Vengeance: The Tainted Realm Trilogy, Book 1

Ian Irvine is not a trendy or very popular fantasy author. But, while I was lurking my GoodReads friends' favorites shelves, I noticed a couple of his books - and every time it was a five star review. Then I remembered that I got a review copy for one of his series somewhere and decided to give it a shot.I started reading Vengeance not knowing what to expect, but assuming it was some kind of an epic fantasy. I was in for a big surprise.LIKES* Innovative. From the first page, it's clear that Vengeance is not going to be just another classic fantasy novel. The world is deep, complex and completely original. I don't remember reading any fantasy with a whole civilization living underground (that's something reserved for post-apocalyptic novels).* Wonderful descriptions that made me feel cold, hot, afraid etc. And Ian Irvine achieved this using interesting word choices. No shabby old phrases in Vengeance.* Intriguing. The mere fact that everything is so unorthodox was enough to tempt me to read more. To make Vengeance unputdownable, there is an added mystery about what happened to throw the world into it's current state and constant tension of what-will-happen-next.* Action-packed adventure from start to finish. Rushing trough underground caves, opulent castles and volcanic deserts, the action never stops until the end.* Lovable characters. Courageous slave girl who never gives up, rich man who does not want to betray his family expectations, impoverished noble tortured by his past - all of these characters have one thing in common: they never give up.DISLIKES* Fast-paced. Usually I like my books to be like this, but Vengeance took it to another level. If my concentration wavered, even for a second, in a blink of an eye I would find myself over my head not knowing what happened and needed to go back and re-read a passage again.* New words and terms. At the beginning, every sentence sported a couple of unknown words. I thought maybe they were just unfamiliar to me because English is not my native language, but no. Ian Irvine felt the need to invent new names for every thing! For example: a prophecy is now "a shillilar". While this added to the feeling of authenticity and originality of the world, it gave me constant headaches and made me wish to give up more than once.* POV switches are usual in novels, but Vengeance was so complex that it only increased my confusion. As soon as I started to catch up with unknown terms and current events, the perspective would change to different environment. It took first third of the novel until I was feeling comfortable and knew what was going on.IN THE END…Vengeance is a fantasy novel full of adventure, action, freshness and intriguing characters. Sadly, originality came with a price - big dictionary of new terms and complex world-building that made me constantly gnash my teeth in frustration. If not for the round-the-clock mystery and lovable characters, I would have quickly given up.Recommended only for hardcore fantasy fans who are bored and looking for something unusual. Not for the faint of heart. ;)Disclaimer: I received this ebook from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I have enjoyed Ian Irvine`s previous books but found this one too silly. The pace is relentless so much so that it rather gets in the way of a credible and plausible storyline. The characters are consequently very lightweight- no time to develop them; onto the next impossible situation for them to get out of! I found myself thinking " oh come on" more than I should have done so obviously didn`t engage with the story at all. I won`t continue with this series.

Exellent

Took a while to get into it primarily because the story line keeps changing in short paragraphs so you are switching back and forth often. But I enjoyed it and bought vol 2 immediately

Riveting

Brilliant story teller. Transports you to a very real alternative world