Ik heb het 3 sterren gegeven. Ik twijfelde over 4 sterren, vooral vanwege de zeer goede leesbaarheid en het idee van het geschenk. Maar ergens kon het verhaal me toch niet helemaal meeslepen. Ik bleef onthouden dat ik getrouwd was en kinderen had en zo. Bij een boek waar ik 4 steren voor zou geven, weet ik dat gewoon even niet meer. ( )

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This is the first book in the Quickening Trilogy.

I happened to read some other reviews before I started writing my own (which I rarely do), but honestly, I don't see why they are all so negative. I mean, this is far from the best book I've ever read but still I enjoyed reading it. (I've read tons of books I liked less).

The story itself was quite interesting, although some of the plotlines make the story itself a bit easy, especially Myrren's gift,



which makes he can't really be killed, but instead switches bodies with whoever tried to kill him. So the killer - if a good killer - dies.



However original, this is something I'm afraid will turn to become an easy way to introduce plottwists later in the trilogy.

Nevertheless I just enjoyed reading this book, and that's my main criterion when I judge a book. I'm planning to read the other two books in this series as well, as soon as I find the time to do so... ( )

This was too generic for me. The plot is basically reusable for any fantasy author out there. I skim read, but I still knew what was going to happen before it did. ( )

Fantastic book. Engaging and fun. I am agog to see what happens next, after what happened at the end of this book. ( )

Another standard Fantasy fare. The writing is the weakest part of the book, though it is merely bland, not bad. We have again a series of kingdoms suspicious of magic, naming conventions that make up for the lack of the letter y in our language by placing one in every other name in the book, political intrigue of the royal sort, love deferred and deterred, and so on.

If you are a longtime Fantasy reader like me you will probably be able to look beyond the conventional faults of the genre and focus your attention on where the energy is usually put for books of this type. I'm talking about the world building, the plot, and the characters.

I'm a sucker for stories involving psychological anguish, so the predicament of our main character, a man raised to be loyal to his king and country but who is tortured by his prince without respite, was one that piqued my interest. Wyl Thirsk, our hero, is human enough, and the prince Celimus just sympathetic enough that I could enjoy reading about them. The supporting cast are all individual and interesting in their own rights.

The plot is interesting and keeps a good pace. After a long but decent buildup Wyl's king dies, his nemesis the prince snatches the throne, and all hell breaks loose. From then on a constant sense of urgency kept me turning pages as Wyl has to fend off multiple attempts on his life, protect a neighboring kingdom from Celimus' devices, and cope with a 'gift' given to him by a dying witch. Things started getting slow about two thirds of the way into the book, when the intrigue took a back seat to love and tulips, but once prince Celimus was back in the mix it picked up again.

The mystery of Myrren's gift to Wyl Thirsk is the centerpiece of the plot's concept (hence the title). I won't give away the details of this gift, but it introduces an element to the book that makes it unique. If you've read this review up until now and are thinking to yourself 'this sounds like every other high fantasy book that I have ever read,' I can tell you that this element of the story made Myrren's Gift unique enough to stand out from all the other fantasy stories of similar mold that I've read.

Myrren's Gift was just good enough that if I see the sequel on a shelf I will pick it up, but not good enough that I will be seeking it out. ( )