Beth's Reviews > Cast in Silence

In this volume, Kaylin's past comes back to haunt her as she is called upon to look into an incipient incursion of Ferals into Elantra, coming from the fief of Barren. After fleeing Nightshade at thirteen years old, Kaylin spent half a year in Barren before crossing the Ablayne and becoming a mascot of the Hawks, and then a trainee. She hoped never to go back there, but when one is under orders from the Emperor, they act without question, or they die.

Why is Barren called that? And how is it connected to the Palace of Nightshade, or other, similar structures in the fiefs, all named after their reigning Lord or Lady?

Ah, this series. I'd love to love it, but every time it's a pile of if onlys. [Edit: I put all this nonsense behind spoiler tags. If you care to read a long list of grievances, click away.]

(view spoiler)[- If only Kaylin's relationship with either Nightshade or Severn--or both, I won't judge--went anywhere. If only Nightshade weren't an information-dispensing cipher, or Severn weren't just an attractive piece of scenery, 99% of the time. Two or three times each book, one or the other of them gets a paragraph or two that resonates with (what I perceive as) suppressed emotion, and I'd love to see much more of that than what I'm getting.

- If only so many words and phrases weren't used so frequently as to be obtrusive, or even obnoxious. It was getting to me so much, I decided to make a tally of a few of them to prove to myself that I wasn't just imagining things. Here are the results. Judge for yourself:
- raised a brow (or both): 90
- said quietly/softly: 162 (!!)
- grimace/d: 68
- "mood eyes": Dragon 40 / mention of eye membranes 8; Barrani 28
Sometimes the reader even gets a "two-fer," i.e. "he raised a brow, and she grimaced." These words do create a kind of mellow vibe, as characters murmur and express irony in a low-key way. If these were replaced with grins or smirks or characters laughing at each others' cringe-worthy "wit," I'd have given up on this series before the first volume was over with.

-If only the general flow of each book weren't exactly the same, with a situation set up (usually involving the threat of Elantra's destruction), Kaylin floundering around like an ignorant buffoon for 300 pages, then her suddenly becoming a mystical superstar who fixes everything with the power of her ancient magic. We've had this same basic arc since at least book 2. Each time, there's a lot of exposition-by-dialogue (with accompanying raised brows, as above), that slows the middle of the book to a crawl. This is a fascinating world, too often presented at a remove, and sloggy as eff in the bargain. (hide spoiler)]

There isn't much point to "if only"-ing like this. Five books in, one has to either accept things as they are and press on, or decide that wading through the muck ain't worth it. I have two more of these books, so the final decision can be put off for a little while. ;) I'm sure that the same complaints will be in full force in subsequent volumes, but there'll be no reason for me to enumerate them again--if there was any in the first place--so we can talk about other stuff next time.

A couple of postcripts. This review isn't very coherent, sorry...

Unfortunately, I was able to predict a lot of what was going on before Kaylin or the other characters did.
(1) Much is made of Kaylin's having kept a secret for the seven years since she left Barren. (view spoiler)[She was an assassin for Barren's fief lord, and had killed a number of people. Also, that innocents had died as by-blows of her assassinations. (hide spoiler)] What else could have caused her that much guilt and remorse? I can easily imagine that this "secret" was no secret at all to the Hawklord, Marcus, or Severn.
(2) (view spoiler)[That the Tower/Tara had been getting conflicted signals between Kaylin and Tiamaris because they opened the inner door together. That Kaylin was both trying to impose her worldview upon it/her, but also not wanting to take on responsibility of being its/her keeper. (hide spoiler)]

(view spoiler)[Time travel. (hide spoiler)] Meh. I have never seen this done in a satisfactory way.

Despite my gripes, one thing that's been consistent in this series thus far is that the various plot threads are wrapped up well, and the endings always leave me with a warm, "happy tears" feeling. Each time, they pull the "Chronicles of Elantra" books up from a soggy 2-2.5 stars to something more like a 3.