Seeker

[cornerofmadness]

Seeker by Samuel Griffin

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I struggled to rate this. It's a solid 3.5 and I was going to go with three stars but I had a death in the family during my reading of this and thought maybe that's coloring my impression so I rounded up. I very much enjoyed the beginning of the story and the world Griffin built through Shay Bluefaltlow's eyes (she's our pov character). On the other hand right at the 50% mark things go sideways and the contrivance in order to make that happen annoyed me to the point of almost not finishing it.

Shay is a young lady growing up in an orphanage when she is selected for a form of indentured servitude by an older surgeon who also has a young deaf boy in his employ. He treats her well and spends a lot of time and energy into educating her, even indulging her curiosity about the theater and this serves to show us Shay's biggest character flaw.

She is very impetuous and thinks she knows better than everyone around her. This first time it brings her to meet the Archivist, a woman who is now a few hundred years old and documents The Sentinels, these ancient arcane creatures who we do not get to know as well as we should have so that was a disappointment. However, how the archivist tracks and records them is super cool. The Archivist is behind her selection and Shay is off to a new adventure and a good life.

At the 50% mark we have three very stupid mistakes by Shay. Had it just been one of them it might have been easier for the rest of the story to go down (and it doesn't help that I can think of other ways for this to have happened without Shay being dumber than a sack of hammers and there is only so much I can write off as 'she's young') One is Shay is poor and has a large portwine stain birthmark on her face so she's not going to fit in to the high society crowd well and wanting to allows someone to use that against her and betray the Archivist (which is necessary for the plot)

That I could forgive. Without being spoilery the one that bothered me was this potion the Archivist (and Shay as her apprentice) need and when Shay finds a different concoction to do it rather than tell her mentor she just uses herself and her mentor as guinea pigs. This was nearly a deal breaker.

The middle of this book is problematic. We have the betrayal and Shay's reaction to it but the time line becomes very muddy. How long before it's known? How long does she stay drunk? How long between the betrayal and the climax? It's mysterious and repetitive and honestly needed edited tighter. This is where I nearly DNFed.

The ending is much better. I do wish that The Sentinels were better defined but the ending was satisfying. GR has this as book one. It is complete as a one shot which is also nice however there is obviously room for more storytelling in this world.

I liked Shay but I did want to like her better. Her I know better than anyone attitude bugged me and her refusal to talk to anyone about stuff most people would have also annoyed (that is a trope that is really getting on my last nerve, that refusal to communicate in order to create drama trope)



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