After the seeing the previous review, wondering how much might be truth and how much might be overreaction, and remembering how thoroughly I enjoyed Wendy N. Wagner's Mother Bears, I bought this book and raced through it. I figured it at least deserved a review of its entirety. I don't mind a bit of violence and gore – how bad could it be?
I got about halfway through and wanted to put it down. There's a handful of scenes – each hot on the blood-drenched heels of the previous – where the violence could definitely be seen as unnecessary (and perhaps gruesome enough to be worthy of an indication in the product description due to its departure in tone from the rest of the Pathfinder Tales line). It clogs up the page count a little too, not helped by the book's slow start. Jendara fights the local superstition almost as much as she does horrible shape-shifting raiders and other beasties. I just wanted people to believe her so the plot could progress.
It's more of a pity that people might put this book down after only half of it, as some of the scenes I most enjoyed were in the book's second half. When the threat is realised and the plot finally kicks into gear is when some of the best writing turns up. One location is an absolute blast to read about, and I hope gets further page-space in future Paizo content (perhaps PFS? One can only hope).
As for our protagonist Jendara; poor, poor Jendara. She almost has as hard a time of it as Lara Croft in the recent Tomb Raider reboot. I don't think she makes it through a single fight unscathed, and there's a lot of fighting in this book. Due to the prevalence of injury, and the lack of ongoing repercussions, I couldn't empathise with any violence done to her near the end of the book as it was expected rather than shocking.
Additionally, the book is sadly light on interactions between Jendara and her son, preferring to focus on her past – both distant and recent – and how it has affected her and everyone around her. It's not a bad focus, but I would've enjoyed more interaction between Jendara and her son Kran. Theirs is a unique relationship - especially in fantasy fiction such as this - and that would've been fun to explore further.
There's also a few minor issues that jumped out at me. Jendara takes off her "sweater" at one point. Another islander refers to "balsa wood" in a comparison. A character is knocked out with a blow to the head and is unconscious for an entire afternoon with not much in the way of ill effects.
On the positive side, I found this book very easy to read. The characters are identifiable and realistic in their behaviour. The description and setting is wonderful. It's not badly written by any means, just brought down by the overly-descriptive violence, squandered potential, and small fiddly problems. Not a bad first novel by any means.
Although it didn't live up to my expectations, I would still love another book with Jendara. I'm just more interested in the future adventures of her and her son than dwelling on her past.
