What a relief to find some fans bagging this book. I started reading the series more than ten years ago and, as a kid, was utterly obsessed with the first three. Then after years of waiting, The Keeping Place turned out to be an utter disappointment. I hoped it was a one-time stinker, but then came The Stone Key with all the same problems. Too long, too many characters, a thousand inconsistencies and plenty of dodgy editing. It's such a common problem with fantasy writers; as the series progresses, they lose their discipline and get so wound up in the universe that they forget not everything needs to be included in the story. At least 50 per cent of both books was superfluous waffle. There were so many peripheral characters running around in The Stone Key that I stopped caring about what happened to them. Whoops, there goes another nameless nobody dying for the cause. Who was that again? Bring back the old style Obernewtyn - good, tight, fast-paced story-telling without the vegetarian pacifism being rammed down the reader's throat. Still, I'll have to buy the next one and that is the most annoying thing of all. Louise.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2008-07-11 07:37 am (UTC)Louise.