YMMV / The Soldier Son

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Some readers love Nevare because he's the opposite of the usual macho, action-orientated heroes frequently found in the fantasy genre. Others readers loathe him as passive and self-doubting although the series does later explain that his passivity is a result of his split soul.
• Costume Porn: During the ball scene toward the beginning of Shaman's Crossing, Nevare goes to great length discussing the different sized buttons on his uniform and how closely he crops his hair.
• Esoteric Happy Ending: After almost three books of stressing how bad it is for Nevare's soul to be split, he is finally reunited with Soldier's Boy and absorbed by an ancestor tree, together with his beloved Lisana. Is this the end? No, he is split again. Admittedly, that half gets back together with Amzil, marries her and inherits the Burvelle estate, but wasn't it bad to have one's personality split? Other issues concern the discovery of gold that draw the Gernians away from the Speck lands: how long before they'll return? And finally, Nevare completely destroys the source of the Plainspeople's magic, basically sealing their fate.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: With the exception of Spink, all of Nevare's academy classmates completely disappear from the story after the first book. Especially Gord and his troubled relation with Trist seemed to have loads of potential, but they are never seen again, save for a blink-and-you'l-miss-it cameo during the third book when Nevare is dreamwalking.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: The politics and conflict between Old Nobility and the recently elevated Battle Lords was fascinating and the depiction of these politics within the academy drove the first novel. But this theme is quickly dropped when Nevare leaves the academy and city in the second book.