One of my old familiar re-reads, I've owned this book for years and keep going back to it. Not the most amazing plot or deep charactes, but they're good and comfortable. ( )

A world where magic is defined by shape [for power] and color[for type]. A really cool premise. A small kingdom is under threat from a neighboring kingdom and must use its mages to supplement it's army. So it sounded good.

Then I met the characters. Bunch of whiny, pansy, selfish, no self confidence bunch of pathetic losers. The characters teenager'ish angst and self-doubt completely ruined this book for me. It was not enjoyable and I will not be reading any more by Asaro. ( )

Terrible. Lines like, "She quirked one of her perfect eyebrows at him" and "Telli laughed, her melodic voice chiming like bells," and of course, "willowy curves." God help us all. Some of the most cliched, boring piece of fantasy I have ever laughed at. ( )

Well, that was different. I certainly wasn't expecting a fantasy romance, with a touch of math/science thrown in.

Picked this up because the author will be at an event I'm attending in the nearish future and I'd never read any of her work. Blurbs here and there say she's got the chops in science: Harvard and UCLa in physics and chemistry, and deep into molecudyne (look it up if you don't know what it is) research. She also is a dancer, both jazz and ballet. (And married to a astrophysicist at NASA, though it strikes me odd that this information is included in her bio.) I had hoped to read a stand alone book of hers, but as that wasn't available when I was looking, I chose a early book in a series.

I found the plot line a cross between romance and a pre-Twilight YA romance, which, for me, was not that satisfying. The opening scene reminded me of Camelot, where Arthur and Guinevere meet, she running away from her husband to be, he, hiding in a tree to escape the girl who would become his queen. As a result, I hummed the opening song to the musical for a day and a half-- major ear worm. At first I thought the scene a rip-off, but have decided it's probably an homage to Alan Jay Lerner (and Lowe). The magic system, based on the premise that people who are born with mage powers cover a rainbow spectrum of ability, and use geometric shapes to cast and enhance their spells. I can imagine that someone who dislikes math might be disgruntled by the interweaving of power and shapes here. For me, keeping track of characters, their mage color, shapes, and other interrelationships was a bit confusing.

As to the story, I wasn't all that captivated, but I can see where others, who have more patience for romance, might. And had I read this when I was under 20, I might have liked it more. And I just wasn't interested enough in any of the 4 main good guy characters, or the primary evil character, to even worry if they were in danger or not. I'm sorry to say that for this reader, the sphere definitely wasn't charmed, but I'm not giving up on the author. have found that our library system has one stand alone novel, which has won the HOMer Award for Best Science Fiction Novel. I've placed a request and will give that a try. I'd like to be able to honestly tell her when I meet her that I've read and enjoyed something she wrote. ( )

It was okay. I won't regret the lost time spent reading it, but I'm glad I purchased as an ebook so that it wouldn't have been taking up space on my shelf until I got around to reading it. ( )