The Speaker by Andi O'Connor

PictureYou may recall that I absolutely adored Silevethiel.  It was an epic fantasy revival for me.  I was pumped last fall when The Speaker was announced, so I took a chance to reread Silevethiel and catch up with the story.

 Now that I had the world back in mind I was ready to take off with The Speaker.  By the end of the novel, I had some very mixed feelings.

 Things I enjoyed:  the plot, interesting magic concept, world development, new characters.

 This novel did justice to the epic fantasy genre again.  There was nothing lacking in the development of the lands and how the magic and characters interact within Vaelinel.  I really enjoyed the new characters added to the cast and can't wait to see how the fight for Vaelinel turns out.

 Things I didn't enjoy:  character development.

 I was disappointed in the treatment of the characters.  I just really felt that there was an overall agenda to the writing style that just seemed to rub me the wrong way.  

 Most people will probably not fit into this category, so I would still recommend this novel to all lovers of epic fantasy.  There is a freshness to Vaelinel that keeps drawing me in, and that is difficult in a literary world where there are hundreds of fantasy authors to choose from.

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