Thursday 19 July 2012

Review: THE PHOENIX TRANSFORMED

The Phoenix Transformed by Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory
Book 3 of The Enduring Flame Trilogy

Genre: epic fantasy

About The Phoenix Transformed:
In the Enduring Flame trilogy, Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory have given readers a new view of the complex and fascinating world they originally created for the Obsidian Trilogy. Jumping one thousand years in time, Lackey and Mallory have told the compelling story of Harrier Gillain, the first Knight-Mage in a thousand years; Tiercel Rolfort, the first High Mage in hundreds of years; and Shaiara, the young leader of a desert tribe who takes both boys under her wing but has a special affection for Harrier.

These three young people are their world’s main defense against the evil called up by the rogue Wild Mage, Bisochim. Bisochim’s conviction that he was restoring the balance was shattered the moment Ahairan took her first breath. Now, in The Phoenix Transformed, Bisochim joins forces with Harrier and Tiercel, and the three mages search desperately for a way to destroy Ahairan as she sends her magical forces against them and the desert nomads under their protection.

With more than one twist in the telling, centering on a magic-plagued journey across a blistering desert, The Phoenix Transformed is the stunning conclusion to The Enduring Flame.
Source: Info in the About The Phoenix Transformed was taken from GoodReads at http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6352652-phoenix-transformed on 11/12/2011.

[image credit: Todd Lockwood]
Review:
The story telling quality is compelling as per usual! I would give it a 5 out of 5.

Some of the questions I had reading Books 1 & 2 were answered in this book... like, why is it called an Enduring Flame series? And Ancaladar is black, why did he, all of a sudden, became red in the cover of this book? I like it when loose ends comes together to make sense and yield to the reader the whole picture. And then some questions were not quite answered... why are the books in this series titled with Phoenixes? I can conjecture but it doesn't seem to quite gel to me...

I would say that the plot has depth, surprises and wonderful twists, though, I have a few nitpicking issues, like some of the scenes do not have a lot of authenticity or not very "realistic". (We are using the word "realistic" loosely here, seeing that this is a fantasy novel and a work of fiction.) However, on the whole, this book as a finale to a trilogy is very satisfying indeed! Kudos to this trilogy for having done that! I would recommend this series to anybody who likes epic fantasy reads!

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 5
Character development = 5
Story itself = 4
Ending = 4.5
World building = 4.5
Plot = 4
Cover art = 4.5
Pace = 4.5

Overall Rating: 4.5 out of 5 cherries


Other Books In This Series:

3 comments:

  1. That is one in love smiley :D I approve

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  2. I always find the best reviews for books to try outside of my normal genre here. Thank you for your review and recommendation, once again.

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  3. I do so need to get to reading some of Mercedes' books. This sounds like a great series to start with. :D Thank you!

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