i found this quite compelling, but i'm not sure that i actually liked it. it's full of all the things that i don't really care to read about - battles and war and shape shifting and magic for no reason and battles and fighting and zombies (thank goodness she didn't call them that) and blood and battles. i couldn't really picture anything that was happening but that is probably just a factor of my lack of imagination. but i did find the world both lush and hard to follow at times. still, maybe it's the characters or maybe it's the writing, but this book (or i probably should say this trilogy) got in my head. i kept these characters with me even when i wasn't reading. i'm not sure i cared all that much about what was going to happen or was coming, but the characters i liked spending time with.

i wish they'd go back and fix the first one for the issues that have come to light, because that is the best of the three books. still, the writing and characters are excellent. i'd like to read more of her, and hope she keeps writing, but i'm not sure i want to read more of her fantasy as this was awfully far out of my comfort zone.

"This is only a story she has heard, but all stories are true in their own ways..." ( )