Heirs of Prophecy: Sembia: Gateway to the Realms, Book V [NOOK Book]

One of the weaker reads in the Sembia series.  Larajin was just

One of the weaker reads in the Sembia series.  Larajin was just not convincing as a heroine.  In fact, her miraculous reincarnation from the clumsy maid/illegitimate daughter to the all-powerful mage for two goddesses was completely inept.  Did Ms. Smedman even read the previous Sembian books in the series?  Sure doesn't sound like it.  A great deal of the time, I caught myself exclaiming, "Oh, come on!  You gotta be kidding me!"  I found I didn't like any of the main characters and could have cared less what happened to them by the end, espevially the melodramatic way Larajin figured out how to defeat the antagonist.  Very pitiful soap operaish writing.  

Heirs of Prophecy by Lisa Smedman

Heirs of Prophecy by Lisa Smedman is the fifth book in the Sembia: Gateway to the Realms series. The story's focus is on Larajin, a maid of House Uskevren. The events that happen in this story follow the events in Skin Deep by Lisa Smedman, a short story in The Halls of Stormweather anthology.

I'll just simply reword what the description says on the back of the book. In the forests of Cormanthor, the elves start attacking the trade routes, giving Sembia an excuse for war. Larajin, finds out she is Thamalon Uskevren's half-elf daughter, which is not good because the Sembians are attacking elf owned shops. She travels to Cormanthor to learn more about her mother and hopefully prevent war.

Negatives:
1) Continuity. In the earlier books, the events of each preceding book were briefly mentioned. They were well done in their little recaps. However, since this follows what happened in Black Wolf by Dave Gross (the fourth book in this series), and because Talbot Uskevren and Larajin were close before this, these two stories should have been on the same page. The main problem was with Talbot and Master Ferrick, a fencing teacher. Basically, Talbot was kicked out of Master Ferrick's class. Yet, in this story Talbot will war with the class, and this story comes AFTER Black Wolf. That was my main problem. Oh and where is Feena?
2) Predictable. Granted, maybe it wasn't supposed to be, but I just felt like everything was too easy to see coming. There really wasn't any surprises.
3) Larajin and Leifander. Larajin at times seemed to whiny and annoying. Also, she seemed too powerful for a maid. Leifander seemed as whiny and annoying. But the thing that really got to me was his overall attitude towards humans. It just grated on my nerves.

Positives:
1) The Flow. I seem to always have something to say about the pacing and flow of the story. I enjoyed how fast of a read it was. Only, I had to slow myself down because I couldn't find book 6 in the series and had to order it. But other than that. The chapter read pretty fast and it did seem really well paced.
2) The Resolution. The ending was predictable but it still, I felt, was exciting. I didn't really expect that what happened was going to happen.
3) Larajin. When she wasn't whining or annoying she was a pretty interesting character. Most of the time she seemed to not be all that powerful when faced with certain obstacles. That made it good. It does get old that when the going gets tough, the heroes pull it out. But Larajin always seemed to be saved from either running away, being saved by someone, or sheer luck.

Overall: 2.5/5
*The story could have benefited greatly if it followed Black Wolf better*

No text was provided for this review.

No text was provided for this review.

No text was provided for this review.