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calebaltair's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
thank you netgalley for providing me with an arc in exchange for an honest review!
first thing i was to start with is that i am SO happy this book is a part of a series!! it was such a strong opener and there was so much room for more and i’m glad there will be!
game of strength and storm is a hercules retelling following gen, who’s father has been arrested for a murder she knows he didn’t commit, castor, who wants to rule over her island but can’t because there’s a law that it has to be passed to the male heir, and pollux, castor’s twin brother who’s in line to rule but he just wants to be with his music. gen and castor get sent on impossible tasks, and whoever completes more gets what they want. it had a slow beginning, but it picked up as soon as the girls got assigned the tasks and started completing them.
every character was compelling, but my favorite had to be castor. i love morally grey women what can i say? she has so much room for development and i’m excited to see where she ends up! you can tell she cares about what she does, but she cares about power more and it was great to read. i really enjoyed her relationship with pollux as well. despite the fact that they’re twins, there is a rivalry there since castor wants what pollux has. despite that, though, they don’t want anything to happen to each other, and i really enjoyed reading that.
as for gen, i really enjoyed her character. she’s a mindworker, so she can control animals. the attachment she grows to them was beautiful to watch and something i could relate to. while i didn’t enjoy the pick me attitude she had toward pollux at first, i enjoyed her character overall. her relationship with pollux was adorable and i can’t wait for more of them! i felt they were a bit forced, but there’s room for development in future books. i thought him already having feelings for her was so cute and i loved his internal dialogue where he freaked out whenever he was around her, if you like boy obsessed, you’d like him. (not gonna lie, i thought her and castor were going to get together at first, but it looks like castor does have a sapphic romance forming and i am SO excited for that)
another thing i really enjoyed was the worldbuliding. worldbuliding in fantasy books can be tricky when you don’t explain it correctly, but i think menard did a wonderful job and i thought it was pretty easy to follow. i’m also fascinated by the way the stormmakers powers work. i thought the way castor has to use vials and pollux had to use his violin were super creative and it captivated me every time. i also enjoyed how gen would travel in a whale’s mouth. i can’t say i’ve seen that before.
watching the trials was my favorite part. i couldn’t decide who i was rooting for! castor and gen both had their own strengths and weaknesses so it was very enjoyable watching them competing and seeing who completed what task and how. (i was on the edge of my seat about the hydra task. i was most looking forward to who would complete that and how)
i can’t wait for the next installment of this book and would recommend it to anyone who is looking for any greek mythology retellings!
first thing i was to start with is that i am SO happy this book is a part of a series!! it was such a strong opener and there was so much room for more and i’m glad there will be!
game of strength and storm is a hercules retelling following gen, who’s father has been arrested for a murder she knows he didn’t commit, castor, who wants to rule over her island but can’t because there’s a law that it has to be passed to the male heir, and pollux, castor’s twin brother who’s in line to rule but he just wants to be with his music. gen and castor get sent on impossible tasks, and whoever completes more gets what they want. it had a slow beginning, but it picked up as soon as the girls got assigned the tasks and started completing them.
every character was compelling, but my favorite had to be castor. i love morally grey women what can i say? she has so much room for development and i’m excited to see where she ends up! you can tell she cares about what she does, but she cares about power more and it was great to read. i really enjoyed her relationship with pollux as well. despite the fact that they’re twins, there is a rivalry there since castor wants what pollux has. despite that, though, they don’t want anything to happen to each other, and i really enjoyed reading that.
as for gen, i really enjoyed her character. she’s a mindworker, so she can control animals. the attachment she grows to them was beautiful to watch and something i could relate to. while i didn’t enjoy the pick me attitude she had toward pollux at first, i enjoyed her character overall. her relationship with pollux was adorable and i can’t wait for more of them! i felt they were a bit forced, but there’s room for development in future books. i thought him already having feelings for her was so cute and i loved his internal dialogue where he freaked out whenever he was around her, if you like boy obsessed, you’d like him. (not gonna lie, i thought her and castor were going to get together at first, but it looks like castor does have a sapphic romance forming and i am SO excited for that)
another thing i really enjoyed was the worldbuliding. worldbuliding in fantasy books can be tricky when you don’t explain it correctly, but i think menard did a wonderful job and i thought it was pretty easy to follow. i’m also fascinated by the way the stormmakers powers work. i thought the way castor has to use vials and pollux had to use his violin were super creative and it captivated me every time. i also enjoyed how gen would travel in a whale’s mouth. i can’t say i’ve seen that before.
watching the trials was my favorite part. i couldn’t decide who i was rooting for! castor and gen both had their own strengths and weaknesses so it was very enjoyable watching them competing and seeing who completed what task and how. (i was on the edge of my seat about the hydra task. i was most looking forward to who would complete that and how)
i can’t wait for the next installment of this book and would recommend it to anyone who is looking for any greek mythology retellings!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
Moderate: Sexism
bookstarbri's review
adventurous
inspiring
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Reading this book was such a treat. It reminded me why I love fantasy so much. From the first page, we enter the author's world and it's just a fascinating place to be. The world building gets started right away and there isn't a huge world building thrown at us right away like in some fantasy. There is a good bit in its early pages but it comes in throughout the book so we aren't bombarded, which I appreciated.
Let me start by saying I adore Gen. I knew I liked Gen right away. She's loyal and maybe not super trusting, but she has principles and sticks by them. She's also adventurous and smart and really caring, so I loved seeing all those parts of her character grow throughout the book. I liked her more and more as she grew more comfortable with her strength and confident as a competitor against Castor. Speaking of Castor...well I didn't feel as amicably for her. I started out really liking her. She was tough and you could tell that this competition was important to her. However, by the end of it I couldn't stand her whatsoever hahah. She was an amazingly developed character. Everything she did made sense and her motivations were clear-- I just hated her. She was selfish, ruthless (and not in the fun way), and didn't know how to take responsibility for her own actions. That said, these qualities made her a worthy adversary to Gen in this competition. The side characters: Pollux, Bale, and our wonderful animals were stunning. Lux is my soft boi king and I will love him forever. Bale is a splendid mess and the animals were a great addition to the story and really highlighted Gen's power!
The plot was great! Quest stories have a tendency to get boring at certain parts in the middle, but this one didn't for the most part! Very fast pacing and exciting action. There were a few aspects that I could've gone without (third act "betrayal" arc was meh and some of Castor's chapters felt a bit slower compared to the rest of the chapters). I also wanted more about the Empresses and their history and how they became these feared beings with so much control when this is a world where pretty much everyone has power of some kind. Finally, I wanted more Pollux. I'm not factoring that into my rating though bc I'm pretty sure there was a good amount of him, I'm just obsessed with him and wanted him everywhere at all times lol.
This is such a phenomenal fantasy. There are a lot of stories with Greek mythology inspiration, but this one still managed to be original and interesting. The story ends very interestingly and with the epilogue, it definitely gives a pretty clear indication of where a sequel would go. I do hope we get that sequel because I imagine it will be even more incredible! Thanks so much to the author, Flux, and NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!
Let me start by saying I adore Gen. I knew I liked Gen right away. She's loyal and maybe not super trusting, but she has principles and sticks by them. She's also adventurous and smart and really caring, so I loved seeing all those parts of her character grow throughout the book. I liked her more and more as she grew more comfortable with her strength and confident as a competitor against Castor. Speaking of Castor...well I didn't feel as amicably for her. I started out really liking her. She was tough and you could tell that this competition was important to her. However, by the end of it I couldn't stand her whatsoever hahah. She was an amazingly developed character. Everything she did made sense and her motivations were clear-- I just hated her. She was selfish, ruthless (and not in the fun way), and didn't know how to take responsibility for her own actions. That said, these qualities made her a worthy adversary to Gen in this competition. The side characters: Pollux, Bale, and our wonderful animals were stunning. Lux is my soft boi king and I will love him forever. Bale is a splendid mess and the animals were a great addition to the story and really highlighted Gen's power!
The plot was great! Quest stories have a tendency to get boring at certain parts in the middle, but this one didn't for the most part! Very fast pacing and exciting action. There were a few aspects that I could've gone without (third act "betrayal" arc was meh and some of Castor's chapters felt a bit slower compared to the rest of the chapters). I also wanted more about the Empresses and their history and how they became these feared beings with so much control when this is a world where pretty much everyone has power of some kind. Finally, I wanted more Pollux. I'm not factoring that into my rating though bc I'm pretty sure there was a good amount of him, I'm just obsessed with him and wanted him everywhere at all times lol.
This is such a phenomenal fantasy. There are a lot of stories with Greek mythology inspiration, but this one still managed to be original and interesting. The story ends very interestingly and with the epilogue, it definitely gives a pretty clear indication of where a sequel would go. I do hope we get that sequel because I imagine it will be even more incredible! Thanks so much to the author, Flux, and NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Excrement, Blood, Animal death, and Violence
Minor: Animal cruelty and Death of parent
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