My rating: 3 of 5 stars
“Gold conjures up a mist about a man, more destructive of all his old senses and lulling to his feelings than the fumes of charcoal.”
----Charles Dickens
Rae Carson, the New York Times best selling author, is back with the most awaited sequel of her young adult fantasy trilogy,
The Gold Seer Trilogy called,
Like a River Glorious. After the first book's major cliffhanger, the readers were frantically looking forward to this book, to learn about the edgy journey filled with tons of challenges for the young magical teenage girl dressed up as a boy coming to an end and on whether the girl has managed herself to free herself from the clutches of her tyrant uncle once and for all. And this book answers all the questions that the readers were left with in the last book.
Synopsis:
After a harrowing journey across the country, Leah Westfall and her friends have finally arrived in California and are ready to make their fortunes in the Gold Rush. Lee has a special advantage over the other new arrivals in California—she has the ability to sense gold, a secret known only by her handsome best friend Jefferson and her murdering uncle Hiram.
Lee and her friends have the chance to be the most prosperous settlers in California, but Hiram hasn’t given up trying to control Lee and her power. Sabotage and kidnapping are the least of what he’ll do to make sure Lee is his own. His mine is the deepest and darkest in the territory, and there Lee learns the full extent of her magical gift, the worst of her uncle, and the true strength of her friendships. To save everyone, she vows to destroy her uncle and the empire he is building—even at the cost of her own freedom.
The second epic historical fantasy in the Gold Seer trilogy by Rae Carson, the acclaimed author of The Girl of Fire and Thorns.
Leah Westfall has somehow deluded herself from the grips of her materialistic, evil and cruel uncle, Hiram, who also happens to be her only living relative in this world. But that seems to be very wrong, as soon Hiram's men find Leah and her group of friends who are all travelling towards the land of opportunity in California during the era of Gold Rush. Although Leah had to tell about her biggest secret about her ability to sense the presence of gold nearby to her friends, and since her uncle already knows about her esoteric ability, he will do anything to trap that girl's power for his own benefit, even if he needs to kill a few souls on his way. But now that Leah and her friends are here, they are in full form to make money and settle down, also they barely come across any resistance from the Native "Indians" Americans, instead this group of teenagers help those native folks and in respect, they too help Leah to get her the land from her uncle and his cunning men.
Disappointment slowly and silently seeps in to my soul while reading this book! This was not expected from an author who in her previous book made her readers gather that rare sense of feeling like they are actually living and breathing in that historical era which brought so many changes in the face of the world ~ the gold rush era. That time warp feeling got so wrong in this book, even though we are aware what happened in reality, the author tried to project a fantastical image of that time line, which did not make any sense to the story. The whole plot came crashing down just because of this fictional projection of the accurate facts of history, moreover, the protagonist's demeanor too wasn't justifiable with the attitude of then Western settlers.
The author's writing holds the flair of that bygone era of history, also the coherent prose is laced with proper emotional depths to make the readers feel for the story and for the characters as well. The narrative is free flowing, even though somewhere the narrative tends to be too long and boring at times and also there are unnecessary dialogues which make the story too tedious. The pacing is very, very slow, often dragging its readers with its trivial and too thorough descriptions about some scenes or dialogues those are unwanted and makes no sense in the story at all. The previous book was unraveled through many layers and twists, although this book, too, has some surprises in store but those are thoroughly foreseeable.
The characters never cease to disappoint in the midst of such an inaccurate story line, as they are once again strongly developed with their flaws and perfection, layered with emotions to give them a realistic outlook and also they feel like they are pulled out of some history book, since the time and the era syncs well with their demeanor. The main protagonist, Leah, is one of a kind who is brave, determined and a strong-minded girl fighting for the land and for her powers all by herself through danger. And surprisingly most of the characters are bound to leave an imprint on the minds of the readers. There is a bit of cliched love drama that also makes the plot so unreal and dull, especially its hard to digest the fact that white western settlers are falling and scheming together with the Native Americans for the downfall of that cruel man's gold mine and the land where Native Americans are treated as slaves.
In short, this story falls below my expectations, moreover, I do not feel the need to continue reading this trilogy further. So that ends my tryst with
The Gold Seer Trilogy .
Verdict: Compelling yet somewhere the book lost its old charm!
Courtesy: Thanks to the author's publishers for giving me an opportunity to read and review a copy of this book.
Read the review
Walk on Earth a Stranger (The Gold Seer Trilogy, #1) by Rae Carson
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Author Info:
I write books about teens who must do brave things. I'm originally from California, but I now live in Arizona with my husband, who is the smartest and therefore sexiest man I know. My books tend to contain lots of adventure, a little magic and romance, and smart girls who make (mostly) smart choices. I especially love to write about questions I don't know the answers to.
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