Jan 24, 2008

[Books] With a Tangled Skein (Incarnations of Immortality - Book 3)

With a Tangled Skein (Incarnations of Immortality - Book 3)Of all the Incarnations of Immortality books that I've had a chance to read thus far, With a Tangled Skein remains to be my favorite. Perhaps it has less to do with the book alone and more because of my love of Greek mythology and my fascination with the concept of something as vague yet theoretically powerful as Fate.

This time around, the story follows a young woman named Niobe and how she finds herself taking on the mantle of the Incarnation of Fate. The interesting twist to things this time around is that Fate is actually three different "aspects" in one body following the pattern established in the Greek myths as Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos.

While the second book was highly challenging to read since it dealt with a lot of time travel, With a Tangled Skein isn't exactly a cakewalk either given it deals with a concept has complex as Fate and predetermination. Try quickly wrapping your head around that quickly.

Still, this book wasn't as complex as the last one, which really helps it along. Plus, the character of Niobe and the complications of her particular story is vividly fascinating in itself and once coupled with that of the office of Fate and the worlds of the Incarnations, and you have the makings of some pretty amazing storytelling.

This chapter of the series certainly helps explain more and more about the supernatural abilities of the various Incarnations and how they interact with one another. More than that, it becomes clearer and clearer that the complex plot threads hinted at in the first two books are a lot more interwoven than we readers could have imagined initially and thus the whole series ahead becomes even more interesting and promising. At the same time, however, it makes you want to go back to the previous books and double-check on certain facts and details that may not have seemed important initially but clearly matter by this point in the story.

Beyond her threads, Fate isn't as dependent on artifacts and other augmentations like Death and Time were presented to be in the two prior novels and more and more the strength of her character lies the combined wits and intellect of the three aspects of Fate. It certainly makes her a character more than worthy of respect and at the same time a significant force to be reckoned with as she masters the true scope of her abilities.

With a Tangled Skein is a very well-crafted book that's more than worth your time and indicative of the significant amount of planning that went into the creation of this series. I certainly liked the particular flavor of this book, a healthy mix of good storytelling, magic and a fascinating universe all put together. It's certainly worth the time and effort for any geeky reader.

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