The praise usually found on the first few pages and the back cover of a book has little to do with the book, it’s just marketing, but for this one I found something I must quote: “In the end, the best recommendation I can give is that if you are sick to death of fantasy, read The Briar King. Remember why you used to love it.” So true; this is pure fantasy at its best.
I may even go out on a limb here and say this is the best fantasy book I read since The Lord of the Rings. There were moments when I was almost afraid to read on thinking it’s too good and the author will have to ruin it somehow… He didn’t.
The parts about the court, while it still stood, were terribly annoying, and there is still at least one character, out of the “good ones”, still alive that I really wish wasn’t, but that’s really the only thing I can say against it. Well, besides the usual problems that come with the beginning of a story, when things take a while to get moving.
I hope it will get even better in the next book; unfortunately I only have the first two in the series.
Rating: 9/10
This has to be the worst book by Anne Rice, except of course the “Sleeping Beauty” series, which don’t count as books. I can’t even believe she wrote it!
Had to struggle to get through every page and I don’t think I ever considered stopping reading a book after I started as seriously as I did for this one.
For the entire first part, I was just repeating in my mind that miss Rice can kindly go on an extended vacation to Hell for writing this, which also works now, since I heard she decided she believes in such things again.
The second part might have had its interesting moments and the style in which it’s written is good enough, though still pretty bad compared to most of her other books, but overall this book simply sucks!
As for the characters, I’d have really liked everyone except Alex and Samir to die, or whatever else is suitable, in case of the immortals, in the worst way possible. Cleopatra would have joined the list, as I can’t blame her for her actions while she had a half-rotted brain, if not for the very end of the book. Keeping that ending in mind, my list stays at two, though I have to wonder why would Alex want to live.
Oh, and there are so many discrepancies it’s not even funny. Her vampires and witches make sense; this does not, if you look at it carefully.
Original rating: 6/10
Note: With a review like this, I do wonder why did I give it six out of ten originally, on BookCrossing. Revised when copied on Goodreads.
Rating: 2/5
This really didn’t catch my attention. I was reading, but my mind kept drifting to other places, until something happened to draw my attention back to the book. Then I’d have to reread the last few paragraphs to realize exactly why did it draw my attention…
Probably gave it an extra point because I got a quote out of it: “The world doesn’t understand people who are pure of heart, it’s made for people who cannot trust each other, and are not trustworthy themselves.”
And… Happy ending? That’s a third of a happy ending at best. Depressing…
Rating: 7/10
I have to say once again that, for me, a good book must include non-humans, be they elves, vampires, extraterrestrials or whatever else, and/or magic. Or, at least, if it needs to happen in the “real world”, have the decency to be placed at least a few centuries ago. I don’t want to read a book that depicts things I can see around me. Also, I want a grand scale, the final outcome affecting the entire world, or at least a significant portion of it, not just the lives of a few characters.
Still, I’ll have to do what those critics in the book did with Jeremy’s paintings and grudgingly say… This book is a masterpiece and I’d highly recommend it to absolutely anyone, despite only giving it an eight; that’s for the reasons I explained above.
I’ll have to disagree with some other reviewers and say Belinda is believable. She’s not supposed to be the average 16 year old; she’s supposed to be that “one in a million”. Of course, there’s still a lot of room for improvement, but either way…
All of Anne Rice‘s obsessions are, naturally, present, and her idea of relationships with outrageous age gaps between the two is obviously staring you right in the face. And while I still find something like this, being with someone who could be your (grand)parent/child, utterly disgusting, in this book I didn’t mind at all. Of course, I’ll ask what would Belinda and Jeremy be doing now, were they to be real? 20 years after the book was written, she’d be 36 and he’d be 65.
But I just said 20 years after the book was written, didn’t I? And you know what? It would be accurate to the smallest detail in depicting the general reaction to something like this even now! Disturbing, isn’t it?
The only thing not depicted as bad in the book that I found (very) disturbing were the fur coats…
And the sex scenes are just… electric. I heard the ones in “The Witching Hour” were her best but, after reading this, I have to disagree.
But I still won’t believe you can get out of such a situation by being just nice to everybody, by not hurting back the ones who tried, and managed, at least to a point, to hurt you. Such an ending did make me say “eh, it’s only a book after all”.
I can understand Belinda not wanting to harm Marty, after what they had, though she could, and maybe should, have reconsidered after the attempted rape, but the others… Hit them till they grovel in dirt at your feet! They did the same to you!
Otherwise… 90% of people are rotten to the core and stink to high Heaven, if such a place would exist; “morals” do more harm than good; the legal system, the American one probably more than any other in the Western world, simply sucks; and hiding things from those who are close to you only hurts in the long run… Yeah, I knew that, didn’t need a book to remind me. So we’re back to my original complaint, which is actually a matter of personal taste and not a complaint about the book itself.
That’s it, now I’ll go back to feeling like shit… My story doesn’t have a happy ending…
Rating: 8/10
Anne Rice is, as almost always, the “Beauty” series being the exception, fascinating. No vampires, spirits or witches in this one, but still bewitching.
Took longer to read than I expected, but it’s not the book’s fault…
Rating: 8/10
