Right off the bat, I would like to start off this review by mentioning that The Memory of Souls ended up being my favorite book in Jenn Lyons’ A Chorus of Dragons series so far when I read it. For that reason, I definitely went into reading The House of Always with a tremendous amount of anticipation and high expectations. After having read The House of Always, I’m thrilled to say that I thought that Lyons definitely topped herself with this book.
One of the many things that I’ve really come to love about the A Chorus of Dragons series is the fact that Lyons has found new ways to carry out the plot of each book in the series, and I was really looking forward to seeing how Kihrin was going to carry out the plan that he had come up with in The Memory of Souls to confront Vol Karoth. In this case, Kihrin is trapped in Vol Karoth’s prison all by himself. Naturally, Kihrin carrying out his plans turned out to be much easier said than done. The second plot deals with the current threat to Quur, which none of the characters really know about. There are also several subplots throughout the book that are explored through the missions, tasks, and memories of the characters that Lyons does a great job of conveying to the reader that I felt were all important for the most part. The other part of the book’s plot takes place in the Lighthouse within Shadrag Gor; otherwise known as the House of Always, hence the book’s title. I thought it was really interesting to have all of the characters there trying to rescue Kihrin, and having their dirty secrets being revealed in the process.
As always, I loved the parts of the book that dealt with Kihrin, Teraeth, and Janel, and the relationship between the three of them; especially now that Janel is pregnant, which I thought was a rather shocking revelation. That being said, I definitely continue to especially love the relationship between Kihrin and Teraeth in particular; and I personally hope that Lyons will have more moments between the two of them, without Janel around, in the fifth and final book in the series, The Discord of Gods. The parts of the book that focused on the relationship between Qown and Galen also really stood out as one of my favorite aspects of the book. I’ve been a big fan of the character Qown ever since he was introduced in The Name of All Things, but I especially loved Lyons’ writing for the character in this book; and even though A Chorus of Dragons is a fantasy series, I absolutely loved the romantic chemistry that existed between Qown and Galen throughout the book. I felt like the interactions between Qown and Galen were the perfect combination of awkward and cute.
I also really enjoyed Kalindra’s storyline as well. However, there were often times throughout the book where I thought that it was completely disconnected from everything else that was happening in the book; so I definitely think that Lyons could have done a better job of integrating Kalindra’s storyline into what was going on with all of the other storylines in The House of Always.
When it comes to my thoughts on the pacing of the overall plot of The House of Always, in general, I definitely think that pacing is a very tricky thing to talk about when it comes to this book, and the A Chorus of Dragons series in general, since the books have always involved the characters experiencing memories from their lives and other people’s lives, so the plot structure and the pacing of the plot has always been very nonlinear. Plus, unlike most of the other fantasy series I’ve read, the A Chorus of Dragons series is definitely a very character driven series that focuses on the characters. The A Chorus of Dragons series isn’t a fantasy series that features a bunch of constant fight scenes, and the plot doesn’t necessarily always move at a rapid pace, and that’s absolutely fine; because Lyons is using that page time to focus on the characters and character development, and the characters in this series for the most part are fantastic.
Finally, I have to say that I would definitely be lying if I said that there weren’t quite a few parts of The House of Always that left me feeling very confused. Every book in the A Chorus of Dragons series has confused me in a variety of ways. However, Jenn Lyons has definitely written every book in the series in such a way that I was completely sucked in, and addicted to both the book, and the series as a whole. Despite the fact that I’m oftentimes rather confused by the books, I ultimately have still come to think of the A Chorus of Dragons series as being an amazing find when it comes to the fantasy genre; and I’m really looking forward to reading the fifth and final book in the series, The Discord of Gods.
That being said, my score for The House of Always is 10 out of 10.
Check out my reviews for Jenn Lyons' A Chorus of Dragons series:
No comments :
Post a Comment