Customer Reviews

Wings of Wrath: Book Two of the Magister Trilogy

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

 

 

"Wings of Wrath," the second of Ms. Friedman's Magister trilogy begins, as you might well expect, with a prologue. But the prologue isn't what you'd expect it to be--a quick and dirty summary of what happened in the first novel ("The Feast of Souls"), but a scene setter for something wicked that will this way come. (But newcomers need not fear--you'll be caught up on all the essentials as you need them.)

The rest of the tale pretty much follows the same pattern. Scenes begin, and you'll probably think you know how they're going to end. But they never quite do what you'd expect. And some of them end quite noirishly. The soul eaters of volume 1, of course, turn up again, and we find out that they're evil twins of the dragons of Pern. They bond with humans, but for frighteningly different reasons.

Kamala's back, of course, but for the most part she's in regions where her sorcery doesn't work, so she has to use other skill sets (which prove considerable). She's still concealing from one and all that she's the two-mooned world's only practicing female magister. You'll meet some new characters, too, and learn more about some of the ones from the first volume.

As always with Ms. Friedman, the book is coldly intellectual. She can do a lot of things, and do them well, but comic relief isn't one of them. And this is not a fantasy for children. Far from it.

This book is strictly worse than Feast of Souls (Magister Trilogy, Book 1). It's worth skimming because Legacy of Kings: Book Three of the Magister Trilogy is excellent. In #2 Friedman has no intelligent villain/antagonist. The 'Wings of Wrath' are simply the soul-eaters, which are bestial and mindless, to the point where even smart characters who ally with them become ruled by their instincts. Maybe three important bits of knowledge are mentioned in the whole book. That bad.

New characters are Nyaku, Salvatore, and several magisters and soul-eater riders. We also get scenes from the perspectives of The Witch Queen Siderea, Colivar, Rhys, Kamala, and Gwynofar. Over a dozen different perspective characters, with Kamala being the only one having an interesting personality. (Expect mostly setting and expository dialogue, as opposed to conflict and resolution.)

Where does the book fail? First, the penitent faith. It gave the whole hundred pages surrounding Salvatore an annoying sanctimonious Christian undertone, definitely NOT what I want in a fantasy novel. (The Penitents really existed, a sect from the 4th century AD, and their philosophy seems a direct transplant.) Then I noticed Friedman had an annoying dialogue habit -- her characters, when they ask each other questions, always state the question, and then finish with 'yes?' or 'correct?' -- one character might have a personal quirk, sure. They *all* do it. Next came dead ends. Plural. By that, I mean a whole plot thread develops then resolves itself as 'this character made a mistake and now moves on' without tension or suspense.

The biggest objection I had revolved around pacing. Nothing interesting happened until around page 120. The biggest 'suspense' scene was a dream. Not even a good 'this nightmare might be real' scene; I figured out the whole thing was a dream three paragraphs in. I actually put the novel down, with horrid disbelief (I did finish it later.)

Overall, this meandering jumble is a 'transition' book, and it's the worst book by Friedman I've read. Needed another draft. That said, I still think "The Magister Trilogy" a decent series, and based on the quantity of higher starred reviews, I may be on the harsh side. Still, I did not like the book.

This book is in the classic style of C.S. Friedman. I like the unique magic setting and I enjoy that the main character is a strong female. We don't see too many female leads that are as headstrong as this one. I am ordering the sequel soon and I hope it's just as good! Be careful though, Friedman is harsh on her characters... you are forewarned! :)

Typical of C. S. Friedman's writing, one page leads to another and another until you realize you've been reading much longer than you expected. I was a fan of the Coldfire Trilogy so I tried this one. I wasn't disappointed am am looking forward to the final installment. I just wish I didn't have to wait!

i read a lot of fantasy books, this is the first series from this author that i have read. i was captivated from the first page of the first book, and the second didn't disappoint. I think it was even a little bit better.
I enjoyed all the characters and the magical world they lived it.

I read the first to this trilogy on a whim and it was very good than when i couldn't find a copy of the second one at my favorite book store i checked amazon and found a good cheap copy that arrived within the given time and was very pleased with it