Book Review: Memory's Door by James L. Rubart

NOTE: I received the book via Netgalley in exchange for my honest review. Thanks!

I was a bit disappointed by Memory's Door. I guess the reason is the high bar that Soul's Gate put up at the start line. Truth is, I was expecting way more from this book. I mean, I got A LOT out of Soul's Gate - chills, moved spirit, lots and lots of love and mystery and such. But here? None of the above, which is a tragedy because I really wanted it to be more than just another average read.

I guess the storyline was good enough. Nothing special that grabbed my attention as, you know, amazing. Rubart took us on a tour through all four of the Warriors Riding like he did in Soul's Gate. We saw things in Marcus's soul that we hadn't known were there. We saw the disappointment and frustration in Reece, the uncertainty in Dana and the unfortunate coming down of Brandon. That was all good.

But that's just it. Good. Not great and surely, it could've been. Right? I mean, it had the potential and everything. Especially with the rise of the Evil One and the spirit of the Wolf and such...

And that Wolf? I was expecting so much more of it. I won't say what it turned out to be, but I was disappointed. I don't know what I'd envisioned, but definitely not what it was. What the Wolf came out to be was something a bit lame. Something too common for our world to really peak my attention. I guess that could be taken as the Wolf's way to wiggle into our society and all, but it just didn't give me the chills. Actually, it didn't make me feel anything at all. It's like Rubart tried to make this huge thing out of it, but it just didn't work for me.

I did like the final battle (although it felt sort of rushed/forced/unanticipated). Sure, it wasn't final final, but it was final for the book.

Something else that lowered my rating was the writing style. It did bother me a little in Soul's Gate, but there everything else sort of took my mind off of it. Here? I was really irritated at how Rubart was explaining everything. As if the reader is a five year old. I can't give any quotes or examples (because it's been several weeks since I read it and it obviously didn't stick in my mind all that much), for which I am sorry. Proof would've been nice.

What I did like though was the growth of the characters. In Soul's Gate we met one quartet, in Memory's Door they're still the same people, but quite different too. They've grown. Sure, they still struggle with a lot, but they do find it in them to wage battle.

Most of all I liked Dana. She's grown to be a true leader. Both to the Warriors Riding, and also at her job. And the change in her heart toward Brandon made me giddy (What can I say? I love romance!). I really liked her ability to seek and see the truth that the Spirit provides, not the truth of the world. She was quite amazing that way.

Reece disappointed me quite a bit with his frustration with the Lord not healing him when he wanted to be healed. Sorry, but that was just silly. A true believer KNOWS that the Lord never does anything when and how a person wishes it. Because obviously the Lord has bigger and greater plans for us than what our minds could possibly imagine. So, if we're to take for real the fact that Reece is a strong believer, then we're at least to be given a reason to trust that fact. Instead, we're met with a Reece who's more enveloped in his own self-wallowing than the importance of the Warriors' mission. He's grown lazy, procrastinating and incredibly irritating.

Brandon still acts like a hippie whose brain capacity isn't all that big. I'm sorry for saying this, but it rings true to my ears. Sure, he's a singer, but do singers have limited thought processes? No education? Immature vocabulary? And I'm not talking current show-your-naked-self-in-front-the-whole-world kind of singers, because in their case the answer is obvious. I'm talking believer artists with higher agendas, who should be setting higher standards.

Marcus was his usual self. Too brought down by guilt and the false weight of something he didn't do, but still Marcus through and through. I couldn't believe how long it took him to fess up to his wife about all the guilt he was feeling. And I also couldn't believe that he was taking for granted the words of a demon! *sigh* Nobody's perfect, I know, but seriously? In our everyday lives, we're discouraged and deceived by unknown sources. Marcus knew the source of deception and still thought it a good idea to trust it. Good thing some sense was knocked into him in the end, or I could've just ended up hating him or something.

In conclusion there's nothing much to say. Just that I'd expected more, but gotten less. Don't get me wrong, it was still a good read, just not the superb one I was hoping for.

My rating is 3.5/5 stars