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4.14 AVERAGE
4.14 AVERAGE
The Bitter Twins was not as good as I was expecting it to be. The book splits off many of its characters in what felt like directionless ventures without a unifying throughline. The characters then spend the rest of the book meandering along until again unifying at the last tenth of the book for the final confrontation. It’s only saving point with why I still gave it a pretty good rating was because of certain characters and that the book still elicited some tears from me.
Tor and Noon go off on a quest for answers about some of Ebora’s history to help the war beasts find their missing connection. These two really need to “define the relationship”, but I did enjoy their interactions with each other and their war beasts.
I was certainly disappointed to find that we get a lot more Hestillion in this book. I already did not like her from the first book, and I liked her even less here. I don’t think we needed to see that much of her perspective, and short interludes would have been more than enough (and possibly would have created more tension and a surprise twist).
By far my favorites in this book were Aldasair and Bern. They were just such a precious couple as the strong human Bern was able to light up something undefinable within the reserved Eboran Aldasair. I actually wish we had seen more of them. Same goes for a newly introduced character Eri, an Eboran child who served mostly as a plot device that I managed to connect with.
As for Vintage and Nanthema, let’s just say that Jen Williams seems to have had no idea what to do with them as a couple because Nanthema was just a pointless character with nothing to do and served to bring the entire book down whenever she appeared. She did not add anything to the story.
The Bitter Twins suffers as a middle book that lacked direction but was saved by the characters that we have grown to love from the previous installment.
Tor and Noon go off on a quest for answers about some of Ebora’s history to help the war beasts find their missing connection. These two really need to “define the relationship”, but I did enjoy their interactions with each other and their war beasts.
I was certainly disappointed to find that we get a lot more Hestillion in this book. I already did not like her from the first book, and I liked her even less here. I don’t think we needed to see that much of her perspective, and short interludes would have been more than enough (and possibly would have created more tension and a surprise twist).
By far my favorites in this book were Aldasair and Bern. They were just such a precious couple as the strong human Bern was able to light up something undefinable within the reserved Eboran Aldasair. I actually wish we had seen more of them. Same goes for a newly introduced character Eri, an Eboran child who served mostly as a plot device that I managed to connect with.
As for Vintage and Nanthema, let’s just say that Jen Williams seems to have had no idea what to do with them as a couple because Nanthema was just a pointless character with nothing to do and served to bring the entire book down whenever she appeared. She did not add anything to the story.
The Bitter Twins suffers as a middle book that lacked direction but was saved by the characters that we have grown to love from the previous installment.
This was a very slow start but it eventually built up and that’s when I couldn’t put the book down. We dive deeper into the world and see things from both sides, at least to a degree.
My biggest issue with this book was that everyone got a bad feeling about someone or something near to where they were at but none of them acted on it or became attentive and alert; it’s like oh hey there’s a red flag, let me confirm it’s a red flag but fully ignore it and move on. So this made the story quite hard to enjoy, unlike the first book.
Noon is still my favorite; she can do no wrong in my eyes.
Tor really tested my patience on this one.
Also can’t believe we got introduced to a bunch of new people and then they kill the one I was enjoying the most.
My biggest issue with this book was that everyone got a bad feeling about someone or something near to where they were at but none of them acted on it or became attentive and alert; it’s like oh hey there’s a red flag, let me confirm it’s a red flag but fully ignore it and move on. So this made the story quite hard to enjoy, unlike the first book.
Noon is still my favorite; she can do no wrong in my eyes.
Tor really tested my patience on this one.
Also can’t believe we got introduced to a bunch of new people and then they kill the one I was enjoying the most.
This series, man. ::shakes head::
Yeah, I kept reading it. But I had to keep putting it down for a while. I think a lot of it was because of the behavior of one character. You know that thing that happens when Yeah. I find that painful to read about.
I struggled through. Note that these are problems in MY head, not book problems per se. Ever since the beginning of COVID, there are some things I just can't bear. Loss and betrayal are not things I want to read about.
But it was written and I wanted to know what happened, so I kept reading.
Yeah, I kept reading it. But I had to keep putting it down for a while. I think a lot of it was because of the behavior of one character. You know that thing that happens when
Spoiler
you take one step down a bad road, then another, and another, and suddenly you are fully committed to the bad road? And then you're faced with what looks like an unwinnable war with an overwhelming enemy?I struggled through. Note that these are problems in MY head, not book problems per se. Ever since the beginning of COVID, there are some things I just can't bear. Loss and betrayal are not things I want to read about.
But it was written and I wanted to know what happened, so I kept reading.
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:
Yes
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
It's remarkably bad. I read the first one, but....it's bad! I want to like it, but I don't.
Everything is a mess, the stakes just got impossibly higher, and everything is happening so much !!!! Idk where the finale is going to go, but I am drained already just thinking about how much it's going to hurt me.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
The book is a good follow up to the first. The story digs deeper into the history of Saarn and of the invaders, instilling the same sense of creeping Lovecraftian doom. The vistas are equally capable of driving anyone mad, the decrepitude of Ebora is equally moldy, and the crawlers are equally eldritch. We get good looks at the queen, the behemoths are not only well explored but full of exciting secrets and surprises etc. Vintage is still Vintage and new characters are developed nicely while some others turn fully villainous. New areas are being explored, including origin island. The plot isn't tight and possibly there's too much room lost on boring character development that feels like slow pacing.
The pacing and characters sliding into worse versions of themselves made me disinterested in how this ends. There's no reason why Hestillion is doing what she's doing other than that she's stupid and plot reasons. So her character fails miserably.
I didn't like how some characters degenerated into worse versions of themselves instead of improving as the plot goes on. It doesn't feel that the magic system is tight and can be explained in a coherent way - basically we'll never get the explanations we desire. Especially the part with the creators and the tree was a blow to my suspension of disbelief.
The audio had real problems with the narration. While the narrator's voice is very nice and he's doing the ladies, especially Vintage, very well, he's made some very poor choices. The tall, slim, cultivated, lazy Tor sounds like a giant stupid oaf or possibly Shrek because the narrator lowers his voice to do him. I think the narrator's actual voice would have been so much better because it sounds refined.
There have been times when the narrator is yelling and then whispering. This is very inconvenient and I had to fiddle with the volume a lot especially when listening on speakers at night. I get the idea of immersion but there is such a thing as pretending to whisper or yell without changing volume so much as to make it unusable.
The worst by far are the dragon voices. They all sound like annoyed people with serious mental development delays. They speak slowly while bellowing horribly even when they're discussing trivial matters. Vostok, a lady, still sounds like a man. Just no.
I can't tell if the pacing was a bit slow or it was the narration. Everything happens slowly and solemnly without any good reason. It makes the story hard to follow and feel like it's moving at a glacial pace. The narration doesn't feel quick and engaging, rather than like a tedious history book. There's no reason to read description at a slower pace than dialogue.
It's a shame because the narrator has really nice voice and that accent could be used to spice things up a lot. With different stylistic choices, the narration could have been superb. It's possible the narrator is trying to copy Michael Kramer which is a mistake because Kramer sounds like a boring self important person who loves the sound of their own voice. He may have been good for children who grew up in the 80, when people had a lot more patience than nowadays and slow boring books by Tad Williams were all the rage but today those books and that narration style are not acceptable anymore.
The pacing and characters sliding into worse versions of themselves made me disinterested in how this ends. There's no reason why Hestillion is doing what she's doing other than that she's stupid and plot reasons. So her character fails miserably.
I didn't like how some characters degenerated into worse versions of themselves instead of improving as the plot goes on. It doesn't feel that the magic system is tight and can be explained in a coherent way - basically we'll never get the explanations we desire. Especially the part with the creators and the tree was a blow to my suspension of disbelief.
The audio had real problems with the narration. While the narrator's voice is very nice and he's doing the ladies, especially Vintage, very well, he's made some very poor choices. The tall, slim, cultivated, lazy Tor sounds like a giant stupid oaf or possibly Shrek because the narrator lowers his voice to do him. I think the narrator's actual voice would have been so much better because it sounds refined.
There have been times when the narrator is yelling and then whispering. This is very inconvenient and I had to fiddle with the volume a lot especially when listening on speakers at night. I get the idea of immersion but there is such a thing as pretending to whisper or yell without changing volume so much as to make it unusable.
The worst by far are the dragon voices. They all sound like annoyed people with serious mental development delays. They speak slowly while bellowing horribly even when they're discussing trivial matters. Vostok, a lady, still sounds like a man. Just no.
I can't tell if the pacing was a bit slow or it was the narration. Everything happens slowly and solemnly without any good reason. It makes the story hard to follow and feel like it's moving at a glacial pace. The narration doesn't feel quick and engaging, rather than like a tedious history book. There's no reason to read description at a slower pace than dialogue.
It's a shame because the narrator has really nice voice and that accent could be used to spice things up a lot. With different stylistic choices, the narration could have been superb. It's possible the narrator is trying to copy Michael Kramer which is a mistake because Kramer sounds like a boring self important person who loves the sound of their own voice. He may have been good for children who grew up in the 80, when people had a lot more patience than nowadays and slow boring books by Tad Williams were all the rage but today those books and that narration style are not acceptable anymore.