Customer Reviews

Lord of the Isles

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(22)
1 star:		(24)

 

 

I read about 80-90 science fiction and fantasy novels a years and usually love multi-volume epic stories. When reading a book, I usually "stick it out until the end"; I regret having done so here.

Plain and simple, this book is terrible. Here's a run-down of some of its most obvious flaws:

1. Non-existent plot. I can't understand how an editor allowed this book to go to print. The author didn't seem to understand that a series of unrelated episodes do not make a plot. Most of the episodes don't enhance your understanding of a character, nor do they advance the plot.

2. Absolutely, beyond a shadow of a doubt, stupid (and I mean stupid) characters. The main characters are not in any way introspective. They never question what is happening around them. They are not interested in the people around them. They don't seem to really have any motivation for anything they do. A couple of examples:
Garric learns that his sister is really the scion of a royal house and that their parents had been deceiving them since their childhood. Is Garric surprised? Is he hurt? Does he care that his sister is leaving the sleepy village perhaps forever? Does he question his parents about this? Does he wonder about his own parentage? The answer is a resounding "no".
A second example: Another character is repeatedly told that he has "power". He is able to do magical things from time to time. He is the only one who can see certain magical creatures. But he never seems to put these things together that he is a wizard. I know that he is supposed to be slow thinker, but he's not supposed to be dim-witted.

3. Finally, if I have to read the words "Barca's Hamlet" one more time, I think I'll scream. I understand that the four main characters came from the aforementioned sleepy village and that life in the village is the only thing they can compare things to, but Drake takes it to the extreme. If I had to make a guess, something is compared to Barca's Hamlet at least once every two to three pages. (Now Drake has ME doing it... that's twice in this paragraph).

Anyway, pick up another epic series instead such as Martin's "Song of Ice and Fire" series or even Jordan's "Wheel of Time" neverending saga. Believe me, the world of the "Wheel of Time" has a straightforward and interesting plot when compared to that of Barca's Hamlet (aaack, I've said it again!!!).

Well I've been in one of my reading slumps where for some reason I can't find the will to turn a page without great effort. This book got me out of that! I really liked this book for a few reasons even though it did have its faults. I've always wandered what it would be like to read a good fantasy book with characters that don't balk at every little thing that happens to them. Where they don't have to fight any inner demons and they can just accept their responsibilities. Well this is one of those books. At the same time, the only reason I would wander at a book like that is because I was sure they weren't written. After all, how can your characters be real when they take every thing in stride including deaths of friends and so on. So, you can look at that in two ways. I wouldn't want it in every book I read, but for this one I rather enjoyed it.

Another thing I liked about Drake's book was that it wasn't too hard to defeat the bad guy(s). Once again you can look at this in two ways ... the same as those above. And for the same reason I chose to enjoy it in this book. I mean I did think it a bit odd that foes who were seen as powerful and evil were destroyed so easily. However it was a change from the books where half your favorite characters die in the effort. Good for this book but of course I wouldn't want it in too many books.

Once again this goes both ways. The characters all usually get split up in one way or another and have their little adventures then return to each other with nothing more than knowledge and experience gained. What a change from the norm! I'll gladly except this though because (as I've been saying...)I've always wanted to read at least one book on the easy side where good things happen to good people and all that. Now if you're someone who can't just take this as good thing that's fine. Things really shouldn't come so easily because reality is just not that way. Then again this is fantasy, is it not?

Well, if you are looking for a suspenseful, angsty, action packed book (or what you normally get), perhaps this isn't for you. If you wouldn't mind something a bit different from what you're used to then give it a try! I love this book and the others in the series I have read.

I read this book when I was bored at work. While it served to fill the time, a bunch of good ideas somehow just don't gel together well in the final story. The magic system is really interesting, it has a good setting (being on a bunch of islands), and a good backstory setup. Then why do I rate it just average? Well, the main drawback for me was the characters. There's two classes of characterization here: slim and none. All of them seem one dimentional at best, and some of the characters that get the most page time fall into the 'none' catigory. Hundreds of pages were devoted to these characters, and not once did the author ever show what was going on inside their heads. Also, this book has by far the highest body count of any fantasy book I've read. It seems that characters are introduced, and then offed a few chapters later. One of the characters starts the story taking off on a sea voyage with about 400 sailors and various others, and she's the only one alive by the end of the book. And almost every single bit character introduced outside the main ones are really, well, vile. Loathsome and disgusting people, really. I'll agree with others who have said that there's a lot of unconnected adventures in it. While adventures aren't bad in and of themselves, it seems like in this case they were stuck in merely to lengthen the book with no purpose or character development going on. Still, most of the adventures are exciting. It's not horribly bad, nor is it famously good. It's just... average.

After reading some other reviewers' comments, I had to stop and think about their criticisms of the book. While I agree with their comments concerning character development, I found this book to be one of the more enjoyable fantasies I've read in a good while, and I've read quite a few including Jordan's Wheel of Time, Edding's Belgariad/Mallorean, Feist's Magician: series, Goodkind's Sword of Truth, Hambly's Darwath Trilogy, Reichert's Last of the Renshai and J V Jone's Book of Words series, all of which I recommend. Lord of the Isles is a quick read with relatively short chapters, each with a nice little punch at the end. When the characters split up and have separate adventures, the chapters rotate to follow each story simultaneously. I had no trouble following the story or keeping track of who's who. The chapters are often left as cliffhangers, but all the plots are excellent and the shorter chapters don't leave you hanging a long time to find out "what happened to..?". There is very little fat or excess commentary in this book. The magic is pretty mundane in theory and practice, but the narration of effects usually make up for it. If you are looking for a deep, thought provoking book you might want to skip this one, but if you are looking for a page turner with some neat variations to the usual encounters in fantasy, I highly recommend it.

My experience before this book with science fiction was the Hobbit series (when it first came out)! So, now that I've dated myself, let me say that I really enjoyed this book. It was left on an airplane by someone, and I picked it up because I had a long airport layover in front of me. I was truly surprised at how engaging the characters were. I liked how the author jumped around in parallel story lines. It kept my attention, though if I let a day or so go by without reading some, I usually had to refresh my memory of what the characters were facing. Since reading this book, I've read Queen of Demons, and I am about to start Servant of The Dragon. I guess now I would be considered a fan of David Drake's writing.

While perhaps not "great," I thought this was a good first book in a fantasy series. Despite what others here say, I found the main characters likable and I cared about them. In general, the writing seemed well done, with the structure and descriptions well crafted and the style refreshingly direct. I admit the heroes seem a bit old-fashioned in that they actually do things, rather than sitting around whining or wrestling internal demons. I suspect I found this especially endearing after wading through so much of the glacial Wheel of Time series by Jordan. The plot moved forward quickly and was full of some surprises. I would have liked more background information on the world Drake has created here, and the ultimate goal of the story is illusive. Still, this works for me because I find myself identifying more with the main characters as they try to fathom what is happening to them. Looking forward to the sequels.

Wow. This is the book I would have written back in high school. Hyperbolic, shallow, all the characters painfully one-dimensional. I kept hoping Drake would settle into something better, and stop using the inane analogies over and over. I mean, if I had a dime for every time he compared something to "back in Barca's Hamlet", I'd have enough to go buy a better written novel. For kicks I actually read the sequel to see if it was an improvement. Nope. In fact, I think once he'd run out of introducing us to and attempting to develop the characters, all that was left was to have them deal with one predictable and clichéed scenario after another. It wasn't until I finished both and moved onto Robin Hobb's excellent "Assassin" series that I realized how painful these two Drake books were.

Maybe he's an acquired taste, but I gave him two books to try and win me over and all I got was a sigh of relief once I'd finished.

I picked up this book, a hardcover, in the bargain bin for four bucks or so. The map inside the cover was interesting. An archipelago world, hmmm, possibility of lots of naval action here, I thought. I have to say that I have not finished the book. I can state that the storyline and historical background had fantastic possibilities in my mind. But the flat characters just aren't able to pull it off. They seem dull, lacking emotion, and just don't seem to be developed in a way that they could have been. I found that I had no sense of identifying with them. It seemed like I could care less what happened to them. Whether that changes in the later stages of the book, I don't know, but it was such drudgery getting there that I had to stop. I don't like posting a bad review, but this is my opinion and can be taken or left.

The only reason I bought this book was because of the quotes on the cover, which were by authors whose books I thoroughly enjoy. Why, oh why did I trust these?! The only reason I can think that they would have given such glowing reviews was that they were strapped down Clockwork Orange-style and injected with happy-drugs.

My first clue should have been when I read the first several chapters and didn't realize they were each from different characters perspectives. Truly, each of the characters has the same ideas, thoughts, and views on their world. Each has the same wry humor in their thoughts. Not only that, but they each happen to conveniently be the "most powerful wizard in the universe" or "stronger than any fifty men" right from the start. They easily handle every situation, and even if they are breathing heavily with "great gasping breaths" or "badly wounded", they are simply healed and ready for the fight in the next chapter. Nobody learns anything, or changes, or grows from their experiences. Action sequences were usually muddled and ended confusingly. Nothing is ever explained, and no one questions why things happen. Very, very dull book that left me groaning inwardly, and glad that I had zero desire to read the sequel despite the author's weak attempt to make a "surprise" cliffhanger by introducing a new character on the last page that we should supposedly care about.

Contrary to most of the more recent reviews, I thought that this book was pretty good, despite a few flaws and misdirections.

I'll go through the problems first. Several times throughout the book, and I think this was either an oversight of the editor or a printing problem, a word in a sentence such as "an" or "of" would be conspicuously missing, and occasionally a phrase would be repeated, "he sheathed the sheathed the sword." However, despite these flaws the writing was good and strong, with more than adequate descriptive power, and it was clear.

Another little problem was the lack of a well-established goal. While Lord of the Isles would be a good name for the entire saga, this book really didn't have anything to do with the Lord of the Isles. Events occur in this book which the characters are forced to react to, but there is no definite goal, it just sort of plays out until it reaches a logical place to stop.

The third main point is the enemies/monsters/demons. All sound the same. "It had short, stumpy legs, but the length of its torso/body made it almost as tall as Cashel. It also had extraordinarily long arms/teeth." It seems that everything evil or carnivorous now has, by definition, to look the same.

I'm not sure if this next point is good or bad, but I'm really starting to notice a big trend in these fantasy saga. A young shepherd finds out he's gonna rule the world, and in fact his ancestor is in his head. He has a huge, steadfast friend, an older, wiser guide, and several beautiful young women competing for his affections. Sound like Jordan's Wheel of Time series or Goodkind's Sword of Truth? I thought so.

On the plus side, this world stands out in that not every woman is "one of the most beautiful women he'd ever seen." Also, the characters are well defined, and in various situations, they react according to their character, instead of leaping through some hidden logic to the perfect answer. Unfortunately, they never seem to get into situations which require brilliant logic leaps to get out of; instead, it's usually a "slugging" match.

Still, the action and various locales, including Hell, are very well defined and sometimes quite original, and the author clearly knows what he's talking about in nearly every field. The magic is mostly consistent, but I found myself wondering why some wizards always needed sacrifices for to work their magic, while Tenoctris was always able just to wave her grass around and accomplish anything.

Another unfortunate occurance is that the two best main characters leave/die before the end of the book.

The bottom line -- Realizing that this book isn't a complete story but the beginning of "the epic saga of the Lord of the Isles," I can look past the rudimentary plot or lack thereof. The characters, locations, tools, and events all work very well, and the writing is good. While this book isn't as "truly brilliant" as all the rave reviews posted on the cover claim, it is still fun and promising start to Drake's new series.