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So, I've been reading this series. I wasn't actually too impressed with the first book, and yet I enjoyed it so much that I needed to read the second, and now I definitely need the third. This is VERY typical of my experience of Lackey, whose tropes are some of my own favorite mind-candy.
That said, these books are not so awesome in terms of continuity. Friends who know me: I spotted continuity issues on the first read-through.... Yeah. Not good. I cannot really explain them without spoilering things to heck and back, but there are blatant continuity errors. Largely unnecessary - you could achieve the story without them.
But the underlying story - assuming you like Lackey's favorite trope of a young person who is All That And More - is pretty fun and the world is fascinating.
What I really do NOT understand is all the complaints about Joy - Joy is our main character - and how she figures things out and how come no one else is.
If you can't tell she's probably cast as The Chosen Of Fate in some way by _very_ early in the first book, then I'm shocked, but even more, _most_ of her figure-it-out is working with knowledge/training/information from allies...and the back story supporting those allies and that training is all on the table (some more visibly than others, but we've met or heard about every person required, and had the training background explained), by the end of chapter three of the first book. As far as I can tell this remains true through the end of the second book at least.
In point of fact, Joy is _not_ very quick to understand the information she's given in some cases, and in one case she completely drops the ball until it's too late. Which I think is very realistic and made the story interesting.
If Joy is being brilliant, either she's been trained in whatever-it-is previously, or she just got a hint (often delivered with a sledgehammer) from one of her known sources. Very rarely (if ever) does she have inspirations all her own that are breakthrough in any way.
You can certainly criticize the books - besides the continuity issues, the breadth of her training is astonishing and her allies are too. But the author doesn't keep inventing new things; it's the existing ones acting, and not arbitrary left turns.
That said, these books are not so awesome in terms of continuity. Friends who know me: I spotted continuity issues on the first read-through.... Yeah. Not good. I cannot really explain them without spoilering things to heck and back, but there are blatant continuity errors. Largely unnecessary - you could achieve the story without them.
But the underlying story - assuming you like Lackey's favorite trope of a young person who is All That And More - is pretty fun and the world is fascinating.
What I really do NOT understand is all the complaints about Joy - Joy is our main character - and how she figures things out and how come no one else is.
If you can't tell she's probably cast as The Chosen Of Fate in some way by _very_ early in the first book, then I'm shocked, but even more, _most_ of her figure-it-out is working with knowledge/training/information from allies...and the back story supporting those allies and that training is all on the table (some more visibly than others, but we've met or heard about every person required, and had the training background explained), by the end of chapter three of the first book. As far as I can tell this remains true through the end of the second book at least.
In point of fact, Joy is _not_ very quick to understand the information she's given in some cases, and in one case she completely drops the ball until it's too late. Which I think is very realistic and made the story interesting.
If Joy is being brilliant, either she's been trained in whatever-it-is previously, or she just got a hint (often delivered with a sledgehammer) from one of her known sources. Very rarely (if ever) does she have inspirations all her own that are breakthrough in any way.
You can certainly criticize the books - besides the continuity issues, the breadth of her training is astonishing and her allies are too. But the author doesn't keep inventing new things; it's the existing ones acting, and not arbitrary left turns.