbing emotions in a positive light. Cara Diana Hunter, at the very least, can't fall into this category too easily. Sure there are a couple instances of the men being overly protective or brushing over her much warranted need for a good cry and just say "She is so brave" quietly to one another. But you know, at least she's not in an abusive relationship, and she's off having fun scary action times in a fantasy world.
I had this complaint with the entire series and it was not to change for The Last Hunt - all the events are incredibly convenient. Every time a character would get separated from his or her party my immediate thought was "No matter. They'll find someone else wandering around the forest." And of course they did, every time. Coupled with the omniscient narrator, that left absolutely no suspense. I didn't go through and count but another reviewer on Goodreads says there are about 20 viewpoints throughout the novel, and I believe it. It becomes such a mess jumping around to practically every character we've been introduced to, yet it doesn't even include a table of contents. Now I'm not saying a table of contents is what makes or breaks a good novel, but every other book in the series has had one. It does include a very handy glossary at the back, but it unfortunately had me screaming at the book. The glossary contained spoilers! What! When I didn't recognize the name of one of the human sorcerer people and went back to check who it was, it completely gave away his story line. Ugh I was frustrated at that!
The unicorns are pretty ineffectual in this novel. Amalia Flickerfoot seems content to send off envoys on missions and then stands around to be caught unawares of a war she knew was going to happen. Yes I know she didn't know where it was going to happen, but there has got to be more preparation than just traveling to the location for the battlefield of choice. No sorts of armor were commissioned from the humans, the unicorns ride into battle with no protection whatsoever. That just seems negligent. This is war here people! But of course Coville tends to shy away from any of the "adult" aspects normally present in a fantasy novel, as it is meant for young adult/middle readers. I'm pretty far above the target audience here but so much of the story could have been fleshed out more had we not had so many narrators in the soup. Or is that cooks in the kitchen? Whatever.
(view spoiler)[A popular story telling cliche is the outsider coming in and saving the downtrodden natives. See Avatar or Dances with Wolves. I can't believe it but it happened here as well, when Cara becomes a unicorn. I always thought that's where the story was heading when we found out Cara was part unicorn, but when it actually happened I thought it was pretty lackluster, and really a bit disturbing. Just like Kevin Costner became more native than the natives, Cara becomes more unicorn than the unicorns, and it is only thanks to her that the unicorns win at all.
All of the story lines go through an epilogue so we aren't left with many questions. However, there are still two that left me shaking my head in bafflement. First, the blind man that took Ian Hunter's sight. Ian's sight isn't taken very many times in this novel but it does happen right at the very end, so I was reminded about it. So...ok? That was a weird bargain in the first place, then it never got resolved for me. And lastly, the dragons mention at the very end that there's another dragon around. Wait there's another dragon around? Is this a set up for another story? Can you tell me....I WON'T TELL YOU. END THE BOOK QUICK! QUICKER! Well...fine then. (hide spoiler)]
I'm glad to be done with series, and I'm afraid I can't recommend it very highly. The first novel is enough to make anyone love unicorns, but it falls off too quickly to stay interesting. Read the first one but leave the rest....more
The first two novels of this series I read an older printing of (this series isn't available on the Kindle, unfortunately), and the third novel, Dark The first two novels of this series I read an older printing of (this series isn't available on the Kindle, unfortunately), and the third novel, Dark Whispers, was my first contact with the reprints. They got a new artist, which I think is a travesty as the covers for Into the Land of the Unicorns and Song of the Wanderer are simply gorgeous and fit the series perfectly. When I brought home my copy of this one, I was aghast at the terrible outfit they made Cara wear on the cover. This is more shallow of me than I would like to admit, but seriously, mustard yellow jerkin, eggplant purple cloak, and red hair? Those do not go well together! We all judge books by their cover whether we want to or not, and stunning cover art will often lead me to buy a book I wouldn't otherwise try. This one smacks of a bad movie poster. Then there's the book itself; it is on creamy paper with brown ink. I do not have bad eyes but this made it extremely hard for me to read as there just wasn't enough contrast. This is the first time I've ever seen brown ink being used in a book and I hope I never come across it again (except in the sequel of course :( ) Sadly I can only assume this means that every book in the series has had this treatment in the reprinting.
Ok enough about the physical aspect, it was just frivolously annoying and only made me question Coville's publisher, not the man himself. He obviously has a lot of ideas and trying to get them all down in a young adult or even children's medium perhaps wasn't the best choice. A number of very adult situations occur that then have no repercussions as he just breezes over them. Whereas I am sitting there horrified at what I just read, the characters are like "Well that was sucky for you. Now stop complaining. Moving on!" Cara is consistently called wiser than her years, or more brave and courageous than the adult hunters, and although she is put into many trying situations, it always seemed more of a "This is what the author wanted to happen here, not what would have really happened." That sounds silly talking about a fantasy book, but the prodigious amount of coincidences and stupidity that always work out makes her seem a lot less brave and a lot more ridiculously lucky. As the reader, you know everything will always work out for the best. Even if a character dies it never seems to have much affect, and that makes me feel pretty damn uncaring and heartless.
Cara is once again given a quest that requires a long distance to travel. I was beginning to tire of travel in the last book, but now we follow several of the friends she's made along the way. All these characters crisscrossing Luster bogged down the story, in my opinion. This installation makes heavy use of the omniscient narrator, which the other novels only used sparingly, and usually only when a character was telling a story. Now even Cara's dad is a point of view character, and I hated his entire story and quest. I guess the emerald prison in the last book was kind of cool (but not that cool), however the seemingly endless ruby prison in this novel was so grating to me. I never had any reason to like Ian Hunter, and his quest made him even more tiresome. He's just a bland father figure going through the motions of loving his daughter.
The first novel had the beginnings of a great fantasy world, but instead of keeping the story tight and concise, it has become too spread out and uninteresting. It's like Bruce Coville kept on getting ideas and found ways to incorporate them that didn't really fit into the story he started in the first book. I may be totally wrong about that, but especially with how long it took him to finish this series, I feel he probably had no clue where he was going at the beginning, and that really detracted from my enjoyment of both the second and third installments of this series....more
The second novel in The Unicorn Chronicles picks up mere moments after the first novel ended, plopping us right back down into the action. Cara is givThe second novel in The Unicorn Chronicles picks up mere moments after the first novel ended, plopping us right back down into the action. Cara is given a quest within a few pages and she sets off without much ado. We are introduced to a few new unicorns, and Thomas continues the adventure with the party.
One of the things I enjoy about this series is that the unicorns are not perfect. They each have character flaws, egos, and occasional poor decision making. There are no special snowflake princesses in these unicorns. Lightfoot will always be my favorite unicorn from this series, because he really does seem like the spoiled prince who is just trying to make a name for himself in the world, outside of his family. There is unfortunately not enough of my favorite character, the Dimblethum, although we are introduced to Medafil, whose constant stream of hyperbole and made up curse words had me smiling.
My number one gripe about this series is that everything is incredibly convenient and through a series of astonishing coincidences, Cara rediscovers her family, including her parents and grandparents. I could handle it for the first installment, Into the Land of the Unicorns, because that one overall felt the most juvenile, so everything working out was ok with me. But while this one has all the characters grow up just a little bit, no one ever makes a misstep, or if they do, it is always a good thing and a benefit to all in the end.
If I weren't a bad poker player, I would stop the series here, but I hate giving up on a series once I start it. The reveals at the end creeped me out more than intrigued me, and the next two books just get longer and longer. This novel actually made me dislike the first one a little bit, because the reveals were so odd and adult yet the writing was so obviously juvenile....more
No wonder I loved this book so much as a kid. I remember reading it at least three times, and I'm so glad I was able to find it again. It's just a greNo wonder I loved this book so much as a kid. I remember reading it at least three times, and I'm so glad I was able to find it again. It's just a great adventure story....more
Now that the days are dark and dreary, I feel like reading fairy tales, the ultimate comfort food. The Goose Girl shows up on a couple "best fairy talNow that the days are dark and dreary, I feel like reading fairy tales, the ultimate comfort food. The Goose Girl shows up on a couple "best fairy tale retelling" lists, so I went and grabbed it. The quote on the cover from Stephanie Meyer should have warned me away but alas, here we are. I've never heard of the story of the goose girl, so before starting it I went to Wikipedia and read the synopsis. I forget how brutal fairy tales are when they're not put through Disney's filter.
Thankfully this novel wasn't put through the filter quite so stringently, and leaves out the brutal parts while still keeping us interested with all the nasty things happening to Ani, the lost princess. It is written for a young audience, but there's still a bit of sword fighting and blood to satisfy me. What I enjoyed the most was her gift of talking to animals, mostly birds, and how that progresses along with the novel (although the deus ex machina at the end had me rolling my eyes a fair bit). Not only her gift blooms, but the princess also grows as you would expect any riches-to-rags story to go, showing her the kingdom from a different side and making her all the better for it. Strength through adversity and all that good stuff. I noticed that the next novel in the series is called Enna Burning, and we are introduced to Enna, but she wasn't developed nearly as much as I would have liked. This story is very Ani-centric, but I let that slide as she only learns how to make friends towards the end.
The part that bugged me the most - and yes, feel free to label me a little squealing schoolgirl - was that the love story was jaw cracking yawn inducing. The love interest is barely in the story, and when they finally meet on equal terms (about 5 pages from the end, but of course, what more is there to tell after the princess gets the prince), it is the most leaden and unheartwarming dialogue. When I eat my chicken soup I want it to make me feel warm and fuzzy inside, damn it! I didn't even crack a smile at her happiness.
I feel like I went into this expecting the wrong thing. If I had it labeled as "young adult novel with strong but stupid female lead," even if I didn't like it more, maybe I would have understood it more. As it stands, her stupidity (which is constantly called bravery instead) really got to me. I don't recommend this as a fairy tale retelling, but as a simple fantasy princess I suppose it's ok. Overall, pretty forgettable....more
Although I did not enjoy this book overly when I read it a few years ago, one concept has stuck with me. Beauty has access to a library of everything Although I did not enjoy this book overly when I read it a few years ago, one concept has stuck with me. Beauty has access to a library of everything that has ever been written. I've recently been attending a class on Greek Mythology, wherein we have read things like the Iliad, the Odyssey, and poetry by Sappho. Did you know that Sappho was extremely prolific, but it is estimated that 97% of her poetry was lost? Mostly due to jerky popes who claimed she was just too saucy and her poetry needed to be burned. She was called the 10th Muse by Plato, that's how beautiful her poetry was. In fact, two fragments of her poems were recently discovered and the entire academic world was atwitter with excitement. This adds up to be about 30 lines of poetry total, I believe.
And so thinking about this, staring dreamily off as I consider what has been lost...I bet Beauty had access to them. So jealous....more
I had a hard time deciding what I thought about this one. I really wanted to like it. Originally published in 1987, it's one of the earlier examples oI had a hard time deciding what I thought about this one. I really wanted to like it. Originally published in 1987, it's one of the earlier examples of urban fantasy, and that says a lot in itself. Although according to the Wikipedia the genre was officially acknowledged in the late 80s, I feel the late 90s is when it really came into its own, and it is still extraordinarily popular, especially with women (as evidenced by all the urban paranormal romance series out there). So I give him props for doing something relatively original at the time, even though private investigator is such a cliche in the genre now. But the book just couldn't quite keep it together.
The huge cast of characters and all the scheming they went through, while usually I enjoy some intense scheming, this time only served to disinterest me. Pretty soon I had to juggle half a dozen story lines and I didn't care about any of them, which made it more of a chore to read then anything because I had to keep flipping back to see who the hell he was talking about. There was a mystery to be solved in there somewhere but I didn't care about it. I can understand the seeds getting planted for sequels, but I was so bored with the story in this one by the time I got to the end, no sequel will come in sight for me. The women...oh god, the women. Even the one Garrett hates he can hardly take his eyes off because of her "lavish figure" or some such malarkey. Here's a nice quote from page 69:
"The boat began to drift away from the wharf. The women took my advice, sprinted and jumped. A delectable bundle of goodies plopped into my arms. Morley popped up and caught Rose, making suitable purrs at the advent of unexpected treasures...she made no effort to peel herself from me. I thought about pushing her away - sometime next week."
At this point, blatant sexism is practically what I'm used to in urban fantasy, but it still enrages me. The two women are never more than annoying, chattering, and good looking background noise, who also happen to need rescuing now and then.
So besides sexism and a plot that I couldn't care to keep up with, there was also the issue of the writing style. Often something "subtle" would happen. The author would point this out to us, probably by Garrett looking significantly at a character or a revelation within the narration...only half the time, I was so confused as to what he was talking about, I would reread the scene a couple times to figure out what I had missed. This happened in action scenes as well, it felt like there would be whole sentences missing and it left me furrowing my brow in question. Once again, I feel this was a missed opportunity for me to get into the story. The author obviously wanted the reader to feel like they were solving the mystery by seeing something subtle in the descriptions he gave us, but it fell so flat as to render me confused and helpless, so I'd just plow on and hope it would be explained. Sometimes it was, sometimes not. By the end of the novel I didn't care anymore to try to find out....more
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