Let’s rename this book The book of many disapointments that you cannot stop reading. Let me explain.

Destiny is a long book, too long for the story it’s telling. The author could probably have told the story with about half the number of pages without compromising too much. There is at least a dozen of chapters that do not bring anything to the story. That wouldn’t be that bad, but there is one thing that Elizabeth Haydon does that is even worst: she keep on spoiling her own surprises. By removing many of the chapters of Destiny, not only would the story have a faster pace, but it would have surprises as well.

There is another thing that really bugged me as I was reading this book, but I don’t know if it would if I wasn’t a writer myself. It’s the fact that the author keeps on switching from one POV (Point Of View) to another inside the same scene. From what I’ve heard, it’s a big No-No when you write, but apparently, nobody told her. There is this one chapter that I was reading where she jumps between 3 different POV (same acronym as earlier) without any breaks. What do I mean? Here’s an example (not from the book, I’m making this up to show you what I mean.)

Achmed though he could dodge the blow but it was too late. Omet (at this point, Achmed doesn’t know the 2nd character’s name so we shouldn’t read his name) was scared and didn’t move. Rhapsody arrived just in time to see Achmed fall.

Here, we have three POV; The paragraph starts with Achmed, then the name Omet come out of nowhere because Achmed doesn’t know that name, and then we get Rhapsody’s POV. Usually, a writer will line-up behind one character and stick to him for the whole scene. Again, I don’t know if I see this because I’m a writer myself, but it really bugged me.

A lesser problem that doesn’t remove much from the story, but keeps on occuring over and over through the book is the way Elizabeth Haydon divides the chapters of her book. Let’s just say it’s random. A paragraph would end, you would see a scence separation symbol, but as the next paragraph starts, you realize that it picks up the story exactly where the last paragraph left it. As I was reading the book, I would think Ok. Let’s read untill the next scene. and I would do so, only to find that nothing happens at the end of the scene and the next one really is just the continuation of the first scene.

The book ending is somehow long and filled with unnecessary deaths. Again, the author could probably have trimmed one or two chapters out and the story wouldn’t have suffered that much.

So if I keep telling you things I didn’t like about the book, why have I got through its 800+ pages, are you probably asking. Well, that’s a good question I asked myself half way across the book because indeed, I couldn’t stop reading.

First of all, the characters are interesting. Ok, Rhapsody is too perfect to be true, naïve to a point where it becomes annoying, but the other characters are worth reading. Achmed is a character you learn to like and would want to hear more about, while Grunthor’s dialog are always funny as hell. He’s just too civilized to be the monster Elizabeth Haydon is trying to convince us he should be, but he is so funny we will forgive this.

Speaking of dialogs, I think if there is one aspect of the book that is really well-done, it’s the dialogs. Not 100% of them are believable (some of them just doesn’t seem to fit in a high-fantasy world) but they are funny, ponctuated by well-placed sarcastic comments.

So should you read this book? Well, if you already read Rhapsody and Prophecy, please go ahead and read this book. You’re kind of commited to it anyway. If you haven’t started this trilogy, well, there are a lot of books of there that should be higher on your to-read list if you want my opinion (and you probably want it, otherwise you wouldn’t be reading, right?)

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Lectures by Alexandre Lemieux