Sword of Fire and Sea
First I'm gonna start by saying I could not finish this book. The writing wasn't really good enough to make me "feel" for the characters. The writing style was more of a story telling then dialogue driven, and for me that's the best way for an author to endear their characters to me, through good dialogue. On the other hand the author did a very good job discribing the settings and scenery, and I imagine that had I finished the book it would have shown good world building.
One aspect I didn't like at all, and ultimately made me put it down.
During the beginning of the book the author is setting the story, it's about a captain who is hired to escort a fire priestess to another country. During the beginning of the voyage the captain and the priestess have one or two meaningful conversations, but other then that don't really interact much. Then all of a sudden when they are at port the captain accidentally knocks on the preistess' door, she invites him and in short order they start making out! I mean common, no real relationship building, no trust building, nothing! And then two seconds later she's being captured buy the bad guys right out of his grasp. So now he is going to throw caution to the wind to rescue her, as if he's had this deep meaningful love with. I just can't buy into that.
I know it's my personal presence but what I believe makes a good book are the relationships of the characters and their growth. Whether its two lovers, a father and son, or just two really good friends that is what makes a book good.
