Ben Weaver (1)

Usually I just rate books without writing a review. In this case I'm making an exception for this terrible, terrible excuse for a book.

If I could, I would sue the writer for emotional damages and time wasted. The writing style is far below par and if there is any worse anti-hero than Scott I have yet got to encounter him/her.

After about 100 pages I couldn't take it anymore and tossed the book away. Even if the rest of the book (and/or trilogy) would be nobel prize quality it just would not make up for the torture of reading this first part. Avoid at all costs, unless you're into self-infliction of psychological pain! Your brain will be very thankful.

I'd rather wear a pink tutu and let myself get bombarded with overripe tomatos for a whole day on some marketplace than read one more single word.… (mehr)

The middle book of the triology. I normally read fantasy trilogies and I'm used to that structure. This has less of that, but remains rather predictable in structure.

The army that Scott fights for promotes on incompetence: every time he leads troops something goes wrong (mutiny, massive losses, etc.) and still they promote him. What happened to competence based promotions? He's not the son of a noble or other high status character, so it's not that, and he's not buying a commission either... It's just daft. Even if every mistake is assumed to be malicious acts by others (and his loss in this book is very clearly that), it makes him an unlucky leader.

The series started on a mediocre level and went downhill. The only good thing to say for this is, if I'd bought it rather than being given all three, I'd never have bought book 3.… (mehr)