picked up this first novel by Constable because of a cover blurb by Garth Nix. We'll see if I trust HIM again! ;-)
Seriously, maybe Constable will improve with time, but I didn't feel that this book was up to general publishing standards. It really felt like a first effort.
It started out OK, with us meeting the young, talented, but rebellious priestess in her home village... but once she absconds from said village (with an injured sorcerer on the run from his powerful nemesis) it becomes hopeless.
There's no attempt at character generation, and so much happens in so few pages that you could miss entire locations if you blinked... seriously - this page: we're at a college, next page pirates, two pages later, volcano, three pages later, dinosaurs, everything flying by without any time for the reader to FEEL - or even visualize - anything. A character might die - but we don't care, 'cause we never got to know him in the slightest, since he was only ALIVE for 5 pages! (etc.)
The plot is really stereotypical (There are 9 types of magical spellsong, and the bad guy wants to collect them all so he can take over the world) - and while I do feel that a 'classic' plot can be done well, Constable needs to learn to slow down and savor her writing - so that her readers can enjoy the action!

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This story is not as well developed as some of her other work. I was disappointed.

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