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hellhound_slayer's review
adventurous
dark
reflective
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? No
5.0
yak_attak's review
2.0
The first Sun Eater novella is something of a nothingburger. We get a chance to see Ruocchio flex a his muscles by switching to a different PoV, and he offers us a pretty dull Crispin, not much more than Hadrian Two. The perspective into what's been going on at "home" is neat, but once again the side characters are pretty flat, so even the largest implications and consequences here aren't too exciting. The plot's a standard "someone is out for revenge and the hero gets in over his head trying to survive", with the twist that Crispin's battle takes place in Generic Medieval Catholic-for-some-unknown-reason village, and we get some pretty banal writing about belief in God.
The writing itself is mixed, generally Ruocchio can write some great sentences if he concentrates, but on the whole he kinda forgets what he's up to, and spaces out - this is never more obvious than the second half of the novella where we have one solid big battle in which not at single exciting fight happens - Everything is too specific, too slow, combat just isn't this style's forte, and we get bogged down over and over for pages as we get each little encounter described. Cool fight, you can see Ruocchio playing it out in his head like a movie or something, but.... but no, not interesting at all to read.
If you're starved for Sun Eater, go ahead and read this, could be a fun little side thing - but in any other case, it's an easy skip.
The writing itself is mixed, generally Ruocchio can write some great sentences if he concentrates, but on the whole he kinda forgets what he's up to, and spaces out - this is never more obvious than the second half of the novella where we have one solid big battle in which not at single exciting fight happens - Everything is too specific, too slow, combat just isn't this style's forte, and we get bogged down over and over for pages as we get each little encounter described. Cool fight, you can see Ruocchio playing it out in his head like a movie or something, but.... but no, not interesting at all to read.
If you're starved for Sun Eater, go ahead and read this, could be a fun little side thing - but in any other case, it's an easy skip.
akazen's review against another edition
5.0
Crispin is a fascinating character and I appreciate the author not simply making him an annoying evil caricature but an actual developed character who went under some character development in this small book
4.75
4.75
andrew23825's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
mightyjor's review against another edition
3.0
3.5/5 stars
It was a fun read. I was really interested to know what happened to this main character after book one of sun eater and I really liked seeing where his character went. It's interesting to see how he is both similar to Hadrian in some ways but wildly different in another. It's always a bit fun following a heroic type who is not actually a hero. Like one minute I'm cheering them on for being brave and saving someone and feeling horrible for having to kill someone, then he says how it's not like killing slaves because he feels so much worse, and then you remember - "oh yeah, this guy is kind of a scumbag". But that's really fun to read.
Ultimately though there's not much that happens that I haven't seen done in other stories.
It was a fun read. I was really interested to know what happened to this main character after book one of sun eater and I really liked seeing where his character went. It's interesting to see how he is both similar to Hadrian in some ways but wildly different in another. It's always a bit fun following a heroic type who is not actually a hero. Like one minute I'm cheering them on for being brave and saving someone and feeling horrible for having to kill someone, then he says how it's not like killing slaves because he feels so much worse, and then you remember - "oh yeah, this guy is kind of a scumbag". But that's really fun to read.
Ultimately though there's not much that happens that I haven't seen done in other stories.
jack_lightning's review
fast-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
4.0
morgan_mcleod's review
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
mjt2289's review
adventurous
inspiring
fast-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
4.0
bentheoverlordsbooks's review against another edition
5.0
I really liked this novella, and I hope we get more of Crispin in the later books because I really like his POV and the relationship he has to Hadrian. I also like the way it expands the lore of this universe while at the same time giving us this super fast paced fun story. Overall really really liked this, and will be starting book 2 asap.