Reviews

The Spider's War by Daniel Abraham

hankdatank's review against another edition

adventurous funny tense medium-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? Yes

4.5

veraann's review against another edition

3.0

Dagger and Coin Series Book #5

The conclusion to this series. It is a very political fantasy series. Not a whole lot of action. The coin part is the banking aspects and how that played a role in the war. The dagger is the military power of the crown.

It's a solid series, well written. I think I personally would have enjoyed it more as a trilogy, to me it dragged on a bit too much. I also would have liked a little more action, but not really that type of book. I do like how everything connected. The world build was great. The characters felt mediocre to me, but I think with some of them they were supposed to have that feel to them.

You have to read the series in order to understand the characters and what is going on in this world.

storytimed's review against another edition

3.0

Last book in the series! Conclusion was mostly good and everything got a payoff in the way that they needed payoffs, but in hindsight when I think about it not everything like. Makes sense??
BASICALLY:
The Big Twist in this book is that the spider magic over truth and lies were created by a dragon to destabilize human society. When two people with 100% certainty with everything they say meet and disagree, they clash and become incredibly furious and try to kill each other
The spiders put you in an echo chamber where whatever you say is believed by everyone else and also yourself
So when two echo chambers collide......... it's kind of like............... internet discourse
At this point I get Daniel Abraham's metaphor, but I don't really believe what he's saying? Like, for one, I think it's kind of a reductive view on human conflict. Many conflicts don't come from people believing that they're right but from someone wanting something that somebody else has
Or someone simply enjoying conflict for psychological reasons (adulation of peers, assuaging essential insecurity, personality disorder that makes it difficult to not be in conflict)
Cithrin does this whole thing where she wants to end all conflict by pulling every country together with strong economic ties, and convinces Geder to betray the priests by dangling the idea of love and validation in front of him, then kills all the priests and convinces the victims of a racist genocide not to take revenge on their colonizer, or even, like, fight them? 
The last part is probably the most unrealistic to me
Mostly because of the sheer extent of Geder's war crimes... like, the guy kidnaps all the children under twelve to ensure the good behavior of their enslaved parents, and then when a mostly unrelated rebellion breaks out he rounds them up and pushes HALF OF THEM OFF A CLIFF
Like, come on
Fortunately Geder conveniently dies, but the ending hinges a lot on the symbolism of the New Child King Aster, who presumably will not embark on a genocidal campaign of imperialism
However, I'm a bit wary of political happy endings that hinge on having a good king?? Like, this is the kid who said, two books ago, "It's not like the Timzinae are people." because Geder was literally raising him to be racist 
HOWEVER, I do like where everyone's individual arc ends!
Marcus gets a good moment where the main spider guy is telling him "you have already lost, there's no hope fighting" and he manages to resist it because of his DEPRESSION. Can't make a guy lose hope if he never had it in the first place 
Cithrin has come into her own power as a banker and also the main driver of economic change in the region
Geder fucking dies and never changes lmfao... I think it's so funny that every time you're hoping that he'll see the error of his ways, but every time he just becomes increasingly More Geder
And the dragon gets betrayed by Marcus, who does not much like the idea of dragons rising again to rule the world, but escapes and gets a And The Adventure Continues ending with Marcus hunting him
And Clara is back with her family, even though she did straight up kill one of her sons lmfao

brendalovesbooks's review against another edition

I've made it about halfway through this one, but I'm out of library renewals and it's due today. In the nearly 3 months I've had it checked out, I've not been able to finish it. It's just not grabbing me, which is really sad because I loved the start of this series. I may revisit it later, though.

cmbohn's review

adventurous emotional mysterious slow-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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Genocide, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Slavery, Violence, and War

tadster20's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

wipqozn's review against another edition

2.0

Although the conclusion was good, the book itself wasn't all that good. With the exception of Gedar, none of the characters go throguh any character development, and not all that much happens, until the last 100 pages. I really had to force myself to get through this. I feel the series would have been much better off if it was wrapped up in four books instead of five. It would have required some major editing, but there just wasn't enough material to justify a fifth book.

noranne's review against another edition

4.0

Good without being great. Some things paid off well, some kind of meh, and some left hanging. Not my favorite book of the series, but not my least favorite either. There were some great sections where my heart was racing and I couldn't put it down, and several (especially in the first third or so) where I had to kind of push through because not much was happening except monologues and thinking and posturing. I continue to enjoy Daniel Abraham as an author and look forward to his future projects. Overall, The Dagger and The Coin is an interesting series with some cool ideas and fascinating characters but at times a dawdling plot and overly pat.

gsember's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny hopeful reflective sad medium-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? Yes

4.75

what an utterly epic way to end this beautifully woven-together series. Contains some of
my favorite characters I’ve ever read. 

tobinlopes's review against another edition

4.0

The concluding installment in this great series. Because there were a lot of loose ends to tie up the first half of the book sets up all the conclusions. But boy, does this end well. It's not Mockingjay with its statement about PTSD and the effects of war but it does conclude strongly.

I'd say more but I'd ruin it for you.

I gave it 8/10 on my personal scale.

-tpl