Sons of the Oak

Wow! What a kick to start the new series! I had read enough going in to know that Gaborn wasn't going to be around long, but to see Farland do a sweep out of many of the old characters, and he didn't mess around about it either! Just brutal!

I liked the change from Gaborn to Fallion. One of the criticisms that I read about Gaborn is that he was too perfect, and there was really little chance that he was actually going to turn to “the dark side,” while I doubt Fallion will either since he's a Flameweaver (or potential one), I see it as a much stronger possibility than it ever was with Gaborn. It'll be interesting to see him struggle to control it as his powers develop in the next few books. It's definitely refreshing to see a much more conflicted character, much more likely to allow desires for revenge his enemies come to fruition.

The new pacing was interesting as well. The entirety of the first four books took place over a two or three week period. This had frequent jumps of months or even years with little to no coverage of the intervening time. It was ok, but it seems the polar opposite of what Farland did in the previous books. I'll have to see if I like it though the next few books.

One problem I found was in believing Shadoath's powers. After reading four books of an almost invincible Raj Ahten who couldn't be taken down, it was hard to see how she was even more evil and more powerful than him, supposedly. It's kind of like saying -50 degrees vs -60. At that point the distinction becomes meaningless. to top that off, she is then beaten by a child who had absolutely no endowments, while a lesser Runelord held off another with hundreds of endowments. I get to a certain degree that Fallion is some great being, but given how important taking Endowments are, to now make it totally meaningless kinda negates it. And then to have this seeming out of nowhere solution to prevent children from being slaughtered wholesale, seemed kind of a cop-out as if he was afraid the reader might now follow him this far.

Despite these criticisms, this is the beginning of a worthy continuation series. I was worried about liking it with a new cast of characters, and so many gone because several places I've seen that readers didn't take to them. I, however, enjoyed them, and look forward to the continuation of the story.