Leeland Artra

Remember how book 1 ended on a cliffhanger? Thankfully this book picks up right where book 1 left off. There is even an introductory chapter that backtracks a bit to help ground those of us who waited a while for book 2.

After the cliffhanger ending is dealt with, the books slows to a crawl for several chapters as the characters digest the new information. I really struggled to get past this part of the book, and think it could have been condensed down a lot more.

Once the book picks up, it does so with a big bang. I *loved* the first fight scene, it is laid out beautifully, and cleared up the concerns I had about what happened at the beginning of the book (both plot wise and action wise).

We are also introduced to several new characters who become an integral part of the plot about midway through the book.

Echoing my review of book 1, I think there are a few too many POVs being juggled here and this book adds another POV character. At times I struggled to remember who a particular character was, or why they were important.

There are a lot of individual story threads to follow, and untangling the mess took away some of my enjoyment. The multiple POVs only exacerbated the problem for me.

The writing is also a bit sub-par, and feels like a very slightly polished first-draft. This bothers me more than normal because I know he can do better, and did better, in book 1.

Following the trend, this book again features a cliffhanger ending.

I’m giving this book 3 stars. While I enjoyed the plot and the characters, the writing really made it difficult for me to read. So difficult, that it took me almost a month to plow through it. Normally I could have a book of this length read in a couple of days, a week at most.… (lisätietoja)

One of my favorite elements of Thread Slivers (Golden Threads Trilogy) was the lead female character. Ticca is a very strong and driven female. She desperately wants the approval of her superiors and peers. Ticca’s need is to be the best she can be, and her long held and achieved wish is to be a Dagger and to fit in with her Dagger peers. She relishes sitting at the Dagger table in the Blue Dolphin though when she does, the other Daggers don’t sit with her. So much for acceptance at the cool table. None of that matters once the story gets going. Seems the life of a Dagger, or at least Ticca’s life, is as dangerous but less glamorous than she might have imagined when she’s hired to protect and escort Lebuin.

When Ticca, Lebuin and his servant Ditani come together, no one is quite sure who to trust which adds an element of excitement for the reader. When faced by the ancient evil, will one of them betray the others? We do get a bounty of internal dialogue to the point where it is a bit much but we don’t really get to know the characters as a result. As much as we know about the trio, much of who they are develops over the course of this story so that the ending feels less a cliffhanger and more like we’ve only read half of the first novel. Thread Slivers (Golden Threads Trilogy) (Volume 1) really feels as though it ends at an awkward place. It must be difficult for an author creating such a completely new world to self-edit and contain the facts necessary to lay out a cohesive world and strong characters. Artra’s writing style lends itself to a promise of an interesting future in, at times, laborious first novel.

If you are a lover of epic fantasy, you will find Thread Slivers (Golden Threads Trilogy) (Volume 1) by Leeland Artra a solid start to a promising series. The second novel in the series is out this month.… (lisätietoja)