There is one feature you tend to get in fantasy series – at least once and often more – that can really annoy me. This feature is travelling. In the majority of the series (or so it seems to me) there are instances when it is vital to get from point A to point B. Now, on the face of it that is quite logical, not everything happens in a single place.

And I fully understand that travelling in the average fantasy series is a protracted affair, lacking the technology we have in the modern world that enable vast distances to be travelled in short periods of time.

The problem, though, is that many fantasy authors seem to delight in telling me exactly how these distances are travelled, and usually at great length. This leads to my problem. I do not care. These passages are often tedious and have made me give up on a book completely. They can be well done, but all too often can feel like the author letting us know exactly how much research they may have done.

And so, to this book - which despite its trappings of sf is very much a fantasy in feel. Well much to my initial dismay the entirety of this book is travelling. Oh joy!

Okay, over the first impressions and down to the book. The writing style is still addictive, the character interactions are still interesting, and I still want several of the travelling party to get the direst of sticky ends - just as they deserve. But is all this enough to get over my dislike of travelling sections in books?

Well, yes – but it is a close run thing. Also just as the starting of this book saw me dismayed at the prospect of travelling, it's title and the title of book four add somewhat to the sense of unease. This book is The Ships of Earth, and it tells the story of the group journeying to find The Ships of Earth.

The next title is called Earthfall, and it suggests that it will tell the tale of the party as they leave the planet Harmony and travel (that word again) to Earth – reaching the planet at the end of the book. Oh goody!

The plus point this time does seem to be that this is an interstellar journey – they will be onboard a starship, so hopefully although they are still travelling, it will have a stronger sf bias and be sufficiently different to make it keep me reading into book five. And also I could be mistaken in this assumption - let's hope.

Now, please don't feel this is a bad book. It isn't by any means. I completed it with a desire to pick up the fourth – now for a book of travelling that's a remarkable achievement. The only thing I would say though is it is the weakest of the three so far.