Monday, December 28, 2009

Book Review: The Naming by Alison Croggon

Yesterday, after spending a large part of the day sledding with my family (which was part of Davan's Christmas gift), I was able to find an hour to finish up this book. I really wanted to finish it because I was so, so done reading it. Frankly, if it hadn't been a book group book, I would not have finished it. It was very long, so there was a lot of slogging through. Plus, I needed to finish it in time for Davan to have a go at it before book group.

As you can tell, The Naming is not my favorite book. It is the story of Maerad, a 16 year old slave in a small compound who is rescued by a bard. Shockingly enough, it turns out that she is a bard, as well. Now, bards, in this world, are magical as well as musical. The two travel to a bardic school, then travel some more. And some more and yet some more. They ultimately make it to their destination, another bardic school, where there awaits...the necessity to do yet more traveling. And that, my friends, is how the book ends. I found the whole thing fairly tedious and, to add insult to injury, at the end there is no end. I've mentioned before that I dislike books whose endings can't stand alone.

I could go on and on, but I'll do what should have been done in The Naming and cut it short. I give it a 3.

No comments:

Post a Comment