Category Archives: Book Reviews

The Dragon Reborn by Robert Jordan (1991) – BR00278 (2025) – 🐸🐸🐸🐸⚪

The PolyBlog
June 25 2025

Plot or Premise

At the start of the book, Rand is in hiding for the winter with Moiraine, Loial and Perrin. But his powers as a ta’veren (fate changer) start to affect those around him in both good and bad ways. Meanwhile, the three new novices return to the White Tower to face a (fake) punishment for their absence and for Mat to be healed.

What I Liked

The novices start to play Nancy Drew for the Amrylin Seat, trying to figure out if the 13 Black Ajah who left the White Tower were the ONLY Black Ajah, or if others remain. The mystery is challenging to investigate as they can’t let anyone even know they are investigating. At the same time, Egwene starts to learn how to DreamWalk. However, eventually their investigations take them to Tear.

Mat is at loose ends for most of the book, trying to figure out what his role is, how HIS status as ta’veren is affecting the environment around him — like that almost every game of chance begins to tilt in his favour. However, the best scene is a fight against Gawyn and Galadedrid who have been boasting about their abilities a little too much for his taste, so he knocks them down a peg, literally. It shows a “better” side of Mat than you normally see, and even one that he isn’t sure he recognizes, even with its dark edges. His hookup with Thom leads to an adventure that takes him to Tear,

However, the main focus is on Perrin as he makes his way in search of Rand, who has run away on his own to face his destiny without affecting the rest of the gang. Along the way, he is joined by Faile who is in search of the Horn, not realizing it has already been found (and blown, by Mat).

Ultimately, everyone has to storm a castle with Rand inside, for a final battle complete with Aiel joining in. It takes a long time to get there, but it’s a great transition.

What I Didn’t Like

The editing didn’t seem as bad with this book, but the repetition is still annoying. If a certain novice grabs her braids another 500 times in a book, I might just give up. Or the constant clichés about whether you can trust an Aes Sedai. Seriously, the author thought people were picking up these books mid-series and would be able to follow them? It’s almost impossible to follow them if you read them in ORDER, you would have little chance joining mid-series, so the constant explanations of things that are already explained over and over and over is, umm, disruptive.

And yes, the constant complaints and in-fighting for Egwene and Nynaeve is as tedious as ever.

However, the thing that bothered me the most is how little of the story is about or with Rand. You know, the Dragon Reborn? The one that THIS volume of the series is NAMED AFTER? Yet 80% of the book is about everybody else.

The Bottom Line

It should be called “Friends of the Dragon Reborn”

Here is my cheat sheet of characters in the novel.

The Great Hunt by Robert Jordan (1992) – BR00277 (2025) – 🐸🐸🐸⚪⚪

The PolyBlog
June 24 2025

Plot or Premise

The Horn of Valere was found and then stolen, and the Fellowship has to go get it back, while backing each other up as they learn what the wheel has in mind for them.

What I Liked & Didn’t Like

As with the first book, I see a lot of abysmal editing…references repeated over and over and over (about how the Aes Sedai can’t lie but they don’t always tell you what you think you heard, or you make a deal with them but it isn’t always the deal you think, or how most Wisdoms can’t tell anything from the Wind but claim to anyway, or how one particular character pulls on her braids EVERY SCENE SHE IS IN!). It’s really annoying. Not to mention discontinuities in spelling of names (Hawkwing/Hawking, Bryne/Byrne, etc.).

But, at the beginning, there is a giant plot hole for the premise. At the end of Book 1, at the Eye of the World, they found the Horn of Valere. They have it at the Castle Keep. In a strong room. And yet, the head of the keep is setting everyone up to go off and look for it. Sure, they’re keeping it quiet, but still? The Hunt is about to begin and the big honourable Lord is about to send his men off to look for something they already have? Then it is stolen, so they DO have to go look for it, after all, but he makes it seem almost a side quest to recapture the Dark Friend, Padan Fain, who stole it but that nobody except a few actually know stole it since they didn’t tell anyone they had it. Shh…it’s a secret. Yet they need it for the final Battle, and they don’t set EVERYONE after him. Umm, okay. Sure, whatever.

After that, we have stupid angst stuff with Mat and Perrin towards Rand (yawn), Rand acting like an child (yawn), and the women also acting fairly childish around each other.

The book could have been about a third of its length and really SANG with a focus on Padan Fain escaping, the women of the fellowship going off to train as Aes Sedai at Tar Valon, Rand and the gang travelling around the countryside following him, and everyone ending up at the end in the same area to fight the Dark forces, the Seanchan, and perhaps some of the Children of the Light too.

It’s a great epic battle and — spoiler alert — I love how the two baddies fighting ended up being blasted across the sky for all to see, along with Mat being the one to blow the Horn of Valere to bring the Heroes of Legend back to help everyone. And I like Elayne’s addition to the Fellowship.

I mentioned in my review of the previous book that I was having a terrible time keeping characters straight, and I went back and created an “index” card with all the names of the big players from Book 1 so I knew what was going on at the start of Book 2. It worked. I had 15 clear “good guys”, 13 clear “bad guys”, and then another 6 where it wasn’t clear to me. 34 in total. For this book, we’re up to at least 20 good guys, about 11 clear bad guys, and another 20 that are leaning one way or another, aka 51 characters to keep track of while reading. A couple from book 1 disappeared, mostly cuz they’re dead or were in a city we didn’t revisit, so about 20+ new ones added. The list of “grey” characters in the middle is getting a bit long, particularly some of the Aes Sedai, Seanchan and Children of the Light.

The Bottom Line

Come for the quest, ignore the angst, wait for the battle

My cheat sheet for characters in Book 02:

Bright Orange for the Shroud by John D. MacDonald (1965) – BR00276 (2025) – 🐸🐸🐸🐸⚪

The PolyBlog
June 23 2025

Plot or Premise

Arthur is a former acquaintance of McGee’s and Chookie’s who manages to make it as far as McGee’s and no further. He is spent and has been picked clean by professional grifters since he last hung out with the crew. Chookie convinces McGee to see if he can perform a salvage operation on the stolen money while she performs salvage on the man.

What I Liked & Didn’t Like

The con was nothing extravagant, a fake land deal from which they kept extracting money from Arthur. When it was over, everybody took off, leaving him high and dry. However, the twist in the tale was that a woman from the former gang of friends around McGee and Chookie was the one who set him up, which added an interesting side motive to help.

There is a lot of razzle-dazzle in the beginning as McGee tries to figure out the best approach, only to find that most of it is irrelevant. The man behind it all was a professional con artist, and McGee has too much respect for his abilities to waste time trying to get anything back from him. So, he pivots to go after the big, hairy lug who likely killed one of his former partners.

There’s a good fight scene early on, but the character is hard to pin down. Boo is, at most times, reasonably simple muscle, and then suddenly he’s more like a master tactician that McGee can’t outsmart. The ending is somewhat predictable, reminiscent of two previous stories that concluded with fights on boats.

However, the one shining light for most of the story is the rehabilitation of Arthur. It starts off slow, reminiscent of the type of rehab that McGee normally does with women to build up their self-esteem, but it’s nice to see him regain some of his persona and help out / dig in at the end. A bit of a cheer for the underdog.

The Bottom Line

Come for the con, stay for the justice

The Blind Goddess by Anne Holt (1993) – BR00275 (2025) – 🐸🐸🐸⚪⚪

The PolyBlog
June 18 2025

Plot or Premise

A Detective Inspector in Oslo catches a couple of cases — the apparent bludgeoning to death of a drug dealer by a student, found covered in blood, and the death of a lawyer who had defended the dead drug dealer.

What I Liked

I like the initial premise of a murder where the accused refuses to speak out of some sort of fear, and the link not to the student but to the murdered victim. Someone killed the drug dealer and his lawyer, and the accused might know why, but isn’t talking. There are some good movements within movements, and some simple subterfuge with office breakins.

What I Didn’t Like

The overall feeling of the book is bleak. The cops are rather bleak, having affairs to liven up their lives but not really feeling anything most of the time, more it would seem to alleviate boredom. There are powerful people involved but I never felt particularly tense with any of the machinations. More simply depressed.

The Bottom Line

Good story, somewhat bleak reading

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer (2005) – BR00274 (2025) – 🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸

The PolyBlog
June 17 2025

Plot or Premise

Isabella Swan moves to live with her father in Forks, Washington, and is stressed about starting life in the small town, meeting new people in the high school, fitting in. Until she meets one of the locals, Edward Cullen, and her life takes a strange turn.

What I Liked & Didn’t Like

It’s hard to write a review of the original book 20 years after it became a global phenomenon. Cutting straight to the chase, Edward and his friends are socialized vampires who hide their identity while living in a small town and attending the local high school even though they are LONG past high-school age in vampire years.

I love the initial pacing as the author introduces Bella and all her angst about moving to a small town, fitting in, getting to know the locals, wondering if she’ll ever have friends again. Bella sees Edward, and his broader adoptive siblings, but they generally avoid others and stick to each other. All any of the other highschoolers know is they are always together and drop-dead gorgeous.

Then Bella starts interacting with Edward, and some weird things start to happen. A truck sliding out of control towards Bella is stopped by Edward with merely an arm; Edward seems to have superhuman strength and speed. And Bella’s new friend Jacob, a kid from the local Indigenous community, seems to have a hate on for all of the Cullens, despite everyone else seeming to like him AND Jacob normally likes everyone else.

Eventually, Bella figures it out, and gets to meet the rest of the vampire family. When things really start to go weird as she learns to interact and experience amazing things with them, like the infamous baseball scene. Kind of like watching superheroes play sports.

Now for the controversy. There is a LOT of criticism for the series for its less-than-literary writing (not everything needs to be Shakespeare or Twain) or the overemphasis on teenage angst (hello, it’s supposed to be about first crushes and teenage obsession, intensified by coupling with a vampire). However, perhaps the largest criticism was the unequal power relationship between Edward, as a super old vampire with powers who just looks like a teenager, and Bella, who is literally just a young woman feeling certain things for the first time…and some concern that perhaps what she is feeling is brought on by the pheremones/charms that Edward exudes. I confess that it didn’t particularly bother me, generally because Edward doesn’t come off all that mature most of the time nor does it seem malicious. He’s certainly arrogant and condescending towards Bella, although it is primarily condescension towards weaker humans than her specifically.

Overall, I could maybe knock the rating down a star for the writing or a different star for the relationship imbalance, but ultimately, I have to jack it back up for the excellent world-building. I could do without some of the angst, but well, I was never the primary audience.

The Bottom Line

Come for the vampires, stay for the world-building