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3.6 AVERAGE
3.6 AVERAGE
Exquisite conclusion to the duology! I fell in love with the main characters and was rooting for them all the entire way. Splendid blend of magic, intrigue, politics, family, adventure.
Judy Lin can do no wrong!
Judy Lin can do no wrong!
adventurous
emotional
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
adventurous
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
After the first book I hoped this one would be more of a hit for me, sadly I just can't seem to enjoy the book as it probaply should be enjoyed so I decided to DNF it until I got to frustrated with having an unread book on the shelve whahaha so finished it now and yeah, it just isn't my cup of tea.
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
relaxing
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Never has the second half of a duology failed the first book's setup soooo thoroughly. The political intrigue doesn't matter, because none of the antagonists are acting of their own accord; everyone is being puppeteered by an evil snake god. It's essentially a Christian allegory: People aren't evil, they're tempted, but all evil is just The Devil working through them. We've even got our leading lad and lady who had to give up the innocence of The Garden of Good and Evil, once Eve/Ning was tempted by a snake, and both protagonists learned some hard truths about Death. Paaaaathetic. Nothing original or noteworthy here.
If you liked Ning's fish-out-of-water story from the first book, where she struggled to understand the deceptions and war games being played around her, you will HATE how her agency is completely stripped in the second book. She moves from place to thing because it was prophesied in the stars, or by a tea-drinking hermit, or because of LITERALY DIVINE INTERVENTION! She doesn't have to be cunning or discerning, she doesn't even have to make decisions for herself. She is teleported from plot point to plot point, handed MacGuffins, and stands back while other people wield them.
If you liked Ning's relationship to nature in the first book - how her magic came from having respect and balance, both for the natural world and for other people who showed mutual respect - then you will hate how the second book is entirely about amassing holy relics, and using them like infinity stones to subdue the big bad. There is no heroic moment of martyrdom, no realization that Ning has to restore balance by taking on the enemy, or the people's, suffering as her own. No moment when she uses the balance of nature to combat snakey's chaotic influence. And barely a moment of using her tea to keep her teammates balance. Mostly, the final showdown is: She gives her boyfriend a knife, and he cuts the evil snake open... wahoo...
Did you like Kang's air of mystery in the first book? It was intriguing, trying to figure out if he was being sly or sincere? TOO BAD, because turns out he's a dumb-dumb, who can't tell that his father - who sentences innocent people to be publicly executed - is the BAD guy! He also couldn't tell that EVERYTHING Chancellor Zhou says about Ning is a lie, even though Kang was DIRECTLY INVOLVED in the coup, and knows she wasn't a part of it! Kang is, for no good reason, a moron in this second book. His blind affection for his father does not excuse the massacre at the capital, and his Happily Ever After with Ning is NOT earned. Plus, the second book makes the baffling decision to switch to third person PoV to inform the readers of what Kang is up to. The shift in narration takes all of the sympathy that would have been earned from first person, and all of the adrenaline from the political mystery, out of the story, handing the reader big exposition dumps instead. It's boring, and counter-productive.
If you liked Harry Potter, you'll be REALLY ANNOYED at how this book seems to borrow a lot of the same elements. Evil snake-enthusiast who possesses people, hides part of his person in nondescript tokens, and has a strong magical connection to the protagonist (which manifests in our hero having frequent migraines and scar pains)... Yeah, it's just Voldemort, guys. Snakeman even falls apart into scaly ashes when his body's killed, just like Voldemort at the end of the movies.
Penultimate point of contention: This duology makes the same mistake that a lot of YA tournament-based books do: NONE OF THE SECONDARY CHARACTERS MATTER!!!! Princess, bodyguard, sister, monk, rival, all her friends from the kitchens, the mysterious ally from the Peony teahouse, every single head of state... nobody matters!!! Either they die, don't interact with Ning or Kang at all, or interact briefly in the form of escort missions where they are sloughed off on another guardian a chapter or two later. This duology SUPPOSEDLY set out to be about balance, understanding, empathy, deception, betrayal - HUMAN emotions and conflicts - but in the end it was largely inhuman (gods vs gods), and not at all inter-human with its conflicts or resolution.
Final nail in the coffin: This book did not need to be a duology. Either it should have dared to be a really long stand-alone book, modeled after Chinese myths, OR it should have been a longer series, taking time to establish the lore, the world, and an ensemble of important characters. But a doulogy suggests a mirroring, it suggests that something set up in book 1 will have an echo and payoff in book 2. There were many ways to do it. This book chose none of them.
If you liked Ning's fish-out-of-water story from the first book, where she struggled to understand the deceptions and war games being played around her, you will HATE how her agency is completely stripped in the second book. She moves from place to thing because it was prophesied in the stars, or by a tea-drinking hermit, or because of LITERALY DIVINE INTERVENTION! She doesn't have to be cunning or discerning, she doesn't even have to make decisions for herself. She is teleported from plot point to plot point, handed MacGuffins, and stands back while other people wield them.
If you liked Ning's relationship to nature in the first book - how her magic came from having respect and balance, both for the natural world and for other people who showed mutual respect - then you will hate how the second book is entirely about amassing holy relics, and using them like infinity stones to subdue the big bad. There is no heroic moment of martyrdom, no realization that Ning has to restore balance by taking on the enemy, or the people's, suffering as her own. No moment when she uses the balance of nature to combat snakey's chaotic influence. And barely a moment of using her tea to keep her teammates balance. Mostly, the final showdown is: She gives her boyfriend a knife, and he cuts the evil snake open... wahoo...
Did you like Kang's air of mystery in the first book? It was intriguing, trying to figure out if he was being sly or sincere? TOO BAD, because turns out he's a dumb-dumb, who can't tell that his father - who sentences innocent people to be publicly executed - is the BAD guy! He also couldn't tell that EVERYTHING Chancellor Zhou says about Ning is a lie, even though Kang was DIRECTLY INVOLVED in the coup, and knows she wasn't a part of it! Kang is, for no good reason, a moron in this second book. His blind affection for his father does not excuse the massacre at the capital, and his Happily Ever After with Ning is NOT earned. Plus, the second book makes the baffling decision to switch to third person PoV to inform the readers of what Kang is up to. The shift in narration takes all of the sympathy that would have been earned from first person, and all of the adrenaline from the political mystery, out of the story, handing the reader big exposition dumps instead. It's boring, and counter-productive.
If you liked Harry Potter, you'll be REALLY ANNOYED at how this book seems to borrow a lot of the same elements. Evil snake-enthusiast who possesses people, hides part of his person in nondescript tokens, and has a strong magical connection to the protagonist (which manifests in our hero having frequent migraines and scar pains)... Yeah, it's just Voldemort, guys. Snakeman even falls apart into scaly ashes when his body's killed, just like Voldemort at the end of the movies.
Penultimate point of contention: This duology makes the same mistake that a lot of YA tournament-based books do: NONE OF THE SECONDARY CHARACTERS MATTER!!!! Princess, bodyguard, sister, monk, rival, all her friends from the kitchens, the mysterious ally from the Peony teahouse, every single head of state... nobody matters!!! Either they die, don't interact with Ning or Kang at all, or interact briefly in the form of escort missions where they are sloughed off on another guardian a chapter or two later. This duology SUPPOSEDLY set out to be about balance, understanding, empathy, deception, betrayal - HUMAN emotions and conflicts - but in the end it was largely inhuman (gods vs gods), and not at all inter-human with its conflicts or resolution.
Final nail in the coffin: This book did not need to be a duology. Either it should have dared to be a really long stand-alone book, modeled after Chinese myths, OR it should have been a longer series, taking time to establish the lore, the world, and an ensemble of important characters. But a doulogy suggests a mirroring, it suggests that something set up in book 1 will have an echo and payoff in book 2. There were many ways to do it. This book chose none of them.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced