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stephaniemcuervo's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Graphic: Confinement, Death, War, Violence, Genocide, Murder, and Blood
Moderate: Death of parent, Gore, Grief, and Kidnapping
briely's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.75
Graphic: Blood, Death, Slavery, Violence, and War
Moderate: Genocide
Minor: Body horror and Confinement
julesadventurezone's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Colonisation, Death, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Kidnapping, Child abuse, Genocide, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, and Violence
Minor: Pregnancy, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, and Self harm
artstitute's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.5
That aside — loved it! Martha Wells never misses. I love her sf and I loved this too. Lovable characters as always, and (Bashat/Bashasa notwithstanding) I think she did a commendable job maintaining two timelines while also telling a consistent and not-confusing story. The way that past and present events were linked made the timeline fairly easy to follow without it feeling too much like she was holding the reader's hand.
Graphic: Genocide, Death, and War
Moderate: Blood and Torture
Minor: Body horror and Child death
scifi_rat's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.25
Prose: 4★
Pace: 3.75★
Concept/Execution: 4★/5★
Characters: 4.5★
Worldbuilding: 4★
Ending: 4.25★
Graphic: Death, Violence, War, Blood, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Self harm
Moderate: Cursing, Physical abuse, Torture, Colonisation, Grief, Kidnapping, Confinement, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Abandonment, Animal death, and Vomit
chris_reads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Graphic: Violence, Death, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, and War
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, and Murder
Minor: Self harm, Slavery, and Trafficking
alisonvh's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
That said, once I got into it, I really enjoyed it. It’s fast paced, action packed, smart, and had me laughing out loud throughout the book. All things at which Martha Wells excels.
Graphic: Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Murder, Blood, Forced institutionalization, Death, and War
Moderate: Grief
booksthatburn's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
I like the friendship between the two main characters, with zero hints of any romance. Kai is trying to figure out their next moves, piecing together what changed in the years since they were shut away. They’re stalwart companions in a way that is frustratingly rare in an opposite gender pairing of protagonists, but is very good here. I love the worldbuilding and characterization, and especially how those are intertwined in the person of the Witch King. He explains things in a way that inform the current plot points without slowing down the story. Kai's method of quasi-immortality is a neat bit of worldbuilding, one of several kinds of magic which are practiced by different groups. There's the feeling that they're all part of one world but are following different culturally-specific pathways to magic. Kai's work-around for accessing magic which should be off-limits to him helps to bolster this initial impression. I want there to be more in this world, I want more time with these characters. The story is very self-contained and, narratively speaking, doesn’t need a sequel, so I just have to read some of this author's earlier fantasy books to get what I’m looking for.
Moderate: Blood, Violence, Genocide, Self harm, War, Torture, Animal cruelty, Murder, Death, and Slavery
micheala's review against another edition
4.25
In the present timeline we are following Kai and Zeide as they attempt to deal with all the stuff discussed in the blurb. The past timeline is following Kai (and co.) during the historic war that set up the current political world.
I was equally interested in both timelines, however that did mean that no matter which timeline we were switching to, I didn't want the switch. And because of that feeling, plus the fact that the past timeline felt like it was mainly just being used to flesh out the worldbuilding, rather than dropping hints about the present timeline situation, I would have rather it be a duology situation.
The other main issue I had, was that the timeline itself was unclear. The blurb makes it seem like Kai has been trapped in the prison for a very long time, however you find out right at the beginning that it's only like a year. It also took a very long time to work out how long ago the past timeline was - eventually it gets referenced as being a "mortal lifetime ago", so like 60-100 years? The problem with this, was that it became very unclear on how much information people other than Kai and Zeide had about what happened during The War, which in turn made the political motivations of events hard to keep track of.
All that said, I had a great time reading it, and I wish we were getting more in this world as it has super interesting worldbuilding and characters.
Moderate: Confinement, Blood, Death, Violence, War, and Torture
Minor: Self harm, Genocide, and Slavery
laurareads87's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
This novel does a lot of things that I love: multiple timelines used effectively, political intrigue that isn't predictable, wonderful relationship dynamics between characters. It is worth noting that this is not entry-level fantasy - Wells throws the reader into the world with a list of characters and not much else to go on, and the reader must navigate a ton of new terminology (for peoples, organizations, forms of magic, etc.) without any real guidance. The benefit of this is that there is zero 'info-dumping' here. The drawback, I think, is that it can feel a bit hard to get into at the beginning. It's worth it: when it comes together, it's wonderful.
While not the focus of the book, there are ways that gender is addressed that are worth paying attention to -- demons (at least all the ones we meet throughout the book) seem to have fixed gender identities (Kaiisteron is unambiguously 'he' throughout) but may of course occupy any and all kinds of bodies, and the different cultures in this fantasy world do (or don't) distinguish gender in different ways (ex. sometimes dress is a distinguishing factor, sometimes it isn't).
This novel is, as I understand it, written as a standalone and it absolutely works as one: it is self-contained. I will say, though, that given the depth of this world-building, I'd love to see more works by Wells set in this series, whether with this same cast of characters or otherwise.
Content warnings: violence, murder, death, injury detail, war, colonization, forcible confinement, blood, torture
Graphic: Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, Violence, War, Murder, Blood, and Torture