As much as I want to love these books, I find I can't. I have read the first three, and I did enjoy them a lot. But there is one issue I have with Mr. Smylie's epic story of "Girl Power & sorcery"-that is we never see Artesia really in any situation she can not handle, she is able to out think, out fight, out plan and out magic every one else in the world. Hell, it could be called "Artesia will not fail". In the three volumes I have yet to see anything that challenges our hero in the least- there are moments where others question her, but she just goes on full throttle, with no real moment of self doubt. This all seems to clearly telegraph where this is all going. One doesn't need to think really hard to imagine what her ultimate victory will be. That is unless Mr. Smyliethrows one heck of a big monkey wrench in, to gum up the works.
This is all unfortunate, every hero needs a tragic flaw, a moment of doubt, a real chance to screw things up- to make them more human. Instead we get a god like warrior queen, who is unstopable.
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