Internet Dragon reviewed Defiant by Michael R. Miller (Songs of Chaos, #3)
Great
4 stars
A fitting midpoint for the saga, and a shame that the full series isnt complete yet. Across the three books currently out, the writing is top notch compared to its peers. Honestly I only have praises to sing about Miller's writing here. This review would be a comfortable 4 or even 4.5 stars if the series was complete.
Characters are explored in-depth, every pov shift is well earned, and the prose is tight and full of substance. Unlike some other multi-book fantasy sagas, the space afforded by having multiple books isnt recklessly wasted on vivid descriptions of places that we only stay in for half a scene in a chapter, nor are there flash backs and history lessons that do nothing to drive the story forwards. When we get a new pov to view the story from, its always from a character who has earned the privilege of taking …
A fitting midpoint for the saga, and a shame that the full series isnt complete yet. Across the three books currently out, the writing is top notch compared to its peers. Honestly I only have praises to sing about Miller's writing here. This review would be a comfortable 4 or even 4.5 stars if the series was complete.
Characters are explored in-depth, every pov shift is well earned, and the prose is tight and full of substance. Unlike some other multi-book fantasy sagas, the space afforded by having multiple books isnt recklessly wasted on vivid descriptions of places that we only stay in for half a scene in a chapter, nor are there flash backs and history lessons that do nothing to drive the story forwards. When we get a new pov to view the story from, its always from a character who has earned the privilege of taking center stage via their actions in the eyes of either our main character or another pov character who has earned that position. The actions and consequences of the main cast and supporting characters are deeply woven into eachother, and the plot consistently follows through on its promises. Even when a scene or chapter doesn't have an immediate payoff, you can trust that the time spent reading will be worth it.
This is a series that is meant to be read as its full five books. While not inherently a bad thing, the individual books are not as self-contained in their plot-completeness as say, the books within the Dragonback series by Timothy Zahn. This means that each book represents more a general stage in Ash and Holt's story and each book sort of melts into the next, versus Dragonback where each book is a fully self-contained story from inciting incident to final image, and each book is a more distinct step towards the completion of the overarching story.