majority of the book involves the hero and heroine battling through rooms to regain control of The Tower, This is a completely different world and there isn't much background provided for how the world structured, However, that works with the story as the action is almost exclusively within The Tower, This is the same world as Jean Johnsons previous series, The Sons of Destiny, The first chapter seems to connect the two but after that, the book was focused on the story at hand.
Looking forward to The Grove second in this series, It was a refreshing change to see the switch with having the woman being the tall, strong warrior, The hero, Kerric, isn't exactly weak either and did his share of kicking butt with his magic, We gave this anout ofrating, After reading her Sons of Destiny series, I expected more from this series, Don't get me wrong, it's a clever concept and I really liked both Kerric and Myal but the neverending rooms in the tower got boring.
Apparently there are overfloors to the tower and the quest involved going up and falling down so it really felt that it would never end.
Honestly it just felt that the "adventure" would continue forever or until they fell in love and then it did end but the remainingor so pages went off somewhere else and I simply couldn't follow it.
Though that could simply have been me trying to finish reading atam and just too darn tired to comprehend.
I loved the fact that the hero was a foot shorter than the heroine, It made for some interesting encounters,
I'll read the next book in series and see if I want to continue or not, Okay, so I'm going to be very honest right now and say that one star of this rating is solely because the hero is shorter than the heroine.
I love books where the author doesn't kowtow to 'normal' romance physiological traits and a short hero definitely breaks from the norm.
It does get a little cutesy at times with the different trials, one of which is clearly an imitation of Disney's Small World Ride.
This is not really a book for nonJohnson fans, The Tower is set before the events of the Sons of Destiny's The Mage, but also a bit cocurrently at the same time, if that makes any sense.
I think Johnson was hoping that, with a new prophecy kicking off a new series, that it might draw in new readers, but I feel it's still too tied in with Sons of Destiny.
I wouldn't advise reading The Tower if you aren't familiar with the other series, Iniziamo col dire che in questo universo esistono delle sorgenti di potere, cioè luoghi in cui un giorno, non si sa perché, erutta un conglomerato di magia pura.
Questi pozzi o nuclei di magia devono essere controllati da un mago, che ne diventa il guardiano, incanalando parte della loro magia, altrimenti creano problemi climatici o genetici alla gente del posto, e per evitare che dei maghi cattivi li usino per motivi distruttivi vengono spesso tenuti nascosti od occultati.
Ora, un giorno, in una pianura è apparsa una sorgente di potere, ma non nel terreno o in una caverna come accade di solito, bensì nellaria a circa dieci metri daltezza o giù di lì.
La gente, perplessa ha perciò iniziato a costruire un alta torre per contenere questa sorgente, Un magi si è legato ad essa e ha iniziato a custodire la sorgente e per impedire che altri maghi gliela rubassero, allontanandolo dal luogo e cerando loro un legame con la sorgente, ha riempito la torre di trappole e trabocchetti.
Col tempo molti ebbero notizia della sorgente, poiché non era nascosta come altre, ma in bella vista con la sua torre, e tentarono di espugnarla, ma tutti fallirono.
La gente del luogo col tempo smise di avere paura che la torre finisse in mani nemiche e anzi si appassionò a vedere tutti questi avventurieri provare a superare le prove della torre.
Ormai non erano solo maghi, ma anche soldati, avventurieri, gente che ci provava solo per il gusto di poter dire di avercela fatta.
Insomma diventò quasi un gioco e si creò del turismo in quella città grazie alla torre, Ben presto il villaggio, ora città, divenne prospero grazie a questo ed il mago guardiano si chiese: perché non sfruttare ancora di più la cosa Così grazie agli specchi magici in grado di trasmettere le immagini creò una rete di collegamenti e vendette i diritti di visione dei tentativi di espugnare la torre.
Col tempo sempre più città, paesi e nazioni si abbonarono alla visione sui loro specchi magici e le avventure della torre divennero un programma visivo di successo e gli avventurieri dei veri e propri eroi della gente che scommetteva su di loro e li pagava per vederli in sfide specifiche allinterno di stanze specifiche della torre.
Ora ditemi se questa non è unidea stramba in un romanzo fantasy, praticamente ha inserito un reality nel romanzo.
Comunque sia, queste sono le premesse al romanzo, la storia sia apre con Kerric, attuale guardiano della torre e della sorgente, che allontanatosi solo per un giorno di riposo dalla torre, ne rimane chiuso fuori, poiché la sorgente viene attaccata tramite canali di potere, e la torre si chiude in modalità automatica impedendo a chiunque di entrare , persino a lui, rendendo mortali le trappole che lui invece aveva reso più innocue perché gli avventurieri altrimenti si sarebbero fatti troppo male durante il gioco.
Così per tornare alla sorgente, prima che un altro mago lo faccia prima di lui, Kerric dovrà superare le sue stesse trappole, ma per farlo, poiché anche se è un potente mago, diverse trappole richiedono più persone e forza bruta, gli serve un compagno, una donna ad essere precisi, poiché lui è eterosessuale e la strada più breve per la sorgente passa per la sezione chiamata Serraglio, le cui prove sono di genere sessuale.
Così Kerric passa in rassegna le avventuriere più brave, con cui non gli spiacerebbe fare sesso e a cui non spiacerebbe fare sesso con lui.
Purtroppo sono tutte donne alte e muscolose mentre lui, anche se bello, è molto basso, Per fortuna Myal unavventuriera straniera lo trova attraente e così sceglie lei,
I due si avventurano nella torre, ma alle loro calcagna cè un altro gruppo che li segue per spodestare Kerric.
La mia opinione: Lidea di partenza del romanzo con il reality magico, e di un protagonista per niente stile adone, mi attirava e la storia sarebbe anche stata carina, ma purtroppo lautrice lha eseguita male.
Infatti ci sta che il protagonista Kerric sappia già tutto della strada da fare e delle trappole da superare e come superarle, ma ciò toglie ogni pathos alla storia.
Cioè invece di farci vedere lavventura, abbiamo Kerric che dice alla sua compagna come superare le trappole in anticipo e tante volte neppure vediamo lazione.
Peccato, perché avevo alte speranze per questo libro, Proverò comunque il seguito, ma togliere così ogni suspance è una cosa che lautrice ha fatto anche in un altra serie che poi ho abbandonato e non mi spiego perché lo faccia.
New Prophecy Rhyme Starts Another Series Connected with
Nightfall
This is the first of a connected series following the gathering of priests, priestess, worshipers and other religious leaders to the Convocation of the Gods which was held on the Isle of Nightfall.
This particular book focuses on the Master of the Tower who is a Fountain Guardian, The attack on the Memmnon Fountain which is covered in The Flame, has repercussions that effect the Tower Fountain, This causes the Tower Guardian to be caught locked outside while all the lethal defenses are activated, To regain control he has to navigate the dangers with a female warrior, This presents its own danger, the possibility of love,
Interesting idea and set up was fun but began to go on with the obstacles too long, Definitely felt like reading about a action game which isn't as fun as playing one, The villains spiced it up, but again were eliminated too fast and not enough real danger, The developing love story was primary throughout, gentle with a slow buildup, rather different for a fantasy romance series, This is readable as a standalone, but would be best appreciated after reading the Sons Of Destiny Series, particularly The Flame, The Storm and The Master as those events and characters interact especially towards the end.
I am delighted that Jean Johnson has continued writing about Nightfall, Thank you. Love jean's alternative world. Just another great story in a long line of i hope to be continuing for a long time, This was a fun read, A great follow up to the Sons of Destiny series, I agree with another comment or that it does read like a video game, There is a certain amount of fun, irreverence that makes me look forward to the next book, I liked the relationship between these two, the puzzles and riddles were fun to try and figure out and I'm glad we didn't have to go through ALL of the various challenges they had to endure.
It's been awhile since I'd read the series came before this, several memory jiggles,
Although the first book started out a bit slow to capture me, the more I read , the more I was captivated.
Each book drew me further in and found me buying the next one, The characters were well drawn and the plots were crafted well, I really enjoyed the first four books in this series and hope that the last four get written, I HATE reality tv, and this story's premise is the magical version of Survivor, I liked the quest and romance portions of the story, though, and look forward to the others in the series.
This book jumps right into things and I've no clue what's happening, Nothing makes sense. I've only made itand I'm sure things are easier to understand the further you get into the story I don't have the patience right now.
The story sounds interesting from what I've read in the blurb and reviews, but I think your brain needs to be functioning atto tackle this world.
I'm currently running around. So, I shall try again later, Originally published at sitelinkReading Reality
The Tower is set in the same world as Jean Johnsons very enjoyable fantasy romance series The Sons of Destiny.
If you like fantasy romance, start with sitelinkThe Sword, Theyre great fun.
And just like The Sons of Destiny series, The Guardians of Destiny series looks like its going to be eight books.
The waiting game in between tends to be torture,
About The Tower itself, . . so far, the tie between series seems to be a loose tie, Same world, but not the same characters, There was a handoff at the beginning, and a conversation at the end, but indepth previous knowledge was not required.
The story of The Tower is that its a tower of magic, I know that sounds redundant, but its pretty cool, Its a tower that controls the magic for the surrounding region, and it uses its excess power in a surprising way.
It creates adventure runs, dungeon crawls a la Dungeons amp Dragons, complete with treasures and puzzles, Even better, it broadcasts magically, so theyre called scrycasts the adventures of people running the dungeons,
Of course, a whole economy has grown up around the running of the Tower and the scrycasting,
But the heart of the Tower is a powerful magic fountain, and that requires a Master, The Master of the Tower is Kerric Vo Mos, and he takes his responsibility very seriously, Of course, where theres a lot of power at stake, someone always wants to take it, and thats where the story comes in.
Kerric takes one day a year to leave the Tower, and while hes away, the security protocols are breached.
With him on the outside the Tower has no master, He has to get back in and retake control, The only way to do that, is to run the adventure gauntlet himself, For that, he needs a partner,
And because the easiest, for very elastic definitions of the word “easy”, adventure run to the heart of the tower involves a trip through the passiontrapped Seraglio rooms, Kerric needs to run the gauntlet with a female partner who is not just a topflight adventurer, but is also someone he might be willing to let into his heart.
She also has to be a woman who has the chance of feeling the same way about him,
Theres not exactly time for a courtship to figure it out, either, The clock isnt just ticking, its counting down to potential disaster,
Its not a long list, The woman Kerric really wants to take with him on this most perilous quest is Myal the Mendhite, the woman the scrycasts call Myal the Magnificent.
Kerric has no idea whether shes willing to help him, Most important, because his position as Master of the Tower has forced him to remain apart from the adventurers, he has no clue whether or not she might be interested in him.
A fact which doesnt just matter for the purpose of saving the Tower, Hes always been interested in her, But hes never believed that the statuesque and gorgeous adventurer could possibly be interested in him just for himself,
He has no clue that Myal has asked herself whether the powerful Master of the Tower could ever be interested in an adventurer who has no magic.
Escape Rating B: Reading The Tower is a bit like reading a DampD game but with more plot and including a love story but also including the snarky backchatter that makes DampD so much fun.
The story is about two people becoming a team by working through adversity, Myal and Kerric are acquainted, but their normal roles dont give them much chance to interact, However, they do find each other attractive,
This is also the classic opposites attract scenario, and not just because Kerric is a mage and Myal is a warrior, although its nice to see the woman being the sword swinger for a change.
Myals people are all tall, and Kerric is a head shorter than she is, Myal is taller than most people in the area around the Tower, but Kerric is a short man who has had to adjust to being shorter than average.
Also, Myal has given up her ability to have children in exchange for magical tattoos that enhance her fighting ability.
Her people back home consider her flawed, The decision about being childless is handled within the story as a choice both of them have made and what their reasons are.
They dont fall instantly in love the minute they start running the gauntlet of the tower, They grow to respect and like each other through working together, Love becomes part of the package as they realize how good they are together over the intense experience,
Waiting for book, sitelinkThe Grove, is going to be torture, .