Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Two Reviews: Siren's Song by Mary Weber


Jes’s Review:

Siren’s Song by Mary Weber was an engrossing read. She really sucks you into Nym’s unique, often scary world and Nym herself is as original as the land she lives in. In this book, which picks up right where the second one leaves off, Nym is desperately trying to rally all peoples for one last desperate fight against the evil Draewulf, who would consume them all, and his wraith army; a lot of pressure for an ex-slave who can barely control her superpowers.   Especially since she’s still haunted by the decisions she made previously, the nightmares of what will happen if she fails, and the fact that the man she loves is on the line… as well as the guy she can barely stand yet can’t help liking. This book will keep the pages turning. The entire trilogy is very interesting- and intense- and I heartily recommend it to everyone.   My thanks to Thomas Nelson’s Fiction Guild for my copy, the opinions are my own honest ones.

Nicki’s Review: Spoilers Possible

First off since the best part of this book was the characters, I am going to touch on them a little bit.  Nym is the main character. She is an elemental, which basically means that she can control the elements… yeah the name is pretty self-explanatory.  You read the story from her point of view and so you really feel how she feels; all the fear, remorse, anger (most of the time focused on Eogan who I get to shortly), love, and compassion.  I found her to be a strong character that I wasn’t constantly yelling at because she actually got stuff done.  She has a quick temper and an even quicker wit that kept me constantly grinning at her wild antics.  

Eogan is the main guy and oh, my goodness he is such a bolcrane (excuse my language).  Ugh.  I totally relate with Nym in her anger toward him.  I don’t think I have ever read another book in which a hero has so infuriated me with his personality and actions.  And yet he is still so likeable and attractive… how does that even work?  Nym and I will get back to you on that once we figure it out ourselves…   I really liked Rasha, Nym’s friend, who is a princess from nearby Cashlin, and in my personal opinion she should win the supportive friend of the year award.  

Myles is a hard character to wrap your mind around.  Is he good?  Is he bad?  Is he either?  I didn’t start this series liking him, but by the second book he was worming his way into my heart with his insistent primping, annoying personality, and supposedly endearing pet names but with the way he says them they sound more like insults (at least they did in my head while I was reading); and by the third book I was all like Myles had better not die.  My Lord Protectorate is under my protection; you mess with him, you mess with me.  Got it?  And moving on… 

The next character is King Sedric of Faelin.   I generally liked him but in this book I found that he was a little bit too needy.  It seemed like every time Nym got a chance to catch her breath a servant was coming and telling her that King Sedric needed her.  There’s also Kel, the mischievous little boy who has taken a shining to Nym and so likes to follow her around everywhere she goes.  And lastly there is Draewulf, the big bad guy.  Yeah I didn’t like him too much which I guess means the Mrs. Weber did her job well.  Basically he’s this really powerful 130 year old wizard who can climb into your body and take it over.  Oh, yeah and he’s a wolf and has black smoke that surrounds him and makes him pretty much invulnerable to most attacks.  So there you have the characters (well the main ones anyway) let’s get on to the story…

This book pretty much picks up right where the last one left off so I would advise reading that book before you read this one, and since that book starts off right where the first book left off I would advise reading that one first.  I believe that this series is best read from cover, to cover, to cover.  In the last book Draewulf had taken over Tulla and in the ensuing battle captured Rasha.  This book starts off with Nym and Eogan rushing off to Cashlin to warn the people there that they are next in Draewulf’s hit list.  However, nothing goes according to plan as the ship they are riding crashes, the Cashlins turn out to be more hostile than anticipated, and it becomes apparent that Eogan has not quite recovered from Draewulf inhabiting his body and is, in fact, dying.  

They race to Faelin to try to save him and also prepare the kingdom for the coming battle because, after Cashlin, it’s next in line for conquering.  Draewulf is coming with his undead army of wraiths to finish off Faelen for good, and the already war ravaged land is anything but prepared for it.  Nym is their only hope to win the coming battle.  A battle that she does not expect to survive.  Oh, and since we’re mean let’s just throw into the mix some tension between Nym and that bolcrane Eogan just to torment the poor readers.  I’m just kidding.  But still was all that tension really necessary…?  It about did me in in some parts.  This is a highly emotional and fast paced book that I read in two days.  I loved this book; actually I loved this whole series.  It is my new favorite fantasy series and I hope the author will right more books soon because I wholly enjoyed her writing style.   This book was purchased by my Mom and the opinions are my own

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