Fantasy Hardships

This review assumes you read The Curse of the Mistwraith,

I wanted to review each book individually, but after giving up after Fugitive Prince I realized there was little point. Ships of Merior and Warhost of Vastmark are effectively the same book, plot wise. Apart from a tiny amount of critical details you could cut out either of these two books and go into Fugitive Prince without skipping a beat.

Fugitive prince isn't much better in that regard, though it does mix things up a bit by involving the Koriani.

Overall, the plotting is just weak. It's just not the ill-conceived implementation of the foresight parts (which strips away any tension you might feel). It's also the utter passiveness of the main characters and the stupid decisions they make because the plot demands it.

Lysaer's chapters are the worst in this. I skimmed through most of his chapters in all three books and didn't miss anything. It was an easy decision to do so as well as as a character I didn't like him at all.

In Fugitive Prince the skimming began extending to Arithon's chapters as well. There is a part where he's about to die and there is there are many pages dedicated to describing the rescue.

The problem is... you already know for a certainty he's going to make it, which makes this entire part just bothersome to read. I suppose this works for people who enjoy reading about the process rather than the result, but I'm not engaged by plot driven pathos.

It's a real shame really. The world depicted is interesting enough to keep me going for another three books, but I'm done with the Wars of Light and Shadow all the same. There is not going to be any payoff I care reading about. So that ends that.