Customer Reviews

Destiny: Book Three of The Blending Enthroned

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

The original five book series "The Blending," was a fun, witty, and enjoyable read. The characters were interesting, and their complicated relationships, and continual misunderstandings were amusing and trying all at the same time. By the end of the five books, you were content with where the characters had reached.

Then the sequel trilogy. The Blending Enthroned, book one and two, showed a marked decrease in the writing quality from the first five. The descriptive text was gone, replaced by conversation: no longer did you read wonderful descriptions of rich tapestries, instead, two characters had forced and awkward conversations along the lines of: "Oh Gosh, Tamma, notice the fine tapestries!" "Why yes, Jovvi, they seem so rich and pretty." It was actually painful.

Book three continues this trend, and worsens it. Plot is replaced with the six Blendingmates merely discovering more and more inherent powers, they blast their way through any trouble, and their conversations are nothing more than praise fests and mutual agreement. One character comes up with a plan, the rest praise him for it. One character does something, the rest swarm the individual with praise. Again, it's painful.

Still, from love of the original five, I finished this trilogy. I shouldn't have even started it: the ending of this story is contrived, and outright Deus ex Machina! Everything about this book is contrived, from language, to plot, to ending. It was thouroughly disappointing.

It's unfortunate. The original five books were wonderful, and with the minor exclusion of a few plot details that polished up a character or two, there wasn't anything in this book that was worth the price. Do go read the first five, but stop there.

'Nathan

When I first discovered Sharon Green, reading her 'Blending' series I was thrilled. I liked the way that the five aspects came together and created this powerful entity that was able to accomplish much more than separate individuals could. I also liked the antagonism of the nobles against the peasants, and although one could see that they would win out in the end with the nobles being deposed, I was still interested enough to keep reading.

Sadly to say her next series, 'The Blending Enthroned', faded faster than a dream. For one thing her characters DID NOT grow up from the first series. They still had all of these constant bickerings and fights, insecurities, and immaturity. Didn't they resolve all of these issues in the first series? Why go through them painfully again? The writing was also childish. Why have the characters say, "don't be surprised about what we've discovered and what I'm about to say", then in the next line have they exclaiming in surprise, mouths wide open and eyebrows arched replying, "how can that be, I'm so surprised"! This is very frustrating writing to plod through.

Redundancy after redundancy. All of the characters were poorly constructed, with Tamrissa being the worst becoming an overly aggressive, self-rightoues twit. I personally like to drink tea but seeing EVERYBODY on EVERY page drinking tea grated on my nerves. IS THERE NOTHING ELSE IN THIS WORLD TO DRINK! Why were we subjected to this over and over like a club bashing in our heads. If this is what keeps the writer writing good for her but why subject us to all of this tea swilling. I found myself wanting to hold each and every one of the characters down and pour tea down their throats until they drowned in it.

Lastly, the ending. BAD is the one word that I can use. BAD! BAD! BAD! and a let down in my estimation, seemingly rushed through, poorly constructed and thoroughly disappointing!

As I was reading this book, I got the feeling that this was going to be another 5 book series. It sure feels like it when you get 3/4 of the way through the third book and nothing is really resolved. Boy does that "ending" sure sneak up [...]!!! I swear she wrote this book, got half way done, and was told she had to end the series with this book. The ending is that contrived. I loved her first 5 books and found them to be innovative and interesting, and I really enjoyed her first 2 books of this series (I was looking forward to this book for over a year), and feel that there was so much more that could have been done. Damn, I finished the book just 5 minutes ago and it's like ash in my mouth. She better write some more to finish this off correctly (she didn't even get into the original 4 and why 5 were needed to stop them [...]. It had a good deep feeling, but lost it in the end.

I enjoy reading Sharon Green's works a great deal, especially her Blending series. But I have to admit that I treat them like candy...to be savored and thoroughly enjoyed, but not really substancial.

The Blending Enthroned felt like a means to an end for me. The first two were less complete storywise, and it's impossible to read them out of order without driving yourself mad. The newer characters were mostly archetypes, which saved her time development wise, so that she could concentrate on the storytelling instead.

The end in question was the final achievement of the Chosen Six of course, and it was clear that she was enjoying herself more near the end of Destiny than in the first quarter to third...so I was having more fun.

Her storytelling remained constant throughout the entire series of eight...I started seeing where she was headed back in Competitions or Betrayals, but had it clearly by Prophecy...and I find that I wasn't disappointed with the outcome in the least.

My point really is that these books are great for what they are, candy, but if you're expecting something greater, you probably should look elsewhere.

I would have to agree with some of the other reviews. The original series is worth reading, but do yourself a favor and skip the Enthroned. The quality of the writing declined between the first and second series, and I am guessing that her publisher was disappointed in sales for enthroned and told her to wrap it up when she was half way through book three, leaving the ending rushed, disappointing and unbelievable.

Should have stop reading after the first five books. I think the author just wrote the extra three books for money. The book is just full of stupid dialogue. No characters development. Everyone is so one dimensional. Problem solves faster than I can flip the page. I will be real careful from now on buying this author book.

I will be honest and say that I was starting to get a little bored with this series around book 2 of the Blending Enthroned and it was taking me a while to get through it. I cant even put my finger on it exactly, but the pace seemed to slow down, etc. But I wanted to finish the series so I finished and moved on to the third and was glad I kept going because I was very interested most of the way through the book. There were some fun surprises at the end and it was great.

Best price I could find for a hard-to-find book that my son just "had to have."

Like some other reviewers, I was bothered with Ms. Green's insipid moralizing, whiny and paper-thin characters and tired plot devices. Honestly, how many times can Tamrissa pick a fight with someone? At first her new-found aggressiveness was endearing but by the end of the second series I had enough of the brat.

And tea. Holy sakes alive, what does this woman have over tea? It is like a love affair...does Lipton give her a cut every time she mentions the disgusting drink?

The first series was palatable (barely!) and this second series is pure drivel. One has to wonder: does the woman have any artistic intergrity or is she in this to 'make a buck' at the expense of her loyal readers (misguided as they may be).