Tuesday, July 17, 2007

ACACIA Review - Pacing

I'm almost finished with part one of ACACIA, so I thought I'd pause and say a few words about the pacing. It reminds me of Diana Gabaldon's Outlander. In that novel, I went into the book knowing that everything up to a certain point was a prologue. I knew that Claire would go back in time, but getting to that point was agony. However, once I got there, I was blown away by the rest of the book.

I'm going through a bit of the same thing with ACACIA. Like Outlander, it is a book that you read for the long haul. Some books are like snack-packs, devoured quickly. This novel is a giant bag of M&Ms, best read in chunks.

However, I know that what one person finds fast-paced, another will find hopelessly plodding. I could not put down Charles Dickens's The Old Curiosity Shop, but when I lent it to a friend, she returned it to me, unfinished.

I'm not nearly to that point, and I don't expect to be. The king is not quite dead yet. He has made a last request to his treacherous chancellor , but since the chancellor is not really evil, he is conflicted about what to do next. Maeander, the middle-born prince of the Mein, is every bit as evil and despicable as I thought he would be. Really, some of the things that David thought of for this villain just chills the blood.

My favorite character so far is Leeka, the general. I feel the most connection to him. For all the other characters, there is still a bit of separation. But Leeka is fighting for his life to bring word of an invasion, and who can't help but admire a 48 year old general who still kicks butt? However, I have the terrible suspicion that this character is doomed to die. I hope I'm wrong.

Aliver, young heir to the Acacian throne, is my next favorite character. The conflict between him and his peers is still unresolved; in fact it has not even been mentioned again. The prince has done nothing that makes me think he will turn out evil. Since I know from the cover blurb that there will be a jump in time, I find myself looking forward to seeing him as a grown man. In fact, I'm downright impatient for it.

4 comments:

  1. Oh my gosh Tia.

    You are going to be absolutely blown away.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Tia, I'm just catching up on your blog, and you've piqued my interest with this one. This one goes on my list. :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Great! I hope we both like it! I managed to get a bit of reading done tonight and I finally got to see a bit of magic, along with an absolutely incredible way of moving troops.

    ReplyDelete

Please be nice to my authors!

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.