Customer Reviews

Competitions (The Blending, Book 2)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is the second Sharon Green book that I've read, the first being the first book in this same series, and I have to say that I find her work rather puzzling. She *definitely* knows how to write a hook. Despite all the flaws in this book, I'm still curious (actually against my own will) about what happens in the next book. However, her writing is curiously flat and the plot is relentlessly repetitive. It was as though she sat down and set herself an exercise titled 'writing a series about magic competitions.'

As the title suggests, this book is about competitions. There are multiple and repeated competitions throughout the book. They do not vary (except in character and magical power) and the fact that they do not vary kind of neatly removes anything like dramatic tension.

The characters are simple and more or less one dimensional. They've all got some pretty clearly defined emotional handicaps that they're also pretty clearly going to have to get over before they can go on to succeed in the later books. Oh, and the bad guys are (you guessed it) really really bad and spoiled and cruel and awful and stupid.

So, the question is, why did I finish it? Why am I probably going to read the next one? The answer is in the plot itself, I think. She neatly incorporates some nice mystery about the set-up and never really gives you the sense of a complete book so you really are left with this annoying sense of wanting to know how the darned thing ends. Like I said, it's a puzzling book.

If you've ever read something that had an appalling number of flaws (particularly in characterization and pacing), romances that could come straight out of a bad dime store novel, villains who fit every stereotype you could imagine, repetition galore, flatness abundant... and liked it *anyway*, then you can understand what I mean when I say that I enjoyed this book almost despite itself.

Sharon Green really must be a marvelous artist. Her main characters are winsome and intriguing; her magical system, like the society she has built, is fascinating. The ideas behind this particular book are interesting in their own right: the heroes and heroines (as well as villains and villainesses) must each face tests of their elemental gifts that will lead to rich rewards if they win and certain destruction if they fail. All the while, they're keeping an eye out for the machinations of the unscrupulous testing authority. It's a very compelling premise, particularly for readers who enjoy stories involving elemental magic and its practice.

It's just a shame that Green has chosen the method she has of presenting her world. While some of the characters' relationships with each other are touching, one pairing seems to have no solid basis for existance and a second had me wanting to throw the book across the room in disgust. (It did get better later, though.) The dialogue is simply regrettable at some points--mostly made so by the one-dimensional nature of the villains... who almost all happen to be noble, and/or the parental figures of the protagonists. I simply cannot believe that everyone except our heroes is evil, ambitious, and by and large essentially *stupid*, but that's what we're expected to swallow. There were also small details that made me sigh; the animal 'friends' seemed like something straight out of Snow White, which at least was fitting with a set of protagonists who are innocent, selfless, beautiful and/or handsome, virtuous, powerful... the list goes on.

However, I did enjoy _Competitions_, and have found the series difficult to put down despite its shortcomings. I would tentatively recommend this book and this series to anyone who is fond of the fantasy genre and can put up with the negative aspects mentioned above for the sake of a truly (if puzzlingly) intriguing tale.

This book followed the same pattern as the first, making it very predictable for the most part. Also, the squabbling between characters seems almost contrived, as if a plot device to keep them apart, such as you see in badly written romance novels. That said, some of the ideas about the competition were fresh enough to keep me reading and look for more.

Sounds like an ad for a cable channel ... or maybe the army. Well, it should! Once again, Sharon Green has graced her readers with an excellent tale, full of suspense, magic, and wonderfully-developed characters. In this second book of The Blending, we are given more information about the conspiracy facing our heroes and heroines. We also learn to appreciate them even more as they are placed in direct contrast with their opposites on the nobility's opposing blending. Oh, and did I mention romance? It's all in there. Few authors have managed to capture my attention so consistently with strong characterization, enthralling plots, humor, and in this case, a wonderful point-of-view stance. At this rate, the third book promises to leave us hanging on the edges of our collective seats

I was shocked at just how awful this book is. Each chapter is basically one of the five main characters going through some trial--and the next four chapters are how the other characters have done exactly the same thing. Awful. A bore. Hard to get through. It was like trudging through a book of Organic Chemistry. Now, I love Sharon Green. I adored her Mida series and I /love/ the Warrior Within. This woman can write. Each chapter is well written--Just, I can not comprehend why she felt she had to right the exact same thing over, in five different ways?

Well well, at least it's not as redundant as the first book. You can still guess the entire pattern of the book before you pass page 20, but there aren't any word-for-word repetitions of conversations as in book 1. Maybe it's just easier because you can skim through the repetitions after the first time.

Our heroes, though they seem to be bright enough to deal with the challenges of their situation, are reduced to acting like a bunch of 13-year-olds when it comes to relationships. (hint: when it takes the characters dozens or hundreds of pages to figure out things anyone with some common sense could settle in five minutes, there's something wrong.) I guess this is supposed to create some drama, since there is none in the main story line. Our heroes are still good, honest people. Everyone else in the entire world is still two-dimensionally evil. The opponents are given one personality trait each, and never stray the slightest bit from it.

And yet, though I'm not proud to admit it, I'll probably read the others. This series is good for mindless brain-candy reading when I don't have the mental energy to deal with a real plot and three-dimensional characters. The ludicrous dialogue is still amusing (e.g., Rion and Naran's declarations of love - I wasn't sure whether to laugh out loud or weep at the possibility that someone may have written it seriously). It's a generic romance story given a fantasy background. Once we pass the drawn-out setup stage, perhaps it'll even grow into a real story instead of a teen 'drama.' I remain curious.

While there was repetitiveness, I didn't see the one-dimensionality that the other reviewers have seen. I think the problems with several of the characters were fairly in-depth. Also, not all of the antagonists are set up as truly evil. The world is intriguing, as is the magic system, and the repetitiveness goes away after the first couple of books. My husband and I both read the entire series, and the sister trilogy, all the way through.

It's not a heavy read, but it is a fun one. :)

I love this author. Sharon Green writes a wonderful fantasy story. I would recommend all of her books to anyone, if you like fantasy.

Don't believe that this book is bad! It happens to be really entertaining and light hearted.-At first. Pace is kept really good and steady. As well as introducing you to new characters. While new characters are slightly too typical Delin and Kambil are gifts to characacter development. The repition of mastery tests are annoying, but better then the repitions in Convergence. So read this book, but don't expect things to heat up yet. That only really happens in Challenges and the beginning of Betrayals.

I am frustrated that I like this book, because now I am compelled to finish the trilogy. Sharon Green has a talent for creating engaging characters and an intriguing plot, but her style tends to be tedious. Green attempts to narrate the story from each characters' point of view without success. Each character repeats details of their experiences which are excruciatingly similar. By the climax of this story, readers can easily predict the actions of each character. If Green changed her narrative stance to a more omniscient narrator, perhaps the telling would be less tedious.