Customer Reviews

Crystal Line (Crystal, Vol. 3)

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I read McCaffrey when I want to be comforted by the presence of basically decent people. The plots don't matter to me much and the attempts at true sci-fi technology are something to skipped over as quickly as possible (eg. the workings of a Hive ship.) For that reason, I have also enjoyed McCaffrey's non-Sci-fi books, in particular "A Stitch in Snow".

The Crystal Singer series is my favorite sci-fi trilogy and Crystal Line is my favorite of the three books. In Crystal Singer, we have the usual angry and mis-treated teenager who strikes out on her own and is attracted to the domineering macho types. In Killashandra, we have a woman who has matured enough to change her taste in men. But in Crystal Line we have one of the very few "middle-aged" (I know she's actually several hundred years old according to the plot) heroines in sci-fi. Her decisions about what she will do with her life, and who she will do it with, are long over. But she still has decisions to make about how she will deal with both the choices that she has made and the things that life has done to her.

I was less than inspired by the first two Crystal Singer books. Killashandra was a fun heroine, but not too appealing, and her adventures were somewhat...silly. However, I hate leaving loose ends, so I started reading "Crystal Line"...and was quite pleasantly surprised! Oh, the adventures here are still rather irrelevant. Killa and Lars could have been doing anything, that's not really the point. The point is, in THIS book, the profession of Crystal Singing, the joys and triumphs it brings and the hazards of the job are finally explored, and it's...haunting. Lars is sweet, though he still doesn't do much for me. Killa, however, finally stops being the diva and faces the past she struggled for so long to suppress and has to find what her heart is searching for. Through the course of the book, several loose ends are tied up (it's recommended that the reader not wait too long between reading "Crystal Singer" and "Crystal Line"), and the ending is...perfect.

"Yarran beer"
"good brew"
"Jewel Junk"
"Lanzecki"

Though I greatly enjoyed Crystal Singer, and thought Killashandra, though flawed and not up to the quality of Crystal Singer, was a good enough read, though the bodice-ripper aspects of the romance were irritating. But Crystal Line promises a lot and delivers little. The characters are getting wearisome, Killashandra's memory loss is irritating and becomes a very tiresome and overused plot device, and McCaffrey falls into the trap so many series writers do - of using the same phrases and references again and again, ad nauseam, to the point where the reader wonders if the author is simply cutting and pasting lines and phrases from the previous two books. How many times must these characters drink Yarran beer in these books and act as if each and every sip is a great revelation of a "good brew"? Let them discover something else to drink, for heaven's sake! It becomes embarrassing.

For fans of the Crystal Singer series, this is a fairly satisfying ending, but a lot of red pencil wielding on the part of a good editor who was aware of how often McCaffrey was re-using tired old phrases in a misguided attempt to tie the three books together would have been a very good idea.

But then, this is the author who has used the word "dragon" in titles to the point where it's painful and gives rise to continuous jokes about the possible risque titles for the next "Dragon-whatever" book. Repetition obviously isn't a problem for her, or her devoted fan following.

While Crystal Line is NOT my favorite book in this trilogy, it is still a good read. It is great to go back to Ballybran and cut crystal with Lars and Killashandra. My biggest problem with this book is that there are some inconsistencies/errors in it that were seemingly missed in the editing.
The plot seemed a little lacking in my mind and the story jumps around a bit. I also missed some of the favorite characters from the first two books who are now dead or incapacitated. I found the sections where Killa is suffering from severe memory loss difficult to read.
All in all I did enjoy the book -- it's great to spend more time with old friends on Ballybran.
If you have read the other 2 books (Crystal Singer & Killashandra), don't miss this one.

This book does not live up to first two books in the trilogy.This book was poorly written, although the ending is somewhat satisfying. Everything in between the beginning and ending could have been better,though.I recommend it only to die-hard McCaffrey fans, with the caveat that they will not find the quality work of "Crystal Singer","Dragonflight", or "The White Dragon".

Fans of Killashandra will almost certainly want to see what happens to her, and you will if you read this volume. The storyline isn't totally uninteresting, but you won't find the same heroine in this volume that you did in the first two. She doesn't even manage to age satisfactorily until the last chapter or so, and the overall ending is a bit deus ex machina. Anne McCaffrey still has her imagination and the main focus of the story, an alien life-form of questionable sentience, is evocative. Killashandra's interactions with it are even decent to read through, but I still couldn't help feeling let down by this installment. I would say read it to finish the trilogy, but don't get your hopes too high.

This is another McCaffrey book. If you're into her writing and her style this is typical. The storyline is basic the difference is there's a few surprises. The writing is good and decent. I like the fact it leaves you kinda hanging until the last bit of the book, which once again is typical. She tries to string you along but if you are familiar with her writing and style you can read between the lines and figure out the basic secret she's keeping from the reader before it is officially revealed. I like McCaffrey because she's an easy read and good fluff for when I feel stressed out over work. She gets my mind onto happier things and helps escape. Good book and the series isn't half bad either.

I have never read anything so enthralling in my life. It instantly grabbed me, and I was unable to put it down. The story line is always eventful, and I never once got bored with it. It was always "What's gonna happen next?" A brilliant read.

I love this series so much that I now own it in HC, PB, and on Kindle.

The writing is fun, funny, imaginative, unexpected, and engaging -- everything good fantasy should be. This is a comfortable and relaxing rainy-weekend read.

It's worth reading but not at the Kindle price. No paper, no ink, no glue, no fuel costs, no Text-to-speech. Do yourself a favor buy a used paperback. Don't support the "Publishers" price gouging. No TTS, $3.99. with TTS $5.99 max.