Review - Griffin's Flight
Feb. 11th, 2011 12:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rainwatersparkThe sequel to The Dark Griffin by K.J. Taylor, which I believe I already talked about a bit.
So I thought this book was a little less unbelievably unfortunate than the first one, but only by a bit. It's still very much a series of unfortunate events, and sometimes you have to wonder if Arren/Arenadd ever gets a break.
Overall, it was still a compelling read, but I have a few bones to pick with Taylor's writing style. Even though it's very readable, it sometimes gets bogged down in description--which is nice in that it fleshes out the physical world of the story, but I found myself skimming because I wanted the pacing to be faster. Sometimes there seemed to be (arguably) unnecessary story events that slowed down the plot pacing further, such as Arren/Arenadd's one-month stint with the slaves. I'm also not entirely fond of the way Taylor head-hops through POVs, particularly as I couldn't care less about Erian's POV.
Also, it's clear in this book that morality is very, very gray. Gray morality can be pulled off very well, but i feel that Taylor's efforts in the Fallen Moon trilogy come up a bit short (odd, considering she herself did it well with her Eragon fanfiction). Out of nowhere, we learn that Arren/Arenadd actually did not have a heart of gold himself when he was a griffener, while Book One made no mention of this whatsoever. Furthermore, Arenadd goes to the North, yet his Northern relatives also come off as less than sympathetic (Arddryn, I'm looking at you).
One thing I don't like about Taylor's approach to the "show how a character becomes evil" plot is the emphasis on Arren/Arenadd as The Cursed One (which approaches the pitfalls of having The Chosen One), and the fact that we're in Arenadd's head sometimes, but then his thoughts are withheld from us at others. This makes his behavior sometimes inexplicably erratic--which, I guess, may have been what Taylor intended, but it makes Arenadd a strange character to understand and root for. Sometimes, we totally have sympathy for him. Other times, he becomes a heartless criminal. Other times, he comes off as weak/extremely emotionally unstable. There are ways to make villainous and/or emotionally complex characters compelling (my favorite examples here would be Harvey Dent from The Dark Knight and Othello from Othello), but Taylor just misses the mark with Arenadd. It's almost as though all these different sides to him are shown without something central running through that ties them all together.
So I thought this book was a little less unbelievably unfortunate than the first one, but only by a bit. It's still very much a series of unfortunate events, and sometimes you have to wonder if Arren/Arenadd ever gets a break.
Overall, it was still a compelling read, but I have a few bones to pick with Taylor's writing style. Even though it's very readable, it sometimes gets bogged down in description--which is nice in that it fleshes out the physical world of the story, but I found myself skimming because I wanted the pacing to be faster. Sometimes there seemed to be (arguably) unnecessary story events that slowed down the plot pacing further, such as Arren/Arenadd's one-month stint with the slaves. I'm also not entirely fond of the way Taylor head-hops through POVs, particularly as I couldn't care less about Erian's POV.
Also, it's clear in this book that morality is very, very gray. Gray morality can be pulled off very well, but i feel that Taylor's efforts in the Fallen Moon trilogy come up a bit short (odd, considering she herself did it well with her Eragon fanfiction). Out of nowhere, we learn that Arren/Arenadd actually did not have a heart of gold himself when he was a griffener, while Book One made no mention of this whatsoever. Furthermore, Arenadd goes to the North, yet his Northern relatives also come off as less than sympathetic (Arddryn, I'm looking at you).
One thing I don't like about Taylor's approach to the "show how a character becomes evil" plot is the emphasis on Arren/Arenadd as The Cursed One (which approaches the pitfalls of having The Chosen One), and the fact that we're in Arenadd's head sometimes, but then his thoughts are withheld from us at others. This makes his behavior sometimes inexplicably erratic--which, I guess, may have been what Taylor intended, but it makes Arenadd a strange character to understand and root for. Sometimes, we totally have sympathy for him. Other times, he becomes a heartless criminal. Other times, he comes off as weak/extremely emotionally unstable. There are ways to make villainous and/or emotionally complex characters compelling (my favorite examples here would be Harvey Dent from The Dark Knight and Othello from Othello), but Taylor just misses the mark with Arenadd. It's almost as though all these different sides to him are shown without something central running through that ties them all together.
