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Echoes Of Betrayal (2012)

by Elizabeth Moon(Favorite Author)

4.13 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

0345508769 (ISBN13: 9780345508768)

languge

English

genre

Fantasy

publisher

Del Rey Books

series

Paladin's Legacy

review 1: I'm enjoying this return by Elizabeth Moon to the world of her first trilogy, the Paksenarrion books. It's a pleasure to have her re-visitng and developing at the height of her writing career this world that began it. Her writing is certainly more fluid and even than in the first books, and I like that she chose to develop it by writing about the minor characters from the first series, since Paks' story was really over.I miss the close, tight detail of the first books; while they were less fluent overall, there was a wealth of detail about the mercenary training in particular that is missing from these books, and a kind of slow, intimate pace that I liked. The pace & flow here feels more like the Serrano books or the Vatta's War books. I liked those too but miss the weight... more of those first three books, even though in places they were awkward. I don't find these books particularly compelling, but rather familiar and comfortable, and interesting as the world is explored more deeply and some of the questions I've always carried are delved into.
review 2: Reviewing 'Echoes of Betrayal' and 'Limits of Power' together, because I read them back-to-back, and there isn't any radical distinction between them.Both books are very middle-y. Not really middling, just middle-of-series-y. You're expected to know the characters already (that's OK, because I do), and to be invested enough in their ongoing drama that you're not expecting each book to be it's own individual story with clear rising-action-falling-action-conclusion plotting - they're not - but that's (mostly) OK. This series really does have enough engaging characters and interesting scenarios that I'm fine with just following all the characters around and seeing what happens next. It's good entertainment.The content - well crafted, but fairly typical fantasy fare - kingdom-shaking issues regarding magic, royal marriages, human-elf interaction, evil wizards, dragons... all that good stuff.I love Moon's strong female characters, and her realistic portrayals of warrior/military women. The one small thing that annoyed me was how much everyone talks about Paksenarrion - with all that talk, I feel like she should've made more of an appearance.I'd recommend this series to anyone who's looking for a nice, solid, but non-genre-bending fantasy series with a large number of pages to get lost in - but I'd recommend starting at the beginning. less

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