Speculating on SpecFic

Read the full review here.This is a light, entertaining book that I enjoyed reading. The action takes place mainly in the slums of Kyralia and the Magician’s Guild, both of which were wonderfully realised. While there wasn’t a strong sense of place in the book because only the two of these places was described in any great detail, the slums and Guild allowed a contrast to be established between the low and high status societies in the city. This was pivotal to the plot of the book, so I was not disappointed at the lack of detail about the world external to the two places. In contrast, I found the pace of the story to be entirely too slow. Sonea’s attempts to evade the Guild as they searched for her were gripping at first, but quickly became monotonous as it dragged on. Just as I began to think that perhaps Canavan was taking us in direction where Sonea would not be captured at all, it became clear that she would die without the assistance of the Guild. I felt the search for her could have been confined to a few chapters without taking anything away from the plot. The pace picked up once she was found by the magicians, and I enjoyed seeing her slowly open up to the Magicians and allow them to help her.