I'm a huge fan of the Weatherlight Saga, but I still have to admit that it contains its fair share of awkwardness. For example, it's really difficult to tell a story through sets, so with the exception of Tempest block, it's difficult to really get what's going on from the cards. On the other hand, if you're just reading the books on their own, one might miss details that are only in the set. Furthermore, while many ideas in the story are good, the execution often leaves something to be desired.
Which leads us to this book, which sad to say doesn't really work. As noted on the main page, it often feels more like a summary of a book than an actual story. It has to cover four expansions worth of story and introduce about ten main characters in slighly over 300 pages. As a result, some characters barely exist in this book, like Crovax - a hugely important and intriguing character with a tragic background, yet he doesn't get a single line until page 174! Likewise Squee, the comic relief crewmember who was very popular at the time, gets to do almost nothing. Many events feel hollow - Gerrard and Hanna have to work out what they feel for each other after Gerrard's abandonment of her, but instead they just get back together with no real tension. The villain turns out to be Gerrard's stepbrother! We should get a scene in which Gerrard realizes this and has to come to terms with it, but this moment and their confrontation are rapidly glossed over.
It all feels like an edited-down version of a much longer and better story. There are some good reads in the Weatherlight Saga and one really bad one, and then there's this: the good, the bad and the awkward.
Literature A deeply awkward book
I'm a huge fan of the Weatherlight Saga, but I still have to admit that it contains its fair share of awkwardness. For example, it's really difficult to tell a story through sets, so with the exception of Tempest block, it's difficult to really get what's going on from the cards. On the other hand, if you're just reading the books on their own, one might miss details that are only in the set. Furthermore, while many ideas in the story are good, the execution often leaves something to be desired.
Which leads us to this book, which sad to say doesn't really work. As noted on the main page, it often feels more like a summary of a book than an actual story. It has to cover four expansions worth of story and introduce about ten main characters in slighly over 300 pages. As a result, some characters barely exist in this book, like Crovax - a hugely important and intriguing character with a tragic background, yet he doesn't get a single line until page 174! Likewise Squee, the comic relief crewmember who was very popular at the time, gets to do almost nothing. Many events feel hollow - Gerrard and Hanna have to work out what they feel for each other after Gerrard's abandonment of her, but instead they just get back together with no real tension. The villain turns out to be Gerrard's stepbrother! We should get a scene in which Gerrard realizes this and has to come to terms with it, but this moment and their confrontation are rapidly glossed over.
It all feels like an edited-down version of a much longer and better story. There are some good reads in the Weatherlight Saga and one really bad one, and then there's this: the good, the bad and the awkward.