This reader's personal opinion, ©2014, all rights reserved, not to be quoted, clipped or used in any way by Google Play, amazon.com or other commercial booksellers*

 

I loved this book.

 

It drew me into its world immediately we got to the Griffin's desert.  Not with too much description or infodumping; I just immediately with all my senses seemed to feel I was there.

Tried to get started on this one several days ago and have resigned myself to DNF-ing it after feeling no enthusiasm to continue. I didn't get far in, just to the part where the heroine meets the griffin and *SEMI-SPOILERISH SORRY* discovers her magical mage powers due to the griffins. This is where the book went downhill for me. The heroine is unaware she possessed said powers and therefore doesn't understand at all what is happening, how it's happening, etc. While I know things might be better explained later in the book in regards to the world's magic, at that moment it is so wishy washy and the heroine not knowing what's going on and therefore leaving the reader in the dark feels like a cop out. As if it's just easier not to explain anything. The magic feels as if it's just too mystical and too high of an entity...or something...for a mere human to understand. Half the fun of fantasy for me personally is the worldbuilding, and if magic is to be such a strong part of the world yet not strongly developed, I just feel let down by it all.

It's possible too griffin-based fantasy books aren't for me. I tried K.J. Taylor's first re-released griffin book and couldn't get into that one either. The griffin's themselves in that one turned me off for their cold callousness. While it was very well done (I was thoroughly disgusted by one in the first several pages), something at the time the griffin said or did just wasn't working for me. That was the end of that one. In Lord of the Changing Winds, the author has tried way too hard to make readers aware that griffins aren't human in any way, especially emotionally and in their thought processes, culture, etc. In fact it's very blatantly told to the reader, really, as opposed to being worked into the development of the griffins as it was so well in only the first few pages of Taylor's book. I dunno, in LotCW, it just felt like too much telling and not enough showing. Another turn off for me.

The idea that non-human characters are different in fantasy is certainly not a new concept. At all. I have no desire to ascribe human emotions or ideas to non-human fantasy characters and I expect the writing itself to show me the differences in the non-humans. It's enthralling when their cultures and ideas are a developed part of the story. Again, maybe that improves in this book, but being told as opposed to shown so early in didn't make me feel any confidence it would be.

I loved the idea/premise and I really felt drawn to the heroine at first and the author's voice. Overall it wasn't working for me.

When Griffins are pushed out of their parcel of land they move and with them they take their magic. Kes, a young healer, is taken by the Griffons to help heal their people but this changes her life forever. The second story, Land of the Burning Sands is about Gereint Enseichen, an indentured servant who is trying to escape servitude and become a more useful member of society. Law of the Broken Earth is about Mienthe, a young member of the aristocracy caught up in a war that could change the world forever.The stories are interesting, as they come from different parts of the world with different attitudes and responses to what is going on and what to do about the changes. I did like them and look forward to more by this author.

Umm. I'll get there some day.

Tenemos 3 reinos, con diferentes habilidades: Legisladores, Hacedores, y Feierabiand, que es el reino de los que tienen Afinidad por animales. La adolescente Kes vive en una pequeña villa rural con su hermana mayor que cría caballos, mientras que ella le ayuda curándoles con hierbas. Kes es una chica extraña, atraída por la soledad y extremadamente tímida con las personas. Un día los grifos, unas criaturas de las que se sabe muy poco, pero a los que se les teme, bajan de las montañas trayendo con ellos el viento del desierto...

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Esta escrito en la onda de McKinley, en el cual hay una especie de distanciamiento que te hace ver poco cercanos a los personajes. Es una historia de fantasía, con seres míticos: los grifos, y una chica que sale de la nada para ser importante en la historia. Pero ese es el punto... nunca llegamos a saber demasiado de ella. Ella ni siquiera conoce sus propios pensamientos si no son apuntados por algun otro personaje en su historia. Y no es que ella se sienta distanciada desde antes de la humanidad, es otra cosa.

Los grifos son bellos, bellos tiranos, bellos manipuladores, bellos que arrasan literalmente con todo. Lo que podiamos esperar de sentir empatia por ellos, desaparece por sus acciones. Y es un poco dificil dudar por qué, finalmente deberiamos estar del lado de ellos. Porque a diferencia del gran leon arrasalo-todoque aparece en esa maravillosa historia que es La Historia Interminable de Michael Ende, en que renace el mundo después de la conflagración; aquí no hay explicación a como tiene balance su existencia con los humano ( y eso es muy importante para mí). Eso no quiere decir que dejemos de apenarnos porque uno desaparezca, pero su sociedad, el sentido de su existencia más allá de simples animales, nunca queda claro...

Mejor, como personaje es el hombre de confianza del rey, Bertaud, sumido en un conflicto interior y, claro, el mago de los grifos: Kairaithin.

En romance no esperen nada, niñas y niños.