4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Ends with a Whimper, November 26, 2003
Tom Deitz deserves credit for being a true worldbuilder, for avoiding most fantasy clichés, and for always treating his readers like intelligent adults. "Bloodwinter" and "Springwar" are both considerable achievements, considering how Deitz manages a large cast of characters, a logically consistent form of magic, and a plot that's worth reading. The last two volumes, however, are an unnecessary add-on. The pacing lags, the characters don't develop any more, and the conclusion is far too predictable. "Summerblood" and "Warautumn" should have been merged together into one more succinct book, or better yet, never written at all.
Avall, Rann, and five others have been magically transported to an island in the middle of nowhere. Merryn and Krynneth have been captured and imprisoned by rogue Ixtian warriors. Strynn and Div are trying to track them down. The army of Eron continues to lay siege to the Ninth Face at Gem Hold. Tyrill conducts covert operations against the priests in Tir-Eron. We rotate among these five different groups of characters for quite a while, because it takes quite a while for anything to happen. There are a lot of details that we could have done without. For instance, Avall and his followers plan to build a raft in order to escape the island:
"In any case", he continued, "it's time we talked about getting off this island. It's a fine place as far as it goes, but we obviously can't stay here indefinitely. We'd already ruled out swimming to the mainland because that wasn't viable with you unconscious, Kylin, and because it would take forever to get any of our gear across. And that was before we saw what lives in the water. That leaves building a raft or boat."
"A raft would be easier," Rann observed. "If for no other reason than because we could build one large enough to accommodate all of us and the supplies we have here a lot faster than we could build a boat that would accomplish the same things."
Lykkon nodded. "And while there are plenty of trees on this island, they're either way too big to be workable, or too small. Whereas a raft-"
"There's thick-cane down by the shore on the south side," Bingg supplied. "I saw it from up top. There's more up there, for that matter, but the growth onshore is larger, plus we wouldn't have to carry anything we made so far to set it afloat."
As you can hopefully tell, this isn't exactly nail-biting, pulse-pounding drama. Does it get better in the second half of the book? A little, but not enough to justify such a big chunk of paper. I officially recommend that you read only the first two volumes and skip the final two. You'll have a much more enjoyable read while committing less money and less time that way.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
NOT AN EPIC CONCLUSION, September 19, 2002
I am disappointed in the conclusion to this series ..
The series started out great with the first couple of books
and I thought that maybe we have a storyteller to compete
with Goodkind, Jordan and Martin..
NOT>...
It is almost like the author lost interest in the saga and
filled in the last couple of books with banalities...
There was no anti-climax there was no build up to a climax
in short NO SATISFACTION with the conclusion to this series..
I would not recommend this series now, but if you had asked me
after reading the first two books I would have said YES!!
Maybe the author spread himself too thin to give himself
enough time to do the story justice...
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