Books like Carnivores of Light and Darkness

I picked up this book from the library in early August because I remembered reading it when I was eleven or twelve (around the age I was devouring the Dragonlance books as if they would disappear) and loving it to pieces. Now, over ten years later, I find myself rather...disappointed.The first thing that annoyed me about this book was the language Foster uses. I kept getting thrown out of the store when I came across these large and/or obscure words that I didn't know the definition to. I guess it didn't bother me back then because it's fairly easy to figure out what those words mean using context, but now I like to know the exact definition of things. Which means that I was constantly bringing up my Dictionary.com app on my phone looking things up. The last thing I want to do while reading a novel is have to look up words that I will likely never encounter again.I also find Etjole's and Simna's friendship kind of annoying. How can you claim to be friends with someone if you're constantly insisting that said someone is lying about who they are and why they're doing what they're doing? Really, Simna is probably one of the most annoying characters I've ever known in a fantasy novel, and that's saying something. Etjole is a bit of a saint to put up with him, and half the time that's just what it feels like he's doing. They don't feel like friends. They feel like a couple of people the author threw together for no other reason than because he felt like it.Then there's the fact that absolutely none of the adventures the trio encounters have anything to do with each other or their main quest. No, not everything has to lead up to the final thing, but it's really just a bunch of random events that coincidentally happen to the same people, and that on the one time Etjole ever undertakes any sort of adventure. This doesn't seem to happen to anybody else: at least, from what I can tell of Simna, his near-death episodes have likely been few and far between. Nothing like the way Etjole constantly seems to fall into danger again and again for no other apparent reason than because he's the main character in a novel. The only thing that links the events together is the existence of the eromakadi (I am almost positive that's the right word) that has been following Etjole, but obviously the creature isn't causing the events itself. It's just sort of along for the ride until the end of the novel (and probably beyond).And, of course, all of the little things. Simna never seems to run out of deities to use in his swears, but we never learn a single thing about any one of them. Why mention all of them if you're never going to do anything with them? Then he'll mention creatures not because they have anything to do with the novel but because he wants to show off that he thought them up. I don't mind a few red herrings, but everything is a throw-away comment. We don't need to know every strange creature Etjole happens to notice as he walks by them: the ones he interacts with that actually do something are, frankly, more than enough. We like to have an idea of the world, but we don't need a beastiary. On top of that, there are just so many random things that go completely unexplained. Where did that wall Etjole jumped over come from? Why did going over it take him where it did? Why were the slelves randomly attacking the monkeys? For a character that is described as wanting an answer to everything, Etjole certainly leaves a whole lot of mysteries unsolved.So how did this story get three stars? Well, because I was interested. The events may not have been linked to anything else, but I liked to know what was going to happen (since I couldn't really remember). The animals and creatures they encountered weren't always necessary, but it was neat to see what they could do. Despite my frustration with Simna, I don't hate him: I just sort of want him to finally get it through his skull that Etjole is what he says he is. I want to find out how Etjole's quest ends, and I want to know how Ahlitah fulfills his debt. I'll definitely continue to read this trilogy because it isn't over yet and because I didn't find myself completely hating its existence like I did the last book I complained this much about.And, besides, there are a few events that I do vaguely remember, and I want to see how correct my memory is and how those events came about.Now to gather up the will to drive the half hour away to the other library that has the second book in it. They do this on purpose, don't they?