Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting idea, taken in non-interesting directions, 30 Jan 2006
I'd been toying with the idea of buying this for a while. The cover blurb was interesting, and I liked the cover. (So I'm shallow.)I think the title of this review sums up my reaction to the book. McIntosh demonstrates several "first novel" problems -- poor to 1-dimensional characterisation; multiple confusing point-of-view shifts, often changing every paragraph (and no, it wasn't meant to be omniscient); info-dumping -- and these added up to marked lack of appreciation for her prose. Still, the story itself is quite interesting, even if some of the plot twists are telegraphed rather obviously. I do think it would be a better book were it edited severely, and marketed as a YA fantasy. For those of us fantasy addicts awaiting the newest Bakker or Erikson, "Myrren's Gift" is not enough to tide us over.
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16 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Avoid at all costs, 5 Jan 2006
I liked its cover, I liked the blurb on the back, and I especially liked the author's thanks to Robin Hobb for her support. Well, I thought, if no lesser light than Ms. Hobb thinks Ms. McIntosh is worth supporting, then this must be good. More fool me. Without question, this is the worst book I have read in many a year. There is nothing to recommend in this book, and by the time I was a quarter of the way through I was skipping paragraphs, and then at the end whole pages. the only descriptions worth anything are of interior décor, and they are painfully twee in any case. Added to that are the non-existent characters and the way her characters either discover boundless depths and qualities in each other that they can respect, or else fall in love with each other within five minutes of meeting, there is the plot that staggers from east to west, back again, then north, then south, then back east, the ridiculous politics, and the dizzying change of character viewpoints, often within the same chapter or even paragraph. For example, in Chapter 13, from the POV of a mercenary launching a sneak attack we lurch to the motives of the king who ordered it, and then lurch again to those defending against it. The 'Quickening' has a huge logical hole in it (i.e. how did Wyl remain Wyl when Myrren gave him the gift of it?) and the 'twist' at the end was visible a mile off. It was just a coin's toss whether Wyl would end up as Celimus (caricature of a one dimensional matinee villain) or the assassin. Really quite dreadful.
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15 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear, 24 Jan 2006
I'm always hesitant to start reading more fantasy, not least because a trilogy is now the minimum requirement and multiple trilogies are becoming standard. The potential for spreading thin plots even thinner is high. Nevertheless, I decided to try a few "Part One's" including Myrren's Gift. Definitely one of the worst books I've read for a long time - hackneyed fantasy stereotypes whose motives can't be explained by the author through narrative or dialogue so she just tells us "X is brave", "Y is evil", etc. Bad characterisation, bad writing, bad plot, bad structure. Bad, bad book.The contrast with Greg Keyes' Kingdom of Thorn and Bone or George R R Martin's Song of Ice and Fire couldn't be more stark. There is good fantasy out there but Myrren's Gift isn't part of it.
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