Did you ever read one of those books (or series) where you liked the writing, you were involved in the story – and you simply wanted to throttle a few characters or scream at the writer? [Granted, anything that can involve me to that depth I’d still call a good read, but arrrgh!] I’m in that boat with this particular series, and I’m curious to see who else on the SDMB has read this and what their thoughts are on it.
I got the first book of this series about a year and a half ago out of the library. At the end of the first book, I was pleasantly on tenterhooks wondering what would come next, but rooting for Axis. I finally got my hands on books two and three (Enchanter and Starman - I’m reading the American version of the series) and waded in gleefully. For a while.
By the middle of the second book, I was sort of on Axis’s side, but fervently hoping that someone would drop a rock on his head and knock some sense back into him. By the confrontation in the third book, I was actively rooting for Gorgrael, and I was completely torqued by the end of the book. [Reasons in spoiler below, for anyone who may be mildly interested or tell me how wrong I am. 
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Anyone else read this far on the trilogy, and if so, any opinions?
[spoiler] Call me a sucker for happy endings, or at least someone who likes to see the good guys win in truth. I really hate it when the good guys finish last, and I really thought that happened with Faraday. I liked Faraday; I liked Axis (at first) and I really did not care for Azhure in the slightest.
Faraday, though the series, a) marries a complete scum rather than precipitate a situation in which Axis would most likely get killed, b) is actively miserable as a result of said marriage for much of Book Two, c) finds out that after she’s done all this for Axis, the ungrateful scum doesn’t love her after all [and not only that, she gets to find out in an incredibly painful, public and humiliating way that he doesn’t], d) ends up having a baby by him that she doesn’t even get to raise, e) re-establishes the forests of Tencendor and f) ends up getting killed by Gorgrael, who out of all the book, is actually more loyal to her than Axis was. Her reward for all this? SHE GETS TO BE A BLOODY DEER IN THE FOREST?! For criminy’s sake, that’s like Frodo coming back from Mordor to find Hobbiton’s been sold to land developers for a WalMart!
On the other hand, Azhure [whom, as mentioned I simply did not like] a) is suddenly possessed of this allure that provides the final straw to break Rivkah’s marriage, b) suddenly possessed of this allure that makes Axis fall groveling in love with her, c) is actually the daughter of this powerful and supposedly terribly evil Icari, who d) turns out not to be quite so bad after all and who e) has this bow and pack of hounds that make her a killer warrior, and oh, by the way f) she gets this killer ring, too. On top of all this, Azhure ends up having litters of children and becoming essentially a lesser goddess, and even ends up getting to raise Faraday’s child. Okay, granted, she had a crappy childhood and got her wings cut off. My opinion? Wah. For fershlugginer’s sake, she got WAY over rewarded for what was essentially nothing more than a minor inconvenience.
And as for Axis, I sincerely hoped Gorgrael would at least smash his testes in a vise, but unfortunately, that wasn’t a happenin’ thing, either. I was SO lacking in sympathy for him during the last scene of Starman, when he sees what Faraday’s become. He’s standing there crying and slinging snot, and I’m thinking “Why, you grotty bastard? You got Azhure, with whom you were just so besotted, you’ve got all this power, kids, the world at your feet. It’s not like you loved Faraday, anyway, and you’re damn sure not stuck running around as a deer in a forest!” And on top of all that, knowing that she’d remember all he put her through if he touched her, what does he do? TRY TO TOUCH HER!
I sincerely rooted for the stag to gore him at that point, but I didn’t get that wish, either. Feh.
Still a good series, but I am SO hoping that Azhure goes down like a big dog in the next three. Axis escapes my shit list only if he actually rectifies some of the wrong he did Faraday. [/spoiler]
