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Title: First Truth by Dawn Cook ISBN: 0-441-00945-X Publisher: Ace Books Pub. Date: 28 May, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.38 (16 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: WOW! Enticing and Refreshing!
Comment: If I were to say one thing to someone who was brousing in a book store or a library and picked up this book, it would probably be the following:
"Get it before someone else snatches it out of your hands!"
Okay, so maybe I'm being too enthusiastic. The medeival-ish, magic-ish (yes, two of the things I look for in a good cover) appeal of the book's cover drew me to it. But once I flipped open the first few pages, I quickly forgot the cover and rushed to finish the book.
Alissa doesn't belong; she is a driven antoganist with exceptional qualities--both physical and mental--that keep her apart from the rest of the world. Her magician Keeper father disapeared when she was a young girl; but now she's nearly twenty and her mother is sending her out in the world to follow in the footsteps of her father. Against her will, Alissa leaves her dear mother and heads toward the mysterious Hold,, the place of magical Keepers.
On the way, Alissa meets up with the likeable Strell, a wandering musician who discovers that in the years that he left his family to become a bard, that they all have been killed in a great flood. Both alone and friendless, the two agree to travel with one another despite boiling tempers between them and a bad first start. (Hmmm, could Cook possibly be leading up to something here? I hope so.)
But once they reach the Hold they realize their only hope is to trust one another and battle the evil astrayed Keeper who now controls the empty Hold. Can they keep Alissa's Keeper powers a secret from the jealous Bailey and solve the mystery behind the emptyness of the Hold and Alissa's father's death?
An excellent, refreshing piece of fiction! Dawn Cook provide's a delicious stew for us to sip on--unfortunately, the book (which deceivingly looks long with its 250-some pages at first) is very short. In other words, you'd be best to pick up the sequel, Hidden Truth, in the same book-stop or you'll be in withdrawal until you get it. Unfortunately, all those, including me, who have already gulped down the first two novels, are waiting awkwardly for the third course.
I would reccomend this novel is for advanced readers. (At least teen) but I assure you any adult would delight in it also.
Cook has designed a promising menu in her excellent plot, served us two helpings and has more coming! Excuse the puns on food, but this book is truly excellent. And the series? A set of delicasies! Happy reading!
Rating: 4
Summary: A Great Read--Only Minimal Mistakes
Comment: I thoroughly enjoyed this book and am now reading Hidden Truth, the second in the trilogy. The storyline of this book is extremely original, and very attention-holding. As a writer myself, I have to say there are a few places that I was confused about. For example, when Alissa was leaving home, it said she had set down on the step, then shoots to her making a camp. At first, I thought she was camping outside her house since her mom wouldn't let her back in. Little things like that kinda stuck out to me, which is why I gave four stars, but I still love the book to death.
Rating: 3
Summary: World was excellant, characters undermined it
Comment: I picked up First Truth because I was bored, and the cover art was pretty. Yes, shallow perhaps, but I've read most of the known 'greats' in the fantasy/sci-fi genre, and even the greats can sound pretty horrible if you just read the blurb on the back. And anyway, I like discovering relatively new authors.
First Truth had potential; the writing itself was average (not great, but no glaring mistakes either) from a technical standpoint, the world and magic system was interesting and different, and I like stories of self-discovery. However, the characterization really really undermined it for me.
The dialogue is pretty bad...very predictable, and there were spots where I'd be distracted from the story and start laughing at it. The characters showed their main traits early at the start of the book, and by the end, they were just as shallow as they started (and, since I have read the rest of the series, it's the same with all except 1 character, whom I like, but who may be just as shallow and I don't see it since I like him.). I get the 'buddy buddy' feel...you know, when you feel as if all the characters are already well known to each other and destined to be friends, and the spats are shallow and contrieved and you know it'll be all better eventually, and the character's feelings aren't really written about in depth. This is kind of sad, especially when the cast of characters is limited (and indeed is limited for the rest of the series too) because with a limited cast you especially need character depth, otherwise it's really uninteresting.
I basically read on to learn more about the world and magic system, not for the characters. The main character is one of those rebel-girl characters that feels of pseudo-feminist but really is a part of the rebel-girl subgroup of characters, not really something new. If that makes sense. It's sort of like in real life you run into this Goth GIrl who thinks she's being so different by wearing black and sitting in graveyards, but in fact she's just another Goth kid, like all the other 14-year-old goth kids. The main character feels like she's supposed to be different, because she has a temper, but it's just another flavor of the same.
So, anyway, First Truth was better than many other fairly new straight-to-paperback books I've read, but not by much, and while and the ideas of magic and in the world showed some thought and creativity, the characters just ruined it. If she had spent more time in developing the characters, this book would have *flown*. But she didn't, and it sorta dropped from the plane, glided, and thudded into something random.
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Title: Forgotten Truth by Dawn Cook ISBN: 0441011179 Publisher: Ace Books Pub. Date: 25 November, 2003 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Path of Fate by Diana Pharaoh Francis ISBN: 0451459504 Publisher: Roc Pub. Date: 04 November, 2003 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Ill Wind (Weather Warden, Book 1) by Rachel Caine ISBN: 0451459520 Publisher: Roc Pub. Date: 02 December, 2003 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: The Magicians' Guild (The Black Magician Trilogy, Book 1) by Trudi Canavan ISBN: 006057528X Publisher: Eos Pub. Date: 27 January, 2004 List Price(USD): $7.50 |
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Title: Son of Avonar (The Bridge of D'Arnath, Book 1) by Carol Berg ISBN: 0451459628 Publisher: Roc Pub. Date: 03 February, 2004 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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