Rating: 
Summary: Great Trilogy
Review: Since it is the closing book of a trilogy, I will review my impression of th trilogy as a whole, and not only this book.
Generaly, Weis and Hickman proof they are still the best fantasy authors around. The trilogy has everything: Adventure, Friendship, Love.
Like most of their books, however, the trliogy is centered around one or two main, deep, characters, wile the others are, although not flat, are less deep. For example, in Dragonlance, the center is Raistlin. In Deathgate cycles, they are Haplo and Alferd. Here, it is the Prince, and, for the first book, Gareth. Once Gareth dies, the series lose something. Perhaps he had to die, and yet, my feeling is that the characters that catch his place are great, but not as good.
That is also why I think the first book, "Well of Darkness" is the best book in the trilogy. It is slow, true, but it explores, deeply, the character of the Prince and of Gareth, and the relationship between them. It is, in my opinion, the deepest book among the three.
However, the authors also use their talent to breathe life into each and every one of their characters and make it seems real. The other two books are filled with such characters. However, while the first book took you into the dark well of Dagnarus' soul, the other two books take you into a journey in the physical world. The second book is a travel-book, a quest, which hints seriousely towards "Lord of the Rings".
The third book combines the two trends. Weis and Hickman use their second-to-none talent of story telling, and make you rise with the dark storm that covers the world you've learned to know. The cause for it is Dagnarus, which you learned to know in the first book.
However, I think the third book is the weakest among the three. you read it because you want to know the end of the tale, the fate of the characters you learned to love. However, it seems that somewhere in the middle the authors ran out of ideas. If I were them, I'd put the book away for a year and just think about it. The many different plot lines are joined in the dramartic ending of the story, but I think it could be better. It's hard to define, but I feel it's less good than the ending of Dragonlance, for example, something is missing, that something that makes you feel sad that the book is over.
In addition, the Authors takes their thesis about love that defeats all to a somewhat Bizarre extreme on this series, and sometimes it seems that they wrote something just because they had no better idea.
Overall, I loved this books. The minor flaws are indeed minor, and you will read it throughly and willingly without stoping. I still loved the first book the most. Once you've read it, Weis and Hickman, as usual, with their extraordinary writing, leaves you no choice but to keep on reading, and this is their real talent.
Rating: 
Summary: Great, But...
Review: The book starts where the second ended and continues with the same fast paced action and character development the second one delt with. The end however is very dissapointing, after the great journey to get to it, a big drop awaits you... Even though i liked the book alot the end made me think that they (weis & hickman) were running out of time and ambition to finish this trilogy the way they started it. The bizzare and unfit epilouge sums it up... which is a shame... I still give it 4 stars because of the great journey. which had everything you could ever want out of a good fantasy.
Rating: 
Summary: Might as well finish it...
Review: The most positive excuse I can give for reading this book, is if you've already read the first two, it's not too painful to just go ahead and finish this one too.
That being said, this book read like it was writting to fulfil a contract, with no particular insight or imagination going into the telling of the story. The actual climax was such a letdown as to be almost insulting.
The overall story seems to center around a great cruel joke that the gods play on the people of this world. Giving them a "gift" that they state up front will throw the races into war and chaos. Then three books go by trying to get the stone put back together so the gods will take the damn thing back. Gee, thanks gods.
There was also a very odd juxtaposition of the typical fantasy races. I know it's not written in stone or anything, but the deliberate trashing of traditional racial attributes was very distracting. i.e. Orcs, are an intelligent, if superstitious, seagoing race. Elves are a petty and warlike people. Dwarves are a fanatical horse riding culture. If you're going to mix things up that much, why even start with the same race names. Just make up new ones, it would work far better.
If you didn't start this trilogy, trust me...skip it. If you've already read the first book, stop there, it stands alone anyway. If you read the second, you might as well finish it.
Rating: 
Summary: Great story, lame ending
Review: The set of books was pretty powerful stuff, with great character development, awesome sub-plots, and lots of action....up until the end.What happened guys? The other books they have written always leave something open for a future novel, but still end grteat and basically give closure. In this one, about 1500 pages worth of story (3 books worth), ended in about 2 pages. Blink and you miss it. I sure hope they pick it up in their next series, because this one left me wanting a lot more. By the way,will the authors please finish the Starshield Sentinels series! You can make up for a lot by completing that one.
Rating:
Summary: Great story, lame ending
Review: The set of books was pretty powerful stuff, with great character development, awesome sub-plots, and lots of action....up until the end. What happened guys? The other books they have written always leave something open for a future novel, but still end grteat and basically give closure. In this one, about 1500 pages worth of story (3 books worth), ended in about 2 pages. Blink and you miss it. I sure hope they pick it up in their next series, because this one left me wanting a lot more. By the way,will the authors please finish the Starshield Sentinels series! You can make up for a lot by completing that one.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best!
Review: This blasted book kept me up late when I should have been drooling on my pillow. I could not put it down, but the first two in the trilogy must be read before making this journey. One of their best works.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best!
Review: This blasted book kept me up late when I should have been drooling on my pillow. I could not put it down, but the first two in the trilogy must be read before making this journey. One of their best works.
Rating:
Summary: Another Solid Write
Review: This concluding novel of the Sovereign Stone Trilogy binds together the fates of characters from the first two novels into a satifying but somewhat rushed conclusion. The steps leading up to the confrontation between Dagnarus and the Dominion Lords were meticulously described, but the confrontation itself was short and not quite as good as the rest of the story. As with every novel by Weis and Hickman, the characters, with their strengths and foibles, are the strongest part of the tale. One is always provided with enough details to make the villans not so villanous, with characteristics that humanize them.The threads of the story are tied up in a neat package, making one hope that there will be other novels to describe exactly what happens to the characters, particularly with Raven and his half taan spouse. All in all, this was an enjoyable series with the second book of this series being the best.
Rating:
Summary: Good book but I expected a better ending
Review: This final book in the trilogy succeeds in its purpose of closing the "Sovereign Stone" story but leaves many things open. I guess that is material for other books. Though this book, and the series in general, isn't as powerful and immersive as the Dragonlance series it is pretty good and I would recommend it to any Weiss/Hickman fan. The four star rating was given because the ending was, in my opinion, lame.
|
