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I'm not sure how I found the series, but I've been reading the Furyk Saga before bed for the past several months. It's a nordic-themed fantasy novel, and clocks in at 2100 pages for the first three books.
Overall I've really enjoyed this series thus far. The characters, the storyline, and the action scenes keep you turning the pages to find out more. What I like best is that these books don't beat you over the head with magic right out of the gates, and even in the later two books it's really not that heavy. The storyline can be a bit slow, especially in the first book when you're finding out where the writer is going with the story, but even then I found that I wanted to discover what happened to the individuals and their story arcs through these developmental sections of the books. The readability also contributes to the page turns since there's a lot of action-type language throughout versus lengthy internal character development. And finally, I like that the plot lines are not easily predicted in most cases, which is what I think kept me pushing through the slower parts of the book. I can say that I stayed up late trying to push through the last part of book for at least a few nights this past week - it got really good and action packed.
One difference the reader will note, on the third book especially, is the constant switching between stories. I understand that some make not like this, but I actually didn't mind it because it felt like real-time action, as if it was written for a television series. I know writers do this on purpose so as to actually get picked up by some streaming service like Amazon Prime or Netflix, but it didn't detract from the feel of the story for me, and may have actually enhanced it.
Looking from book 3 to 1, I can see how the story really started spinning up; however, when I was in the first book and found that the end of it was basically Jael defeating Tarak, and she was a princess who was married off to a drunkard, I didn't really understand what more there could be. There was the inital looming threat of magical something-or-other coming after her eventually, but none of this presented itself much at all except for figuring out what a dreamer was, and quick visits to Tuura and The Widow. I can see why people may turn off from this series in the first book because it feels like not much really happened. Nevertheless, I bought the first three books in the trilogy and I was intrigued enough to keep it going.
The second and third books run together a bit for me, but I enjoyed delving into the various stories with the characters: the failed war against Hest and the unlikely alliance, Eadmund's recovery and then entrapment, the war with Eadmund's brother, and the entire change of focus to the Dragos family and Jaeger's decline into what seems like insanity.
I will admit, however, that when I bought the trilogy on my Kindle, I thought it was just that: a trilogy. It wasn't until I was about 98% through book three that I realized that these stories couldn't come to a happy ending with such little time left - not, that this, without it being a quick and terrible ending. I was both happy and frustrated to find out there were three more books to go. I of course bought the fourth, but I switched back to the Foundation Series by Isaac Asimov for a bit just to change it up.
Pros:
- quick read
- interesting storyline
- action-packed in places
- not predictable
- not a lot of magic (yet)
Cons:
- First book is kind of slow but still interesting
- Jumping between storylines can be slightly frustrating in book 3, especially at the end
- Although a lot happens in the 3 books, you would think that there would be more after 2100 pages, but I've slogged through many other books while they build their plot and these weren't even close to that
Overall I highly recommend this series if you like fantasy novels. This one a bit different than say, The Sword of Truth, or the Wheel of Time, but I think that's what makes it interesting.
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2023-04-05
Tags: books, The Furyk Saga, reviews
Gritty
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