Book Review of Daggerspell, by Katharine Kerr

Well what a disappointment… I guess the phrase "you can't judge a book by it's cover" is true. It was worth a shot though, and I'll admit I almost didn't make it through this book by Katharine Kerr. I wish I knew what other people saw in it, because I certainly didn't see the same thing. For a novel with almost a full 5 stars on Goodreads I expected something great. I don't know if anyone else has read this, if you have I'd love to hear your thoughts - just shout out in the comment section!

Daggerspell
by
Katharine Kerr

Daggerspell

By

Katharine Kerr

     Katharine Kerr is someone I remember almost reading when I was a younger child, but for some reason I never seemed to pick up any of her novels. I think at the time I was to young to truly understand some of what the books were about, and in this novel Kerr had a very interesting synopsis.      

Daggerspell is a unique phenomenon of a young lord named Nevyn trying to right the wrong caused 400 years past between two lovers as they reincarnate each lifetime. In addition to his quest to fix the order of life, the present day reincarnated lovers must battle a dark magic. In the beginning I was beginning to love this book, however for me Kerr did a poor job uniting the past with the present. It became exceptionally glaring for some of the   character interactions for me.     

Those characters were Nevyn, Jill, Cullyn, and Rhodry. It’s hard for me to explain some of the characters as they predominately demonstrated their past souls as well as their current souls. The most steadfast character of all was Nevyn who doesn’t change through the years because of his mastery of magic casting. Jill was endearing to me through most of the novel because of her steadfast character, of all the characters she was the one whose soul didn’t keep flip-flopping. Jill’s father Cullyn was a rarity in what I would’ve expected in a mercenary, and it made it easier to handle when Kerr finally clued us in to who he was in a past life. Rhodry annoyed me, plain and simple. For as much of a ‘good’ lord as he was supposed to be, almost all of his behavior until the end seemed brash and stupid. Then again, maybe I’m just biased.       

I’m starting to become depressed in these book choices I’ve been making, and maybe it’s because I’m trying too hard to branch out towards different books. I just found Kerr to  be confusing, and lacking direction when she wrote this novel. At one point the book seemed like it was going to redeem itself, but that’s when Kerr threw in a war after a quick skirmish and one mention of possible unrest. In my experience of reading fantasy novels I’ve never had an author just bring about war and not delve into the cause in depth beforehand.      

Lastly I would’ve loved more of a cohesive time jumping sequence than the one in which Kerr gave Daggerspell. It makes it confusing when one jumps from the present to earliest past, to present, to later past, and again. I wouldn’t have been so disappointed with that had I understood the importance of one time jump - which I didn’t. Daggerspell left me tired, bored, and repulsed in some chapters.       

I most likely will not be giving the rest of Katharine Kerr’s books in this series a chance. I don’t know if I’ll be reaching towards another of her books again, or at least for awhile. I’m one of the few that does not love Daggerspell and you never know until you try a book at least once. If you want to judge this novel by the average rating feel free, I did - and I was severely disappointed.  

 My Rating: 1.75 out of 5 Stars.

There's nothing worse then dreading picking up a book, and unfortunately that's the taste left in my mouth after reading Daggerspell. 

Luckily I'm reading something truly charming (at least to me) for the next month. Needless to say it was picked because my future Father-In-Law wants some homemade Chinese food. Not to mention homemade Chinese food is just simply amazing anyway. 

See you all tomorrow!