daughter

=Journal #1= = = =Daughter of the Blood is the story of Janelle Angelline. A young witch born into a famliy clouded by secrets and mysteries and horrors unimagined. A young girl who can't do even the basic craft expected of the Grand daughter of the Queen of the island of Challiot. A young girl whose fantasies of riding unicorns, flying on dragon back and travelling beyond the veil to the Shadow Realm see her constantly in and out of a special hospital, Beldon Mor, a place of rest for the high strung aristo witches of Challiot and the surrounding areas. A hospital that holds a dark, evil secret that must be protected at all costs. Janelle is the light around which this richly embroided story dances. Janelle is Witch. Dreams made Flesh. She is the Black-Jewelled Queen the aristo's ad others have been waiting for, dreaming of, for thousands of years.= =Among those who wait for their chance to serve are three men; Damon Sadi, the Black-Jewelled Warlord Pince, a pleasure slave in the courts of High Priestess Dorothea Sa Diablo, the slave raised to believe he was unwanted and rejected by his long lost father.= = = =Journal #2= = = =I was tempted to put this book down a few times simply because of the grossness. If you ignore the grotesque scenes where men are brutally castrated or enslaved by having metal rings placed on their members which cause them intense pain, and can get through the extremely poorly written sex scenes, this book is actually pretty good. Through all of these negative points of Daughter, I really want to see how the end would turn out and I'm truly engaged by the main characters. Though confusing at first as the narrative jumps "worlds" or "realms," and after figuring out the links between characters and much of the terminology, the book does have a unique quality that, while grosses a reader out and disturbs readers on many levels, it's interesting to read nonetheless. Overall, Daughter of the Blood is interesting, and is keeping my attention, but this book definitely has a dark and scary edge.= = = = = =Journal #3= = = =The basic plot is an evil usurper has taken power over the land, the land and the people are suffering as a result and good is either in hiding or in danger. The true ruler is born somewhere quiet and out of the way, possessing power in this case that's Janelle. She doesn't yet understand that she has the power to destroy the evil usurper and save the land. There are, however, a few interesting twists that have started to happen. For one, Jaenelle (the true ruler) is not the viewpoint character and never becomes the viewpoint character. The story is instead told from the perspective of those who discover her and have to train and guide her through her coming of age and her discovery of her fated role. For another, Jaenelle starts off knowing most of the hard bits of power; she still needs training, but in basic magic. The complex and frightening comes as naturally to her as breathing. Both of these together add a nice twist to the standard plot, keep the viewpoint characters off-balance, and help you identify with how much they love her and want to help her.= = = =Journal #4= = = = = This beginning of a trilogy is both promising and somewhat frustrating. It has two flaws that have annoyed me in other fantasies. First, there are improbably bright characters. Nearly everyone is a Warrior Prince, a powerful magician, a Queen, a High Priest or a King. The titles are not nearly as annoying as disproportional age. One character is 1700 years old. Other Bloods are clearly older. One character, a vamprical King of the Dead, is 50 000 years old; and there are beings older yet. All of these are well drawn, but they all behave like regular people, no more than, say, 70 years of age. Trying to describe beings of immense age is as difficult as truly alien aliens, or Vinge's supermen. However, my suspension of disbelief suffers when asked to imagine that bright human beings after centuries and millennia of life have the same motivations and reactions as normal 20th century adults. In addition, the ancient Guardians, a cross between ghosts and vampires seem to be no different than humans, with a few restrictions mentioned almost in passing. In fact, they seem to have normal bodies, lives and desires as normal humans, except they are almost immortal. This seems almost like cheating death—where is the price? It would have been better to give the characters less remarkable ages and titles—throughout history humans have been capable of immense achievements and immense suffering in their short, sometimes very short, lives. The second peeve is the imbalance of power. The most powerful characters—the black-jeweled magicians, as well as the super-Witch herself, all seem to be on the side of the angels (dark titles notwithstanding). The evil guys (or gals) all seem to be less powerful, not particularly intelligent, almost petty. It is almost the good guys' ineptitude, lack of organization, and, in Jaenelle's case almost fatalistic passivity, which allows the evil to prevail. I know that the classic tragic plot is having the hero's own flaws cause his destruction. Occasionally, this can be used in irony, when the very strength of the character is the cause of his downfall. However, in an epic struggle, which I take this fantasy to be, the hero needs to be an underdog. The author should have either strengthened the villains, or made the heroes less powerful. As it is, the reader sometimes feels like smacking the heroes upside the head and yelling "why don't you just fry the bad guys".

Journal #5

To be honest I some what enjoyed the book but would i offer the book for anyone else to read probably not because this book is a long and slow read. It got pretty boring at times and I wanted to put it down. As i was reading this I felt pretty annoyed because it took so long to get to the point. I've read Anne Bishop books before and I enjoyed them for example the serious called "Landscapes of Ephemera" i read both those books and i could consider them my favorite but this serios "The Black Jewels Triligoy" I dont think I'll read the next one after.

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