By:Jeffrey Overstreet
This novel is a religious allegory weakly posing as a fantasy novel. Reviewers raved about the "lush" language, rife with similes, metaphors, etc, yet often Overstreet's comparisons felt forced. Readers lauded Auralia as a delightfully unique character, yet I found her supremely unrealistic and uninteresting, as well as far too mystical for my tastes. Add in a whole ream of flat characters and my appreciation further skydived. Evidently some people really enjoyed this work - but I was not one of them. (Fiction) 08/24/09
