Voronica Whitney-Robinson

  This review is written with a GPL 3.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot.wordpress.leafmarks.tumblr.com by express permission of this reviewer  Title: Sands of the Soul  Series: Sembia,  Forgotten Realms  Author: Veronica Whitney-Robinson  Rating: 2.5 of 5 Stars  Genre: Fantasy  Pages: 240     Synopsis: Thazienne Uskevren, daughter and spoiled brat, is recovering from physical and spiritual injuries. An old foe returns to steal one of her friends' soul and Tazi is all that is standing between the evil sorcerer and her blind friend.   With an old acquaintance who she doesn't fully trust, Tazi must venture deep into the desert to confront this evil and somehow stop his evil plan from unfolding.   My Thoughts: Either I'm missing a lot from earlier books, or this author tried to create a backstory and failed wholesale. I felt like some very important pieces of info were talked about that we had no access to. It was very disconcerting.   And this was just blah. Tazi doesn't trust the old acquaintance and yet they fall in love in the end. Mother issues.  Oh and lots of self-esteem building talks and such. Lordy, I hate that kind of crap.   Overall, an average Forgotten Realms adventure, in The Desert.  The series has lost my interest more at each book but thankfully there is only 1 more book and then I can get back to the Erevis Cale books. "… (meer)

This review is written with a GPL 3.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot.wordpress.leafmarks.com & Bookstooge's Reviews on the Road Facebook Group by Bookstooge's Exalted Permission. Title: The Crimson Gold Series: The Rogues, Forgotten Realms Author: Voronica Whitney-Robinson Rating: 3 of 5 Stars Genre: SFF Pages: 237 Synopsis: Thazienne Uskevren, from the Sembia & Eravis Cale series, is the middle of Thay, recovering some Crimson Gold so she can pay tribute to her recently deceased father. Unfortunately for Tazi, she is caught in the middle of a Red Wizard's spat and even worse, in the potential destruction of Thay, as a demon is about to break loose from its entrapment hundreds of years earlier. My Thoughts: The main saving grace of this book was Tazi and her association from previous books. The idea of a Red Wizards spat involving a chained super-demon is pretty good. Unfortunately, little side story about treasure hunting and the duegar hunting for more of his kind, was pretty weak. I enjoyed this up until the main battle between the Red Wizards, the demon and Tazi. Up to that point Tazi was a good thief, a good Rogue, but when she was cast as a general for the Red Wizards' forces, it just didn't fit. And the whole strategy of throwing one monster army at the other to literally create a barricade of bodies, well, it smacked of ignorance, just like me trying to write a contemporary romance wouldn't go so well. Thankfully, this Rogues series has been ok and as there is only 1 book left, I'll be finishing this series, unlike the Citadels series, which was just poor crap. "… (meer)

Before I begin this review, I'd like to state that I have had a very hit or miss pattern with Forgotten Realms. I've read a couple of [a:Ed Greenwood|20513|Ed Greenwood|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1248120586p2/20513.jpg]'s Elminster books and found them extremely boring. Then I read the War of the Spider Queen series and absolutely loved it. Then, on recommendation from my brother, I started the Drizz't series. That was just awful! Then I found the sequel to the War of the Spider Queen, The Lady Penitent trilogy and once again, loved it! Then I tried the Abolethic Sovereignty trilogy and couldn't finish it.

So I'm always leery when trying a Forgotten Realms book/series, as I just don't know what I'll end up with.

I'd heard of Erevis Cale somewhere or other and wanted to see if he was an interesting character, so I dug around and found this to be the first book with him in it. And then I found it was a bunch of short stories centering around the Uskevren family, of whom Erevis was the butler.

I enjoyed the stories, as they introduced me to the city Selgaunt and the area of Sembia [do you know how long it took me to figure out that Selgaunt and Sembia were actually two different places and not just different names for the same place?!?]. I also found that the short story format worked well with each character, as we get a snaphsot of them without the author of said short story showing all their weaknesses by trying to write a full blown novel about that character.

So I just sped through this book, loving it and looking forward to the next. Which I've finished and will be reviewing tomorrow. Man, when Forgotten Realms is good, it is GOOD!… (meer)

The book Ruins of Dantooine by Voronica Whitney-Robinson is about an Imperial Spy, an Imperial Scientist, a Rebel Spy, and the ruins of a Rebel Base stationed on Dantooine. It starts at a new cantina celebration that opens with a trained animal Fight that an Imperial scientist, the only female on her team, named Dusque and her Comrade, an Ithorian, named Tendau attend. During the fighting Dusque looks around and finds that a man has been staring at her the whole time, he had black pupils and unblinking eyes. Later Tendau lets Dusque try some of the games and she meets Lando Calrissian, at the sabacc table. After, Tendau and Dusque go to Rori to find a Borgle, a type of demon bat that terrorizes the locals and they find it in a cave and they get scared off. Then Tendau gets killed a traitor and Dusque leaves with the rebel spy named Finn. Then Finn and Dusque go to the rebel base on Yavin 4 to get orders from Leia to go to Dantooine to the rebel base to go look for the hologram with the names of rebel sympathizers. The find it, retrieve it, and start on their way back to Yavin 4 to give it to Leia. On the way there Finn starts downloading the names and Dusque says that he shouldn’t do that in case an Imperial spy was on their tail. Then Finn tells her that He is the Imperial spy and then stabs Dusque and leaves.
I liked this book because it had three different moods: Love, Betrayal, and Devotion. I also like how she made the characters’ characteristics describe their loyalties. I think it would satisfy some of the seventh graders because it is a rather long book with 268 pages. I believe we have quite a few star wars fans in school and this book would also satisfy them to. I think it has a high reading level.… (meer)