Ride the Storm by Karen Chance

A Mostly Spoiler-Free Review

Okay so, this is the book that has made me decide to drop the Cassie Palmer series. I was intensely frustrated throughout and that's not a good thing. There were just too many moving pieces and too much to keep straight and just... bleh. This isn't the first time I've been frustrated reading a Cassie book and I doubt it will be the last, so I'm stopping. No more Cassie Palmer books for me.

Frustration the First: No one talks to anyone they should really be talking to. Jonas doesn't talk to Cassie about decisions he's making in regards to her court. Cassie doesn't tell anyone what she's up to, ever, aside from Rosier. Neither of them talk to Pritkin/Emrys/Myrriden about what they're actually doing there. The Pythias refuse to talk to Cassie about why she keeps popping back Arthurian times because apparently knowing what other Pythias might be up to is just completely out of their job description? We'll get back to that.

Frustration the Second: Cassie's attention is both split and not and it just ends up being a mess. Cassie's entire mission for the past three books has been rescuing Pritkin, full stop. However, her present keeps pulling her attention away from that so we have to deal with that instead of rescuing Pritkin. Add to that the whole Pythian intervention thing which keeps sending Cassie back to the present and we've spent three books attempting to rescue Pritkin. I'm real tired of all of it.

Frustration the Third: Pythias do not talk to each other apparently. Unless they need help sending "rogues" back to their own times because they're "messing up the timeline." Only... because you've neglected to actually talk to each other about, I dunno, your shared responsibility, you keep managing to fuck up one Pythia's attempts to save the timeline? It's my understanding that not saving Pritkin completely erases him from the timeline and therefore would allow Apollo to come wreck shit because Cassie wouldn't have Pritkin around to help her stop Apollo. And none of the prior Pythias even wants to question Cassie about why Cassie's doing what she's doing. None of them. They just keep locking her up or sending her home and refusing to question her. It's insanity. I understand not wanting to fuck up the timeline by knowing too much about the future, but I figure a) there are ways to vet an actual Pythia (Cassie stumbles upon one) and b) you maybe want to know what the fuck is going on and maybe help other Pythias not fuck up the timeline too badly in the process. Maybe? Just a little?

Frustration the Fourth: Mircea. Yeah... Mircea, it turns out, is definitely just as gross as he's always been in regards to Cassie. First, the geis thing, which has been resolved but was still hella gross. And now, we find out his real reason for setting the geis in the first place and... yeah, it's stupid. Like, I get it, I do, you loved the woman and she's dead and apparently you're fixated on bringing her back by any means necessary. But man, that vampire fixation is just not great. It's also the first time we're hearing about vampires getting fixated, so, ya know, also somewhat annoying from my stand-point. Thanks, I hate it. Makes the whole Mircea/Cassie thing even worse. And again, tired of it.

A thing I liked: Cassie figuring out some stuff regarding her parents. That was a nice little side-trip. Ultimately futile for Cassie's actual goal, but it wasn't bad.

So yeah, I'm just too frustrated with the Cassie Palmer series to continue. This was fun while it lasted, until it wasn't. I will be continuing on with the Dorina Basarab side of things. Dory tends to be less frustrating so I'm crossing my fingers it stays that way.

The Third Magic by Molly Cochran

A Spoiler Free Review

Originally Posted on GoodReads: June 23, 2022

Well, that was definitely an ending... and kind of a beginning, I suppose. It's a cycle, after all. I think that's at least part of the point of The Third Magic. The cycle goes on and interrupting it in hopes of a continuation doesn't really have the best consequences for those involved. And then it goes and does that thing where we hit the reset button to basically undo everything... I mean, I choose to read it as an alternate timeline where Merlin didn't do "The Second Magic," but I gather from the other reviews I've read, I'm the only one.

The Third Magic features a pretty complete retelling of the Arthurian legend interspersed with the continuation of Arthur Blessing's story and Taliesin's education, apparently. It does contradict re-tellings and even events from the earlier books (mostly The Broken Sword); however, it's basically a retcon and doesn't actually affect the story that much. In fact, given that I personally disliked The Broken Sword and the retcons, one could probably just skip it. Everything's re-explained in a satisfactory enough manner, I think. There's also a complete swap of Morgan for Morgause in The Third Magic that just had me tilting my head every time she appeared. I kind of understand why, but at the same time I'm just like... those are two different people in Arthurian Legend and you've apparently decided to combine them and give them the lesser known one's name... because Orkney needed to be involved. Anyway, I digress.

Again in this trilogy, I wasn't super impressed with the "villain" of the piece. I think there probably should have just been focus on Arthur and his crisis of person-hood rather than throwing in Titus and Pinto, but apparently someone had to help restart the cycle so... "villains." However, Titus was at least more interesting than Aubrey and (view spoiler)[apparently Morgause reincarnated, wtf (hide spoiler)] so I'll forgive him being around. Pinto... Titus just needed someone to take care of him apparently. He didn't really do much other than cause a little chaos so... yeah.

My issue with the knights was still here. I understand they're from medieval times and it's fun to have them causing chaos because apparently medieval courts were just super rowdy all the time... but I'm still not convinced they would have been as annoyingly inept as they're portrayed. *shrug* Another just me thing, probably.

There's also a large focus on the whole Launcelot/Guenevere thing that annoys me every time I read it, whether it's supposedly true or else just rumors. I've never enjoyed this part of the story and revisiting it this time actually reminded me a lot of The Mists of Avalon so that's not great. I get it, it's the melodrama of it all, but that was actually something I liked about The Forever King and The Broken Sword. Mention it. Mention how it was basically the start of Arthur's downfall and move on. But no, gotta linger on it... a lot. *Insert rolling eyes here*

Anyway... overall The Third Magic was alright. I read it in basically three days, so it definitely had my attention and did clip along at a good pace. The ending wasn't exactly the best, but, like I said at the beginning of this review, gotta do the cycle thing. I completely understand why a bunch of people didn't think it was satisfying. Heck, I personally think this trilogy went through highs and lows and this one just happened to do both in one book. I just tend to talk about stuff that annoyed me because I don't want to spoil things for others.

The Broken Sword by Molly Cochran and Warren Murphy

A Spoiler Free Review

Originally Posted on GoodReads: June 21, 2022

So The Broken Sword is a book I've had since I was in Junior High (I'm now 33). My copy is beat up and stained and one of two I still have from that time. It is also the sequel to my absolute favorite book The Forever King. That said, I don't think I've ever read the pair one right after the other, and boy, did that diminish my ranking of The Broken Sword. This reread was also my first time reading The Broken Sword with any kind of critical lens, so that also had something to do with it.

I was really looking forward to reading this series as a series, as I've relatively recently discovered The Third Magic existed. However, as a sequel, The Broken Sword doesn't actually hold up or even stack up against The Forever King. First and foremost, the addition of a boat load of new characters makes the story messy, in my opinion. The Forever King was able to weave the backstories of Hal, Taliesin, Saladin, Emily, and Arthur into the overall narrative without pulling you from the story itself. The Broken Sword doesn't manage to do this in a satisfying manner. In fact, toward the end there, it was downright annoying. The main thing that pulled me out toward the end was having the gods literally tell Thanatos that the "old gods" and the "dark gods" were one in the same and then having everyone else for the rest of the story referencing the "dark gods" as having won... which just had me rolling my eyes.

It's not that I didn't enjoy getting Kate and Zack and maybe even Aubrey's backstories, but having to shoehorn them into the rest of the narrative felt clumsy. Trying to recapture the magic of The Forever King and mostly failing because they just weren't integral enough to the rest of the plot. Nor were those backstories nearly as interesting as Saladin and Taliesin's.

My second big issue with the story is Aubrey/Thanatos, the main villain. First off, I don't believe that Saladin would have suddenly decided to appoint anyone his heir. It seemed really out of character for him. In fact, he seemed very out of character for his entire appearance in The Broken Sword. But hey, gotta give Aubrey a backstory that loops him into The Forever King and the mythology of both books somehow. Cue much shrugging and hand-waving. But honestly, my problem with Aubrey is that he's just boring. Like, Cochran and Murphy attempted to make him interesting and a little quirky, but it really didn't succeed. He felt like a caricature of a person rather than an actual threat. Lot of Rheged was more menacing as a villain and he was only a threat to past Arthur. Aaand then there was the whole thing with Morgan. She's one of the most enduring villains from Arthurian legend and probably the best known female villain period... and her truly most evil act is co-opted in this book by Thanatos. It's not through her power that she conceives Mordred, it's through his. This bugs me. A lot.

My last two issues are Portugal and the knights. Hal's whole thing in Portugal had me a) rolling my eyes and b) heading to Google to look up Faro. Antonia, though I know she's literally just a plot device to get Hal back to England, annoyed the heck out of me. She's barely a person and has one of the most stereotypical (and actually insulting) motivations you can give a female character. That was the rolling eyes bit. The Googling of Faro, Portugal, had me wanting to smack Cochran and Murphy. Faro, as it turns out, is actually a pretty big tourist destination here in 2022. I HIGHLY doubt it was a one-rental-car town as depicted in The Broken Sword back in 1997. Really, I'm annoyed on Faro's account. Misrepresentation of places annoys me. Always has. As for the knights: I know they're from medieval times. I know the behavior expected of them probably wasn't typical of how we behave now. I know they'd probably be pretty rowdy after having been pulled through the veil and set in a pub. I get all that. HOWEVER, they've also gotta be pretty smart. Maybe not book smart, but smarter than they were depicted in the modern parts of The Broken Sword. They definitely seemed to be less stupid back in their own time, that's for sure. This mix of characterization for them just bugs me.

Anyway, The Broken Sword definitely doesn't match The Forever King as far as storytelling goes. It's messy and the addition of all the new active characters really doesn't do the story any favors. Taliesin's whole thing with Mona was definitely a thing. Served the overall plot but wasn't super interesting, truth be told. I am also not sure how I feel about the very ending of the book... which I won't talk about, but yeah... Anway, again, I'm not sure I'll pick up The Broken Sword the next time I feel like reading The Forever King.

The Forever King by Molly Cochran and Warren Murphy

A Spoiler Free Reread Review

Originally Posted on GoodReads: June 9, 2022

I do believe The Forever King will forever be one of my favorite books. I first read it after my girl scout leader gifted it to me. I was maybe 12. I’ve read it several times since then and then made the mistake of lending it to my sister’s then-fiance. Never saw that copy again. Never forgot the story. Picked up another copy semi-recently just to have again. Finally reread it this June. Still love it.

I didn’t really appreciate the writing when I was younger, but I definitely do now. The world of The Forever King is rich and both realistic and fanciful. It has a can’t-put-it-down quality. Also a glimpse into Arthurian legend that most books don’t look at and was actually formative in my personal journey through Arthurian legend and fantasy in general.

I thought the flow of the story from the present to the distant past and back again was masterful. Never once felt like any part of the story dragged. The characters are wonderful, as well. Hal and Taliesin are rarely far from my personal thoughts, if I’m honest. Saladin was a wonderful villain, even if he does fulfill that Middle Eastern villain stereotype. At least his background justifies that. A background that properly fleshes him out, which is often rare for fantasy villains.

So yeah, overall, The Forever King is awesome. I highly recommend it to pretty much anyone, but those interested in fantasy and Arthurian legends in particular.