My name is Raine
Benares. Until last week I was a seeker—a finder of things lost and
people missing. Now I’m psychic roommates with the Saghred, an ancient
stone with cataclysmic powers. Just me, the stone, and all the souls
it’s ingested over the centuries. Crowded doesn’t even begin to describe
it. All I want is my life back—which means getting rid of the stone and
the power it possesses. To sort things out, I head for the Isle of Mid,
home to the most prestigious sorcery school, as well as the Conclave,
the governing body for all magic users. It’s also home to power-
grubbing mages who want me dead and goblins who see me as a thief. As if
that’s not enough, Mid’s best student spellsingers are disappearing
left and right, and I’m expected to find them. Lives are at stake,
goblins are threatening to sue, mages are getting greedier, and the
stone’s power is getting stronger by the hour. This could get ugly.
Comment: This is the second installment of the Raine Benares series by author Lisa Shearin. I've read the first book back in 2014 and didn't really like it.
July, however, is usually the month reserved for the big clean up of the year in my house so I always take the chance to clean and organize my books. I've decided to read this one, although I was not really eager, so that I could put it in a corner somewhere or even exchange it through Bookmooch. I must say that, despite not being as bad as I imagined, I'm glad I read it, so I can think of it as out of my list.
In this second story, Raine is still at the place of the previous book's action and she is trying to work with some experts to determine if she might be able to cut her link with the stone the sort of "bonded" with in the events of the previous story. It seems that might be more problematic than she expected and the influence of the stone, despite bearable, is quite annoying most times.
While at the island, Raine also has the problem of those who know about her bond with the powerful stone and want it for themselves. Therefore, she must dodge traps, enemies and political maneuvers while working alongside Mychael, the military-like sorcerer that seems to be a great match for her and also protect those in danger. Will she do it before the stone has too much influence on her?
To be truthful, this wasn't so bad. Perhaps the fact I was able to focus on reading this book more than I probably did with the last one has helped, but this was certainly easier to go through. Maybe it's one of those cases where things improve as they go but the at the same time, I don't feel like reading the rest of the series to try it.
I was able to appreciate the plot of this book more. I still remembered some details from the other book but a lot of things felt new and maybe my impression wasn't as prejudiced.
Nevertheless, I felt it was packed with action and it almost took a bit of breathing room because there was always something happening and that made it difficult to have scenes where the characters could interact at will (some interruption would always shift things) and where I could feel they were being given some more depth to their personalities.
I suppose the genre might explain it but I would have liked more down time to know the characters more beyond the basics of their roles.
As for the action itself, it was intriguing but I was more interested in how what was happening affected the characters and not as much the details of why some groups were more powerful than others and so on. I guess I could say the "politics" involved were too boring at times because they were not mixed with more domestic scenes or, to repeat myself, characterization to show the character's evolution.
The book is, again, narrated by the protagonist, which means we only get to see things from her perspective. It's very complicated to do this well but several authors I've tried did do. In this case, I think the focus is so much on what Raine does, on what she thinks and how she achieves this and that. Of course this means that our perspective on other characters has to be gained by their attitudes regarding Raine or through dialogue. I always feel it's such a loss...the story could gain more strength with a third person instead.
Raine is seen as almost perfect even when she does a mistake or causes a bad situation. I don't think she's always as humble or as approachable so that I could appreciate her more. Since she is the narrator, it can also be frustrating to want to follow an idea or just a more romantic scene but then her focus changes and we loose it.
All in all, I think this was a better book for me, compared with the first one. I still won't read the others even though I liked this 2nd one better. I can't explain but there isn't any detail that would make me feel like investing on this. It feels it might be too predictable and not as wow as it could.
Like I said, one more out of the pile.
Grade: 6/10
No comments:
Post a Comment