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misterwisp's review against another edition
adventurous
lighthearted
tense
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? It's complicated
3.5
This is a fantasy adventure book. It has a similar vibe as the Locke Lamora book series by Scott Lynch, minus that degree of dark trauma. Things start a bit slow and then pick up for the rest of the book. For how long it is the pages went by quickly.
Ardor Benn is a criminal con artist extraordinaire who is skilled at deception, heists, cons etc. He has a supporting companion to provide muscle, backup, and witty banter as needed. The setting is a chain of islands ruled by a king. The level of technology is mainly pistols and horse carriages with a magic system for good measure. The unique magic aspect of the setting is dragon "grit" that I won't spoil but which was certainly a unique concept. Ardor Benn is hired to run a grand ruse deception that goes sideways and gets more complicated with significantly higher stakes than he planned for and he must find a way through all of it.
The strong points are the action, the fast pace, the tone, and the characters. There are some epic action sequences regularly enough to keep things interesting, and even though some common tropes are at play the the characters are still compelling. It's a comparatively lighthearted and easy to read book which was a nice change of pace for how heavy fantasy can be sometimes.
It was a bit hard to buy into the dragon grit concept. Avoiding spoilers of how dragon grit works, but it was hard to suspend disbelief enough to accept something that that could provide such a backbone to the functioning of a society and be readily available at all times whenever needed in copious amounts. Especially with how difficult it is to get which is shown in the book. A couple times things also felt a bit too convenient for the characters, like they succeeded more because the plot required them to in that moment than because they were doing it on their own.
Even so, if you can look past things like that it's still a fun book and was easy to like. It has a solid and satisfying ending with no cliffhangers leading into the sequel. You could read this and enjoy it, but still not feel bound to finish the series unless you wanted to. Everything is resolved by the end of this one.
Ardor Benn is a criminal con artist extraordinaire who is skilled at deception, heists, cons etc. He has a supporting companion to provide muscle, backup, and witty banter as needed. The setting is a chain of islands ruled by a king. The level of technology is mainly pistols and horse carriages with a magic system for good measure. The unique magic aspect of the setting is dragon "grit" that I won't spoil but which was certainly a unique concept. Ardor Benn is hired to run a grand ruse deception that goes sideways and gets more complicated with significantly higher stakes than he planned for and he must find a way through all of it.
The strong points are the action, the fast pace, the tone, and the characters. There are some epic action sequences regularly enough to keep things interesting, and even though some common tropes are at play the the characters are still compelling. It's a comparatively lighthearted and easy to read book which was a nice change of pace for how heavy fantasy can be sometimes.
It was a bit hard to buy into the dragon grit concept. Avoiding spoilers of how dragon grit works, but it was hard to suspend disbelief enough to accept something that that could provide such a backbone to the functioning of a society and be readily available at all times whenever needed in copious amounts. Especially with how difficult it is to get which is shown in the book. A couple times things also felt a bit too convenient for the characters, like they succeeded more because the plot required them to in that moment than because they were doing it on their own.
Even so, if you can look past things like that it's still a fun book and was easy to like. It has a solid and satisfying ending with no cliffhangers leading into the sequel. You could read this and enjoy it, but still not feel bound to finish the series unless you wanted to. Everything is resolved by the end of this one.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death and Violence
Minor: Gore and Murder
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