The book has some great descriptions and clever word choices, but I had a hard time getting into it.

While the worldbuilding is clearly well thought-out, it's dense, and the characters didn't impress me. The explanation of the world was too complex, making it difficult for me to immerse myself in the story. The characters were not well developed, and I had to constantly reread lines to understand the information.

The opening was intriguing and action-packed, but the pace slowed down considerably after the first few chapters. Overall, I found this book challenging to read, despite its well-crafted descriptions and vocabulary.

The Eye of Scales by Tracy Hickman: Richard Garriott, an intriguing premise, but ultimately didn't appeal to me, thank you for giving me a chance with this book.

While there were brilliant bits of description and clever word choices, I somehow struggled to get into this book. The worldbuilding, while clearly well thought-out, is as dense as the prose, and the characters failed to shine through to me. I found myself having to constantly reread lines to absorb the information within. The opening was certainly very intriguing, very action-packed and I wish that had continued through the rest.

Tracy Hickman and Richard Garriott's Eye of Scales is the second book in the Shroud of the Avatar series.
I enjoyed the first book ,the Sword of Midras, but the second book in the series seemed less focused and less engaging. I wouldn't recommend picking this one up unless you have read the previous book since there is little characterization establishment here, preferring instead to continue the story from the first novel. Even having read the first book I still found myself having to try to remember characters and their connections with each other.
Having said that, once the story gets going and you find your footing with the world and characters again, which is done through exposition dumps, it is a rather entertaining story with dry humour sprinkled here and there.
Thanks to #NetGalley, #TorBooks, Tracy Hickman and Richard Garriott for the ARC of #TheEyeOfScales.

Tracy Hickman and Richard Garriott’s The Eye of Scales is a fantasy novel with comfortable worldbuilding that is eroded by shoddy writing.
As someone who cut his teeth reading Hickman’s Dragonlance books and playing Garriott’s Ultima games, I am probably the ideal reader for this book. Their work was formative for me growing up, and I’ll probably never be able to disentangle their creations from my own imagination.
That being said, I didn’t enjoy this book. The beginning is a quagmire of conversation exposition: “And that’s why you did that, and that’s why they did this” that’s meant to get the reader up to date. It doesn’t ever really get better from there.
I’m disappointed, of course, and I’m hoping that the Dragonlance books coming out this year (2022) will be better (although I think Weis, Hickman’s co-author, is the actual writer, which might explain some of what I experienced here).
Recommended for readers who enjoy a solid fantasy story regardless of the quality of the writing.