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4.1 AVERAGE
4.1 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
dark
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
adventurous
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Good fun, but nothing special and not wonderfully written.
adventurous
emotional
funny
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Interesting to see the development of fantasy and one of the older examples of tropes we now see as genre staples.
The plot is enjoyable and follows a more winding path than might be expected. The narrative often holds the reader at a distance from the characters, particularly at the start of part 2, so it's less overtly emotional than much modern fantasy is.
Unfortunately, though somewhat expectedly, the female characters barely exist and when they do they serve more as accessories for the male characters than as characters in their own right. ParticularlyKatala .
The plot is enjoyable and follows a more winding path than might be expected. The narrative often holds the reader at a distance from the characters, particularly at the start of part 2, so it's less overtly emotional than much modern fantasy is.
Unfortunately, though somewhat expectedly, the female characters barely exist and when they do they serve more as accessories for the male characters than as characters in their own right. Particularly
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Generic Nice Boys go on adventures.
Time passes in big chunks and then people make declarations about how characters have developed but the supposed development isn't really that apparent in their following behaviour.
Many times you'll read a sentence along the lines of "Normally there would be a risk of X but because of magic Y or Nice Boy's Z, it's not a problem" which just slows the story down and adds little to nothing.
Dialogue is often clunky, this is probably a stylistic thing with classic fantasy and courtly behaviour so it's not terrible but it's not for me.
All of this made me find the book a bit tiring but otherwise fine, the issue I really noticed that made me put the book down and sigh several time is the women.
With one tiny (and I mean tiny) exception, any woman who has a name in this book exists only to be an object of attraction for a Nice Boy, the woman invariably then feels the same way and they provide the Nice Boys with utterly uncomplicated relationships.
This section is a spoiler:
There is a point in this book where a woman (a Queen) has become legitimately afraid of one of the Boys because he's turning evil. She is then told she must have a relationship with him so that he'll stick around and maybe not turn evil, she agrees. There is maybe a sentence spent describing how she feels at being forced to place herself in a dangerous and abusive relationship where she has lost all agency. Later, the plan works and Evil Boy goes back to being Nice Boy. The woman then throws her arms around her abuser, announces how happy she is that he's back to normal (a version of him she'd barely known but is obviously happy to be with because all Nice Boy attraction must be reciprocated) and they continue the relationship with nothing else said. If it wasn't for my reading challenge, the size of this book and the sunk cost fallacy I would have stopped reading at that moment. I should have.
Time passes in big chunks and then people make declarations about how characters have developed but the supposed development isn't really that apparent in their following behaviour.
Many times you'll read a sentence along the lines of "Normally there would be a risk of X but because of magic Y or Nice Boy's Z, it's not a problem" which just slows the story down and adds little to nothing.
Dialogue is often clunky, this is probably a stylistic thing with classic fantasy and courtly behaviour so it's not terrible but it's not for me.
All of this made me find the book a bit tiring but otherwise fine, the issue I really noticed that made me put the book down and sigh several time is the women.
With one tiny (and I mean tiny) exception, any woman who has a name in this book exists only to be an object of attraction for a Nice Boy, the woman invariably then feels the same way and they provide the Nice Boys with utterly uncomplicated relationships.
This section is a spoiler:
There is a point in this book where a woman (a Queen) has become legitimately afraid of one of the Boys because he's turning evil. She is then told she must have a relationship with him so that he'll stick around and maybe not turn evil, she agrees. There is maybe a sentence spent describing how she feels at being forced to place herself in a dangerous and abusive relationship where she has lost all agency. Later, the plan works and Evil Boy goes back to being Nice Boy. The woman then throws her arms around her abuser, announces how happy she is that he's back to normal (a version of him she'd barely known but is obviously happy to be with because all Nice Boy attraction must be reciprocated) and they continue the relationship with nothing else said. If it wasn't for my reading challenge, the size of this book and the sunk cost fallacy I would have stopped reading at that moment. I should have.
I really like the way this series begins and I am looking forward to all of the books in this series - I am a huge fan of Sagas, and the goods ones are the ones that follow you forever - I picked up the first book after looking for it for months, and I couldn't put it down - that is a great beginning to a great series in my opinion.
adventurous
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
inspiring
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