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sophiesmallhands's review
- 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
4.25
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Death, Blood, and Violence
Moderate: Religious bigotry, Torture, and Murder
Minor: Vomit, Cursing, Suicidal thoughts, and War
talonsontypewriters's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
The prose itself is fine, doesn't stand out as uniquely good or bad. There's a little too much telling over showing, though, particularly when it comes to characters' feelings and opinions -- and yet too little information when it comes to general exposition. This world has a lot of cool, complex elements to it -- seemingly traditional Tolkien/D&D-inspired cultures, some sci-fi elements, various systems of magic and religion -- but little work is put into earnestly fleshing them out or truly explaining them. I think some writers hear people complain about exposition dumps and just assume all consolidated blocks of exposition are unwanted, so never actually bother to list out how their world works, which I assume to be happening here.
The magic/religious aspects are probably the only things described in detail, and even then I don't think I understand the basics of the magic. Incorporating traveling between worlds could also be interesting, but the mechanics and terminology are vague; I was never able to figure out how the gates/Maze work, or even whether the "worlds" are meant to be on different planets in some solar system/universe, or even in different parallel timelines, or just locations within the same planet you can... warp to, or something to that effect? Weirdly, the one thing that this world does have in common with ours are other animals, which I feel like is another area of missed potential, though I might just be too into fantasy biology/ecology.
The different groups (unclear, again, whether they should be treated as nationalities, ethnicities, or entire species) are probably meant to be classic fantasy species -- I say "probably" because the most done to establish this is mentioning characteristics like tusks and ear types. Only a handful of descriptions even hint at values, traditions, cuisine, and so on that exist within these cultures, let alone differ between them. I assume from character names that the Qarsazhi use the name order of last followed by first and the Oshaaru don't use surnames, but this seems to not ever be directly stated at all, so it ends up just feeling like random flavor. Having some worldbuilding elements be there just to be there/"for fun" would be fine... if there were enough other well-developed descriptions to back them up. It feels almost as if Larkwood wanted to subvert overdone sword and sorcery tropes (villainous orcs vs heroic humans and elves, for instance), but then also figured the standard reader would fill in the blanks.
I picked "a mix" for whether this is plot-/character-driven, but somehow it doesn't actually feel like it's either? There's kind of a central plot, but it's pursued in a series of weirdly paced (alternately meandering and breakneck, neither with much real sense of urgency or risk) mini-quests. Most characters don't have much agency or personality of their own, carried along by the needs of either the current or overarching plot or other, equally flat characters. A lot of important development, like Csorwe's training and changing relationships with Sethennai and Tal, happens almost completely off-page.
The character voices are not very distinct either, which especially stands out in this setting, with everyone coming from completely different social classes, locations, languages, general upbringings and worldviews, etc -- surely there could have been at least a little more variation with regards to, say, senses of humor and sentence structure. Instead, multiple times, a POV would switch and I would have lost track of who was narrating within four paragraphs.
I did think the themes of personal and systematic exploitation and manipulation were interesting, and if the characters had been stronger, Csorwe's sort of "cycle" where she does for someone else what Sethennai did for her would have been super satisfying. The main romance, as well as some other dynamics, also could have been compelling, but its development is a bit too fast and, again, the individual characters felt shallowly written.
Had so much potential, but unfortunately my expectations were far from met.
Graphic: Self harm, Murder, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Religious bigotry, Violence, Torture, and Body horror
Moderate: Animal death, Suicidal thoughts, Child abuse, Confinement, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, and Child death
Minor: Sexual content, Alcohol, and Vomit
caspian_the_pauper's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, Violence, and Xenophobia
booksthatburn's review against another edition
Moderate: Body horror, Self harm, and Suicidal thoughts
starccato's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Graphic: Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Torture, Emotional abuse, Murder, Abandonment, Blood, Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gaslighting, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, and Violence
Moderate: Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders, Medical content, Child death, and Alcohol
Minor: Animal death, Child abuse, Self harm, and Vomit
ruthlessreads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Okay, so brief summary: Csorwe, though she's only 14, is a clergy member at the temple of the Unspoken One. As she is poised to sacrifice herself in a religious ritual, she is rescued & smuggled away by Sethennai, a powerful & brilliant mage. Sethennai raises Csorwe to be his weapon, training her to fight, and tasking her with retrieving The Reliquary--an object of extreme power & knowledge. On one of many trips to discover the location of this item, Csorwe meets Struthmili & everything she thought she knew about herself, her job, and her path in life will be called into question when she is faced with a difficult decision: fight for the item she's tasked to recover or save the life of someone for whom she's developing complicated feelings. Again and again, Csorwe will be faced with decisions that alter her fate & lead her down paths she never expected to return. What is at the end of her story? I guess you'll have to read it to find out!
Graphic: Body horror, Toxic friendship, Torture, Suicidal thoughts, Slavery, Injury/Injury detail, and Death
Moderate: Drug use, Religious bigotry, and Violence
Minor: Child death and War
There are some pretty dark themes and scenes. Please read content warnings & summaries before starting this series. This is the first book in The Serpent Gates series!kylieqrada's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Religious bigotry, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Torture
Moderate: Child abuse, Kidnapping, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, and Self harm
Minor: Child death
beforeviolets's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.75
For the rest of my life I will be desperately craving a queer fantasy book set in the world of LOTR and though this is most definitely NOT that (it can't exist until 2050 :/ ), it helped to temporarily fill that void as best it could and for that, I am grateful.
My thoughts on this book aren't particularly deep or poetic but let's get into it anyways. I loved the world that this was set in; it was like a society made up of fantasy religious cults - tell me you don't love that! - and there always seemed to be more to learn and understand about the corruption that is woven deeply into the foundation of each of those groups and the people in charge. All the information and action that was given to the reader felt well-earned, though I think the stakes took a bit of a hit in favor of the discovery and slow unraveling of the secrets of this world by our more innocent and curious narrators.
I absolutely adored Csorwe and found her to be such a strong, and easy-to-connect-with narrator. Even though I couldn't personally relate to her disposition or her personal experiences, I found her to be a reliable touchstone, and was easily able to understand and sympathize with her thoughts and feelings and actions. I loved Shuthmili (!!) and her strength and confidence and hunger for knowledge. Frankly, she's just so cool. Tal just might be my favorite character though. His dialogue was so funny and witty and snarky and I found myself laughing at his one-liners more than once. His narration is addictively charming and I couldn't help but want to spend more time in his mind. I hope we get to see more of his story along with Csorwe's and Shuthmili's in the next one. Thank goodness I only need to wait a month or two.
P.S. Dear Authors: please write more queer adult high fantasy because there is NOT enough and it's all my queer nerd heart craves.
Graphic: Animal death, Toxic relationship, and Violence
Moderate: Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, and Torture