1 Followers
2 Following
jeremyb

jeremyb

Currently reading

Code Complete
Steve McConnell
Promise of Blood
Brian McClellan
Broken Homes
Ben Aaronovitch
Fallen Angel of Mine
John Corwin
A Guile of Dragons
James Enge
Pray for Dawn
Jocelynn Drake
Knox's Irregulars
J. Wesley Bush
Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software
Charles Petzold

The False Princess

The False Princess - Eilis O'Neal I thought this would be an okay book, and it wasn't bad in the beginning. But then, it turned into a romance glued together with cliches.

Cliches:
1. The romance: "I love you, and I love you so much, but I still keep hurting you all the time. - Love, Sinda. P.S. I put a spell on you which controls you and will make you hurt again."

2. The magic: The main character, Sinda, couldn't really control her magic until at the end of the tale, when she finally found peace with her magic and it all came out of her control right in the middle of a fight. And then still getting it to do what she wanted.

This is a bit unrealistic, besides cliched. For just about everything in life you need practice to improve. You will most likely come to terms with yourself (and your magic) while sitting quietly alone (or practicing magic). The everything-becomes-all-right fights at the end of books get tiring.

3. The stubbornness: Typical stubbornness to not really pay attention to what is going on (the spy/assassin) and to ignore good advice (telling wizard mentor what was going on). Oh, and that spell on her friend. Oh, and stubbornly thinking that only someone with royal blood should be princess, even if she has no training (Mika) and the "current" princess may be a better fit (Orianne). It's like she refuses to consider it.

4. The anti-magic place: I hate when anti-magic devices turn up in worlds without explanation. They keep appearing in fantasy novels, a confusing thing the author desperately uses to negate the protagonist's newfound power. Find another way to almost kill the main character, please.