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mcaulifferd's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.5
hotpinkmess's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
pryme's review against another edition
adventurous
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
annasirius's review against another edition
Too stereotyped. Characters stayed very too-dimensional.
bookstuff's review against another edition
3.0
3.5 I like the political machinations, though the characters are too stereotypically good vs evil for my taste.
brianthegleeman's review against another edition
3.0
I'm loathe to admit it, but I'm a sucker for the soap-opera style novels that Fallon writes. Her Harshini/Medalon series hooked me a few years ago, and The Second Sons trilogy is promising to be equally good (but oh so trashy). I strongly recommend this series for someone looking for an easy read, but most especially for anyone who loves to read about intrigue, gossip, and the sheer cruelty that human beings are capable of when it comes to love, war and betrayal.
tikimoof's review against another edition
4.0
It starts out with a really interesting premise (that may end up to be sci-fi in the end, kinda like the Coldfire Trilogy) where the setting is a planet in a binary star system set up such that if one of the suns is invisible, havoc wreaks the planet. And we're 25 years after that last "Age of Darkness", where the pseudo-medieval fantasy world plunged into civil war and the nations ended up in a theocracy, with the last king deposed.
So the major players of the last war are all there, parenting and advising our new leads, who are unfortunately very teenaged.
I'm still deciding what I think about the tone. Because dear lord, the teenage angst and hornyness was just too much sometimes. But the teenagers are also playing politics in a pretty unkind world, and a lot of that unkindness is hinted at very strongly before it gets dragged into the present (if you've got any hangups on various kinds of violence, you should listen to the descriptions of the wartime atrocities of the past, and assume that atrocities are still very possible).
There are some major secrets set up in the first, say, 10% of the book, and then there's really just a lot of waiting around for some people to discover the secrets. I felt that the really major plot points didn't happen until 75% of the way through, and I was twiddling my thumbs for a few hundred pages.
The politics were interesting. Things are of course simplified from where they would be in a modern-day political situation, but there are at least four sides all vying for their own solutions. I really liked how Dirk became more and more politically savvy.
I think I liked the tonal shift at the end, where the idyllic years of youth definitively ended. I appreciated that Fallon pulled things on her male leads that would normally be pulled on a woman, though I think she could have gone a few steps further in the sympathy the reader should have for the victims. I am definitely more interested in the next book now than I was at 70% completion yesterday.
Oh, and I have one question about something that happens right before the big climax:
But dear heavens, I don't think I could deal with a whole book of Tia being a tsundere. The last fifth of this book was everything I hated about women in the Wheel of Time.
So the major players of the last war are all there, parenting and advising our new leads, who are unfortunately very teenaged.
I'm still deciding what I think about the tone. Because dear lord, the teenage angst and hornyness was just too much sometimes. But the teenagers are also playing politics in a pretty unkind world, and a lot of that unkindness is hinted at very strongly before it gets dragged into the present (if you've got any hangups on various kinds of violence, you should listen to the descriptions of the wartime atrocities of the past, and assume that atrocities are still very possible).
There are some major secrets set up in the first, say, 10% of the book, and then there's really just a lot of waiting around for some people to discover the secrets. I felt that the really major plot points didn't happen until 75% of the way through, and I was twiddling my thumbs for a few hundred pages.
The politics were interesting. Things are of course simplified from where they would be in a modern-day political situation, but there are at least four sides all vying for their own solutions. I really liked how Dirk became more and more politically savvy.
I think I liked the tonal shift at the end, where the idyllic years of youth definitively ended. I appreciated that Fallon pulled things on her male leads that would normally be pulled on a woman, though I think she could have gone a few steps further in the sympathy the reader should have for the victims. I am definitely more interested in the next book now than I was at 70% completion yesterday.
Oh, and I have one question about something that happens right before the big climax:
Spoiler
Narration mentions that Dhevynians who do the Bonfire Night or whatever it's called and drink Mother's Milk get brainwashed to the Shadow Dancers after, but this change of heart doesn't happen to Dirk, and he remembers everything. Why?But dear heavens, I don't think I could deal with a whole book of Tia being a tsundere. The last fifth of this book was everything I hated about women in the Wheel of Time.
mlejoy's review against another edition
4.0
It took me a long time to get into this one, but once things started coming together I enjoyed it. I will continue on with the series. I don't know yet if this series will be something I would heartily recommend, but it is pretty interesting so far.