Customer Reviews

Journey Into the Void: Volume Three of the Sovereign Stone Trilogy

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Buying this book was the biggest mistake I ever made concerning books, but what was I to think when the first book was completely amazing? Granted, I wasn't looking forward to this read to begin with, considering my low three-start opinion on the second book. But even knowing I would hate it could not have prepared me for what I felt towards Journey into the Void: Absolute disgust.

I was indifferent to the characters in the second book, and couldn't care about them. But this book... the characters went plumetting to ground zero, and my indifference towards them turned to absolute loathing. It was tortue to read a single page with them. None of the characters are the same anymore; they've all changed and become Dominion Lords. We go from Wolfram's greed, Damra's pigheadedness, Shadamehr's immaturity, and Ranessa's whip-like tongue, to people who are now blindingly pure. Even if I hated their traits in book two, at least there were traits; in book three, they were so predictable, so perfect, and so PRUDE, that I wanted to gag.

Now onto the plot, which was horrible in itself. I've put up with 600 pages in book 2 of these same characters running, hiding, and dodging. I don't want to put up with it for another 400 pages. K'let made me want to hurl the book at the wall. Everything with him was downright asinine. My main pet peeve is how he turned against Dagnarus and was still a Vrykyl in doing so. That's like a Dominion Lord rebelling against the Gods (and if you're saying that's what Wolfram did, he stopped being a Dominion Lord, remember?) It goes against the point of the Vrykyl. The whole prospect of the Dwarven Stone being stolen was absurd. And then, to pad the pages I'm sure, they added the Orks. Why couldn't they just be sent to Dagnarus? But no, there had to be this random PLOT with those never-before-mentioned-stones that the races didn't even care about when they were given it. And the stone, which was once a good idea, was now a really bad idea, because everything they said it was, it wasn't. As soon as it was united, NOTHING happened. What the hell was that about? You'd think that it would have at least let Dagnarus live. But it did NOTHING. All that and for WHAT? For it to disapper in a flash of light?

As if the plot and the characters weren't bad enough, the world was just as terrible. They've introduced a bunch of pathetic races with so much flaws and problems it's embarassing. It takes all three books for them to actually show these races, that it leaves no time for improvement. None whatsoever. Silwyth was a wonderful elf in the first book, because he truly let us see the hypocrisy that was that race. Damra and Griffith were nothing like the elves were supposed to be. The taan were horrible. Just plain horrible, and yet, somehow, I'm supposed to be rooting for K'let? Why does it matter if Dagnarus rules them? As far as I'm concerned, they won't be doing anything different than they did whilst under Dagnarus' rule - he let them kill and conquer and pillage. It's like they were FIGHTING for something. Raven did some good for the half-taan, but they're just going to die away in a century or two, leaving the taan again to their world and disgusting traditions. But the worst of it all, was the religion that K'let was trying to instill in the taan. Quite frankly, I find it impossible to believe that they give two shi!ts about who their god is. Speaking of Gods, I'm getting sick and tired of MW & TH using the whole "the way of the gods are not to be understood..." The problem with that, is they use that as an excuse for stupid, pointless things happening, making me wonder if it's just because they couldn't think of a logical answer themselves.

This book COULD have been better. They should have made it under the perspective of Dagnarus, and then it would have been amazing. Not because he's my favorite character - that's just a bonus. But because we know what the other characters are doing - the same thing they were doing in Book 2. Nothing is DIFFERENT. But what we don't know, is what the hell is going on with Dagnarus??? I would have paid big money to read what Tamaros had to say for himself to Dagnarus (whether intentional or not, I found it pretty obvious that Tamaros was lacking love for his son. And I also think that Dagnarus made a damn good King, and that he should have stayed King.)

Don't even get me started on the ending. All the problems I mentioned above - plot, characters, world - were worse by a hundred-fold. MW & TH had at least ten different styles going on in one chapter. Time jumped around like frogs on lilypads - one minute Wolfram is riding on Ranessa a year away and then all of a sudden he's saving Ulaf, the Grandmother, and Jessan. And then the next chapter shows how Wolfram got there, and in one sentence they've speedbumped to AFTER the rescue. And that's not the first time that's happened. Some things just didn't make sense. Apparently, you need to be blessed of the Gods to enter the ruined city of Vinnengael (the only reason Silwyth - and presumably Dagnarus - could enter were because the spirits knew them both.) Okay, so what the hell was an average Trevinici and a Vrykyl doing there, and why is it they weren't attacked a tenth as much as the Dominion Lords? The world turned out EXACTLY the same as it was BEFORE THE STONE WAS FOUND. So it's like NOTHING HAPPENED. We're back to square one, which I find is really ironic, considering at one point in the story it was said that the stone was given away BEFORE; so I guess this is the THIRD time we're on Square One. I know history repeats itself, but this is RIDICULOUS. Give it another millenia, and what, the Gods are going to give the stone away AGAIN? Hey, I guess that even the gods can have three f'ing chances, right?

If you're not like me (hopefully) and you don't feel the need to finish what you start, then DON'T READ THIS BOOK. But if you are like me, I say read it; the first book is worth it.

This blasted book kept me up late when I should have been drooling on my pillow. I could not put it down, but the first two in the trilogy must be read before making this journey. One of their best works.

For the most part, I found this book to be much more engrossing than the other two. However, throughout it, I was worried about what the authors were going to do for the ending. I was right to worry. Essentially, Weis/Hickman just took a mechanistic approach to getting the ending done. Everyone in the book seems to have the same idea for winning the game: get to a certain place and do a certain thing. The only difference being the interpretation they put on things. And that's what happened. Basically, we have multiple paths leading, linearly, to the same point. I had hoped that the point would expand out to a big knot with twists and turns, plots and fights. But, unfortunately, it didn't happen. Everyone gets where they're going, waives their respective hands in the air, does the obvious, and, presto-chango, it's done. Phizzle. That, plus the constant introduction and subsequent dropping of various ***main*** characters throughout the book, makes it quite a let-down. In general, a decent trilogy. But, especially because of the ending, nothing to write home to Mom about.

The set of books was pretty powerful stuff, with great character development, awesome sub-plots, and lots of action....up until the end.

What happened guys? The other books they have written always leave something open for a future novel, but still end grteat and basically give closure. In this one, about 1500 pages worth of story (3 books worth), ended in about 2 pages. Blink and you miss it. I sure hope they pick it up in their next series, because this one left me wanting a lot more.

By the way,will the authors please finish the Starshield Sentinels series! You can make up for a lot by completing that one.

I'm a die-hard Dragonlance Legends and War of Souls fan (the only perfect novels they have written). I am also a Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman fan in general, mainly because of those two great trilogies. So, of course I had to read the Stone books.

The first book, I thought, was great. Book two kinda sloped off a bit, but Shadamehr's character stole the spotlight. Book three seemed like it was going to be excellent throughout. I really found myself wanting to reach the end. But, much to my fear, I found that Weis and Hickman have a pattern that they simply cannot break. Such as what happened with the Dragonlance Chronicles and the Death Gate Cycle (which would probably be my favorite series of all time: excellent characters, an unbelivable set of worlds, and a driving plot), the ending was awful. Absolutely awful. There's this huge build up throughout the entire novel, only to be followed by one of their greatest let downs ever. The ending is so craptacular, it made me wonder if they wrote the ending with 10 minutes left before a deadline with the help of a child. This totally ruined the entire experience and the three years I spent on this trilogy waiting for each book to come out. Read it if you want an ending, but be warned, its poorly done.

The book starts where the second ended and continues with the same fast paced action and character development the second one delt with. The end however is very dissapointing, after the great journey to get to it, a big drop awaits you... Even though i liked the book alot the end made me think that they (weis & hickman) were running out of time and ambition to finish this trilogy the way they started it. The bizzare and unfit epilouge sums it up... which is a shame... I still give it 4 stars because of the great journey. which had everything you could ever want out of a good fantasy.

Journey Into the Void is the third novel in the Sovereign Stone Trilogy, following Guardians of the Lost. In the previous volume, Wolfram has brought Ranessa to the monastery on Dragon Mountain, where her real mother brings out the dragon in her. Dagnarus and his army of ten thousand taan come through the Tromek Portal and invade the Vinnengaelean Empire. Baron Shadamehr flees to New Vinnengael with Damra, Griffith, Jessan, Bashae, and the Grandmother. There they find the king has been murdered and Shakur the Vrykyl has replaced the young Prince Hirav. Shadamehr discovers the Vrykyl's identity the hard way; he is gravely injured by Shakur and has to escape through a fifth floor window.

In this novel, Damra and Griffith travel invisibly to the harbor and contact the Orken captain waiting for Shadamehr. The baron, Alise and Jessan go to cover in a nearby tavern. Alise determines that Shadamehr is dying from a blood knive wound. Since she in unable to use Earth magic after her use of Void magic, Alise sends Jessan to fetch Ulaf to cure the baron with his magic. However, the baron is fading fast, so she uses Void magic to transfer some of her life force to Shadamehr to counteract the wound and almost dies herself.

Ulaf finds the missing pecwae in the company of a Vrykyl and takes them to the Tubby Tabby. Jessan joins them there and then the Grandmother whaps the Vrykyl with her stick, forcing him to show his true aspect; in the ensuing havoc, Bashae is mortally wounded and Jessan is injured.

They flee back to the tavern where Alise and Shadamehr are hiding and find her close to death, but the baron conscious and much improved. However, Bashae is dying, so he gives the human piece of the Sovereign stone to Shadamehr and the baron takes it this time. The Grandmother drapes her skirt, with its bells and magic stones, over Alise and she quickly recovers from the Void magic.

The baron sends Ulaf to get Rigiswald and travel to Krammes. Jessan and the Grandmother agree to travel with Ulaf at least part of the way, for they are taking home the body of Bashae. Shadmehr and Alise venture through the sewers to reach the Orken ship. They reach the Orken with little difficulty, other than the stench and one puzzling encounter with some taan, and soon sail off to Krammes.

This novel is one dire encounter after another. Other characters, including Ravenstrike the Trevinici, Fenella the dwarf girl, the Orken Captain of Captains, and K'let the taan Vrykyl, have their moments of glory, but the final encounter is between Dagnarus and the Sovereign Stone within the Portal of the Gods.

Recommended for Weis and Hickman fans and anyone else who enjoys tales of magical quests.

This final book in the trilogy succeeds in its purpose of closing the "Sovereign Stone" story but leaves many things open. I guess that is material for other books.

Though this book, and the series in general, isn't as powerful and immersive as the Dragonlance series it is pretty good and I would recommend it to any Weiss/Hickman fan.

The four star rating was given because the ending was, in my opinion, lame.

I loved the series but I too felt that the book ran out of gas towards the end. However overall this was a great trilogy, with wonderful characters!! My favorite Silwyth!

"Journey into the void", the third and final book of the Sovereign Stone trilogy, picks up right where it's predecessor, released neary two years ago, culminated. However, it took me but a little while (read 1-2 chapters) to get fully enraptured in the series again-- despite the sabatical. The book--without divulging plot-- truly begins well.

Why then 3 stars? It runs out of gas, for lack of a better analogy. The book is subdivided into segments (4, I believe). The first 2 are excellent. 3 is short. 4, not surprising, containing the ending, peters out.

Worst of all is the "Animal House"-esque epilogue (don't read till the end, of course). I didn't, nor don't still, know what to make of it. It left a foul taste in my mouth: did the editors force it into the book? Or did they (editors), rather, prune it to the length present? Don't get me wrong: it's not hideous (no Ace-Ventura "laces out" scene or anything), but it's totally unnecessary. Baagh! Such a bitter center!

Ahh, then, the final statement: Baron Shadamerh is an excellent character! His and Alise' interactions are among the best modelled (& most enjoyable to read) relationships to the fantasy-genre in a while.

Their segments, alone, make the book worthy of reading!

Bottom line: If you're a Weiss & Hickman fan, get it. If you've read the predecessors, read it. If you're curious, read it. If, however, you're only looking for "best of breed"....