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Der Verfluchte Prinz (2013)

by Philippa Ballantine(Favorite Author)

3.66 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

3802586468 (ISBN13: 9783802586460)

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

Egmont Lyx

series

Book of the Order

review 1: On the plus side, this book has a very interesting world. I can't fully invest in the world because many of the rules are clearly arbitrary, but that is overpowered by the fact that the setting is fairly unique. I find many of the characters intriquing and I enjoy the story mostly. It stays interesting and kept me guessing about what would happen next. Unfortunately, there are also a number of problems as well. First, at the end of the day, the main character is simply annoying to the point of detracting from my enjoyment of the book. And the funny thing is, that is the point of the character. She is written to be prickly and unpleasant. Furthermore, for no discernable reason and to no real point she is unhappily married and the obligatory adultery plot is wormed in for no... more obviously better reason than to just have it. And that isn't a spoiler. If you don't see that coming after the first chapter, then you must teach me how to be more naive. I presume the author did it to be edgy or something, but within the world she built, it made no sense that they hadn't already divorced or even that her husband just dies in the first chapter. It just came across as a pretentious attempt to be different even though it was written well enough so as to explain some of her feelings. And to add insult to injury halfway through the book Sorcha basically becomes more tolerable abruptly for no better reason than her sexual side is allowed to play and finally pounce, essentially saying that all a contrary woman needs is a good romp and she'll be all better. Thankfully, the main character's love life is maintained as a fairly background point through most of the novel, only reaching fruition late in the novel and the characters being mostly professional enough to focus on the sheer maelstrom going on around them. I give the book a 6/10. I don't regret reading it yet, but aside from the interesting mechanics gained from deviating from standard fantasy settings and having a plot where literally everything is throwing itself at the characters, there really isn't enough here to be more than mediocre. The other two protagonists are enjoyable and easier to identify with than prickly Sorcha and Sorcha herself becomes more pleasant to be around as shit goes down and she has to act (and I'm guessing loses the sexual tension). The world, while impressive and different suffers from arbitrary rules and too much attempt at mystery. So many fundamental things are just never explained or explained in such a scattered way that you would have to piece it together across multiple chapters. Some of it is nonconsequential, but the rest is no better than fantasy technobabble that leaves me wondering what is going on before throwing a deus ex machina in. At the end of the day, the novel works ok and I think it is worth a read, but I'm not chomping at the bit to read the sequel. It might just suffer from first book problems as I don't think the author has anything published before this. I suppose I'll find out eventually.Update: So Geist is actually two shorter stories, bound in one book. Don't get me wrong, I've seen this done many other times where there is a episodic quality to the story, but usually there is a larger afoot that maintains the tension of miniclimax 1, 2 and 3, culminating in the real climax at the end. Here the tension is completely dropped for Sorcha to get better with sex, followed by basically the intro to a new story, complete with boring casual travelling scenes. In some was things seemed either more polished or I just accepted that inconsistencies are just the norm, but in many other ways, the second story completely ignores all the in universe rules and lore (or maybe retcons them?) moreso Than miniclimax A. I'm fine with our characters having ignorance of things, but everything is either vague or contradicts what we were told and it is never satisfactorily explained. According the the back page our author is previously known for writing short fiction, and it shows. It's still not a bad book and for a first novel it's not hard to overlook the inconsistencies. It does get sort of predictable as time goes on, but let's face it, all novels are predictable as you learn the author's style. The conclusion is satisfactory, though I still question why she characterized her characters the way she did. All in all, I hope Phillipa has learned from writing this book and pays closer attention to her in universe notes. I feel like she rushed this a little bit, but having tried writing myself I know that this probably represents years of work and any issues I pointed out are merely a factor of inexperience. If you are interested in the setting, I would check it out. At 300 pages, it's a relatively short read.
review 2: Fantasyroman. Fließend. Fantasyroman. 3.7/5 SterneDurch einen Freund darauf aufmerksam gemacht, begann ich zu lesen und erwartete einen durchschnittlichen Fantasyroman. - ~yay. Richtige Erwartung.Mir fällt es schwer Fantasyromane zu bewerten. Normalerweise sind sie einfach geschrieben und ich kann nicht so recht aufhören sie zu lesen. Ich mag es neue Welten bzw. neue Fantasien bezüglich der 'Magie' zu sehen. Es ist nicht hervorgestochen und doch mochte ich es.Die Figuren wurden nach einem kleinen holprigen Start ganz sympathisch und die Geschichte hat auch immerhin ihre unvorhergesehenen Momente. Ein wenig Zweifel und Unsicherheit ist bei den Protagonisten zu sehen, bleibt in der Darstellung aber doch noch eher oberflächlich bzw. naiv - eigentlich wie erwartet.Die weiteren Teile werde ich auch demnächst lesen. Für jeden Fantasy-Leser der da ebenso unkritisch und scheinbar leicht zu faszinieren ist wie ich, kann ich es empfehlen, wenn zwischendurch etwas gelesen werden mag. less

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