Barbara S. (barbsis) -
Helpful Score: 1
The political hierarchy is incredibly complicated but basically boils down to a division of church and state though not really in a religious sense. In no way is it a religious novel. The wine masters (vinearts) are only able to draw magic from the vines. They are not allowed to interfere with the landowners and vice versa. The Sin Washers (who oversea this division from the vinearts perspective) declared that if the vinearts and the landlords intermingle, they become too strong and have the propensity for evil. Therefore when Master Malech senses danger on the wind and finds other vinearts murdered or missing, he sends Jerzy out into the land to try to find the reason.
Weight of Stone is the continuation of Jerzy's adventures. At the end of Flesh and Fire, Jerzy befriends and escapes the Sin Washers along with his new found friends and allies - Ao, Mahault and Kainam. The first part of the book while they are adventuring by boat is exciting as they are in constant danger from the weather mages and the Washers who are pursuing them for imagined misdeeds. When Jerzy returns to the House of Malech to tend the vines, the book drags for a 100 or so pages. But when once again, the gang gets together to go adventuring to locate the taint that hasn't stopped, the pace picks up again and is non stop action.
Like all good fantasy novels, the world building is extremely complicated and takes very careful reading to decipher what is really going on hence the longer than normal reading time.
Weight of Stone is the continuation of Jerzy's adventures. At the end of Flesh and Fire, Jerzy befriends and escapes the Sin Washers along with his new found friends and allies - Ao, Mahault and Kainam. The first part of the book while they are adventuring by boat is exciting as they are in constant danger from the weather mages and the Washers who are pursuing them for imagined misdeeds. When Jerzy returns to the House of Malech to tend the vines, the book drags for a 100 or so pages. But when once again, the gang gets together to go adventuring to locate the taint that hasn't stopped, the pace picks up again and is non stop action.
Like all good fantasy novels, the world building is extremely complicated and takes very careful reading to decipher what is really going on hence the longer than normal reading time.
