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kappafrog'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
There is a wide variety of characters here of different shades of moral greyness. At first I really didn't like Sabran, but she grew on me over time; and as the book went on, I felt more mixed about Ead. Tané grew on me some as the story went on too. All of the characters in the book, including the many queer and female characters, were complex and multi-layered. Loth, Margret and Chassar were the most consistently likable, while Roos was the hardest to like but still sympathetic at times. Even the disgusting Kalyba was not a one-dimensional villain. The Priory was not what I expected, and I loved the evocation of different landscapes and cultures with clear inspirations from our world. The book's length felt merited since there were a lot of different political, magical, and character aspects to explore. I felt like my investment in the story and its characters really paid off. Shannon is not afraid to kill her characters, so there were real stakes at every point in the book. The finale was epic and also gave us enough time to spend with each character in the aftermath of the climax.
All in all, this was a great re-introduction to epic fantasy for me. I'd definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys high fantasy.
Graphic: Blood, Infidelity, Violence, War, Death, Religious bigotry, Pregnancy, Infertility, Deportation, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Miscarriage, and Murder
Moderate: Pandemic/Epidemic, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Incest, Medical content, Classism, Gore, Gun violence, Torture, and Animal death
Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, and Child death
kelisabeth's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Abandonment, Child abuse, Child death, Classism, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Deportation, Infidelity, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, Self harm, Sexual content, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Pandemic/Epidemic, Pregnancy, Racism, Domestic abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Incest, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Violence, War, Animal cruelty, Chronic illness, Infertility, Panic attacks/disorders, Addiction, Animal death, Blood, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder
filipa_maia'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? It's complicated
5.0
Despite the heavy world-building, the long list of characters, the very different settings that are described, this book is extremely easy to read. You can easily fall in love with these characters even though you are constantly aware of their flaws.
In the end I was so scared that my favorite characters were going to die that I didn't want to finish the book. That's how much I started to like these fictional people (and non-people too).
I can't wait to read more stories in this world.
Graphic: Medical content, Violence, War, Death, Abandonment, Grief, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Animal cruelty, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Pregnancy, Miscarriage, Classism, Death of parent, Religious bigotry, Child death, Sexual content, Blood, and Murder
Moderate: Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Gun violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Confinement, and Vomit
Minor: Infidelity
emmahe'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
3.0
Graphic: Miscarriage, Violence, War, Death, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Murder, Pregnancy, Blood, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, and Religious bigotry
Moderate: Grief and Sexual content
Minor: Incest and Infidelity
imds's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Graphic: Gun violence, Animal cruelty, Torture, Incest, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Death, Kidnapping, Colonisation, Dementia, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Death of parent, Grief, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Violence, Religious bigotry, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Body horror, Confinement, Pandemic/Epidemic, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, War, and Xenophobia
shlymiller'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? No
4.75
Graphic: Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Infertility, and Miscarriage
10stormlight's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Death, Infertility, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Miscarriage
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Gore, and Gun violence
Minor: Death of parent
takarakei'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
4.5
- EPIC fantasy
- sapphic slow burn
- dragons
- fate/destiny
- battle against 'evil'
I honestly highly recommend reading A Day of Fallen Night first if you haven't. I believe SS recommends that you try and it does make ADOFN a bit of an uphill struggle with all the world building, but it pays off when you get to TPOTOT and you're just breezing on through (well... it's easier at least)!
My biggest critique of this book is the Niclays POV - I just did not care enough about him as a character and I felt his was the weakest POV and that side of the story could have been told differently. Also slight pacing issues as the end feels a bit rushed and doesn't match the pace of the rest of the book.
Graphic: Blood, Violence, Miscarriage, and Death
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, Animal death, Infertility, Confinement, and Murder
Minor: Gun violence, Alcoholism, War, Infidelity, Pandemic/Epidemic, Lesbophobia, and Mental illness
dragonaion's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
I have heard many say that is is an "epic fantasy" that is better if not similar to Game of Thrones or Tolkein, but I was sorely disappointed. The story was pleasant, although riddled with clichés like a magical dragon-slaying sword (even sounding like Excalibur), evil witch doing witchy things (including making the previously mentioned sword), Western winged dragons are bad, and Eastern serpant dragons are good. The tone of the book was also too formal for it to be engaging; it felt as if the "court parlance" of hiding ones emotions were how everyone talked normally, so I felt a lot of emotional and tender moments were lackluster and fell flat. With certain scenes in mind... I feel the author is straight, could not really empathize or relate to the characters, and/or was too timid to write them with more than "casual interest". I've read romance trash that had more engaging and written intimacy scenes.
Then comes the tempo of events; I've read books recently that brilliantly show how plots are suddenly revealed from loose threads, and this story felt as though a series of "random" events fell on each page one after another without laying seeds for the reader to follow and "suddenly" connect. The villain of the story was only mentioned in a story between characters halfway through the book, it appeared that she came out of nowhere to suddenly be important, so I had very little connection or empathy. It also felt that key bits of the story were done for in-the-moment drama and even if there was a plot explanation later, it seems to fall on its face. It almost reads as though the author had writer's block and suddenly found a way to loop things together once she let the story sit for a bit.
Lastly, the novel is very female-centric with a greater female cast of characters than male. While otherwise fine, they failed to make themselves special; the main characters seemed to "fall into" their roll and did not leave any lasting impressions, so it felt they were "quantity over quality" characters. Even having finished the book, I'm starting to forget some of their names.
Moderate: Sexual content, Violence, Death of parent, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Gore
Minor: Medical content, Gun violence, Pregnancy, Torture, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, and War
This is a fantasy, but the premise is a war against an evil dragon and warring religions.tyr2607'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
4.5
Graphic: Death, Child death, and Violence
Moderate: Chronic illness, Death of parent, Child death, Hate crime, Gun violence, Infertility, Mental illness, Murder, Pregnancy, and Terminal illness