Read by Theme discussion

It occurred to me that one of the other books I just finished also has bluishness on the cover. Forgive me if it's not enough to be considered on theme.
This book was written to be a prequel to the Sword of Truth series, on which the ABC show The Legend of the Seeker was based. I would not recommend starting the series with this book, as the events would not make a whole lot of sense without having read at least , which is the first (and best) in the series.
I gave Debt of Bones four stars, which is far more forgiving and generous than I would normally be. I am so forgiving because I find the characters of the series so endearing, especially the main character of this volume.
The book is quite short (175 pages), more a novella than anything. As such, it has very large print and illustrations to make it seem longer. This gives it the feel of a children's chapter book, which is off-putting when one considers the violence that one finds in Wizard's First Rule.
This is definitely not essential reading in the Sword of Truth series.
It's not particularly well-written: the female lead goes on and on about the Debt, which was passed down from her mother. This Debt gives her the ability to make the male lead basically do whatever she wants. She calls this favor in by luring him to the enemy army with the intention of trading him for her captive family. (Yawn)
He tricks her into saving HIS daughter, who is also held by the enemy army. By doing so, she inadvertently gives him the opportunity to ignite a spell that will keep the enemy army out of the country indefinitely.
That's about it.
I find the illustrations very distracting. They do not add anything at all to the story and are just there to insert additional pages.
Give it a miss unless you are a great fan of the SoT (as I am).

Daniela wrote: "Forgive me if it's not enough to be considered on theme."

If you consider it fitting, so do we. ;)

Daniela wrote: "This book was written to be a prequel to the Sword of Truth series, on which the ABC show The Legend of the Seeker was based. I would not recommend starting the series with this book, as the events would not make a whole lot of sense without having read at least Wizard's First Rule, which is the first (and best) in the series."

And thanks for that head's up, because I actually plan to read this series and was debating whether it'd be best to read Debt of Bones or Wizard's First Rule first. And I think your review pretty soundly confirmed my decision to shelf Wizard's First Rule instead of its prequel.

I love Wizard's First Rule. It's long, detailed, violent, a bit disturbing, and the villain is oh-so-evil. Generally the first book of a series is my favorite because I love character and world building so much.