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3.95 AVERAGE
3.95 AVERAGE
adventurous
funny
inspiring
mysterious
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
It may not be the best book per say, but it was really entertaining and all the characters are very loveable!
adventurous
emotional
tense
medium-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
UPD: This author was outed as serial harasser, so even though I liked this book I wouldn't recommend you to support this author.
Original review:
As I said on twitter WHY NO ONE IS TALKING ABOUT HOW GOOD THIS BOOK IS???
I mean it has anime vibes and super diverse, with bitchin' characters, eastern culture and cuisine, but isn't medieval? all my favorite things! it has magic, it has animals, it has guns, it has technology! and friendship! and kissing! and it's new adult fantasy! amazing!!!!!
Original review:
As I said on twitter WHY NO ONE IS TALKING ABOUT HOW GOOD THIS BOOK IS???
I mean it has anime vibes and super diverse, with bitchin' characters, eastern culture and cuisine, but isn't medieval? all my favorite things! it has magic, it has animals, it has guns, it has technology! and friendship! and kissing! and it's new adult fantasy! amazing!!!!!
I found this book at a thrift store and saw the top review tag read “Pokémon combined with Avatar the last Airbender”. Never have I grabbed a book so fast. And I actually read it right away instead of adding it to my huge TBR pile.
I did not expect to like this book SO much. At the beginning I struggled a bit to follow the world building, differentiating each culture from another. Sometimes a new one just seemed causally mentioned I had to do a look back to remember who was from where and the politics etc. Honestly I think a map would have been an easy solution for this. I do love maps in books. But eventually I managed to piece it all together and then I really fell into the story.
The plot itself was great, easy to follow and straight forward with enough turns, action and political intrigue to keep one hooked. There was a surprise twist as a cherry on top.
The characters are what really sold me. There are four main characters (kind of 5). They each had very clear distinctive personalities and balanced/complimented each other nicely. The one I thought I wouldn’t like ended up being one of my favourite, and I never groaned when I got to a chapter that was someone’s specific view point.
The world itself is great. I was hesitant when I realized it was a fantasy world with more modern technology, as I’m more of ancient medieval kind of fantasy myself, but didn’t end up having any negative feelings towards it. It worked well for the world the author created.
The shade pacting of course was my favourite, but I also would have been interested in a Dahal character to learn more about their hex abilities. Their way of speaking in third person was a bit odd for me but I feel like a story that dove more into their culture by this author would make it feel more normative.
Overall a 4.5/5 read!
I did not expect to like this book SO much. At the beginning I struggled a bit to follow the world building, differentiating each culture from another. Sometimes a new one just seemed causally mentioned I had to do a look back to remember who was from where and the politics etc. Honestly I think a map would have been an easy solution for this. I do love maps in books. But eventually I managed to piece it all together and then I really fell into the story.
The plot itself was great, easy to follow and straight forward with enough turns, action and political intrigue to keep one hooked. There was a surprise twist as a cherry on top.
The characters are what really sold me. There are four main characters (kind of 5). They each had very clear distinctive personalities and balanced/complimented each other nicely. The one I thought I wouldn’t like ended up being one of my favourite, and I never groaned when I got to a chapter that was someone’s specific view point.
The world itself is great. I was hesitant when I realized it was a fantasy world with more modern technology, as I’m more of ancient medieval kind of fantasy myself, but didn’t end up having any negative feelings towards it. It worked well for the world the author created.
The shade pacting of course was my favourite, but I also would have been interested in a Dahal character to learn more about their hex abilities. Their way of speaking in third person was a bit odd for me but I feel like a story that dove more into their culture by this author would make it feel more normative.
Overall a 4.5/5 read!
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
sad
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
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
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
In the interest of full disclosure, I want to thank Goodreads for the free ARC, which allows me to review this before its publication date. This a wonderful, intoxicating read that was quick, despite the length. I took longer to read due t life interruptions than normal. The book flowed well, and the pace of action kept my attention focused.
Starting with critical comments or observations:
First, I’d prefer to give it a 4.5 rather than 5, because this book NEEDS maps. I get that this is supposed to be an alternate Asian setting, but it is not clear what countries compose different areas. If you do a book like this, include at least a rough area map. Second slight down check was comparable travel times... I don’t think the timelines for the different traveling characters would line up as described in the book. So, time and methods of travel became a distraction. When you include methods of travel from ancient to current time, you should not be traveling between countries or regions in similar time frames. Third, and this is more of a struggle to communicate on my part, but it seems like the book is shoved into a male hating narrative. The significant male characters are flawed, corrupt, or slaved to the wishes of female characters. The primary male character was introduced as very abrasive and abruptly changed to apologetic and diplomatic. The three other primary chapters are female, with two of the three starting from struggling families, which led them to find their own independent strength. The relationships introduced in this book appear to develop unbelievably fast. Yes, I understand love in first sight, but for people from such different backgrounds to become romantically involved so quickly, I had a hard time suspending disbelief for that.
This leads to my positive comments.
First, the author was excellent at examining the various negative social costs of war and sexism. Second, the author referenced some spirit magic, which differed between different countries. Some reviewers criticized the way the author presented the magic, but I think he hit it on the mark. My first thought was not Pokémon, unlike what one reviewer complained. Third, I appreciated the powerful, confident, and independent female characters. I just don’t think you have to eliminate similar male characters; rather, I think you can have both. The book introduced both a bisexual male primary character and two homosexual female characters. The sexual activity was story driven and was not needlessly or excessively graphic. Fourth, I liked the different cultures developed by the author.
The author wove a complex story, involving four primary characters and a whole bucketful of tertiary characters, immersed in a war torn, raw Asian set. I was not bothered by the book length, and look forward to another book with these characters in this world, as long as maps are included in the next book.
Starting with critical comments or observations:
First, I’d prefer to give it a 4.5 rather than 5, because this book NEEDS maps. I get that this is supposed to be an alternate Asian setting, but it is not clear what countries compose different areas. If you do a book like this, include at least a rough area map. Second slight down check was comparable travel times... I don’t think the timelines for the different traveling characters would line up as described in the book. So, time and methods of travel became a distraction. When you include methods of travel from ancient to current time, you should not be traveling between countries or regions in similar time frames. Third, and this is more of a struggle to communicate on my part, but it seems like the book is shoved into a male hating narrative. The significant male characters are flawed, corrupt, or slaved to the wishes of female characters. The primary male character was introduced as very abrasive and abruptly changed to apologetic and diplomatic. The three other primary chapters are female, with two of the three starting from struggling families, which led them to find their own independent strength. The relationships introduced in this book appear to develop unbelievably fast. Yes, I understand love in first sight, but for people from such different backgrounds to become romantically involved so quickly, I had a hard time suspending disbelief for that.
This leads to my positive comments.
First, the author was excellent at examining the various negative social costs of war and sexism. Second, the author referenced some spirit magic, which differed between different countries. Some reviewers criticized the way the author presented the magic, but I think he hit it on the mark. My first thought was not Pokémon, unlike what one reviewer complained. Third, I appreciated the powerful, confident, and independent female characters. I just don’t think you have to eliminate similar male characters; rather, I think you can have both. The book introduced both a bisexual male primary character and two homosexual female characters. The sexual activity was story driven and was not needlessly or excessively graphic. Fourth, I liked the different cultures developed by the author.
The author wove a complex story, involving four primary characters and a whole bucketful of tertiary characters, immersed in a war torn, raw Asian set. I was not bothered by the book length, and look forward to another book with these characters in this world, as long as maps are included in the next book.
I heard about how the author harassed people in the publishing industry and was turned off of it. I also found it overly YA-tropey and realized that I have grown out of a lot of YA, lol.
adventurous
dark
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I thought the magic system was really cool in this book and would love to see more of it. I liked the aspect where the revolution has already happened and now the people are trying to figure out what comes next. I also thought the twist near the end with the "big bad" was pretty fun and unexpected. I thought that at times the countries in the book were a bit too much like real world countries or at least it was a little too on the nose, but I think that was probably part of the point lol. I also wish that we could have gotten more insight into the non-shade powers of the Dahali. Otherwise I really enjoyed this book, the ending was satisfying and would definitely check out some of this authors other work!
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes