If all three books were not included, I never would have continued past the first one. I absolutely hate quitting on a book. I almost deleted the series during book one but I was hoping for improvement or that moment when it snags you and you can’t wait to find out what happens next. That was not the case. In the middle of book two I decided I had come far enough to need an ending and would listen at 1.5x speed to get there. I am regretting that choice.
Pick up a thesaurus for the sake of all those who actually provided constructive criticism. Change your editor/publisher/whoever it is that said this was good enough to be finished for public consumption.
The story had potential, but this is the laziest writing/editing I’ve ever put up with. It needed a few more years of work, world building, and professional guidance. Ridiculously repetitive. The last book seems to be the worst. If I hear magic, magicers, or dark-whatever another 359 times; then I am doing something wrong with my life.
Use the find function on your computer when you are writing. If the same adjective, verb, or noun is used 10 times in a few paragraphs span, that is too much! Even two or three times in the same sentence is irritating. Spoiler alert. This is just a snippet of the lazy writing that drove me crazy:
“Found them still sitting in place. Their faces twisted in fear. Frozen in place by some dark spell. Then Anala moved, turning to stare at Eric. Her face was pale. ………
…The pale skin of his hands….. ignoring their frozen comrades …. Eric found his fingers frozen…. he saw the fear…. fear had frozen his tongue…”
“conflagration, conflagration, conflagration”
“Dark magic, dark magicer, darkness,” etc and the same.
“She clutched desperately at the soul blade, suddenly desperate to keep its power!”
This series was disappointing and was published long before it was ready.