Customer Reviews

Wit'ch Fire (The Banned and the Banished, Book 1)

5 star:		(72)
4 star:		(30)
3 star:		(20)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. I am an avid reader of all types of fiction, but really enjoy well written Fantasy... and this novel is it. While the storyline is somewhat familiar to avid readers of the genre, the handling of the coming-of-age hero theme is one of the novel's strengths. Specifically, the pacing is quite unlike other standards of the genre, like Jordan, Brooks, or Goodkind; the pacing is brisk, almost thriller-like in its execution. This is a surprising and welcome relief for those of us who sometimes get a bit antsy wading through 600 pages of setup before the story actually begins to rock-n-roll (hello, Jordan, are you listening?!?). I found the characters to be quite likeable, the storyline and plot interesting, and the constant use of magic purely delightful. If you like a lot of magic in your Fantasy, this novel is a MUST READ. I especially liked the dark overtones to the magic. I do have one major criticism, however: excessive use of apostrophies! The overuse of the apostrophies slapped me out of the whole reading experience more than once and made me aware of the fact that I was reading rather than having the story unfold before me. I can't wait until the next volume in the series. Is it fair to compare this author to such genre giants as Jordan, Goodkind, Brooks, et al? Yes, quite fair indeed. Well done.

I was willing to give it a chance, and the book started out well. But about a chapter or so in, I wanted to throttle the writer. Pu'tting a'postrop'hes in str'ange pl'aces is n'o subs'titute fo'r cr'eatin'g a ne'w and uni'que worl'd!

Wit'ch was bad enough. Then D'warf and og're. It just got to be annoying. It's the same old "generic fantasy" with a western european setting and feel, with the standard fantasy races. The plot differed somewhat from the norm and was mildly enjoyable. But the apostrophes stuck everywhere distracted me and made the book almost unendurable. I finished book 1. But read book 2 and 3? I'd rath'er p'ut ou't m'y o'wn ey'es f'irst.

After reading Subterranean by James Rollins (an alias for this author) and also an excellent read, I was hungry for another book by him. Therefore, I was very excited when I found this book -- even though they're of different genres. It lived up to my expectations.

I must admit, while reading the first several pages, I was doubtful that this book would be good, but I kept reading, and I'm very happy I did.

The plot is complex but good; everything fits together nicely. The author weaves the story with several very different and very interesting characters. Some you'll like, some you won't, and some you'll want to hate but you'll feel sorry for instead. Despite the fact that there are a number of characters to follow, I found it easy to follow the story and distinguish them. A tribute to Clemens' ability to create distinct characters.

If you can make it through the first several pages of the book, then you're in for a real treat. The action starts and doesn't let up until the end, and the pace will leave you breathless. The characters must face and outsmart or fight a variety of different creatures in order to live. The battles are interesting and vividly described. And just when you think it's over, something else happens. By the time I reached the end of the book I was desperate for the more. But alas, I'll have to wait until it's published. It's definitely on my "to buy" list.

After reading this first book of Clemens' Wit'ch series I can't help but feel that I've just read a Robert Jordan "Wheel of Time" clone - with the difference that RJ takes more time introducing and developping his protagonists and his world/landscape. Not that I ever felt RJ could be compared with the real masters of storyline development like G.R.R Martin, Tad Williams or S.R.Donaldson. But, anyway, that's not the issue here...

Actually Wit'ch Fire starts out pretty enthralling. After a grim prelude with a grand magic ritual gone awry at the eve of destruction of a whole civilization, we meet young Elena and her brother 500 years later, when their sheltered life is abruptly thrown into uproar. Her family is slaughtered by evil magicians and the siblings have to run for their very lives. The initial action is pretty dire and tense and gets even more dynamic when Er'ril appears, the sole survivor of the afore mentioned ritual, who has wandered the world for centuries - bitter, desillusioned and past any hope for his doomed existance. A first climax of the plot is quickly reached, when the magicians who pursued Elena face Er'ril and his companions, resulting in the destruction of an evil avatar and the kidnapping of Elena's brother Joach by the surviving magician.

Until this point, I was like 'Wow, sinister and exciting - I'll love that series.' Alas I was terribly wrong. All of sudden, Clemens starts to add many secondary characters to his tale. Most of the introductions were hurried and pretty ungainly, so that I quickly lost interest to any of these subplots. I rushed through the book just to get to the chapters with Elena and Er'ril, but - oh what a disappointment - here things also turned out quite different than previously anticipated. Instead of taking time of develop Elena, to let her mature to a magic wielding witch who is slowing growing aware of her powers, she manages to handle her magic provebially over night. Also it takes only a few gremlins and a circulatory collapse of her beloved uncle to turn a frightened child to a resolute heroine. Not really plausible. But even worse is the development of Er'ril. Somebody who has lived as long as he did, should be past notions of a greenhorn swordsman, like impatience, misreading situations (i.e. when they first meet the shapechanger wolf, it's Elena who sees the wolf's intentions to help them, not the way more experienced Er'ril). Also I would have expected him to be much stronger in his beliefs: He has lived centuries with the concept that witchcraft is the ultimate evil. It should take more than just pity for a poor frightened child and shy smiles to make Er'ril offer Elena his service as protector and mentor. Ouh, oh, especially that sequence made me cringe: When Er'ril explains Elena that he's actually knows how to train young sorcerers, and that he'd be willing to lend his support to her, the whole scene is so casually described (10 lines), it could also have been the lighting of a cigarette. But that's symbolic for the whole book: It actually lacks depth (even despite the many subplots), most characters are pretty sketchy and Clemens' style itself ranges between trivial and pathetic at best.

Overall Wit'ch Fire disappointed me. Of course it holds some interesting ideas, and the concept of linking several individual plots into one grand scheme is ambitious. Especially since the individuals origin from very different cultures, races and even eras. But that isn't new and compared to other contemporary fantasy authors Clemens fares just poorly. Sure, not every debut of fantasy literature can be the second coming of G.R.R Martin, but Wit'ch Fire has too many weaknesses to come even close to a good fantasy novel. For me, the final dices have already been cast for this series: I won't waste time reading any of the other books of this series.

I got a gift card for Christmas, so I bought myself some of the "bestsellers" on science fastasy page.
This was an interesting book, but nothing new, nothing outstanding, nothing to remember later.
With books like Robert Jordan ( Wheel of Time), you are left waiting in suspense for the next book in the series, (and you keep re-reading the books you already have multiple times.)
This book - don't really care if I read the next one or not, and probably wont read this one again. Will donate my copy to the library

An easy book to read, and while the series' story seems promising, there are some annoyances. Mainly the racial naming convention of inserting apostrophes into known words. Wit'ch? Og're? Come on! I also find there's a bit of awkwardness to the characters and their conversation, but I hope this is due simply to the author having a final vision of what the characters will grow into, and is struggling with the metamorphosis.

Wit'ch Fire is a wonderful beginning to what I hope will be an intricate story. Most of the book takes place within the span of a night. The setting is one of those parallel world, medieval time period type of stuff.

The girl, Elena, discovers herself taken away from her typical life and is thrown into a situation where almost everybody she has known all her life is disconnected and the ancient past wishes to capture her. Numerous characters from all over enter in, all of different backgrounds. You get your buff guy, shape shifters, demonic enemies, elementals, etc. Basically, the ancient magickal ways of the world were overthrown long ago, and these bunch of people are supposed to fix it up again.

Anyway, I don't like to give too much background since others already have, but will instead discuss the writing style. Clemens does a very, VERY good job of describing and depicting. He puts in a lot of imagery and enough battles to really win you over. He goes into enough detail of the physical appearances of each character to give a vivid picture. The writing style is very well and Clemens does a good job with a lot of the scenes. Until, as other reviewers have noted, the cliches enter in. These little interruptions of hackneyed phrases kind of messes up the flow of the plot at times, especially if they're being expressed by the characters themselves. A few moments, it got to the point where I really wanted to laugh and say, "You've got to be kidding me." But other than that, a really enjoyable book.

Here is the tale about Elena: a simple country girl whose life takes a sudden turn for the worse when she becomes a woman. She is no longer the daughter of an apple farmer in a quiet valley; now she becomes a Wit'ch, a woman who can wield great power but is feared among her land. Her destiny was forged five centuries earlier when three mages brought their powers together and sacraficed themselves to create the Book, which contains the last powers of the Chi in a land that was to succumb to dark powers. Once Elena became the Wit'ch, the Dark Lord who now rules over her land of Alasea is seeking her power, and she finds herself alone, very confused, and running away from the only home she knew. On her journey to find someone that can help her, she meets up with others who help her battle the Dark Lord's minion: a one-armed man, a half-breed troll, a nymph, and two shapeshifters stuck in their current forms. They work together to keep Elena from falling into the hands of the Dark Lord.

I read this book on recommendation from my husband and was pleasantly surprise with it. The book was a bit tough to stick with at the beginning, whether it was the writing style or the focus shifting constantly between characters, but it melded nicely in the end. I did like the fact that the story didn't just focus on Elena but included the stories behind her ragtag friends as well. Clemens did a good job giving life to these supplimental characters with intriguing stories of their own. Yes, there are issues with his writing style, especially all those added apostrophes, but I think that it was worth working through since the story had a nice plot and good character development.

This book has gathered so many accolades that I really expected something special. I was disappointed. The situations and characters didn't seem like much more than cliches, and I wasn't ever surprised by any of the plot twists.

I also wish that his editor had told Clemens that adding the really annoying ' character in the middle of common fantasy words doesn't accomplish anything useful. Wit'ch, moon'falcon, elv'in, Gul'gotha, etc.

Darkness has conquered the land, and only a few avatars of the ancient forces of good have survived. A girl is born to fulfill the prophecies and save the land from domination.

I gave it three stars because the writing is good enough that I was usually entertained while reading. May still read the second in the series if I find it used.

A truly marvellous book. Now, I am a tad ashamed to admit I read this quite some time ago, ::looks down shuffling feet:: and though it is not fresh in my mind, I vividly remember how much I enjoyed it.

Certain scenes had me exclaiming aloud, or at times laughing. Even if the story overall wasn't good (which is was) Clemen's writing style would have held me over through the whole thing. At first the fragmented storyline had me confused, but happily satisfied and purring when it all came together later (Oh, yes, I felt so devilishly clever :P). The characters all held me in rapture with their realism, and ability to evoke emotions. Many times I would feel like grumbling at their stupidity, or praising their daring bravery, though sometimes uncouth ;-)

Even if the storyline didn't beg for more books, the characters and writing did. Yes, at time I was bothered by Elena's reluctance to accept herself, or her sometimes evident immaturity, but really, who wants the perfect heroine? The old caricatures are quite tiresome. Clemens did a wonderful job writing this book, I loved the plot, people, style, flair, and excellence overall of Wit'ch Fire. (And I also noticed the ' in names. Nice touch that there). I am very looking forward to the third, fourth, and fifth books in the series.

Though I wouldn't recommend it to those who aren't willing to tolerate the air of mystery around some aspects of the story, I'd recommend it to almost anyone else. Happy reading!