Jaeth's Eye

This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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There is no doubt in my mind that Villoso had a very clear idea what was going on in these pages – but as I read, I felt like I was constantly re-evaluating what was going on – guessing what I was supposed to understand, and what was supposed to be being revealed to me (either where I was or in the future).

Not only did I not understand where I was, I couldn't really tell you until the end how everything tied together and what the overall story was. I didn't get the various cultures/ethnicities, I couldn't tell how the various moves by the characters – or by those they were talking about – meant anything.

Now, I liked the characters – I liked the interactions, and every time that the story moved on I hated it, because I'd have to reorient myself. The characters seem to change almost every time I encountered them.

Glancing around the internet I see that I'm alone in this – every other reviewer seems to have really dug the way Villoso told the story. Great – that's a relief. I'd rather that I missed out on something good than the alternative – that Villoso didn't put out something good.

Well, there's one thing that you cannot convince me belongs in this fantasy world – dime novels. Nope, that just doesn't fit.

I'm going to give this a three because the individual scenes, the character moments were great – I just couldn't put the pieces together. Go read someone else's take on the book, it's bound to be better than mine.

Disclaimer: This book was provided to me by the author in exchange for this post – sorry it worked out this way for you, K. S.