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3.0 out of 5 stars
The Hell?!, 3 Aug 1999
By A Customer
I am completely torn on this book. It is broken down into four sections, one for each of the companions that aids the young Prince Amatus, and each section is basically a novelette unto itself. The first two parts, which concern an invasion of goblins and vampires, respectively, are wonderful. It seems that with each character introduced, I was immediately enthralled with them. One of the best touches is that they're not truly heroes. Much like THE PRINCESS BRIDE (which the whole book reminded me of), the characters are sometimes assassins, thieves or the like. It is their pure hearts and charming personalities which show them as good people, if a bit immoral. That just adds to the devilish fun. The other high point is the language itself; the simple use of the words won me over, which almost never happens. It all sounds very poetic, often amusing. For instance, it is said that no goblin can set foot on land that another goblin has not already set foot on. It's just full of stuff like that. Throughout this first half, you fall in love with the characters and their world.Then, all of a sudden, the book just dies half-way through. There actually seems to be a tangible line between parts 2 and 3 where it stops being enjoyable. The characters are no longer interesting; the prince is no more than a prince, his knights no more than knights. No more depth into these people, and they suddenly become pinnacles of decency. Also, gone is the beautiful language and clever fairy-tale-with-a-twist plots. Instead, we're reading a chronicle of the kingdom's war with an unspeakable force of evil. Wow, haven't read anything like that before. By the end, we no longer care what happens, which is for the best, because the ending is so weak. It seems the best ranking for this book is 2-and-a-half stars out of 5, split perfectly down the midddle. 3 is fair though, for the first half is magnificent, while the second, while mundane, isn't the worst thing I've ever read. This book seemed like it should have been so good. What the hell happened.
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With an Amazon.co.uk 
