Customer Reviews

Legacy

5 star:		(65)
4 star:		(59)
3 star:		(64)
2 star:		(23)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

Cayla Kluver gets away with sub-par writing because adult editors and publishers are so blown away by the fact that she's only a child. Her attention to detail is meticulous in some areas and completely lacking in others. Characters speak poetically, in flowery language reminiscent of olden times, but many think and behave in ways that are completely contrary to the culture in which they purportedly grew up. Her ideas are original and her story moves well, which makes a reader want to keep reading, but her sentence structure and descriptions could use a lot more work. All in all, a good read, but ultimately unsatisfying (NOBODY likes a cliffhanger) and slightly frustrating to have to plow through a detailed description of every single character's outfit. Several times.

Much is made of Cayla Kluver publishing this debut novel at the tender age of sixteen. I fancied myself a novelist at that age too. Setting my surviving works from that time beside this book, I admit that Miss Kluver is a more mature writer than I was. But that doesn't change the fact that audiences read a book expecting to be surprised and taken on a journey. Miss Kluver says nothing we haven't already heard, and says it at remarkable length.

Princess Alera of Hytanica is being pressed to marry arrogant Steldor, the most promising young warrior of the kingdom. But handsome, enigmatic Narian rides out of the rival kingdom of Cokyri, a land evidently ruled by militant feminist ninja mystics. Experienced youth fantasy readers know what happens next. With war on the horizon and old secrets exposed, duty and romance battle for Alera's limited loyalties.

How does Miss Kluver get it wrong? Let me count the ways. This is a coming of age story from an author who hasn't come of age. It deals with courtship and marriage, though the author has never been married and probably has been only recently courted. And it deals with parental repression although, to judge by her repeated gushing, she has known nothing but support from her family. She's simply memorized these tropes from other books she's read.

I never get past the feeling that the author is clearing her throat. She introduces characters and keeps them in holding patterns for hundreds of pages. When I hit page 150 and we were still in Act One, I was frustrated. At page 300 I was angry. At page 450 I wanted to throw the book across the room. It's bad enough when name brand authors like Anne Rice or Stephen King expect me to read their finger exercises, but a debut author hasn't earned that indulgence.

The book exceeds 460 pages, but nothing happens that I didn't anticipate until a dozen pages from the end. Young readers who haven't read as much as I have might not be bothered by that. But if it's true that the best youth fiction can only be truly enjoyed by grown-ups, then this book falls short. True, the conclusion resists clichéd tendencies, but by the time we're on page 450, does anybody really care anymore?

Miss Kluver, I admit, has promise. She handles the language well, and has more rounded insight into the human heart than I did until I was in my middle twenties. But at sixteen, she just can't know much about the passions and politics which form the backbone of this book. And over 460 pages of Act One is really trying. I look forward to what she's able to accomplish when she's older, but this book just isn't there yet.

Another reviewer said something about this book that made a lot of sense to me- that if the author hadn't been 16 that she wouldn't have gotten nearly as much attention as she already has. I have to agree with that- the book is "ok" but other than that I sort of don't see what all the fuss is about.

The story follows Princess Alera as she goes about her daily life. She is told that she must choose a husband before she turns 18, but unfortunately the only suitor her father will really allow is the egotistical Steldor. Meanwhile there's still tensions between her kingdom & the nearby Cokryi kingdom, especially since their last act against her people was to steal a bunch of babies & leave their dead bodies at the front gates. Only one baby was unaccounted for. The tensions seem to increase as the mysterious Narian was caught & discovered to be the unaccounted for baby.

Really & truthfully, I just couldn't get into this book. Initially I'd liked the first few chapters but after a while the book's charm just seemed to dissipate. I couldn't really get to really liking Alera- she spends a lot of time doing a whole lot of nothing & then whining about it. I understand that she's hindered by how she was raised & the restrictions of how the kingdom views women, but she just seems really annoying to me. I certainly can't understand why two guys are chasing after her, although I'm assuming that Steldor's affection is more because he wants to be king. There's really no chemistry between her & either guy, to be honest. The book drags on & on so much that after a while I could feel my eyes begin to glaze over.

And then there's the descriptions. Endless descriptions of what people were wearing, what they were eating... I was willing to put up with it because I do like some description, but the descriptions would take a good chunk of the book. I finally lost my patience when I was treated to an overly detailed description of a tiara... that the character had worn earlier in the novel. Rather than just say that she'd worn it earlier, we're given another description of it. A description that took up an entire paragraph. After a while the descriptions just become irritating.

I really wanted to like this book, really I did. As it was, the book seemed to be more of a chore to slog through than anything else. Maybe others may like it, but offhand this book just doesn't appeal to me. The book is "ok" but overall it just didn't seem to stand out to me like Paolini's Eragon series did. Kluver just doesn't have what it takes at this point in time to carry off such a long & weighty novel. In a year or so after she gets more used to writing, but right now? Less would have been far more with this novel.

I purchased this book by chance without really knowing much about the story except that it revolved around a princess in medieval times where women wore beautiful gowns and had to exercise proper etiquette. Having read and loved The Luxe Series by Anna Godbersen and the Gemma Doyle Trilogy by Libba Bray (both series I highly recommend), I picked up Legacy knowing I would at least enjoy the world created for the book.

I can honestly say that it took me a while to get into the book although I loved London's character from the very beginning. But once the story picked up I couldn't put it down!! This book makes you fall in love with every single character including Steldor, an arrogantly annoying man. Princess Alera also steals your heart as you feel her dilemma between her duty as a princess and her heart's desire.

Halfway through Legacy I tried to find out when the next book, Allegiance, will be released. It was then that I found out that the Author had just turned 16 years old and was 15 when she wrote Legacy!!! 15 YEARS OLD!! I couldn't believe it because the world Kluver created in this book is so elaborate and you can't imagine a 15 year old creating Hytanica.

There is only one drawback to this book. Kluver's writing, although good, is descriptive to the point where you know every single character's clothing in every scene right down to the shoes on their feet. I found myself at times skimming through those paragraphs because it was a bit too elaborate and some words were just too big for me. I understand that Kluver is trying to provide every detail for the reader to be able to see what they're reading but I think it may deter some readers.

Despite that, this book is absolutely amazing! I love the story. I love the characters and I'm so disappointed that I have to wait until next year for the second book. Some people have expressed a dislike of the ending as a cliffhanger but I think a good cliffhanger would have been Narian showing up and taking Alera away. Now that would have been great!

Sixteen years ago, the kingdoms of Hytanica and Cokyri were at war. Sixteen years ago, forty-nine newborn boys disappeared from Hytanica and only forty-eight bodies were returned. Since that time, hostilities have ceased and life has gone on as normal in Hytanica, where Princess Alera is celebrating her seventeenth birthday and her last before she must chose a husband who will take over her father's crown and rule the kingdom. Alera's father, the king, has hand-picked the handsome Steldor, a member of the King's Elite Guard, as his hair and Alera's husband-to-be. Alera has little say in the matter, for women are not highly regarded in Hytanica. However, Alera's independent nature rebels against a match with the cocky young man and she strives to make her voice heard. The only person who listens is her bodyguard, London, but when a mysterious Cokyrian woman is found in the palace garden and later escapes, suspicions surround London and Alera loses her main ally. Then another Cokyrian is found in Hytanica, a teenage boy with a mysterious past. Alera is immediately drawn to the strange boy from a land where women are regarded as better than men. The boy, Narian, begins to show Alera how to find her voice, but danger threatens the kingdom and Alera is faced with the difficult decision of whether to carry out her duties or live her own life.

This is the same old fantasy story you've probably read 100 times already and not a very original take on the prophecy plot (see Harry Potter and Firebringer by David Clement-Davies for examples of how the story is done right). Nothing much happens in the book and it took a long time before I could even get into it and then when I couldn't put it down, it ended unsatisfactorily in the middle of the story with nothing resolved. Some reviewers are calling the book's ending a cliffhanger, but in order for it to be that, there needed to be a plot. I would say the book stops in the middle of the story rather than it being a cliffhanger.

None of the characters were particularly remarkable. Alera is the usual independent princess being forced into a marriage she doesn't want and experiencing a coming-of-age journey that will help her face her future. Narian is sufficiently mysterious enough to capture my attention, at least until the mysterious surrounding him are revealed. Steldor comes across as disgusting and despicable most of the time but it's hard to tell what he's truly like. The King is benevolent but unyielding and totally clueless and most of what's actually happening. The Queen only has a few lines until she retires early to bed and is nothing more than a vehicle for introducing some of the mystery.

Overall, this book is not a great effort though I am dying to read the sequel but probably won't because by then I will have forgotten all about this unremarkable book.
I'd give this book 2 1/2 stars if I could, but I can't, so I gave it three instead.

I so wanted to like this book. It has all the elements I love in my novels: an unconventional princess, intrigue, romance. However, the writing was uneven and somewhat hard to take. I started off eagerly enough but found myself slogging through the book in an effort to finish it. Cayla Kluver had great ideas, and I'm sure given time, we'll see some great things from her, but this book was either published prematurely or needs a good editor.

When I saw the product description when I selected this book, I was on guard but excited. I was hoping that the dark intrigue the synopsis promised me would fresh up a fan-favorite cliché--a fiery-tempered/strong-willed/improperly inquisitive/stubborn princess or female of significance either forced into an unwanted marriage or torn between two suitors--but a cliché nonetheless.

Before I continue with this review, I'm obligated to confess that I have a tendency to dislike love stories, so perhaps my dislike for all of the romantic nonsense is clouding my vision here. Nevertheless, after some deep consideration to make sure I'm coming to the right conclusion, I have to say that, even though Legacy had its redeeming moments, it wasn't very good.

About halfway through the book, I remember distinctly rolling my eyes, thinking, "Like that would ever happen," and shutting the book, wondering if I could drag myself into continuing. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

My first criticism for this book are the descriptions. Good dragons, the descriptions are bad. I don't know what possessed me to read beyond "raven locks" and hair "tumbling down my back" and "dark and smoldering brown eyes," but whatever it was, the endless and pointless and mind-numbingly boring descriptions of clothing awaited. Which is a shame, because if Kluver had invested half the page space in describing clothing into something important--characters, or dialogue, to name a few --maybe she would have made something out of this yet. And the bad descriptions didn't just carry into the character descriptions and the descriptions of clothing, either. No, they stretched into that Purple Prose realm for details here and there and everywhere.

This brings me to the prose in general, which, when it wasn't consumed by bad description, was rather unoriginal expression. I'm afraid I can describe it in only one other way than that: the words did not always seem authentic, more like someone else's, particularly those of the everyday masses.

Additionally, even though Amazon proudly praises Kluver for snappy dialogue, the dialogue is far from snappy or impressive, at least on any consistent basis. Most of the time it avoided the ugly territory known as "melodramatic," but none of the characters had distinctive ways of speaking beyond what the author/narrator tells us. I would have been lost without the (adverb-ridden) tags.

The believability, in the end, brought this novel down in my estimation. Because I didn't care about the main character. I cared more about guessing how the plot would turn out (my favorite pastime). I didn't believe in her plight, or the danger of her country's situation, or feel any sympathy for her. I did care/was interested about/in some of the other characters, but alas, it's Alera's first person narration that we're stuck with.

Most of all, as I've alluded to, I didn't believe the sequence of events. I can't count all the times I rolled my eyes, or snorted, or dropped my shoulders, or gave the Great Sarcastic, Droning "Of course" while reading this novel. The great disdain of "Like that would ever actually happen." One particular moment led me to the biggest eye-rolling extravaganza of all, which is where I nearly put down the book in utter disbelief, the you've-got-to-be-kidding-me kind.

And it stems from not believing and caring in the main character, or believing in her general situation. It may also stem from Lack of Realized Potential Syndrome, a common ailment among books and movies alike today, because Kluver didn't take the potential she had with this book, all the opportunities it presented, and sail with it. Instead, she chose to delve full-force into the romance story (this could be personal bias), no matter how unrealistic and forced (by Kluver, not the father) that it felt.

In short, Kluver didn't manage to breathe a fresh new look on a classic story, to bring it to life, to make it rich and exciting and new. It's pretty much the same, even if there are "new elements" tossed into it.

Still, even yet, I don't mean to suggest that this book is horrible, necessarily, just not very good. Some scenes were funny, well written, and well executed. And to its credit, I did read the novel in one day, and I did want to know what happens next, even if just because plot-guessing is my favorite hobby. The problem is that this is something I've come to expect from reading YA literature. Fast, fun, engaging for a few hours, and with a guess-the-plot game for me to play... and something that's just as easy to forget within a week or two.

The only reason I sat through the entire book was so that I could give it a fair review. (And given the amount of 5 stars this thing has, I feel compelled to review it.)

Yes, a teenager wrote it and for a personal after school project, IT'S WONDERFUL. The amount of research that must have gone into it is impressive. The writing is pretty good (again, for a 15 year old,) though in an overly formal and stuffy 'I'm trying waaay too hard to sound like a medieval princess' kind of way. (I'd still only give the creativity a D+ but...)

Here's the thing: When your kindergartener gives you a finger painting, you tell them it's great and stick it on the fridge. YOU DO NOT freaking open up a gallery downtown and start selling prints on Ebay. There is a huge difference in quality in what is considered good for an inexperienced kid and what is considered GOOD ENOUGH TO PRINT AND TAKE PEOPLE'S MONEY.

"Yes but she's only whatever age~!"

I don't care if she's 40, I don't care if she's an embryo, all I care about is the book itself. We are here to judge books, not authors.

The book opens with a whole bunch babies dying on the first page... EXCEPT ONE. (Oh gee I wonder if that one baby will come back later on and become a love interest for our princess? Really, it's not a spoiler, it's just that obvious.) There's a prophecy,(because what fantasy book in a medieval setting doesn't have a prophecy?) blah blah blah. Princess Alera's dad is like:

"Oh hey Princess Alera, you are 17 now. Which means you need to choose your husband ASAP, because I plan to retire when you turn 18 and the dude you choose to marry will be the new king. Because even though we are threatened by imminent war, I'd rather shirk away all that responsibility and give it to an inexperienced kid than to protect my county and my people myself. Oh and, I think you should marry Steldor since I have provided no other suitable choices for you. Oh and women are inferior and not capable of governing themselves let alone whole countries, LOL!" (So nevermind this is one of the stupidest ways to force a plot into existence...)

Unfortunately we don't have a spunky headstrong princess. we have a passive-aggressive whiner, she thinks one thing:
"But I don't like Steldor because he is mean and rude and rude and mean. He grabs me and kisses me against my will and kisses my sister to spite me and smirks at me and raises his eyebrows at me and did I mention also that he is mean and rude?"

But out loud she says:
"Yes daddy."

Because it's written from a 1st person POV, we are trapped in this insipid little girl's head for the next 8 billion pages. When she's not busy whining about how awful Steldor is (while simultaneously allowing him to continually walk all over her,) she's letting her guards push her around and bully her and whining about it. If it's not that, it's her kid sister Mirana. Mirana has her had so high up Alera's bottom it's hard to see where one girl ends and the other girl begins. It's like Mirana exists solely so that Alera can have girly dialogues rather than just having to have straight narration by herself the whole time.

The entire book, she whines about how she doesn't want to marry Steldor yet does nothing about it, she even refuses to step down and let her sister marry him or just put her foot down and reject him. Every scene is an exercise in futility where the reader hopes 'Maybe this time she will do something, stand up for herself, slap a guard for being insolent, just... anything!' but no, that moment never comes. The one time she does anything she ends up getting her beloved guard London fired (oh well he happened to be the only character in the book with half a brain.) But nevermind, he magically gets re-hired later on.

Another complaint I have is that for all the events that happened in the book (let's see, girl is being forced into an unwanted engagement, a mysterious boy appears, mysterious boy and Steldor fight, blah blah war blah, a wedding) there are way too many pages. The main reason for this is because every other page, the narrative comes to a SCREECHING HALT so the author can describe everything and pretend to be a documentary narrator rather than a novel narrator. Anything from trees to castles and markets and especially clothes get described to a pointlessly boring degree.

Since I barely mentioned him, let me say there is a reason, Narian/Narnia/mysterious bad boy of legend TM is a boring shell of a character. He accomplishes nothing. He's so boring he doesn't even deserve a mention.

The book drags painfully to its end and we are not even given the reward of a good ending (no, of course it has to be a trilogy!) No, instead we are subjected to an almost-rape scene where Steldor demands sex from Alera. Lucky for us, he is "gentlemanly" enough to not go through with it and gives the girl some more time. The girl cries herself to sleep thinking of Narnia (I like to pretend she's thinking of NarNIA anyway, rather than the dude who abandoned her and allowed her to get married to captain creepy pants.)

I recommend every aspiring author (both child, teen and adult) to read this book to learn what NOT to do.
1- Don't be a tour guide.
2- Don't be an encyclopaedia.
3- Don't abuse the thesaurus.
4- Don't narrate in an overly stuffy, formal, pretentious manner EVEN IF YOU ARE IN THE HEAD OF A PRINCESS.
5- Don't make up stupid laws/rules/excuses so that your plot looks plausible.
5.5- If you insist on making stupid laws/rules/excuses at least tighten them up. (COME ON, THERE WAS NO OTHER GUY? AN ENTIRE KINGDOM AND THERE WAS ONLY STELDOR???)
6- Don't populate your book with hateful idiots.
7- If you're going to make a cliffhanger, try not to make it so freaking depressing that I don't even want to touch your next book.
8- If you're trying to paint a guy to be the designated love interest, it would be great if he did stuff other than look cute and hide weapons in odd places. (and disappear when the girl needs him the most.)
- There's more but I'm going to stop b/c I want to end on a positive note.

Cayla Kluver is incredibly talented. I couldn't have written anything like this when I was 15. I don't think many people could have. Despite all the harsh things I and other critics have said, she should keep writing and strive to improve. One bad book is just that, ONE bad book. There is hope that the next ones will be much better.

I give up! I can't do it. I'm 30% through this book on my Kindle and I just cannot force myself to continue! I tried, dear reader, oh, I tried. I put forth an almighty effort reminiscent of my efforts at finishing the infamous "Eragon" (a Herculean effort that by comparison makes cleaning Augean stables look like a simple sweep job), but it wasn't enough. I give up!

I am baffled as to how this book got published, much less why Amazon should choose it as the first book they published. Some people are impressed that the author is a teenager, rather like Paolini had been when he started writing "Eragon". I'm impressed anyone would buy into that as a reason to publish or purchase a book.

The plot is missing, presumed dead. I'm 30% into the book and I STILL don't know what it's really about. We have a boring, uninteresting heroine living in a truly fantastic fantasy world. I half expected the peasants to break into a choreographed song about how much they love tending their fields in this magical land. It makes Disney fantasy look like it's built on a solid foundation of reality and shows a real lack of knowledge in how medieval kingdoms actually functioned.

For example: there's a part in the book where a boy is arrested as a possible traitor. He's supposed to be about sixteen or seventeen. It's explained that, due to his age, he won't be tossed into the dungeon. Right. At that age in this sort of time period, he would likely already be married and certainly would be treated as an adult by whatever passes for a legal system in such a time period. True, this is a fantasy world, and not actual medieval Europe, but since it, like 99% of other fantasy worlds, is based on medieval Europe, a certain level of verisimilitude is to be expected and found lacking in this story.

Also annoying are the many cliches, including the Heroine Being Forced Into a Loveless Marriage, which was probably old during the time of the Sumerians and hasn't gotten any fresher since. Add to this some very clumsy, forced writing that shows just how experienced the author is (like many inexperienced authors, she goes out of her way to avoid using the word "said"), and you end up with a truly unpleasant read.

For readers who want a good set of books about a young girl living in a fantasy world, check out the Tiffany Aching subseries of Discworld books by Terry Pratchett. They're called "The Wee Free Men", "Hat Full of Sky" and "Wintersmith", with "I Shall Wear Midnight" coming out in 2010. They present a girl who is strong, intelligent and interesting. But then, I guess that's what you get when you have a truly professional author writing as opposed to a lucky amateur

Like Paolini, Kluver may get better as she gets older (though he hasn't. From all accounts his stories are getting progressively worse). At present she has no business being a published author. Points to her for having the wherewithal to actually FINISH writing a book (as someone who has started several, but never finished one, I can appreciate that), but beyond that? "Legacy" proves, as did "Eragon" that having a good story behind the book (sixteen-year-old female author!), does not, sadly, guarantee a good story within the book.

I was a little skeptical when I heard that "Legacy" was written by a fifteen year old. The self-indulgent author photo, which looks more like a sweet sixteen glamor shot, was not encouraging, nor was the fact that Ms. Kluver claims her cat as her muse. I did my best to give the book a fair shot, but I still wasn't impressed with what I saw.

For one, the fantasy world was derivative of previous works and not very convincing. Princess Alera's primary concern in the first part of the book is that her father is pressuring her to marry Steldor, whom she can't stand because of his conceitedness. That's all very well, but Steldor is so overblown that he seems like a cartoon character. I suspect that this is supposed to be funny, and it is at times. But this kind of character is more appropriate for a parody. In a serious novel, the reader needs to be able to believe that the characters could actually exist. And Steldor isn't the only credibility issue here. The very reason Alera's father wants her to marry Steldor is so he can become king upon their marriage, at which point the current king will simply retire. And the queen is nothing more than a glorified house wife. I don't need to tell you that there is no such system in real life. This is fantasy, but there needs to be some basis in reality for the world to be believable. The reason that no such system exists is that it's totally impractical. Alera's father is eager to retire because he doesn't want to face another war. He'd rather turn his country over to someone with no experience in this time of need.

Alera often turns to her bodyguard, London, for consolation, but he, too, is an unrealistic character. He holds grudges where they aren't really deserved and he challenges authority. This may be fine for an ordinary citizen, but it doesn't work with someone who's supposed to be a member of the king's elite guard. Alera gets her way from her guards by simply pouting or saying that she'll eventually get her way, anyway. Add to that the character of Narian, who supposedly comes from a country dominated by women, but who seems downright chivalrous toward Alera. It may be nice, but it's still a contradiction.

The plot isn't particularly interesting, either. Not much happens in the first part of the book. There are a lot of parties and talking, but no real action. Things get a little better when Narian comes along, and there's some intrigue in court, but still not a lot happening. To make matters worse, the end isn't really an end. It cuts off right in the middle of the story. I understand the point of a cliffhanger ending, but some things do need to be resolved for a sensible conclusion.

The primary characters were ok. I thought that Alera was a bit petulant, but she at least has respect for other people's feelings. Her romance with Narian had a spark, but they really didn't have enough time together for their relationship to develop. They talk more than we get to see, but it's moot if the reader doesn't see the actual conversation. The side characters other than the guards are mere stereotypes and not even worth mentioning.

The worst part of this book is probably the writing. Some of it is actually good, sounding fantasy-like without being overwrought, but some of it... Some of it is absolutely excruciating. The story frequently comes to a grinding halt so Alera can describe clothes or a setting in painful detail. This is especially noticeable in the beginning, but it's present throughout the book. She describes the color of every sequin on every gown and the dew on every blade of grass. Ok, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but it sure doesn't feel like it when you're reading it. The book is at least twice as long as it needs to be because of it. Dresses are also described with modern terms like "empire-waisted" and "fun and flirty", which further detracts from the realism of the book. There are some grammar errors in the book, including a few misuses of the word "whom" (I know this is nitpicking, but that really bugs me). Also, there are several places where you can tell Ms. Kluver pulled out the Thesaurus, a common mistake among writers.

Some may say that "Legacy" is good for having been written by a fifteen year old, and that may be true. However, I'd say it's about average for fifteen year olds who have an interest in writing. It's unrealistic, slow, and above all, amateurish. Don't believe the hype- skip this one for something truly well-written.