Carol Berg (1)Critiques

Read this if you like Robin Hobb. I personally don't. This strikes me as being tragedy porn. Terrible things happen to our heroes, both in the past and the present because it is being told non-linearly. Two of the characters are a magical macguffins. This is tagged as romance, and it has two people that love each other a lot in it, but in my opinion that is different from a romance, especially if you read Romance with a capital R. But I will acknowledge that it is well written, even though it is told from the 1st person pov, which, in my opinion is the worst pov.

It's difficult to relate what I found unsatisfactory about this book without revealing more than I would have cared to know, prior to reading the book, myself. I’ll avoid spoilers by saying this - The standard plot ( Protagonist, of the “Guy redeemed from ill use/bad habits” sort, moves a step up from his former nature/life to better strength and wisdom before some terrible cliff-hanger ensues.) that is found in most series; is rather absent from this second book: Revelation. It's almost refreshing, really, in that this book doesn't follow a reader's anticipated patterns of character and story development. Unfortunately with all of the mistakes, suffering, pain and torture (lots of the last three) undergone by the characters, in this book, reading its first two thirds, was like like re-reading the first two thirds of the previous book (Transformation). In that book our Hero spent most of his time enslaved. He’s free now, but here again, there is great attention paid to depravation, humiliation and bleeding. And all of this misery comes without the “"better make sure they'll read the next book" pay off of his achieving freedom that we got at the end of the first book.

Carol Berg writes well. Her prose is good and her characters draw one's attention. There is a good story here, which carried me as far as completing this 2nd volume of the series, but I guess the 'revelation' for me is that I just can't enjoy where this author takes her characters, nor how long she leaves them there. When torture becomes boring it is decidedly overdone. Ultimately, I found this book a slog and I won't be staying on for the third book, Restoration. If you choose to read beyond the first book, I hope that you can ride the story on without getting stuck in the muck. Perhaps the ending makes it worth all the pain; I’m not going to find out. Good luck.

Quick Word: Only one story was worthwhile, another was alright and two were... unpleasant... to read. (Did't even get through the last two.)

Quick Word:I adored Carol Berg’s previous novels and I have devoured every one. Yet, I spent a month attempting to read this one. The characterization and world building was decent, even solid. Yet my pleasure in a good novel must come from either brilliant plotting or enjoyable characterization. Valen was miserable to read about; he was a survivor (I’ll give him that) but he was also a compulsive liar, a drug addict, and lacking morals. There was a certain sense of… hopelessness… in his situation, and the land he lived in was brutal, unforgiving and crude. Unlike Seyonne, who also endured a civil war, Valen lacks a sense of humor, and this, I feel, is the first greatest flaw of the novel. As tired, troubled, angry, and frustrated Seyonne was, he always had a dry comment or keen observation to make that kept me rooting for him. Valen just cursed the world and took advantage of the kindnesses presented to him. And then there’s the fact that Seyonne was always fighting for something worthwhile: his people, his soul, his dignity, his wife, his son. These things made him a hero, that even when he was looking out for himself, he was faithful to his beliefs as he could. Valen was merely interested in saving his own skin. And then there is the situation of the villains who populate Flesh and Spirit. A credible villain can be motivated by anything from simple greed to self-preservation, from patriotism to revenge, from religious fervor to ambition to romantic love. Vallen’s nemesis (actually, all of them) were motivated by… evil? Sadism? Empty pride? Villains should be people. Not twisted figures of darkness or caricatures of ignorance and conceit. I realize that it could be argued that Valen is just human, and realistic to boot. But you know what? Who cares. Sorties aren’t good just because they are realistic, they should say something of importance too.

Don't let this DNF deter you! This fantasy is densely atmospheric, with complex, thoughtful worldbuilding, and an interesting main character. I just don't do well when a lot of info is thrown at me, so this duology isn't for me. But I understand now why so many readers love it, even though I didn't get far. DNF at 28%, when my library loan ended.

This book was incredible. While I found the first book a bit slow, in retrospect it was exactly what it needed to be in order to make this book what it is. You needed the background, the development of Valen's character, and the slow building of the politics and mythology in order for this book to work. Berg is a genius at creating characters. Valen really comes to life, and I love him for his flaws as much as for his strengths, for his mistakes as much as for his successes. He's such a real character that it's so easy to relate to him, so easy to sympathize with, and it makes the books so much more personal and poignant because of it. The writing is beautiful, and her descriptions are enough to make you feel Valen's claustophobia, or actually feel his wonder at seeing the Danae in your own heart. Just a beautiful, beautiful book. Wow. Bravo.

This book was really interesting, especially in its character development. There were times when I had a bit of trouble following what was actually going on, but I stayed rather fascinated with how Valen continued to grow and change. This is a book that I think will require a re-read to get all the little details, but I really enjoyed it nonetheless. Valen is an amazing character!

3.5 stars
Took me longer than expected to finish, and left me in melancholy. Sigh.

Excellent

Love the cover. Seyonne just gets more interesting. Fiona turns out to be a big surprise. Wonderful.

Despite the cover, this is an excellent book. Well detailed, full of life and characters well worth knowing. By the end of it I wanted (and still do) to meet Prince Aleksander and the main character, Seyonne in person.

Pretty good. After a slow beginning (my problem, not the author's), the book picked up for me as I got drawn into the web of intrigue and mystery which surrounded Valen, the Abby of Gillarine and the good brothers therein. Valen is not the most likable of characters, but he's an interesting one nonetheless and I look forward to reading the follow up book soon.

Not bad at all. Interesting plot twists which were mostly unexpected.

I am pleased to report that I managed to finish this book, where many others quit (for good reasons.) Carol Berg took a decent them of science versus magic, but did not write a good story. A middling librarian at Collegia Magica is recruited his distant relative (the King) to see who is trying to kill him; everyone suspects the Queen so some political intrigue. Sadly, the characters are all very dull and the story development is ungodly slow. And the piece de resistance is no decent magic. Skip this one.

The first book was good but this one blow it away, twist galore.

Found it a bit silly that the villain kept a journal of all his crimes for everybody to read

My first impression of this book was that it would be a simple Fantasy adventure romp, but I was pleasantly surprised to find a murder mystery with suspenseful elements all around the edges. Throughout both the action and the more contemplative aspects of the investigation the motives, actions, and character of all the principle players (even the protagonist) are brought into question and their moral shades of gray are closely examined.

I have once again resumed my determined effort to learn to properly appreciate audiobooks! I read this trilogy in print about 10 years ago and loved it. A couple years ago, I decided to listen to it in audio. The narrator is Kevin Stillwell and I found his reading style works well for me, plus I already had an attachment to the characters and the story, so I did better with them than I usually do. However, I stalled out on this third audiobook twice despite enjoying it for the most part, and gave up. After picking cross-stitching back up recently, I decided to try it again while doing that. I’m still a bad audiobook listener, but I think listening while cross-stitching works a little better for me than listening while commuting in Atlanta traffic.

I enjoyed this whole trilogy, but I think the first book was my favorite and this last book, while good, was my least favorite. Seyonne’s decisions in this book became particularly frustrating to me. I always hate it when a favorite character goes darkside, even if it’s temporary. In the end his actions redeemed him pretty well, but he wasn’t fun to read about for a large portion of the story. I don’t remember what I thought when I first read it in print, I just remember inhaling them quickly and enjoying them all. The story from the first book was the only one I remembered very clearly though, so I think it must have been my favorite the first time around too. Despite some of my complaints, I did enjoy this overall and there were some great moments. I also think I would have enjoyed this even more had I re-read it in print rather than listening to it as an audio, but it’s hard to find time to re-read print books when there are so many new books I want to try.

One thing I’ve always loved about Carol Berg’s writing is that, at least in the books I’ve read so far, she starts out with a seemingly simple story that slowly gets more complex as she continuously reveals new layers that make you reconsider everything that happened before. She also does a great job of writing characters I care about and writes some really enjoyable character friendships. I consider her one of my favorite authors.

This series was my first introduction to Carol Berg and I loved it, but now that I’ve re-read them after reading some of her other books, I think I would recommend her Lighthouse duet as the better starting point, and also the related Sanctuary duet.

The last episode of the journey of Seyonne from slave to "god" explores his doubts and misunderstandings and his relationships with friends, wife, son and mentors. A good conclusion.

Song of the Beast is a standalone fantasy novel set on a fictional world with dragons. I haven’t read tons of fantasy books with dragons, but I have read several and this book wasn’t like any of the ones I’ve read, at least not in any significant way. The story opens up with a character named Aidan as he’s being released after 17 years of imprisonment. He’s a mess, his fingers were broken repeatedly for years, he’s afraid to talk, and he doesn’t even know why he was imprisoned nor why he was released. He doesn’t get much of a chance to lick his wounds before his life is in danger again.

One thing I like about Carol Berg’s writing is that she starts off with what seems like a simple story, and I think I can see where things are going, but she keeps revealing new layers and I keep realizing that there was just a little more to what was going on than I had suspected. Her stories may not be super complex, but neither are they ever quite as straight-forward as they first appear, and I never find myself comparing them to other books because they aren’t full of tropes, or at least she doesn’t take them in a common direction.

Another thing I like about Carol Berg’s writing is that she can tell a full, satisfying story in a relatively short span of pages. This book was a little under 500 pages and is not part of a series. I’ve also read two very satisfying duologies that she’s written, and one very satisfying trilogy. I enjoy a long, epic fantasy series as much as the next epic fantasy fan, with characters who become my second family for months, but they’re a huge time commitment and they limit my ability to get to other books I’m also interested in. It’s great to be able to satisfy that craving in a smaller dose.

This book was a little more romancey than her other books that I’ve read, and that part was maybe a little tropey and angsty, but I didn’t feel like it overshadowed the story. I bought into it well enough and never felt annoyed by it. I liked the main characters, especially Aidan. I preferred reading from his POV, although I liked the other main POV well enough. I just had a little bit of trouble adjusting after I’d been reading from the first person of Aidan for most of the first 250 pages, and it switched to the first-person POV of a different character. Sometimes I forgot I was reading from a different POV when I first picked the book up after not having read it for a few hours. This wasn’t a big problem for me, just an occasional annoyance, and there were advantages to telling parts of the story from the POV of different characters.

This is the 8th book I’ve read by the author and I consider her to be one of my favorites. I enjoyed this book a lot, and it reminded me that I really need to fit her into my reading schedule more often. However, I did like the other 7 better. This one held my interest and I was always happy to pick it back up when I had the time, but I never quite reached that point where nothing short of a catastrophe could make me put the book down like what I’ve experienced with her other books. I’m giving it 4.5 stars, but rounding down to 4 on Goodreads.½

Transformation is a fantasy novel about the relationship between a contemptuous and overbearing prince, Aleksander, on his way to becoming emperor, and his slave, Seyonne. The story is told from the Seyonne’s point of view.

Carol slowly builds the character of Seyonne. At the start of the book, he lives solely in the present, his past repressed or forgotten, the future irrelevant. It becomes apparent that he has some special abilities to recognize or see things others cannot. His magic was taken from him in a ritual when he was captured. He had been a Warden, a man with some magical abilities skilled at fighting demons.

The early story of the slave is very graphic and, for me, difficult to read. It deals with punishment, his attitude on survival and his slave past. At the same time, Aleksander sees him only as property and a tool. He things nothing of withholding food or punishing Seyonne.

Once he starts seeing things, his tie to Aleksander become stronger and their relationship really starts to develop. At this point I found the book quite compelling and easy to read.
The characters are very interesting and the story is well-told. Carol Berg has created an interesting world with full cultures that interact with the characters to help make this a fascinating story.

Carol Berg is an accomplished fantasy writer, usually employing the first-person narrative with protagonists empowered with taboo-sorcery (i.e., Romy (An Illusion of Thieves in Chimera); Seyonne (Transformation in the Books of the Rai-kirah); Seri (Son of Avonar in The Bridge of D'Arnath); Lucian de Remeni here in Ash and Silver (sequel to Dust and Light in the Sanctuary Duet).

I read this sequel without reading the first book (or prior duet), but it read fine. I got to learn about the hero as he relearned about his past/powers. As the book blurb states, this book is about Lucian de Remeni. Isolation is another of Berg's go-to themes, with her protagonists being torn from their communities either enslaved, outcasted, or exiled. Here, Lucian has undergone a sort of self-imposed amnesia from the onset. His journey transforms him into a completely new individual.

Lucian's powers drew me to this series. He is a sorcerer with "bents" toward portraiture and history. He can portray the truth others (i.e., powerful royalty) wish to conceal, and can read/work the land/architecture too. Lucian is the perfect sleuth, but now he has learned how to fight like a warrior too.

How cool is it that historians and artists can be the most powerful magicians? If they can read the truth, they also can manipulate it. Want to dig up dirt on an enemy? Have an artist portray the enemy's worst dirt. Want to save yourself from judgment? Have an artist erase those nasty details from a portrait already made.

"Creating memory patterns was art. Words, objects, faces, facts--these were lines, curves, dimensions; thick or narrow, sturdy or delicate, certainty or suggestion. Sensation and emotion were colors, blended and shaded, given depth or left vague. The memory itself was a composition, and if the artist was able to bring his bent to its creation, it would take the aspect of truth."--Lucian de Remeni

Lucian is embroiled in massively epic conflicts between blue & silver-hued Danae (elf-like fairies of another realm that also for the land), between the Danae and humans, humans and other humans (with a vacancy on the empire's thrown, three princes battle for power, and some have been banished from earth), sects of the Order and Registry of Pureblood sorcerers. The 478 pages can hardly contain all the madness. Somehow, Berg manages to continuously ramp up the intensity and connect all the myriad threads. All conflict involves Lucian somehow.

What do you seek in a good book? The same that Lucian seeks on his adventures: a good story. "What else could a historian desire?" Berg makes being an artist & historian fun and dangerous., and she makes it fun to live vicariously through a like-minded sorcerer.

The amount of pain, sleeplessness, and torture that Lucian experiences pushes the bounds of believability at times and the sheer epicness of the conflicts -- coupled with the rate of betrayals & insights-- is mind-boggling. It had me engaged, but this could easily have been expanded into several novels. I plan to be a good historian and read Dust and Light next.

'..and how pervasive is the righteous anger of a portrait artist easily seduced to murder?" Lucian de Remeni

It's been a long, long time since I've read a fiction book good enough to hold my attention like this. I literally devoured it and thought of almost nothing else. I was a robot at work, going through the motions while thinking only of Seyonne and Aleksander and the trials facing them.

I'm also hard pressed to name the last book I read that was so well written and had such deep and complex characters with ever naturally evolving relationships. Not to mention the glorious, twisty plot.

According to fantasticfiction this is Berg's first book. Impossible, I say. If this is any indication of what is to come, I do believe I have found a new favorite author.

A great many thanks to Ms. Carol Berg for the marvelous read and to magicalwords for helping me discover another great author.

Giving up circa page 113 (chapter 10) because I'm just not connecting with it. And I'm sad about it, because there's a lot that's really interesting about the world and scenario. The plot just doesn't have any driving force for me, however, partly because it's bound up with a character who's wrestling with privilege (or perhaps more with noblesse oblige, because there's a weight to it, but it's privilege nonetheless) and his personal and familial concerns, and I just cannot find it in myself to get that invested in him, or his bratty sister, not even for mysterious magic and murder most horrid.

Seyonne is the only Warden, vanquishing demon after demon, followed and watched for signs of treason. He begins a quest to find his son who was turned out for being demon infested and failing to confront a demon that he could sense no evil in it. Seyonne finds himself playing spy and then going into the demon world. It's long and involved but still interesting.