Waiting

I hate waiting, but sometimes its a good thing. And i dont just mean in the character building sense. Sometimes if you wait for something long enough, when it actually comes around its a complete surprise and can make your day. Or even your week, depending on what you were waiting for. Take me for example. I am a huge reader of science fiction, have loved reading it sense literally the third grade. And i'm not talking about weak ass teen sci fi either, the first series i read was r. a. salvatore and his Drizzt Do'Urden books. Anyway, i have been waiting for Lorna Freeman's new book to come out for over three years. I absolutely loved the first two, and couldn't wait to see more of Rabbit and everyone in further adventures. But then nothing. The release date comes and goes, with not a word from the publisher or author as to why this happened. Being a massive reader, books not coming out on the day that they are supposed to is nothing new to me, but usually authors have some way of communicating why the book is going to be late to their fans. But Lorna seems to hate the internet, and her publishers werent much better. Absolutely nothing came out about why the books were late. I thought nothing of it at the time, trusting that it would be out in a month or two, but then a year passed and still nothing was out. Finally i started poking around on the internet to see if she had died or something (its happened to me before. Rest in peace Chris Bunch, we will not forget you). Nada. there were a few forums of other conserned readers such as myself, but from what little information we could gather it seemed like she was taking a hiatus or something, and even the publishers didnt know when the next book would be out. So i waited another year, hoping that i would go to amazon one day and see that it was out. now when i poked around the internet i hear rumors of contract troubles and deadly illnesses, but no word from either author or publisher, just the book will be out when it comes out. around this time i started losing hope, and over the last year i checked in on ms. freeman maybe once or twice on amazon, but nothing showed up so i gave up hope. until yesterday, when a casual trip to barnes and nobles gave me a wonderfull present. there it was, the new lorna freeman book in all its glory. i have to admit, i almost cried.

After all that, i suppose its prudent of me to give a review of the book. I have mixed feelings about it. I think its way better than the second one, and yet i cant help but feel that it isnt quite as good as the first one, which set the bar rather high for ms. freeman. I like that she goes back to exploring the world that she created for us, with hints that the next book will take us even farther abroad than the first three have, and the adding in of a love interest or two definatly spices things up a lot, and yet so much is the same that it makes me wonder what exactly she was doing for all those years. once again rabbit is unable to use his powers until the very end of the book, and remains clueless that other people besides himself and his teachers can use magic. I knew have way through the book that he was being manipulated, and yet it takes him till the last 40 pages to figure out that maybe someone else has been using magic on him the whole time. and the supporting cast isnt much better.

There are some really good parts, with well written scenes, but the negatives made me more sad than happy. If you have read the other two books, i would definatly say read this one, as it truly does bring the story along and give more insight into the characters. just be prepared to see almost the same ending as the other two books, except in a different place and with different villians. kind of like robert ludlum in a way. if you havent read the other two, pick up the first one. i think its much better written overall, and you wont be disapointed.