Wednesday 17 November 2010

The Lord-Protector's Daughter - Book Review


The Lord-Protector's Daughter (Corean Chronicles) by L. E. Modesitt (Jr)

What is it about:
The Lord-Protector’s Daughter is a standalone fantasy novel that takes place in Tempre, the capital city of Lanachrona on Corus, the world of Modesitt’s Corean Chronicles. Mykella, the eldest daughter of the Lord-Protector of Lanachrona, discovers that someone is diverting significant sums of money from her father’s treasury. One of the ancient soarers appears to Mykella, telling her that she must go to the antique stone Table in the cellars of the Palace and find her Talent in order to save her land and her world.
From there, matters become more perilous. There are attempts to remove Mykella and her sisters from Tempre by marrying them off to lords in neighboring lands, and fatal and near fatal accidents occur to members of her family and trusted retainers. While Mykella develops a solid idea of who stands behind it all, every attempted solution is used to discredit her. How can she save their father and land?


What did I think about it:
This was one of the most boring reads ever I must confess. Don't get me wrong: this book has its merits: It's nicely written and the characters and setting are intriguing. The story itself however drags endlessly, not only because there's too much telling instead of showing, but also too much showing of things that don't matter. Almost every chapter began with telling that Mykella got up, got dressed, washed up and went to breakfast. I don't need to read something like that more than twice at the most unless it's important to the plot. The cool things that do happen are over much too soon after which there's much blah inside Mykella's head again. If not for the pointless hope the story would eventually take off after an event that's named on the backcover (and which happens in one of the last couple of chapters...) I'd have tossed it away long before finishing it.

Why should you read it:
I'd advice trying one of the earlier books in these Chronicles in the hope those are more interesting.


2 comments:

Carrie at In the Hammock Blog said...

Uhoh!! i'm sorry you didn't like this one more. Thanks for the honest review!

Anonymous said...

I'll skip this one. I read too slowly to go for books that don't move fast.