Bridge of Souls will sadly forever be the book that 'turned me off fantasy'.Or so I thought upon finishing it. I was so utterly and completely jaded from the series as a whole, so disappointed by such a lacklustre finish to what had already been a 'maybe it will pick up again soon' journey that I couldn't stomach another fantasy novel for a good three years. That's a pretty major impact for a single book.The Quickening series itself is a rollercoaster of ups and downs. As the series entered its final arc however there were noticeably a lot more downs to the point where it became less of a rollercoaster ride and more of an underground subway commute.The story picks up from where we last left our hero Wyl, still in the body of another and struggling to control the bittersweet curse of Myrren's gift. It continues with Wyl trying to stop the impending marriage of his series long love interest, Valentyna from his cruel to the point of silliness adversary, the evil King Cellimus. Along the way he must deal with the Mountain King Caelech and the young Fynch who becomes ever more proficient as a mage as his destiny to defeat an evil, if somewhat inconsequential, wizard is made clear. It's a cliché, disappointing and sadly shallow ending, particularly with its continuing cast of characters and the pacing of a three-legged cheetah at the world's longest, greediest toll bridge. The major problem I have with Wyl is that he is a far less interesting character than the people whose identity he assumes upon being killed. The character seems completely lifeless and, aside from trying to pretend to be the person he's inhabiting, he never really shows enough of himself to be compelling. This comes to the point where the character's fate is completely inconsequential to us. Instead McIntosh seems more concerned with the myriad of minor characters that slip in and out of the story. The problem with that unfortunately is, of course, that they slip in and out of the story.Most of these minor characters have their personalities practically shoe horned into them in the space of a single chapter too. This leaves them feeling incredibly rushed, insubstantial and, after inevitably leaving the plot or having been consumed by Wyl, like a complete waste of development. One particular example is King Cellimus' advisor, a character with a bit of grey ambiguity to him that made him something of a wild card in the plot. This was the one character I felt a vested interest in and wanted to see used in some kind of imaginative twist. Well... There's a 'twist' alright, but it's so badly executed and roll-your-eyes predictable that it barely constitutes as one. Think of every twist in the tale so far... Yes, that's right. You've got it. And, no, she hasn't stopped repeatedly using that same plot device even in the final pages of the final book. In fact, it's almost insulting that we are meant to be surprised by it.The major characters, contrastingly, are as thin as they come. The Mary Sue-esque Princess Valentyna is still as goody-goody as always, somehow managing to rule her people with a much praised wisdom never displayed in any of her dialogue and King Caelech is hardly worth discussing for all the attention he gets. The evil King Joff-, I mean Cellimus still has no redeeming aspects of which to speak. And Fynch, a character whom I repeatedly wanted to leave the story suddenly becomes a living deus ex machina wizard-dragon-Jesus leaving the reader completely befuddled and scratching their head as the story pulls to the close.Which brings us to the story itself. I've already touched on the subject of disappointing ending but its the downward spiral of the series as a whole that really plants the tombstone at the head of the grave. Myrren's Gift started off exceptionally strong, wobbled a bit at the centre and left on a bizarre note. Blood and Memory stayed pretty mediocre throughout but Bridge of Souls feels rushed, poorly thought out and, frankly, downright lazy. The latter half in particular is so contrived and badly put together that in parts that were obviously meant to build tension, it merely felt that the author was continuously changing her mind on one of two obvious and dull outcomes for the story, neither one very different from the other.If you labored through the first few books in hopes of a redeeming ending like I did, save yourself the trouble. There's nothing to be found here but a furrowed brow and a feeling of wasted time at the end for you. Oh, and an eternally burning hatred for Fynch, assuming you haven't developed one already.
Having read all three books with dogged determination, several issues became apparent to me by book three.Firstly character viewpoint. Sloppy and badly executed, we are pitched from head to head as the author seeks to enlighten us on the feelings of every bit player from start to finish. Enough already. I had hoped that it would be cured by the final book, but alas it appears her editors are either very poor, or that she has some kind of hold over them. High and low swings: the violence can be quite graphic. The contrast between this and the simpering love thoughts of the main characters jarrs for me, it doesn't quite know what it wishes to be. Either be violent and strong or write a sword & sandal Mills and Boons for lovestruck pre-teen spooky kids. Either way, stop it with the confusion. Character Duplication: our two glorious Kings are far too similar. They look alike, they are manipulated by clever men, they both seek world domination and even their bloody names are similar (Celimus and Cailech). Smacks of a lack of imagination. Book 3 specific: having ploughed through 1,800 pages I was incandescent to find that she screwed up the whole magical concept of her world and the magical laws within it in the last 100 pages (assuming that some kind of laws had been applied - to see a master do it read David Eddings' Belgariad books). This is after all fantasy, with magic providing the essence of the story. Now I can just about stomach what happens to Finch (once you get past the overwrought handringing preceding his 'transformation'). But what happens to Wyl at the end with the so-called Bridge of Souls is completely incomprehensible. It doesn't appear to adhere to any law other than 'make it so'. Perhaps I'm being a bit harsh here, but I felt so let down after wading through all that graceless prose because of the promise of a good story. Were it not for the fairly original story idea which I liked (Wil skipping from body to body, trapped because of a random act of kindness), I would have given up much sooner. Instead I wasted 1,800 pages of my life. This could have been so much better
Do You like book Bridge Of Souls (2006)?
Ça-y-est c'est fini, malheureusement. En effet on s'attache facilement à Wyl Thirsk, notre héros, et on se demande à chaque chapitre dans quel corps son âme va se réincarner. On se prend d'amitié aussi pour le petit Fynch, et on se surprend à pleurer de peur pour lui. Par contre on se réjouit du sort du roi Celimus... Ce dernier tome est plein de rebondissements, et la fin que l'on pense si évidente ne l'est pas autant. Cette histoire est à la fois terrible et fantastique dans tous les sens du terme. A lire de toute urgence.
—Christel Mirassou
As Wil as Ylena works his way to Briavel to see Queen Valentyna, Celimus consolidates his hold on Morgravia by eliminating noble families and continuing his suit to marry Valentyna. Rashlyn refines his powers of transforming Cailech’s enemies into beasts but Fynch is coming to realize his powers and responsibilities to combat Rashlyn’s magic. Cailech is convinced to seek an alliance with Celimus and Valentyna. As the Quickening plays out Wil finds his roles complicated as events beyond his control complicate his plans to avenge himself on Celimus. I highly recommend this series.
—Neill Smith
Having learned much of the gift he bears, Wyl sets off to do whatever he can to prevent the marriage between Queen Valentyna and King Celimus. At the moment, in his current state, he's still trying to figure out what. The best he can hope for is to provoke Celimus into killing him, thereby becoming the sovereign of Morgravia and ending Wyl's curse. It isn't an end that particularly appeals to him---Wyl's spent too much of his life hating Celimus to want to become him. But time fast trickles away, and if Wyl cannot find an answer to Myrren's gift, he will lose something more precious than his life.Gone is the red-headed, stocky general. Afflicted still with the trials of womanhood, Wyl keeps running into situations all his general's knowledge doesn't cover. Despite the help his body's memories can give him, Wyl still has a lot of trouble remembering to be that person and not himself, which leads to a lot of humorous situations. The drama, too, keeps rising as the date of the wedding fast approaches, and Celimus is no closer to an untimely death than he was at the beginning.For all of its strengths in character-building, certain characters left a lot to be desired. Celiumus's brief flash of something more than pure evil quickly vanishes---surely there must be something the man enjoys that isn't some twisted debauchery. On the other side, Fynch is so far played up as a saint that his final sacrifice feels too contrived. The worldbuilding between the three kingdoms was good, but it feels like there's nothing of the rest of the world; slavery was mentioned briefly for the first time, and just as quickly dropped. The Bench family, despite the large amount of attention paid to them in the previous book, never picked up that plot thread again. The only rebellion out of them was very short and completely ineffective.As with the previous books, sometimes the phrasing came across oddly, particularly when characters are lying to each other. By this point, certain lies should be obvious without having to read "he lied" every sentence for whole conversations.The end threw a twist, but it was very poorly handled. Wyl not only gets to keep his life, which would have been expected, but he also got to keep his handsomeness and height. The better answer of using a pure soul exchange, which has been his curse all along, would've left him in a body much less presentable---it's hard to see anything but authorial intervention.Overall, it's still a compelling trilogy, though plagued with a few problems in the language, characters, and worldbuilding. I wish certain people like Celimus had been more complex than all evil all the time, and that the end didn't come off feeling so cheap, but I would read it again for the fascination of watching poor Wyl get dragged through all kinds of trouble. I rate this book Neutral.
—Aelvana
