Fans of the Elderscrolls III: Morrowind, and fans of the Elderscrolls IV: Oblivion, enter and enjoy! Readers who have no experience with those games, beware.
This is a good novel, and I say good in the 6/10 sort of way. It's unforgivably short, slow to take off, and when the narrative finally starts to grip me, I find the last page all too soon, and a terribly annoying cliffhanger. When/if the...
more Fans of the Elderscrolls III: Morrowind, and fans of the Elderscrolls IV: Oblivion, enter and enjoy! Readers who have no experience with those games, beware.
This is a good novel, and I say good in the 6/10 sort of way. It's unforgivably short, slow to take off, and when the narrative finally starts to grip me, I find the last page all too soon, and a terribly annoying cliffhanger. When/if the sequel comes out I would almost suggest buying both books, cutting the back cover off of this book, the front of the sequel, and taping the two together.
LotR is broken up into dual "books" per each part. So Fellowship of the Ring, for instance, is comprised of two parts, one that contains everything from the Shire to Frodo at the ford, and the second containing everything from Rivendell to the fateful day on Amon Hen. This novel feels like it is that first part of Fellowship of the Ring, if it had been released on it's own.
You have a very slow build up that comes to a nice peak, but, unlike FotR, there isn't a page or two to turn before you get to the rest of the story. No, the author leaves you hanging, and still hungry.
Naturally you would think that would be a good thing for an author to do; leave the reader wanting more. But in this case, I feel it was taken too far. I feel less like I've gotten a teasing appetizer to wet my appetite for the main course, as much as I've had snack on crackers for half an hour up to the point that my meal was delivered to me. Delivered to me, that is, just long enough for me to get one or two bites before the entire meal was taken back to the kitchen for "suspense".
Length aside, it's a good book for fans. You get to know what's happened since we last saw the TES realm, and I can definitely see this being the first of a larger series.
However, for non-TES fans, you'll find yourself easily lost. Names are mentioned, along with places and races that someone who played the game would instantly be able to recollect or envision. But the average novel goer will be left wondering "What's an Argonian?" "Who was Martin?" "I know there was a game called Morrowind, but what does it have to do with the one in the book, and why is what has happened important?" Truthfully, this book would do well packaged with a collection of the TES games, similar to LotR's appendixes.
That said, as long as the average reader can get past not knowing what a Khajiit is, or if they can use google to find out, they'll make it through okay. Maybe they might even have interest to pick up one of the TES games.
More than likely though, they'll find no real reason to read this book, as there are plenty of fantasy novels out there that anyone can pick up and instantly be immersed. There's not quite enough to satisfy the fans, and not quite enough to prevent non-fans from feeling excluded. 3 1/2 out of 5
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