Customer Reviews

The Palace of Impossible Dreams (The Tide Lords)

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

 

 

I was on the waiting list for this book to be released finally in the US. It was on preorder with Amazon. As soon as it was available, Amazon shipped it to me. I inhaled the book in 3 days. It really kept me going, but was a bit of a let down, since it spent a large portion of the book getting Cayal what he wanted, while slowly building on the other aspects of immortal trouble brewing.

I felt I made one giant circle with this book in the series. Pretty much, things eek'ed forward just a bit in the greater picture, but not much else happened. There was a lot of saving of the mortals by immortals, Cayal still trying to die, more pieces of the puzzle put together. But there was no real solution found. It all just left you hanging at the end.

I'm just feeling a little put out that the whole ending was basically similar to the ending of the second book, just different circumstances. Though I have to admit, I had guessed the cliffhanger as soon as Prisoner 282 was found. Not too many surprises, but kept me wanting more at the end. To be realistic, I'm hooked on the series and wish the fourth book was ready to go. Will be hard to get back into the series if I have to wait two years for the next installment.

I have been a fan of Jennifer Fallon ever since I browsed Borders one night and found The Immortal Prince. I have loved this series and every twist and turn telling the story of the ordinary humans who are inexplicably given immortality and the powers of gods.

Unlike The Immortal Prince though, this, as well as its previous book, The Gods of Amyrantha, simply serve a transitionary part of the greater epic. I am really trying to see where the author is going with this story, and the book is nothing if not a page-turner. I love all the characters, including the evil and amoral Tide Lords, victims of time, circumstance, and human nature, the human resistance group that despite all odds, still hope to find an answer to the impossible, and the crasii/scards who seem to have only one purpose in life: to serve the mortal and especially, their immortal masters.

The character changes in Declan as he struggles with the fact that he's immortal and a Tide Lord are a large part of this volume of the story. His creation creates quite a stir among the immortals as he is the first one to have been created in the last two thousand or so years. It calls into question the origin of the immortals as a whole, and how some of the first immortals came to be. The plot continues to unfold as Lukys' true colors begin to show as he gathers the immortals to his palace of impossible dreams for his own reasons. I have a feeling that whatever he has planned, won't be doing the world any favors.

Arkady's part of this story was also interesting as her experiences begin to reshape her life and her demenor. However, it is Cayal's behavior that actually irked me this trip. I loved him in the first book, as a suicidal anti-hero who while has done some really bad things, is not really that bad of a guy. There was such romance between him and Kady in the first and second book, but he seems to have forgotten all about it in this one. Honestly, though Fallon tries to lean towards Declan and Arkady being a couple, I'm not really thrilled with that. I like Declan, but only as a protective older brother type. Cayal is the one who needs redemption and has not known true love his entire long life. He and Arkady deserve to be together, especially after they experience such sweet romance in book 1.

Declan and Kady both discover horrible shocks about their life and their past. All the immortals are scrambling to find an artifact of ultimate power known as the Chaos Crystal. War is on the horizon and the Tide is nearly at its peak. The Immortals are beginning to come out of hiding, as when they do, it won't be pretty. There is only one book left in this series, and I have no idea how Fallon plans to wrap everything up in so short a time. I really like the immortals despite of the fact of how they have no concept of the value of human life. They are simply humans who have too much time and power on their hands, and the result would be the same of anyone who were in their shoes.

I can't wait till the next volume, and yet, I dread its coming, since that means that this awesome tale would come to an end.

Intrepid but obstinate Arkady remains married to Stellan, the heir to the Kingdom of Glaeba, but their relationship for practical purposes is in name only. She focuses on one issue; destroying the immortal nasty Tide Lords, who have one objective: rule the world.

Arkady's strongest ally in her attempt to end the Tide Lords constant intrigue is spymaster Declan Hawkes; though his prime motive for supporting her is not altruistic but instead he admires and desires Arkady. Ergo he tries one failed attempt after another to bring down the Tide Lords. At the same time, Declan stubbornly makes his tries to win Arkady by defeating her enemy; ironically his rival for his lady is not her husband but Tide Lord Cayal who courts Arkady while also considering suicide if an immortal can kill himself; as he sees her as his only anchor to live. Inside the Time Lord haven, their human-beast slaves the Crasii plot revolt from their masters as they want freedom.

The third Tide Lords fantasy (see The Immortal Prince) is an engaging entry although as with The Gods of Amyrantha the overarching theme does not move forward very much. The story line is loaded with subplots in which the best ones involve the big power control schemes of the three prime groups competing for dominance. Some fluff events especially in the harem feel more of a detractor, but the fascination remains with comparing the mortals, the human-beasts and the immortals as they share so much in common yet continue as enemies because each wants to own the world. Fans of the saga will enjoy the return to the Fallon mythos.

Harriet Klausner

First let me say I love Jennifer Fallon, I have read everything she

has written, however the last two books in this series have been

very disappointing.

It feels to me like she is just filling up space. For instance the

second and third book could of been cut way down and combined. I

couldn't even finish the third book, too wordy.

I will probably buy the next one because...well it is Jennifer

Fallon.

SO I started reading Jennifer Fallon back with the Hythrun Chronicles. This was years ago and the books were okay, I thought; not amazing, but I didn't stop reading. The writing was not amazing, but the story was decent and I did really like a couple of the characters. Fast forward to now.

I saw "The Immortal Prince" a little while ago on the shelf in the bookstore. It caught my eye because I thought it was an intriguing title and I thought I might have read something by Fallon before. I gave it a quick look through and decided to get it, as there wasn't anything else I was interested in and it was only $7.00. Boy was I surprised.

This series showed drastic improvement, I thought, in Fallon's writing. It was subtler, things were tied together better. It has an interesting magic system and the protagonist is written with a very interesting take on a very old character flaw.

If you're looking for something quick and light, this is it. Quick, reads well, interesting characters. Some chips and salsa, or maybe a cheeseburger, as compared to a steak. I really wanted to give it 3.5 stars, but that's not possible with Amazon's ranking system. Enjoy!

I thoroughly enjoyed the book. I couldn't wait for an opportunity to pick it up and read more. I would say, I'll just read this chapter, but when I got to the end I had to keep going to see what was going to happen next. I finished it in a few weeks, only getting the opportunity to read an hour here or there. I've already ordered the next book in the series. I'm just waiting for it to arrive.

The palace of impossible dreams; Macmillan. Because I would like to buy this year old book that can be read in a few hours for a reasonable price on Kindle. As mentioned before by someone I refuse also to pay $15.00 for this e book. Hmm... loose sales due to unrealistic prices or sell books that people would like to read on their kindles and still make a nice profit. Somebody please tell whoever it is that does not see a win win and for some reason chooses a lose lose.

And Amazon, don't you have some pull with these publishers, I guess I'll just shelve my kindle and buy the print and paper for almost half the price. Or a used hardcover for a third the price. Now why did I buy a kindle again... to read books.. lots and lots of books. But I won't buy them at double the price. If the publisher sets stupid prices don't you have any input? Can't you talk some sense into them?

And Ms Fallon, I have enjoyed the first 2 books, fast reads, good stories, but I am stopped by your publisher from going on to the 3rd book. I might have gotten wrapped up enough in the story to buy the new one for $15.00. But now, maybe I'll just drop this series for a couple of years and get back to it when I can pick it up at the used book store for 25 cents.

I love j Fallon, however refuse to pay close to 15.00 for an e-book. It is relatively cheap to publish an e-book compared to print so should not be this expensive ..you will continue to lose readers due to your greed and find your books in the dump sale column. Especially when you cant even purchase the first book in e format. There are a lot of great writers out there with reasonable prices for their books...I will spend my time and money on their books.