4 The Singing

The final book of the Pellinor series in which, we hope, Maerad and her brother Hem can stop the Dark by singing the Treesong. But of course the book is quite a bit longer then them just finding each other and singing that darn Treesong, so they fight battles, get stage fright, heal illnesses and have other uninteresting adventures until the meet.

The bad: Other than just general lameness, not much is bad about this book.

The good: Well, yay, saving the world from evil. And there are some interesting parts of self-reflection from Maerad. I like genuine self-reflection.

My view: This series started promising, and then got bogged down in itself. I got confused with the second one, the third one was beyond me. I did like, in this last one, I could follow the story. But I wouldn't recommend wasting time reading these large volumes. But some people really love them, so since there isn't anything particularly wrong with them, I guess most of my dislike is just personal opinion. My one word:

Cumbersome

3 The Crow

Leaving Maerad, we follow the story of her brother Hem (aka Cai) and he follows Saliman to his home city Turbansk. There they prepare for war, Hem gets a bird, a girl, healing skills, lessons and many other things that make for a long book. He also discovers more about himself, the Treesong and how they are related.

Magic, and now that I got that out of the way.... brutal violence is described. You may feel depressed after reading this.

Okay, so there are lots of good things, but what I liked best was that guys weren't afriad to say "I love you" to other guys. Does that make them gay? NO! (Okay, I'm done)

The Crow had a good story, buired underneath lots of pages. I really love the story Ms. Croggon tells, but sometimes I think, If only she would slim down on the stuff she doesn't need.

1 The Naming

Maerad's favorite dreams are realized when a stranger comes to her home and frees her from the bondage she has been in her whole life, or have they? Who is this stranger? The Naming is filled with Maerad's story as she realizes a world that she didn't know existed, and one that she seems to have a large part of.

Magic. Good and bad. There are non-god gods (if that makes sense, like super humans that live forever).

Friends and belonging. Loyalty and kindness. Mercy and forgiveness. All of these are demonstrated in this book.

Not only is this book superbly written, but it explore questions that plague many of us. As we follow Maerad's story we feel what she feels and see ourselves in her choices. Now normally I don't write sentimental claptrap such as this but I could really feel what she was feeling. Very well written!