Customer Reviews

The Wayfarer Redemption: Book One

5 star:		(64)
4 star:		(37)
3 star:		(20)
2 star:		(29)
1 star:		(33)

 

 

After reading some of the other reviews on this site, I was given the impression that Ms. Douglass' books were absolutely terrible! However, I was recommended by a friend of mine (A Mr Jason Byrne of Australia) to have a look at the series, and tell him what I thought... and all I can really say is wow!

The Plot was fresh and exciting, without being overly complicated or simple. There were plenty of twists and turns within the novel which made this book simply un-putdownable, and the character development was excellent. Unlike many other fantasy novels, where you feel like an observer on the battle feild, or in the castle, in Ms. Douglass' books you can actually put yourself in the character's shoes and identify with them! It was a very refreshing change!

The setting of the book is a mythical land that was once called Tencendor. The series follows the escapades of Axis, a man born of human and bird-man blood, and his son, Drago. While this brief (extremely brief!) description may lead you to believe that the story line is cliched/unoriginal (how many stories have you read with bird people? Countless!), I can ssure you that Ms. Douglass gives every character within her plot a unique and unmistakable "Douglass touch" which leaves you in no doubt that her story is not some re-hashed script, but a refreshing, living, in-a-class-of-it's-own story-line, and leaves you wondering why you hadn't discovered Ms. Douglass sooner.

I can not express my delight in finding out that not only has Ms. Douglass finished all six books in this series (don't let the amount put you off, it'll seem like they're not long enough!), but her new series, entitled the Crucible is half way through completion! I can't wait.

I would also like to express my appreciation of Ms. Douglass' efforts in compiling a delightful and entertaining web page, which not only contains information on the author and books, but actual short stories which relate to the plot of the book.. I'd advise all the reviewers here to have a look at www.saradouglass.com it's well worth the experience.

This book is exactly the kind that the literary world needs to keep their plotlines and characters fresh... well done Ms Douglass, keep up the good work!

I read this book before having read the reviews. I had never heard of Sara Douglass. While I don't really prefer prophesy-based stories, and thought the "Sentinels" a substandard device, I thought the characters in this one more than made up for that deficiency. They don't act from the same motives that modern characters might, but isn't that a plus for a fantasy novel? Their motives are consistent with the setting. I plan to read the others in the series.

I have to admit I am stupefied by the positive reviews this book has received including several five star (!) reviews. I bought this based on the positive blurb on the cover by Locus. How bad could it be? It's plenty bad with a stupid dull plot and uninteresting characters. How bout Axis, Battleaxe of the Axewielders? Sounds like a bad D&D character I created when I was thirteen. It has some embarassing scenes that play out like a bad three for a dollar Harlequin novel. Axis is naturally a brunette Fabio and all woman leer at him like oglers at Chippendales. Don't waste your money, I leafed through the last 150 pages or so. In fact, I might use the book as target practice. Makes hacks like Eddings and Goodkind look like Shakespeare in comparison. Looking for great fantasy, George Martin, Nuff said!

1000-odd years ago in the "Wars of the Axe," the human population of Tercendor rose up against the non-human populations, naming them "The Forbidden" and attributing all sorts of nastiness to them. The humans, following the deity Artor and its "Way of the Plough," proceeded to clear cut once vast forests where the non-human populations lived and slaughter the non-humans wherever they were found. Now, a great evil has arisen that, according to prophecy, can only be defeated by the three races working together and led by one StarMan. Unfortunately for everyone concerned, the StarMan seems to be the Warleader of the dominant religion, which preaches persecution and extermination of the "Forbidden."

This book is not totally awful, and if you're under 15 or you've never read a fantasy novel before it might actually excite you. But if you're a dedicated reader of fantasy with some knowledge of what's out there and how elegant and moving the genre can be, I'd give TWR a miss, unless you're looking for something to keep you occupied on the train or during an illness.

TWR is chock-full of fantasy cliches, from the Ancient Prophecy to the Ultimate Evil Arising in the (Insert Compass Point Here); from the Bastard Enchanter of Mixed Blood to the Strangely Eccentric Keepers of the Prophecy. It reminded me of being in junior high and reading _Lord of the Rings_ and thinking, "I want to write something just like that!!!"; it was so gleefully unoriginal.

As far as characters go -- well, if you take one or two from every epic fantasy ever written, you'll have a pretty good idea of who you'll be finding here. Sometimes that's not so bad, as you can welcome stock characters as old friends. Not here. It's more like really bad blurry pictures of old friends. In addition to being stock, the characters are exceedingly one-dimensional except in those rare moments when the writer inserts some kind of emotional distress, which she generally does in the most bombastic tone possible. Another thing that really bothered me about the characters was that every internal conflict was resolved too quickly, like: "Gee my entire way of life is wrong and bigoted? Okay, now that I know that I'll stop and be good!"

Because there was essentially no character development, the book hinges on action to move it along. Half of the action consists of characters running hither and yon all over the face of the country; the other half consists of the obligatory battle scenes. Neither was very well done or engaging.

Some of the ideas could have been interesting if handled by another writer; lack of originality is not necesarily bad in itself if the work is of mythic dimensions. Unfortunately, Ms. Douglass hasn't the skill to pull off a story of archetypal proportions. Her writing is, frankly, juvenile, both in style and technique. This is a writer who has no idea of the use of a semi-colon, who jumps POV far too often and to little effect and whose sentence craft consists of long strings of "It was" statements. There were several places I burst out laughing at her constructions, notably at the point where the mysterious and reclusive magical race was described as having a love of "seduction, magic and interior decorating."

Still, there's something kind of endearing about _The Wayfarer Redemption_, something akin to watching a puppy stumble around and trip over its ears. There's potential there. It's just a question of whether the writer will ever fulfill it, or whether the reader has the patience to stick around until she does.

Poorly written, ridiculous plot, utterly unbelievable characters. As an Australian, I picked this series up and read the whole lot - only because they were the only books I had with me on a camping trip - because I wanted to see what Australian authors had to offer the fantasy genre.

What I got was a horrible mess of half formed ideas and crummy one dimensional characters. Sara Douglass' idea of 'gritty' is to make the characters heartless and amoral beyond any reason in one moment, and yet noble and true the next. All the while, every character speaks like an English professor, from the lowest horse-handler to the highest lord. The characters are all so similar and poorly conceived that they barely remain in the memory after the book is closed.

The plot is terrible. A baddie who can only be described as that: a baddie. He belongs in a child's cartoon - a bad one - not an epic fantasy series. Most of the decisions made make very little sense, nobody important dies, and Sara Douglass even manages to incorporate some flying saucers with shiny, flashy lights.

I cannot believe these books sell at all, and I really cannot believe they sell in America. If you want real fantasy, read George RR Martin, or Steven Erikson, or Robert Jordan. If you like easy-reading fantasy, even Eddings is better than Sara Douglass.

Please, don't waste your money.

I write this review intending to encompas the first three books in the series. I'll try to avoid spoilers.

I have never before read a book or series in which I've yearned for the misery and failure of the main protagonist more than this one.

Without going into much detail, Sara Douglass attempts to instill human realism into the main character by giving him certain....weaknesses....that lead him to take certain actions that even the most flawed fantasy hero would deftly avoid. Unfortunately, while Ms. Douglass' attempts to instill weakness into her hero succeed, those weaknesses, and said hero's resulting hypocrisy and betrayals, only serve to disgust and alienate the reader.

We read fantasy literature for many different reasons, yet in the end, in my opinion, it all boils down to one: we yearn to discover worlds better than our own and people greater than ourselves. We search for a magical place where people we love triumph over monsters we hate. Simply put, we look for the perfect story.

In my opinion, there are many stories that meet this criteria with varying degrees of success. A Song of Ice and Fire (Martin), The Riftwar Saga (Feist), The Belgariad (Eddings), The Lord of the Rings (Tolkein), and my personal favorite fantasy series of all--The Deed of Paksennarion (Moon) are all stunning examples of fantastic brilliance. This series is not.

Perhaps I could have given the series two stars. I thought about it, and had Douglass made more of an effort to reconcile her protagonist's disgusting behavior by creating her supporting cast with weaknesses of their own (ala A Song of Ice and Fire), I would have, but in this she failed miserably. 99% of the characters in this series are the kind of creatures I could and did root for without qualification. Unfortunately, this just served to make the protagonist's weakness and resulting behavior all the more revolting. This kind of amateurishly lopsided character development should not be encouraged, especially in this genre.

Not even Douglass' admittedly fertile imagination and better than average storytelling can not come close to making up for the disgust I felt with Axis SunSoar, the main "hero" (laugh) throughout most of the series.

Avoid this one for anything other than campfire tinder.

Sara Douglass is one of a growing number of new fantasy authors who seem to feel that constructing a character means opening a psychiatry textbook, picking out a group of neuroses, and then giving them a person's name.

Much of Ms. Douglass' writing in this book consists of explaining her characters to the reader by telling us all about their childhood traumas in typically leaden and clumsy style:
"Yet of all the hatreds Borneheld bore Axis, it was the fact that they shared the same mother that he resented most. Even though Rivkah had betrayed both her husband and her elder son in conceiving and giving birth to a lover's child, Borneheld still revered her memory. And Axis had killed her. Axis had taken Rivkah away from Borneheld. Borneheld daily cursed Axis for causing his mother's death..."

Ms. Douglass' insistence that her characters be completely controlled by their neuroses does not serve her or the reader. Her characters are stilted, one-dimensional, very crudely drawn caricatures, incapable of developing true maturity or believable relationships with one another--a flaw that completely undermines her plot.

Douglass also seems completely unwilling to trust her reader or her story. She spends too much time telling us how we are supposed to feel about particular characters, rather than telling us their story and allowing us to form our own response. For example, other characters are constantly calling the heroine, Faraday, such things as 'lovely lady,' 'dear child,' 'dear one,' and 'sweet child,' and they act as though she's the most incredible person they've ever met--and yet, what Douglass shows us of Faraday doesn't justify anything like that kind of unmixed adulation.

If you like good fantasy, try some other author.

O.K. Any of the reviews of The Wayfarer Redemption that are above 2 stars are obviously written by teenagers below the age of 15. If this is not the case, then I feel truly sorry for those reviewers. With The Wayfarer Redemption Sara Douglass has crafted a pedantic, cliché ridden study in somnolence. I read this series simply because I am a voracious reader... As well as not having any other unread books in the house at the time.

I read a review from a Top 1000 reviewer that gave this book 3 stars. He stated that after this initial offering, readers would be treated to improvements in the next 2 books. Sadly, he was incorrect. I too believed as he did. It has to get better, I kept telling myself. Then I slogged my way through 2 more books of additional prose that proved that the craft of writing does not necessarily get better with practice.

I am simply unwilling to waste time and effort detailing everything that is wrong with the storyline and writing in this series. A brief litany would include the complete amorality of the main characters, a magic system that is not explained, battle scenes that lack even a rudimentary understanding of basic tactics, a timeline that doesn't even pretend to be chronological, cardboard cut-out bad guys, and on and on. This series suffered from a complete suspension of the suspension of disbelief. I truly did not care about any of the main characters in this series. By the last book, Starman, I was hoping they would all be killed. I myself was hoping to be pulverized by a meteor for actually finishing the series.

How can I save any potential readers from making the mistake of purchasing the books in this series? I can beg you I suppose. I don't write many reviews. I felt compelled to try and save readers the grief they will surely experience if they attempt to read these books. This series was truly one of the worst that I have EVER read. Ms. Douglass improved not a wit from book 1 to book 3. I am led to understand that there are an additional 3 books that are related to this series. I don't know their names and I have absolutely no urge find out.

If you want memorable fantasy then read R. R. Martin or David Gemmell.

The blurb on the first page proclaims Douglass to be "at least as good as Eddings or Goodkind." Hardly. Eddings and Goodkind wrote books that are actually enjoyable to read, with interesting, well-drawn characters and compelling plots. Douglass wrote a boring, one-dimensional cheese-fest that I had to truly struggle through. Although I did not actually finish this book, I have to say I have a pretty fair idea of how it ends, thanks to Douglass' clumsy foreshadowing. The characters and plot were so stereotypical I actually felt that I was reading a parody of the high fantasy genre. The worst part of the book was that even the main characters are just plain unlikable. Faraday acts like a flighty twelve year old, and Axis is a bigot. The only one I felt any sympathy for was Duke Borneheld, due to his abandonment by his mother. And this is an "evil" character, someone you are not supposed to care about! The plot itself seems to be a mishmash of several different epics (WoT, Sword of Truth etc...) with nothing really original about it. The only really good thing about this book is that it is thick, and thus makes a nifty paperweight.

The awards would be...

Honorable mention for bad/lame plot.

Honorable mention for bad writing. I'm assuming that this is the writer's first attempt at it?

First Place for bad characters. "Axis SunSoar"????? Becomes "Starman"??? This is the hero. A hero you wouldn't want to leave alone with your teenage daughter. The hero who thinks with what's between his legs. No conscience about it either.

First Place for worst series I almost read. I'm sorry. I REALLY wanted to like this book, but it's horrible. If the plot was even half-way engaging, I could at least give this 3 stars. I'm still looking for minus-stars, but one is as low as I can go.

After the first book, I had hopes that maybe the story would be redeemed (pardon the pun) in the second. Nope. It got worse. I couldn't even finish the second. It should make good kindling for this winter, however.

Faraday is almost likeable. Not the brightest light in the candle shop, but you feel sorry for her after a bit.

Axis, as I said, thinks with parts of his anatomy that weren't meant for thinking. In the real world, we call people like this slimeballs. In this story he's a hero.

Duke Borneheld is the stereotypical bad guy/brute.

There are other characters, but they are written even worse.

Having said all that, give the first book a shot (library only, don't buy it). If you like it, you'll like the rest. If you don't, drop it, because it doesn't get better.