Yes and no, to the question about Max. I have the impression that he's a lot stronger than most people realize, and that when he's older and his powers have fully matured that he will be one of the major players and probably surpass his father. Just he's not there yet. Or that's been my impression.

I keep meaning to post here and say, hey, if you folks haven't read these books you should. They're good. I personally don't enjoy them as much as I do the Dresden Files, but that doesn't mean they aren't well worth a read.

Or you could wait til... I think it's November, when the 6th and final installment in the series is due to arrive, and just have a read through all of them at that point.

 

Re-Reading the Series

So I've decided to re-read the series in preparation for the 6th book coming out in November. I wouldn't be surprised to find that others are doing the same thing. I've only read them through once and details are understandably fuzzy.

One thing I notice in my re-read of the first book is that I like it a lot better the second time around. The first time I found it a bit mediocre. I had no real idea of who Aquitaine was and what he represented, I didn't realize how talented Isana or Bernard was, I didn't know that Fade actually kicked ass (and was the Araris that Aldrick kept alluding to), and I didn't know that Fidelias would turn out to be a fascinating character. So I tended to gloss over those parts in my first read and therefore felt that the story was bogged down with bit characters and relatively boring. Now I find myself more interested in all those details. I'm still not as into the first book as I was the later ones where Tavi actually led men into battle though.

Aquitaine comes off as an unmitigated bad guy in this book though. By the fifth book that has almost completely turned around yet he never really changes. I find this somewhat confusing.

Things that bother me or that I'd like to discuss (Book 1):

Isana is worried about people coming to take/look for Tavi when strangers start showing up. This is understandable because she knows who Tavi is. However Bernard is also concerned about someone coming for Tavi specifically, which makes no sense. As far as Bernard knows in the first book Tavi is just his furyless nephew, so why is he worried? Is this a plothole or have I missed something? I tend to think that this was before Bernard knew of any plots to have the Marat overrun the valley, but even if it wasn't he should be worried about them killing Tavi not taking him.

For that matter when did Bernard learn of Tavi's status as Princep's? I remember really looking forward to seeing his reaction but I don't remember ever seeing it. It was like in one book he had not been told yet and in the next book he already knew. Maybe I'll pick that up on the re-read.

I never noticed quite how often Aldrick is going on about everyone he fights not being Araris until I read this again. Though I have to admit it made it a hell of a lot funnier when he had the OMGWTFARARIS moment.

It strikes me that the first book isn't really about Tavi so much as he just happened to have a role in something larger than himself. He was probably only in half of the passages. Good thing I didn't find the non-Tavi parts to be so boring this time.

tl;dr -- I'm re-reading the series and commenting on it here in preparation for the 6th and last book. This was book 1. It's more interesting on the second read than the first, by far.