I think maybe it might have been beneficial to me if I had read the other books first, as in some places they sort of alluded to events that had happened that I didn't know about, but I believe this is a new set of characters, and anyway it makes sense on its own. This book is the first in a series that is part of a huge saga, and guess what? I haven't read any of the others. It isn't that old, but there is a gap there, and a lot of development has taken place in that time. I was interested to see how the genre had progress since the 1990s. I guess that isn't the best thing to say about a book - that it hasn't aged well, but I could just tell it wasn't from the modern realms of fantasy. Foolish, perhaps, but they are decent books, if not my favourites.ĭespite the cover art, the red wyvern doesn't make an appearance, except as embroidery on clan banners.īook number 365 of my Science Fiction & Fantasy Reading Project Now I feel somewhat duty bound to read them. Back when I was just getting started on the series, I found a bunch of them in a used book store and grabbed them. Why do we care about these inhuman creatures from another plane and their mixed feelings about being born into the human realm? They really aren't very relevant to the main plot and what small part they do play could be easily replaced with more down-to-earth characters.Īnd so you may ask why do I keep reading these books if I'm not wild about them. The Prince Maryn part of the story was quite engaging and it kept me up very late the other night, reading until I couldn't keep my eyes open! It's the Evander/Alshandra/Elissario storyline that bores me. Although Jill remains dead and gone, suddenly here is Nevyn again, like nothing ever happened to him! I'm guessing that this is a jump back into the past, but then Jill should still be alive too, so I'm still confused. And Jill died in one of the previous books too. But I'm confused, because I thought Nevyn had died and left his position of dweomer master to Jill. This one was the best of them so far, mostly because I really appreciated Lilli.

These books frustrate me, because I keep feeling that I should enjoy them more than I do.

The Red Wyvern by Katharine Kerr