Discord's Apple: By Carrie Vaughn

DISCORD'S APPLE

SUMMARY

When Evie Walker goes home to spend time with her dying father, she discovers that his creaky old house in Hope’s Fort, Colorado, is not the only legacy she stands to inherit. Hidden behind the old basement door is a secret and magical storeroom, a place where wondrous treasures from myth and legend are kept safe until they are needed again. The magic of the storeroom prevents access to any who are not intended to use the items. But just because it has never been done does not mean it cannot be done.

And there are certainly those who will give anything to find a way in.

Evie must guard the storeroom against ancient and malicious forces, protecting the past and the future even as the present unravels around them. Old heroes and notorious villains alike will rise to fight on her side or to undermine her most desperate gambits. At stake is the fate of the world, and the prevention of nothing less than the apocalypse.

REVIEW

What is more powerful than legends?

It is through legends that men can leap tall buildings, women can fly through the night, and men and women of all shapes and sizes transform from ordinary, into something extraordinary.

Discords Apple tells the story of legends. It has created a tale of what happens when magic leaves the world for something better. When the world is in peril, and there is no mystical man to stop it at the last second.

Discords Apple tells the story of the end of the world.

But don’t fear for magic is still in the world it is just stored for later use in the house of Evie Walker. And it is through her hands that the world will either be saved, or burn into a pile of ash.

But with the world in the state that it’s currently in, is it better to preserve what is broken? Or is it better to risk the world to be created anew, like a phoenix rising from the ashes?

Only Evie can decide.

I’d been looking forward to Discords Apple for some time.

It looked like it had everything; mythology, urban fantasy, and an interesting story.

Boy was I wrong.

While Discords Apple has some great ideas in it, it just wasn’t that great as an overall novel. Really what Vaughn did was write a book with three different stories in it and try to connect them into one. The problem with this was it was poorly done. I really didn’t see any reason at all to have the excerpts from Evie’s comic in there. Yes it could have been forshadowing her independence, and demonstrating what she felt for other characters. But even so there could have been much easier and better ways to do that.

After reading the book what I really would have liked better was an entire book about Alex. His story was interesting and never fully explained, such as what happened between giving the items to the Walker family and meeting Evie? He had centuries to wander and look for a way out of his slavery, and yet this is never talked about.

Not only that but I felt the biggest hinderence to the book were its characters. This may have just been me, but I never felt any emotion for any of the characters except for Alex. I thought Evie was boring and didn’t care about her, Arthur was black and white, and Hera was laughable.

All in all I did not like Discords Apple. I had been expecting something great and was given a book with poorly constructed characters, fragmented stories, and a poor and unsatisfactory ending, making this a big disappointment.

RATING

3.5 out of 10

INFO

Publisher: Tor

Published: July 6, 2010

Price: $23.99