Fun read ( )

I enjoyed the first part of this book but then the book quickly got bogged down in the complicated politics of this fantasy world. Around page 40 I started to struggle with the story and paying attention, by page 107 I gave up. I have read other books by Tuttle and enjoyed them but this one just didn’t hold my interest.

There just wasn’t enough story here to hook my interest. I did enjoy the heroine somewhat but I was a bit frustrated with her willingness to take on problems that didn’t seem all that important in the larger scheme of this world.

There are a lot of characters introduced rather rapidly, which I am never a fan of. Additionally what started off looking like an interesting book about magic quickly changed to a book about politics and war; again not my favorite topics.

Overall this book isn’t poorly written and it is somewhat humorous, but the subject matter just didn’t hold my interest. ( )

It took me two starts to get into this book, but I'm really glad I did. The characters are well developed and interesting, and I liked Meralda a lot as a female protagonist. She is strong, independent, intelligent, who manages to take care of a whole lot more than "simply" moving the shadow of the 700 year old wizard's tower no monarch has been able to topple so it won't cover the king when he gives his speech at the very important Accords.

This book covers a lot of ground--politics, what lengths countries will go to in order to disrupt the Accords, which occur every five years, posturing, grand-standing, thievery... The appearance of the Hang, who live half-way across the world and are the only ones with the ships large enough to cross the ocean, at the current year's Accords is a subject for mystery and speculation.

I loved the use of magic and how it was used with the tower, and how the tower becomes the Tower, a character in its own right. I also liked Nameless and Faceless, and how they choose to work with Meralda of their own free will. Tower was a little Gothic in that it is a structure with a huge part in the story, including how it was haunted and had the lights on the flat. Meralda's laboratory is a bit of a character in itself as well, what with all the interesting devices stored there, and the idea that a little bit of all the mages who have gone before her lingers. The different magics from the different realms is well done, and the Tower could recognize some of them but not all. The whole concept of latching spells was interesting.

I found it interesting that the Captain didn't have a name until approximately 52% of the way through the book (I checked when he was finally named) because I had been thinking of him as a potential love interest, even though he and Meranda were mostly respectfully friendly to one another, I can't help it, the romance part of my brain still does things like that. He doesn't have a ghost of a chance, though. That's actually a pun. You'll get it if you read the book. :-)

I absolutely loved Mug. I had no idea a magically animated plant could be so entertaining. And all of his eyes! I laughed out loud when he lost all traces of his sarcastic self and chirpily proclaimed that he had twenty nine eyes to the Hang.

Tervis and Kervis grew on me as well. I thought it was an accomplishment to have twins whose personalities were so clearly different, and I enjoyed their exchanges.

What I really liked, however, is the fact with everything that kept piling up around her and becoming more and more complicated, that the woman dealing with everything, quite capably, was just eighteen years old, and she didn't give up. She is a little like the Tower--she took everything thrown at her, dispelled it like a badly placed latching spell and dealt with it quite competently. Thanks in part to her cohorts, who I think she was wise to keep a blind eye to, keeping the main foes distracted, and Donchen, who cooks for her while she works (and whom, in a nice turn of events, Meranda rescues at one point) and proves to be a respectful equal. I enjoyed this book quite a bit, and am looking forward to reading the sequel.
( )

A talking plant , a clever heroine, and a tricky challenge involving a dark shadow and a haunted tower make for an interesting afternoon's read. ( )

This review is from: All the Paths of Shadow (Kindle Edition)
This was a good read. The characters were fun and the plot was fun. It was more-or-less a steampunk genre story but despite dirigibles and running water the emphasis was on magic. There no in depth description of how the magic worked but the hints were interesting.

Another reviewer wrote that the king was an idiot in public and quite a nice guy in private. That person found that confusing and marked the author down for it. I somewhat disagree. After all, many a politician has a public and a private face. A matter of taste or point of view perhaps.

I won't detail the plot, but it move nicely and was well constructed. The character were also well constructed with just enough detail for the story.

If you like fantasy with Royal Thaumaturges and wizards and snarky familiars you will probably like this one. I recommend it to you as an enjoyable tale. ( )