Barb Caffrey's Blog

Folks, I enjoy Sharon Shinn’s writing a great deal, so reading TROUBLED WATERS wasn’t a hardship.  That said, it’s far from the best of her novels, and her magical universe — one which deals with five elements, but not the traditional five of air, fire, earth, water and spirit (instead, hers are water, air/spirit, earth, fire, and the Hunti or wood/bone element) — was not that unusual.

What was unusual, though, was a plot structure that required nearly a full half of the book before Zoe Ardelay (the main character) figures out who and what she is, and nearly a fourth of the book before Zoe makes much sense (as she starts off the book in the throes of grief as her father has just died; her mother died years before).  That Zoe’s personality was more or less subsumed by her father, one of the Sweela element (or fire/mind), is a given; how she comes out of that is unusual and worth reading, yet is so slow-going that at times it was nearly torturous compared to other Sharon Shinn novelizations.

At any rate, here’s my latest review:

http://shinybookreview.wordpress.com/2011/01/22/sharon-shinns-troubled-waters-is-good-but-slow/

Hope y’all will enjoy it.