infryq reviewed Cold burn of magic by Jennifer Estep (A black blade novel)
Review of 'Cold burn of magic' on 'Goodreads'
2 stars
I wanted to like it.
The concept is stellar -- a coming-of-age story, a mob story, a tomboy story, an orphan story, a star-crossed lovers story, a mystery, a sword & sorcery story. Unfortunately, the execution leaves a lot to be desired. The pacing is terrible; the sense of time is confused. Characters' opinions oscillate wildly between extremes with only nominal inputs. They lack a sense of self: they espouse a strong identity in their words, fail to reflect it in their actions, and then change their minds a moment later in "we have always been at war with Oceania" style without the kind of recognition in the text that would make you think it was purposeful. There's a lot of telling and not a lot of showing. It feels like the author sketched rough keyframes to drive the plot, but never backfilled all the in-betweens that would make the …
I wanted to like it.
The concept is stellar -- a coming-of-age story, a mob story, a tomboy story, an orphan story, a star-crossed lovers story, a mystery, a sword & sorcery story. Unfortunately, the execution leaves a lot to be desired. The pacing is terrible; the sense of time is confused. Characters' opinions oscillate wildly between extremes with only nominal inputs. They lack a sense of self: they espouse a strong identity in their words, fail to reflect it in their actions, and then change their minds a moment later in "we have always been at war with Oceania" style without the kind of recognition in the text that would make you think it was purposeful. There's a lot of telling and not a lot of showing. It feels like the author sketched rough keyframes to drive the plot, but never backfilled all the in-betweens that would make the progression seem natural. It would be fine for a first effort, but this author had written over a dozen books before this one and should really have grown by now. Really disappointed.