Surely someone here has read this series? As has happened with quite a few fantasy series, I liked it the first time through (with the exception of the last book, which wasn't out at the time), but disliked it when rereading it. The last book was horrible. It kind of crushed whatever respect I had left for the other books. And, going back through them, I realized they weren't as good as I had at first thought.
Has anyone else read and liked/disliked this series?

Well, it's sort of hard to explain why exactly I didn't like them, especially the fourth book. I suppose it's partly because Overstreet doesn't seem to have the most Biblical worldview; or, if he does, it sure doesn't come out so much in his writings. I thought that it kind of sounded like reincarnation when people came back to life, because, even though they were the same, they weren't, or something. And there was so much violence, and gory descriptions (admittedly, not as bad as they could have been, but still too descriptive), as well as some things that were too suggestive, if you know what I mean, as well as outright sensual. For instance, there is a couple (not going to tell you who, since you probably aren't there yet) that have apparently committed fornication. This is moved over very quickly without even a hint that what they did was wrong, or that they really regret it.
Another thing is that the ending just wasn't satisfying, for a number of reasons. I won't go into detail, because, again, you haven't finished the book. But, suffice it to say that too many things are overturned and mixed up. Who are the good guys? Is everybody good underneath? What was the point? Here are some spoilers that you don't have to read:
Although it's a small thing, the Ale Boy's real name is never revealed; nor are Auralia's origins, which is a much bigger thing, ever revealed.
Another thing that threw me off were the vawns. They seemed out of place, and I didn't like them I also didn't like a lot of the names he made up for things. I get that he was trying to describe what the animal/tree/bug was like with it's name, but it's very distracting from the story to see 'cloudgrasper tree', 'oceandragon', etc.
I think he may have taken his originality a bit far, and just made it too outlandish. I did write a very favorable review on Amazon for book 1, but I may have to change it. I'm trying to remember what else I didn't like about it.
I did like the story of Jordam the beastman. It was very good. But there were way too many questions that the book seems to ask with the intention of answering (such as, what are the colors from?), and then, it seems to just forget about them.

I read the first and second book. I didn't get too far in the third book before I had to return it. (I ran out of time to finish it before camp started, if I recall correctly.) I loved the first book! The descriptions of colors were absolutely fascinating to me. I was quite captured. And I agree with Lady E on its originality.

In the second book (is it the second book?), I found it difficult to transition to focusing on two new characters. I wanted to focus more on Aurelia. (And Cal Raven.)


All in all, I don't know if I'll ever finish the series or not. I thought it bunny-trailed a lot and didn't know where it was even heading. I was a little irritated, but that may have been impatience on my part.

~Calen

I am a fan of these books; I think they're brilliant. I have read #1 and #2 and need to buy #3 and #4.

The only thing that annoyed me was that yes, there were a ton of characters and I lost track once or twice.

I don't recall violent/gory scenes.... or sensual ones. I remember one or two scenes with a couple who it was implied committed adultery (details fuzzy in my memory) but IIRC the man abandoned the woman, and she was left in shame... it was not condoned in any way. People sin. That's just going to happen and the way the story played out, it was not addressed specifically but it was implied/assumed that it was a shameful thing. Wouldn't hand the book to a 12yo but I don't think that a 12yo would get everything out of Auralia's Colors that I did.

There wasn't one specific point. This is a completely different kind of book than most books. I would have to go back and re-read it (I read both books once, I haven't had time for a second pass as much as I really want to) to make a list of the concepts addressed, though. Been a while and I wouldn't want to get something mixed up.

I actually liked the cloudgrasper trees, etc. Why should things in a fantasy world have the same names as here? And slapping two words together actually makes the most sense in my brain; I talk like that in real life just because that's the way I think.

(And I like unanswered questions too. XD)

As to the 'reincarnation' - that must be in books 3/4 because I haven't run into anything like that? Is it something like regeneration in Doctor Who (timelords!)?

So, general recommendation: over age 16 for best results (It's like LotR. a kid is not going to get as much out of it as an adult) and definitely over 12. Need to enjoy the literary style of writing to enjoy this. (Like, a Doctor Who fan, particularly a Moffat fan, would really enjoy this)

There is a lot of violence, and there is an incident in the second book where it's talking about Cyndere and her true love, and it makes it sound like they weren't married yet, but he was 'counting the freckles on her back' or something like that. Besides that, there's a lot of 'suggestive' things that are, in my view, unnecessary


I don't know, because I've never watched Dr. Who

I'll have to go back and check the reference. (IIRC, Cyndere was married and had been for a while, but I could be wrong)

But for the record, 'suggestive' things usually go over my head. (And if it's between a married couple, I usually don't care because it's perfectly appropriate)

On the violence, if it wasn't as violent as a Dekker book (which can get pretty graphic, I don't agree with a lot of his choices to show violence even though he's a good storyteller) I wouldn't remember it.

In Doctor Who, whenever the Doctor (or any other timelord) gets mortally wounded, he has a choice to regenerate - to change every cell in his body - which heals him, but also completely changes him physically and makes his personality expressed in different ways. Same person - different appearance and style of personality. (There are still ways to kill timelords and they do have limits on their regenerative abilities.) Very much like the legend of the phoenix.

When I get a chance I'll re-read the books and write up a detailed review for my GoodReads account. I usually hit objectional content in my detailed reviews as a courtesy.

Really? Man, I don't remember that at all! I'm going to have to go back and read the fourth book again *racks brain* I must have a bad memory. But I sure remember being disappointed that I didn't learn those two things.
Actually, though, the Keeper turned out to be not so powerful, and I also didn't like how Cal Raven's mentor, whose name I can't remember at the moment, turned out to be so unethical

I have never read them. It's nice to get both sides so I can weigh up whether I would enjoy them or not. Interesting conversation.

Yes, I suppose you're right, to some degree. But he wasn't just wrong, he was unethical, if I'm remembering correctly. And they didn't really set him up to be without fault and all knowing either, did they? But I'm going to try not to spoil your love for the books, so I'll stop talking

I really really loved the book Auralia's Colors, and I read it a year ago. My sister never really finished reading it because she wasn't trying to savor the details. For me though, after reading chapter 2, I wanted to buy the book. I was drinking up the details. It was like a fairy tale. Except the vawns. Yeah they did sort of seem out of place, so I pictured them as just normal horses to quiet my mind.
Yes, there is a bit of gore.... the part in the fourth book made me think of that gross pirate in Pirates of the Caribbean movies. But it wasn't as bad as it could have been.
Auralia's Colors was about the mysterious girl that was raised by thieves, although she didn't follow their example. She followed the footsteps of a mysterious creature called the Keeper and found colors that no other had seen. In this world, Colors were forbidden except to those of higher rank. All the rest of them were locked up in the keep.
But Auralia gets into trouble with the King because of her colors. She realized something important about them.
The ending was mysterious and not too much of a cliff hanger for me, and overall, I loved Auralia's Colors(the first book).
I liked the second book too, which was like a Beauty and the Beast sort of story(so the author said).
I read the rest of the books and the fourth book was different than what I had expected from it. Jeffrey Overstreet himself said that the books weren't written to be allegorical, but I didn't believe him at first. The Keeper. But then I realized that there were more than one Keeper. But the Mystery. The Mystery behind it all. They call God the Mystery, and I like that in a way. The end of the series felt more like a beginning of a quest to search for God. It reminded me more of the Old Testament(if ever there was any allegory) than the New Testament in the Bible.
I didn't at all think that there was any reincarnation involved (when they explained it in the fourth book). Auralia was un-stitched(died) and went to heaven. I don't think that anyone could come back from there and think the same way they did before, because of all the beauty. Well, yes, Auralia did say she came back in the form of a girl so as not to be noticed by adults, but I never really thought of it as reincarnation. More like a disguise. Just like angels can disguise themselves as normal humans when they come down to earth.

It was a beautiful story. A series of stories about questions and answers, Jeffrey Overstreet said.
I didn't read the fourth book as searchingly as I should have. If I had been paying attention I would have caught the Ale Boy's name(although I searched Auralia's Colors a lot but the fourth book was so exciting I couldn't put it down once I got into it).
But its like a series of stories for a hunter that searches for answers. For understanding, even though the answer is that not all questions are going to be answered in real life till the end. Yeah Scharr Ben Fray seemed good and then in the last book all of a sudden he seems different. I think that's because he realized the truth about the Keeper and his faith was damaged.
The first two books are really good, but the last two books are a bit confusing, although I still liked them. I like the fact that he left some questions unanswered(and for some questions, he did give the answer. You just needed to look harder. Just as they looked really hard for the Keeper). The first question that came to my mind as I read the last sentence was something that we could have answered ourselves. Leaving a loose thread for us to finish.

Wow this is a long post. lol

I just got the series and have finished Cyndere's Midnight. Personally, I did not enjoy Auralia's Colors very much. I found the plot too slow, and actually tedious in certain spots. It didn't pick up till 200 pgs. later. Not only that, but the main characters were sort of hard to get into. The author had a bad habit of switching to another character abruptly, and the way he wrote the story, it was like he was telling it to you instead of you experiencing it through the character.
Cyndere's Midnight was so much better. The beginning was slow but it didn't take half as long to pick up as Auralia's Colors did. I'll be starting Raven's Ladder tonight so I'll see if this book is better than its predecessors.

I need to buy my own set of these. Turns out I only actually owned one and the others were Manda's... haha. I've still only read the first two and need to read them all.

I like the unanswered questions. That's how life is. Also, I don't read books to understand them; I read books to understand life. And Auralia's Colors really does shed an interesting perspective on life. (It would be nice if I could remember the specifics of what it is but it's been a while so it's all mixed in my head with other things I've read since then)

I hate to say it, but of all the series I've read, this is my least favorite. Once I finish work on my novel, I intend to read it over again just to gain a better perspective on it, but so far the only book I've really enjoyed is Cyndere's Midnight.

The series isn't as hard to read as Charles Dickens' books. Right now, it's my favorite book series next to the Wingfeather Saga, which is saying a lot for me.

This series ranks for me as the worst I have ever read. The ending alone was thoroughly disappointing.

... I'm sorry you feel that way. It's okay. We just have different tastes in what we expect in a book. Everyone reacts to books differently. It's still my favorite fantasy series.

Very true. I just started reading the series over again in the hopes that maybe it would have improved for me, but I was disappointed.

I just got this series for my birthday and read it all through.

I liked a lot of the imagery and wordplay. And I didn't find it hard to understand... oddly enough, since I'm usually the one who misses everything. It was easier for me after Krawg's story, which was actually true history. I didn't have any problems with the big picture after that.

That was why the truth about the Keeper didn't bother me... because it made sense that they weren't actually 'god', they were sent from the creator-person – you know, from in Krawg's story – to all the children who had followed Tammos Raak and left the good land. I didn't have a problem with it.

I did rather dislike the ending, though.... It was thoroughly disappointing in several areas. Not because it didn't answer enough questions – I didn't mind that a bit – but mainly because a lot of the people I had liked just ended by being so... blah. I didn't like them anymore. One example: the king that has spent all this time promising he's going to take care of people suddenly decides that instead he's going to disappear into another land-world-thing with a girl, who didn't happen to be any of the four other girls he had fallen in love with previously. :|

At least Tabor Jan was still good.

The part about the ending that I did like was when they found Tammos Raak. That was so right.

And my favorite book was Cyndere's midnight, too, Lightwalker.

It was one of the better books in the series. I loved the setting and the worldbuilding, but I just felt the author really failed to do the story justice.
And the ending was especially cruddy. I had to content myself that at leastboth Cal-Raven and Auralia "died" together.

I can understand that. Yeah it doesn't really make sense why it would end /that/ way because what of Cal-Raven's responsibilities? Oh wait... then I remember Jaralaine came back. Maybe she should have been explained better, if she was really crazy... or just keeping the habit of taking stuff... or if she was ill later in the book and only sounded crazy. Or maybe I just need to reread the book series. I'll probably come up with a different viewpoint on it now, because of all this.

And that's an interesting way to think of it, Lightwalker, of them "dying" together. Never thought of it like that before.

Well, it certainly wasn't a "happily ever after" ending. After all the characters went through, I thought they at least deserved that much.

By the way, someone posted some fan art for Auralia's Thread on Tumblr and it's beautiful.

And I really want to reread the books to see if I notice anything different.

I really like the story Krawg tells in Raven's Ladder. It feels like Pinnochio and has a little bit of an allegorical feel to it. The author said he felt that that story was the heart of the series.

You mean the art by Karen Eck?

* nods * I agree with him. It basically explained everything, and was very helpful as well as beautiful and primary.

I haven's seen the fan art.

Krawg's story was pretty good. One of the few good pieces I enjoyed.