Beverly K's Reviews > Aerie

Dreadful. It took over two hundred pages for a conflict to appear and once it had, it struck up out of nowhere. It had no connection to the previous books and made no sense. It was more like she tossed it in for the sake of a conflict, to render the fourth book significant when she could have ended it earlier. There was no build up for it and no hint of it in other books, either.

In addition, the introduction of Peri felt forced, especially since she had no character development. She appeared like the "perfect" match for Kiron, and then was flung out just as fast. The only traits I could tell for her was that she knew Kiron's mother and she spent her time as a serf. Other than that, she didn't appear to have any personality whatsoever.

While we're on the subject of tacked on characters, Letis was also contrived. Her only personality point, if it could be considered one, was to pester Peri and Kiron into marrying and moving back to the farm that might or might not be there. She could have been well developed. She could have even been medium developed. But, no, she was just a shrill, annoying voice that ultimately turned into "oh, fine, I'm leaving". C'mon, you can do better than that. We spend most of the three previous books wondering how Kiron's family is doing, if they're still alive, and then you disappoint us by a pathetic attempt at bringing her there for nothing.

A lot of the conflict between Kiron and Aket-ten also appeared out of nowhere and left me scrambling to figure out what was going on. She omitted things she should have included, could have worked to put the main plot in sooner and rid herself of at least a hundred and fifty useless pages. Had she built upon the main conflict and started it sooner, and found a way to hint at it in the earlier books, the book could have been far better. As it was, it seemed very rushed, forced, and I had to force myself through it just so I could say I'd finished the series. I had to know what happened to the characters, but by the time I got through the fourth book, I stopped caring.

This is not to say I dislike Mercedes Lackey. I love her. However, I wish in certain enterprises, she'd left the series on a high note rather than proceed to drag it through the mud. To anyone starting this series, leave off with Sanctuary and forget about this dreck. You'll be sorry you continued.