I am astounded at horrible this book isn't. On one hand, it is really poorly written. The prose reads like it was one of Christopher Paolini's early drafts. I am constantly pulled out of suspended disbelief by numerous infractions of the "rules" of writing. He abuses adjectives and adverbs. He conceals information. I could list a bunch more, but the one that is most jarring for me is:

The author tells instead of shows, ALOT.

Now I know it isn't a mortal sin, but I just don't enjoy reading stuff that is written like this... I don't want to sound arrogant or anything, but I truly feel I could write better than this guy - on a paragraph by paragraph basis. I honestly do... If he could write in a style I liked better, I'd think this was the greatest series I've read in a while...

BUT, I am finding myself engrossed by the story. I want to keep reading. I definitely cannot tell a story like he does. It is as if the story is interesting enough that I forgive the author's senseless trespasses against my preferences and I find that I keep reading.

THIS is what I am trying to acheive in my own writing. I feel I can tell the story, once I know it. Its getting the full story fleshed out that is my handicap...

However, can you analyze what it is about the story you like?
Is it the plot device/adventure/peril?
Are the characters very interesting?
Is the dialog snappy?

If you can figure it out, why you keep turning the pages, please post it here, I'd like to read what you came up with.

Anyways, I can't put my finger on what the redeeming quality is. In fact, I wouldn't have kept reading, but I was so intrigued about how this guy could have sold this book making so many "mistakes," as I saw them, that I had to keep going just to see if he got better. (So far, he hasn't!)

If I had to guess, it would be that despite his writing, he actually has an interesting world built, and has managed to make just about every scene a cliffhanger.

He also managed to introduce a ton of characters very quickly. Not in a way that mixed them all up. But now he has a large cast of characters to have interact.

He also has, by my count, at least three different bad guys - all of whom are trying to get the main character for different reasons. That helps the tension a little.

Either way, I'm still disappointed, but I keep on reading. I know it isn't good for me, but I keep taking more and more!

I, too, liked the story but I don't like where the hero or a major character is possessed by someone else at crucial moments in the story. It's just something that's always bugged me. I was hoping the stories in this series would improve, but they didn't, and I gave up on it.

As time goes on, it seems to me that writing styles change, and from what I can see, for the better. Though I did read a book just recently written in this same time period that drove me crazy. You think the Dragonrealm series did a lot of "telling" rather than "showing", then don't ever read CAT'S PAWN by Leslie Gadallah. Also, I thought the author would never quit beating around the bush and get to the story. I finally gave up and quit reading it.