EDİT: Aşağıdakileri yazdığımda %54'teydim. 3 yldız vermiştim. Sonra, kitaba bir şans daha vermeyi dendim. Ve...
Ravenloft'a yakışır bir kasvet, hüzün, entrika ve yitiklik var tapta. 4 ile 5 yıldız arasında kaldım ama beşi çaktım. Ne diyebilirim? Okuyunuz okutunuz.

ESKİ YAZI:
Kitabı bitiremedim. Bazı betimlemeleri, mevzuların geçtiği mekanı, karakterlerin düşeceği vaadedilen azabı beğendim. Ama kalanı... Karakterler o kadar aptalca davranıyorlar ki... Mükemmel ilerlemek için çırpınan öykünün çığlıkları içimi kanatıyor. Anlatı, bizzat yazar tarafından boğuluyor.
Ne başlarına gelenler yeterince trajik, ne verdikleri tepkiler trajediyi özümleyebilecek olgunluktaki insanlardan çıkma ne de amaçladıkları şeyler onlara “derinlik” katabilecek kadar özgün.
Üzgünüm ama beğenmedim.

As a French farmer, this book was doomed from the start; rats aren't appealing, rot and decay isn't appealing, the whole book essentially being a jab at the French isn't appealing, even the story is bland, the characters dumb and unlikeable, and the formatting amateurish

This book just has nothing going for it at all

A pretty good novel, captures the gothic atmosphere perfectly. Worth it.

"Dangerous Liaisons" with wererats. I was not expecting to enjoy this one as much as I did. I'd put it in the top tier of the series. Great descriptions of the ruined city and decadent court intrigue.

A thoroughly entertaining window on a very different, definitely interesting, part of the Domain of Dread - complete with vicious wererats, a mage's tragic search for a spell that could save his imprisoned wife, and his brother's seduction by one of two feuding wererat aristocrats. Great fun; highly recommended.

If the cover of the book had said "A tale of fear" like the description here does, I probably would have been less surprised by what I found inside this book. I love fantasy, but I'm very very biased towards happy endings. My impression was that it's part of a collection of stories set in the same place vs. a series, although if it's part of a series that may explain why I couldn't get into. Overall, though, terribly depressing and not very well written. Felt like I had wasted my time in reading it.

3.7 stars
It got better for me as it went along - the first third or so before all the characters are introduced has less comedy (yes, comedy...). Once the ruling family of Richemulot is there then it really gets going.

There really wasn't much reason for me to like this book, other than the fact that it was fantasy. It's the twelfth in a series, and the ONLY one of the series I bothered to read. The story is set in a town of were-rats, which was a concept that seemed pretty silly to me at the time. The town's human population either doesn't notice that they're being ruled by lycanthropes, or they're too stupid to leave. And Dmitri, the brother of the main character, is so AMAZINGLY stupid that most of the story goes right over his head.

And yet I liked it. I liked it a LOT. The villains of the story have a surprising amount of depth for being were-rats. And I ended up having a lot of sympathy for everyone involved at the end. Not a happy book by any means, but still worth reading.

I've enjoyed some of Tonya Huff's other series but this was my first from the Ravenloft series. I don't feel the need to seek out the others. The storyline was kind of dumb and felt very drawn out. Its very dark and depressing. Not necessarily a mark against the book, some dark depressing books are great, but in this case I felt like I was slogging through sewers just to get through the book.

This was really hard to get into because I just couldn't bring myself to like any of the characters to the point where I was distracted by it. The setting is well developed and the politics and machinations well handled.
It's just the characters...

While I give the author a lot of credit for crafting a setting that really felt Ravenloft-y but without the usual ghouls or vamps- kind of an extra squalid combo of New Orleans and Venice, if that makes sense- the absurd thickheadedness of Our Heroes, bickering siblings whose love language seems to be unnecessary resentment and secrecy, and the baffling lack of resolution or explanation about the origin of the titular scholar's quest to revive his poor petrified wife was very frustrating.

On the "plus" side, though- Sexy Wererats!


Squeaking hawt.

This novel is an entertaining read. The value is mostly in the atmosphere. The novels work when they use the bleak and depressing atmosphere to the best effect. This novel puts its protagonist through the ringer and we follow him every step of the way.

I do have to give you a bit of background, any of the books in the Ravenloft series are bleak and though not always "scary" are always on the dark side of things. Some are darker than others and are for that reason some of these books can very bad.

Unfortunately, this book has a couple of things I had to mark off. It has a few moments of RPG-itis, when the descriptive elements use too many gaming terms or make the action seem a bit too much like a gaming session. In some parts, the plot is fairly thin. I'm not sure the action needs to be too complex, but there were times when it's evident that a scene is only included to move the plot from point A to point B.