Reading The Ale Boy’s feast turned out to be a greater challenge than I imaged. I didn’t have my hopes high after having to set down book three in the series because of scruples, but I desperately hoped it was a fluke and that I would love book four. Well—I was partially right.
Morally this book was much better, at least on the surface. However, plot and ideology wise I found it lacking. Much of the entire philosophy surrounding the Keeper and Cal-Raven’s mentor, Scharr, is destroyed and undermined! I found it absolutely intolerable that the book seemed to promote the idea that things you put faith in, while they may be false, aren’t in fact bad because they give you a vision and make you wonder, pursue your dreams. It was very much of a, “just hold to the idea because it makes you feel better/warm fuzzier”. I felt like character moral development was lacking and Cal-Raven seemed tossed and blown by the waves of what was happening around him. Auralia’s return could have been sweet but instead she is revealed to Cal-Raven at the very end of the book and we aren’t given much of a picture of the reunion. Simply..Cal-Raven has decided he loves someone else now, this someone else being Auralia. The ending to the book was a huge disappointment to me leaving a large amount of things untied off and seemingly letting the book go adrift in the final few pages. I realize much of this may be style of writing, however, it is not one I enjoy.
I appreciate the work the author put into the book, I’m sure it was a huge task, but in this case, I feel it fell short.
I received this book for free from Blogging for Books and this review is my own unadulterated opinion.
