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michael_benavidez's review
5.0
Picking up where the last book (Deification) left off, Dean begins a sort of world building/character building story that is filled to the brim with prose that breathes with each individual character's personality, and shadows over the world with a deep dark atmosphere that sets the doomed tone of the world.
Where the sort of Mad Max landscape of the first book felt metaphorical in its descriptions, the author sets it in stone, bringing it to life as a real world with a real mythos behind it. Having let Deification set the stage, this book feels like a deeper exploration of the villainy present, while setting up several new ideas and themes that will hopefully be paid on in the next book.
In reading this, I noticed that in a way GTS is sort of two books. The first half is a character building exercise of its key players. Torrence receives an absolute stunning amount of depth, that leaves the readers head scratching as to what is the side of her. Continuing on with the main point of view coming from Torrence, we see her as evil as ever, but are also introduced to a rather tender side that still has me questioning the validity of it. War is given exceptional more time in his POV, growing into conflict that brings us to the second "book" that is here.
While the first half may linger and build the characters, its done so in conjunction with the plot. War takes up the majority of the second book, still allowing us glimpses of the others, and its here that the story begins to pick up steam into what the book was aiming for. Moving at decent pace, it gives room to follow and question where and why things are going as they are. There's not much more I can say without going into spoilers, but suffice to say it works fantastically.
The prose is fantastic and an art in drawing the world in intricate details, but some may not enjoy just how much it goes. The ending line is a highlight for me, breaking my heart and leaving me craving more.
Where the sort of Mad Max landscape of the first book felt metaphorical in its descriptions, the author sets it in stone, bringing it to life as a real world with a real mythos behind it. Having let Deification set the stage, this book feels like a deeper exploration of the villainy present, while setting up several new ideas and themes that will hopefully be paid on in the next book.
In reading this, I noticed that in a way GTS is sort of two books. The first half is a character building exercise of its key players. Torrence receives an absolute stunning amount of depth, that leaves the readers head scratching as to what is the side of her. Continuing on with the main point of view coming from Torrence, we see her as evil as ever, but are also introduced to a rather tender side that still has me questioning the validity of it. War is given exceptional more time in his POV, growing into conflict that brings us to the second "book" that is here.
While the first half may linger and build the characters, its done so in conjunction with the plot. War takes up the majority of the second book, still allowing us glimpses of the others, and its here that the story begins to pick up steam into what the book was aiming for. Moving at decent pace, it gives room to follow and question where and why things are going as they are. There's not much more I can say without going into spoilers, but suffice to say it works fantastically.
The prose is fantastic and an art in drawing the world in intricate details, but some may not enjoy just how much it goes. The ending line is a highlight for me, breaking my heart and leaving me craving more.
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