Customer Reviews

Kingdom Of The Night (The Far Kingdoms)

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I am a bit surprised at the negative ratings this book has recieved. Yes, it has less "t and a" than the first, but it explores some interesting new planes. The descriptions some of the magical goings-on where transcendant, facinating. There was a greater sense of history here, both with the charecters and the destination itself. They change a bit of their already popular style to incorperate playing with the rules of space and time, and its finale was amazing. No, not quite as good overall as The Far Kingdoms, but i would say at least equal to the excellent Rali books.

What can we really say about "Kingdoms of the Night?" It is what it is, and readers of the first two books in the Antero saga will know by now whether they like this stuff or not. Anyway, here we find Amalric old, crusty, and grey-haired, waiting for death while the world goes on without him. His servant and bodyguard Quatervals convinces him to come to a ship naming ceremony in Orissa, where he finds hints of trouble brewing among his family and elsewhere. Soon Janos Greycloak's great-granddaughter Janela shows up, and before you can say argosy they're off on a world-spanning adventure to the far kingdoms, which turn out to be even farther than previously thought.

In any case, most fans, I presume, read this series for three things: huge actions sequences, whopping magic, and hot sex. In a survey of these three departments, I see plenty of opportunity for disappointment. The first two-hundred pages or so are a drag, too much talk and too little fighting. After that things do pick up somewhat, but still I found most of the battles scenes lacked intensity. Cole and Bunch do find some redemption in the grand finale, however. The magic, well, it's there, if you like that sort of thing. And the sex? Mostly off screen this time, though perhaps that's for the best, given how old our friend Amalric is by now.

I did like the Far Kingdoms. It was written very well, and whereas in other books the heroes go of to get some gold from some dragon, these ones just got off to discover new countries. The second part was still readable, but this part is one of the books I didn't finish. I got up to about the half, but the whole plot was demons popping up on every corner, and the protagonists exorcising them. Perhaps this plot changed, but I simply was to bored to read on