Red Series

Tuesday 19 July 2016

Book Review: Soldier

Soldier


Summary: The thrilling next story in the The Talon Saga, the incredible new YA fantasy series from New York Times bestselling author Julie Kagawa. When forced to choose between the sinister Talon organisation and being hunted by her own kind, dragon-human hybrid Ember fled. Even if it meant losing Garret, the dragon-slaying soldier she shares a deep bond with. Now Garret has uncovered secrets that will shake the foundations of dragons and dragon-slayers alike. Can the danger reunite them?

Source: Purchased from The Book Depository

Book Review

This review was a long time coming and not an easy one to write. I adored book one of this series and enjoyed book two despite a few hiccups. But this one. Oh man. I don't know what is up with beloved series and I of late. This has to be my unhappiest review since City of Fallen Angels back in February. What really gets my goat here is that the faults were obvious. Why do YA authors keep falling into the trap of eye grabbing scenes over flow, pacing and story? At first when I finished this book. I was in a daze, a funk. One of the reasons why I haven't been reviewing for a while if at all was this book. Yeah the drop was that real. I'm not going to go into all the faults but will say scenes that were supposed to grab you were written in boring ways, flashbacks were actually better than the current story, minor characters outshone the main ones in the worst way (no lie, a character came for one chapter and literally was better than most of the book), damn idiotic love triangle and just shoddy writing. At the end of the day this is what happens when you decide to write a story with little substance, a bit of action, romance and frigging love triangle galore. There was a love triangle throughout all the books but there was always a bigger picture. In this book however it was made clear that no matter the obstacles and real story built from the previous books, the love triangle was king and not even a well done one at that. I mean I knew the gut punch ending for the book less than half way because of how ham fisted this romantic entanglement was shoved down our throats.

My final word is this that writers need to remember that appealing to the lowest levels of fandom is not good storytelling. I love fandom, but I hate when it is taken to the lowest denominator then turned into a book. That's all. I don't recommend this book unless you just love the parings or read Kagawa's books no matter what. I intend to get the fourth book because I have love for what transpired before this...creation. But if Legion next year is anything like this? I'm out.

Rating: 2 Stars

Still can't believe this book is the one after Rogue (book 2). I gave that 4 Stars man! Bye, I'm off.

14 comments:

  1. I do love me dragons! Wish the title was a bit more imaginative.

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  2. Replies
    1. Yeah. But as a reader and reviewer I need to brush myself off... *Hugs teddy bear* Maybe later. Thanks Alex.

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  3. Sorry you were so disappointed. Sadly as authors become popular, maybe their editors and agents don't take a critical enough eye at their work when helping edit it.

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    1. Perhaps but I also wonder if she might have bowed to fandom pressure.

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  4. Yikes! After hearing about how this book disappointed you and even stopped you from writing reviews for a while definitely tells me that it's a good thing I didn't know about the Talon Saga. I have read YA books that disappointed me like this as well.

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    1. Yeah it's sad that what started so well took such a dive. Worse a big chunk of positive reviews on Goodreads are just going on about who is bae (babe) worthy and shipping people. Oh Lord.

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  5. I think it is even more deflating when you expect good things. And I wonder if the pressure to get sequels out to the public hurts the later books.

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  6. I have a tendency to fall for minor characters in most books. LOL I just do. I think you can almost do more with minor characters because they don't have to be likable and that often makes them more real.
    I haven't read this book or any in the series. Sorry it didn't live up to your expectations.

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  7. Oh man! I hate it when you get to the end and are disappointed. Still, I think it's so easy for authors to fall under a deadline and thus just crank out a novel rather than the best thing they could put out. It happens so often.

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  8. I love that you said that about "eye-grabbing scenes." I've noticed that SO many times in books in general. I have to be able to grab onto a plot. Although in my 20s, I certainly sat through enough action movies that were one action scene after another without any real explanation of what the actual STORY was!

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  9. It's always sad to be disappointed by a book. I jsut move swiftly onto the next one.

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  10. Oh gosh, I was going to start this but maybe I will pass on it for now. I really don't want a blah read right now (or ever LOL!).

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