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Avg. Rating: 3.5
Inventive fantasy
Chime was a girl living in Jacob's Vale, hiding her magical powers. One day, she is discovered by Della No-Cozen, the royal mage. She is taken to the castle and meets Muller, her bethrothed and the heir to the throne. At first, they don't like each other, but they quickly fall in love.
Then, Iris comes into the picture. Iris is another mage who is considered to be more powerfull then Chime. Iris also helps to find Jared, a long lost relative of the royal family that everyone thought was dead. Jared is above Muller in line for the throne and, to the relief of Chime and Muller, he and Iris are wed. However, when they receive news that one of the neighboring kings is planning to invade the kingdom, all for of them have to join together to battle the coming evil. Along the way, Chime and Iris both come into their true power. Also, Jared and Muller come to better understand the seemingly strange powers that they were born with and sometimes have trouble controlling.
One of my favorite things about this novel is the intricate system of magic that Asaro has invented. Not only are mages ranked by color, but also by shape, so that there can be several ranks of mages within one color. Also interesting is the fact that almost everything in the country, from government to building, revolves around shapes.
In this book Asaro has created characters that, while they have many flaws, gain the sympathy of the reader right away and keep it through the end of the book. Hopefully, there will be follow-up books that continue the story of these loveable characters and this fascinating kingdom.
A nice, fluffy read
I'm a big fan of Mercedes Lackey and bought the Charmed Destinies collection because she was 1 of the 3 different authors. Since Catherine Asaro was one of the others, I also bought The Charmed Sphere. After reading the short story in the anthology (Moonglow), I started reading TCS. The first half of TCS is pretty much the same story as Moonglow, but told from other characters' points of view. Moonglow is basically Iris and Jarid's tale, while TCS focuses more on Chime and Muller. If I had started reading TCS without reading Moonglow first, I would have found the character development to be lacking. My recommendation is to read Moonglow prior to reading TCS if you don't mind going though the same story twice. It will give more depth to TCS without being too boring since you see things from different points of view in both stories. Overall, I liked the book, it's a nice story that doesn't require you to think too hard. If you want a light read with fun characters, this is a good choice.
mostly unreadable
I bought this book a few months ago because the cover intrigued me. I know, never judge a book by it's cover. However, the plot also seemed clever. Unfortunately for me, I paid full-price for it.
If you are expecting an empty-headed fantasy romance, this is probably perfect. The main character falls into the typical silly female roll, a hero when she needs to be and lightheaded the rest of the time. The love is quick and unexplained. There is no foreplay, there is no explanation as to why the characters are even in love, except physical attraction, and that is only briefly described.
As for the fantasy, it is intriguing at the onset, but is realized to be mundane in the end. This magic, like many, follows the pattern of different levels of sorcery, and main character, or the semi-main character, wields the highest level, or has the possibility to, and thus is loved, cherished, honored, and exalted.
The characters, moreover, are simplistic. They are cookie-cutters molded into laced corsets and tight-fitting breeches who follow the same story-line layed out for generations by different authors.
As for an overview of the story, for those still intrigued or simply skimming for another summary, it follows a farmer's daughter who is found to have magic, is taken to the castle, and betrothed to the prince--who is really nephew to the king, the first prince having died. They, happily enough, fall in love, but a newcomer with better powers comes into the scene and because she is more powerful she must marry the prince, but then, lo and behold, look who's found: the real prince. Oh, and the evil warmonger dies and we all live happily.
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