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 Posted: Tue Jan 10, 2012 9:52 pm
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I recently read Tamora Pierce's latest book: "Mastiff" continuing in the Beka Cooper trilogy and IT SUCKED!
I can't believe how much this book disappointed me! It felt so half-assed and rushed like Pierce was suddenly forced to finish it at the last minute or something.
*** Spoilers *** (But not too many, just enough for my rant)
The book starts with Beka at a funeral for her fiance and right there I'm already thinking "What the hell?" Beka's fiance is some random nobody Dog we've never heard of before and their romance is never elaborated on other than a couple sentences scattered here and there throughout the book. Beka herself feels no loss over him and his death does not affect anyone actions or decisions so really the entire first chapter describing the funeral and such is nothing but a complete waste of time! Plus from the description on the cover of the book and the description of her fiance's death, it seems like his death was going to be a catalyst or key point in a grander scheme but it's not! it was just a pointless random death. I bet he was wearing a red uniform when it happened too!
After the funeral, Beka and Tunstall go on a mission that takes them out of the city (and from then on none of her friends will ever be mentioned again) and Pounce goes with her this time and I absolutely hate this because even though he's constantly mentioning he "can't interfere with the mortals" that is exactly what he keeps doing throughout the entire book! He's a complete Deus ex machina! Every time they come to a dead end, need to spy one someone, struggle with unruly animals, etc, Pounce magically makes it all better. He even brings a dead main character back to life! (after we mourn for a couple paragraphs of course instead of healing that character right away or preventing the injury in the first place considering he was right there!)
Then Pierce threw in a new character, a mage Dog named Farmer and I wouldn't have a problem with him if he wasn't such a freaking Gary Stu! He's supposed to be "normal" or "average" for a mage in terms of power and yet he is able to defeat very powerful mages. How, you ask? because he has the super rare, never heard of, "impossible" ability to store and use "magical scraps" that other mages leave behind and he stores it all in a "magic scroll" that he wraps in wax and stores in his butt (not even kidding, Peirce even writes a scene where he "retrieves" it to escape a dungeon). Plus, all the great mage fight scenes happen entirely "off screen" so we never get a good description of any of his "fantastic" battles. He seems to finish his fights in stellar condition too, he probably has enough "Gary-Stu Mary-Sue" magic to conquer the kingdom. What I hate most about him is the sudden romance between him and Beka. In the previous two books, Terrier and Bloodhound, when Beka felt attraction to another character, Pierce wrote in how it affected her from making her blush to making her "peaches feel tight". and the romance came on completely believably. In Mastiff, Beka goes from feeling completely annoyed with Farmer to suddenly professing her love for him and demanding they get married as soon as the mission is over.
Then there is the ending itself. It felt so completely rushed and cut off! We get never hear how the prince recovered from his ordeal, how her friend's reacted to the news of what she did or the news of her new fiance (especially poor Rosto), how the other Dogs felt about her getting married less than a month of burying her old fiance who was one of them. Then there is the thing with Tunstall, Peirce never really gave a good reason for him. Sure, he said he felt not good enough after he was found out, and Beka mentioned in one short sentence that he had been getting flak for his status, be why couldn't Pierce just include one little scene where he gets angered or humiliated for his status in a way that we can "see" it for ourselves? That would make the ending much more believable and satisfying.
My final grief with the book was that fact roughly 80% of the book deals with the chase which is rather boring. Nearly the entire book is simply about Beka following Achoo through open country and her conversations between her party which is just Farmer, Tunstall, Tunstall's girlfriend knight Sabine, and Pounce. The only action in the entire book is at the very end and only Beka's fight is described an it doesn't last very long. There are so many parts in this book where it seems like a more complex and darker story is going to take place only for either something simple and stupid to solve it one page later in a very anticlimactic way or it gets dropped and never mentioned again.
Side note: The title of this book alone is a major let down. It is a huge misnomer and very misleading to it's contents! There is nothing "mastiff" about this book! In the first book, Beka earns the name "Terrier" by being a terrier, vicious and never giving up. In the second book, Beka earns the name "Bloodhound" by sniffing out the colemongers. In this book, Beka earns the name "Mastiff" by following her target's scent all over the country and retrieving him. . . . For those of you who don't know, a mastiff is a huge dog (weighing in at around 150-250lbs) that was used for guarding and fighting in wars, never hunting or retrieving. Beka never does anything even remotely similar to a mastiff in this book.
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Posted: Tue Jan 10, 2012 11:14 pm
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Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2012 12:01 pm
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Posted: Fri Jan 27, 2012 5:30 pm
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Headmistress of Gallifrey
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Posted: Wed Feb 01, 2012 6:23 am
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SeaJewel eek Adkfj2934(&*^%!!!! They turned Beast into the CHARMIN TOILET PAPER BEAR? crying
I think he's supposed to be some kind of badger/wolverine hybrid. With the short, fiery temper he portrayed in the first novel and a noticeable lack of Logan, I have this horrible, horrible suspicious feeling that he's filling in for both Beast and Wolverine gonk
Sassy Spider ........WTF?!?! They turned the Xavier Institute into a reverse harem school!! D< WTF IS UP WITH THESE PEOPLE?!?!Dx
Could be worse. They could more directly copy Ouran and have everyone believe Kitty is a boy and still be in love with her or turn Kitty and Magneto's canon borderline father/daughter feelings into some kind of twisted teacher/student lust that seems to be very popular in Japan (they hint at it with the way he kisses her hand).
19a2aimee I've been reading some classics(and old books) and stuff like that and I defiantly recommend the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, The three musketeers, The phantom of the opera, The wizard of Oz (I never read it as a kid >.<), a collection of Grimm's fairy tales and a poetry book by Edger Allen Poe. And some new ones The Wicked series,Hunger Games and more I don't remember >.<
Here, here! Always love the classics. I'm a true nerd-tard for the very old Grimm stories and folk tales. I used to love all the Sherlock Holmes stories and it's Basil of Baker Street spin-off but both have been forever ruined for me by the masterpiece know as Sherlock[/i]. whee |
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Posted: Mon Apr 02, 2012 12:11 am
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Posted: Wed May 02, 2012 3:48 pm
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Posted: Mon Nov 12, 2012 10:38 pm
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Lady Aryana of the Seelie
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Posted: Mon Nov 12, 2012 10:45 pm
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Posted: Tue Mar 19, 2013 3:39 pm
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S e r i o u s - O c e a n
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