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omitreob's review
4.0
Very good book and story, hard to put down. Builds up in scope from local conflicts to war between all known and unknown countries. Last book seems very rushed in comparison to the rest of the series.
hskey's review
4.0
Maybe I was in the right mood, but this was a fantastic read. Fantasy tropes all over and very Game of Thrones-ey in a way but that's not a bad thing at all (especially considering this came out BEFORE Game of Thrones). Kearney is an excellent writer, couldn't help but get caught up in all the political intrigue, magic stuff, medieval/industrial warfare and everything in between. I just never get tired of the genre as long as it's done well, and this is done very well.
nghia's review
2.0
A lot of epic fantasy have worlds that are very much "inspired by the real world", at least in terms of culture. Kearney takes it to the next level by giving us a world that is basically a carbon copy of Europe along with key events like: exploration & colonization of the New World, Turkish invasion of Europe, papal schism with multiple popes, Inquisition, and so on.
It's not actually historical fiction because Kearney wants to have some freedom with the actual events (like having all that happen at the same exact time) and people, instead of being stuck with the historical ones.
But it just felt a bit...I dunno. I'm fine with your fantasy world being inspired by the real-world. But this felt like too much, I guess? Like, why am I reading this fantasy retelling instead of the actual thing? Is making it a very slightly different fantasy world really bringing that much to the table?
Alongside this frankly not especially interesting quasi-historical retelling stuff is the story of the titular Hawkwood's Voyage. News has come of a "new world" to the far west and the king commissions Hawkwood to lead a small fleet west to explore and colonise it.
This is actually a somewhat interesting subplot but it takes forever to develop (it is over 300 pages in before it becomes anything more than "...and we kept sailing west")
Finally, the women characters are particularly poor, even by the standards of fantasy. There are four in the entire book and three of them have essentially throw-away scenes that could be removed without affecting anything. For one her scenes are about how she's captured by the enemy and raped repeatedly. Another one is about to be raped by a nobleman but voluntarily has sex with the man she can't refuse -- and comes to enjoy the sex and love him back. So 50% rape. Not a great look.
Only one of the four women serves any real point in this book. The other three feel like maybe they will play a bigger role in future books, if you keep reading. Honestly, it is a really poor showing.
The pace moves along briskly. Only 380 pages for multiple POVs and several plot threads. Despite that the whole thing felt quite....boring? Like somehow not actually that much happens for most of those plot threads.
It's not actually historical fiction because Kearney wants to have some freedom with the actual events (like having all that happen at the same exact time) and people, instead of being stuck with the historical ones.
But it just felt a bit...I dunno. I'm fine with your fantasy world being inspired by the real-world. But this felt like too much, I guess? Like, why am I reading this fantasy retelling instead of the actual thing? Is making it a very slightly different fantasy world really bringing that much to the table?
Alongside this frankly not especially interesting quasi-historical retelling stuff is the story of the titular Hawkwood's Voyage. News has come of a "new world" to the far west and the king commissions Hawkwood to lead a small fleet west to explore and colonise it.
Someone or something has been sabotaging westward voyages for three centuries or more. I intend to find out why.
This is actually a somewhat interesting subplot but it takes forever to develop (it is over 300 pages in before it becomes anything more than "...and we kept sailing west")
Finally, the women characters are particularly poor, even by the standards of fantasy. There are four in the entire book and three of them have essentially throw-away scenes that could be removed without affecting anything. For one her scenes are about how she's captured by the enemy and raped repeatedly. Another one is about to be raped by a nobleman but voluntarily has sex with the man she can't refuse -- and comes to enjoy the sex and love him back. So 50% rape. Not a great look.
Only one of the four women serves any real point in this book. The other three feel like maybe they will play a bigger role in future books, if you keep reading. Honestly, it is a really poor showing.
The pace moves along briskly. Only 380 pages for multiple POVs and several plot threads. Despite that the whole thing felt quite....boring? Like somehow not actually that much happens for most of those plot threads.
frasersimons's review
3.0
This would have been a 5 star book for me if not for a few things. First, what I liked/appreciated: the writing itself was good, not baroque not too formal, it was well balanced. It was felt very knowledgeable and researched, particularly for battles, strategies, and things about ships, their navigation and operations, and the hazards that happen on a voyage. The worlds factions were interesting so I didn’t mind the epic fantasy hopping around all the time. There were some particularly great insights into characters that I found very poignant. The holy war that makes the overall zoomed out plot feel like it’s in motion did its job.
What I didn’t like, and some of this is might be somewhat spoilery: It feels like edgy dark fantasy in that the major blind side with books like this seem to always be women. They just aren’t well written, when touched on at all in this case. Literally every woman was raped. One of the characters only appeared in the fiction at all, at one point an entire chapter dedicated to her (and then never devoted to her again) about her being raped repeatedly, then appears later as a diversion to another character who’s made her into a concubine. Of the three women, all of them are sex objects and not empowered in any way whatsoever. This is the first book of five so it might be a setup for them to become empowered but no other character has to experience disempowerment like that, so who’s to say?
There’s some fairly heavy homophobia that’s not treated well and also used to disempower, which was annoying and tropey for a sea voyage.
The amount of granular detail devoted to some aspects will be great for some people but I’m not that into that for battles and what not. I did enjoy it for the voyage on the boat though. But generally, it’s not something I look for.
What I didn’t like, and some of this is might be somewhat spoilery: It feels like edgy dark fantasy in that the major blind side with books like this seem to always be women. They just aren’t well written, when touched on at all in this case. Literally every woman was raped. One of the characters only appeared in the fiction at all, at one point an entire chapter dedicated to her (and then never devoted to her again) about her being raped repeatedly, then appears later as a diversion to another character who’s made her into a concubine. Of the three women, all of them are sex objects and not empowered in any way whatsoever. This is the first book of five so it might be a setup for them to become empowered but no other character has to experience disempowerment like that, so who’s to say?
There’s some fairly heavy homophobia that’s not treated well and also used to disempower, which was annoying and tropey for a sea voyage.
The amount of granular detail devoted to some aspects will be great for some people but I’m not that into that for battles and what not. I did enjoy it for the voyage on the boat though. But generally, it’s not something I look for.
jezebelle's review
2.0
Extended review here
The author of this book really likes to describe the setting. So much so that my mind would often wander while i was reading and i would forget what character was supposed to be in this setting. i actually cared very little about the characters, mostly because they didn't have much personality beyond what would be expected of a noble or a sailor. the female characters (as few as there were) were even worse, in that they were all extremes of one kind of stereotype. One is basically a slut who uses her body to manipulate men and get what she wants. Another is so pious she blushes and turns away from the sight of her own husband's skin.
I almost considered not finishing this book but decided to continue on as i really feel that it is leading up to a much more interesting plot. i hope i'm right.
The author of this book really likes to describe the setting. So much so that my mind would often wander while i was reading and i would forget what character was supposed to be in this setting. i actually cared very little about the characters, mostly because they didn't have much personality beyond what would be expected of a noble or a sailor. the female characters (as few as there were) were even worse, in that they were all extremes of one kind of stereotype. One is basically a slut who uses her body to manipulate men and get what she wants. Another is so pious she blushes and turns away from the sight of her own husband's skin.
I almost considered not finishing this book but decided to continue on as i really feel that it is leading up to a much more interesting plot. i hope i'm right.
kathodus's review
4.0
Fast-moving book set in a secondary world, in a time very similar to the late 1400s, except with magic, including shifters (werewolves). An almost-parody of Muslim excess, the Mered's are attempting to conquer the western world, which is also dealing with an almost-parody of Catholic excess, the Inceptines. In the meantime, the titular Hawkwood is on his way across the Western Sea to the fabled Western Continent.
The Inceptines are fun to hate, the Mered's are fun to be disgusted by, and the mystery is interesting enough. I'm not sure I'll make it to the end of the series, but I will definitely pick up the second book.
The Inceptines are fun to hate, the Mered's are fun to be disgusted by, and the mystery is interesting enough. I'm not sure I'll make it to the end of the series, but I will definitely pick up the second book.
bent's review
2.0
This didn't blow me away. I thought some of the battle scenes were good and the settings were cool, and there was enough there to keep me reading, but there was a lot of dreck as well. Kearney obviously knows a lot about ships and sailing terminology, but makes the cardinal mistake of trying to include it all in his book. It gets tiresome.
I know very little about military tactics, but almost everything the Merduks do after conquering Aekir seems to make very little sense. Their strategies, their logistics - I question how much thought went into plotting it all out. It reminds me of old-time action movies where the hero can shoot thousands of bullets without ever re-loading. A lot of the political maneuvering also comes off as very ham-handed and ill-thought out. Not diplomatic at all.
I thought Kearney probably shouldn't have bothered trying to write female characters because he sucks at it - the frigid, barren wife; the hot, fertile, manipulative whore; the overweight, mustachioed busybody (who appears off-page). Very two-dimensional archetypes. Corfe's wife makes two appearances - one as the reluctant captive of the Merduks, one as the concubine-soon-to-be-wife of the their leader. What literary purpose she serves is unclear, although she resigns herself to her fate as concubine because once the Merduks have raped her, she is unclean and unfit for Corfe (her own interpretation). Hey, there's the madonna/whore thing again! The only other female character is a girl werewolf who comes off OK, although she's described as very boyish in her looks, so maybe that's why she gets a little more personality.
There's a weird undercurrent of homosexuality/homophobia here that I don't have the psychology to understand. Hawkwood gets very angry at being accused of buggering cabin boys, even though he did bugger the cabin boy, several men are attracted to the fairly boyish werewolf girl, who physically reminds Hawkwood of the cabin boy. Both the girl and the cabin boy end up sharing a similar fate, which I bet a psychologist could have a field day with.
Obviously this book sets up for a sequel. I think it's probably also pretty obvious from this review that I won't be reading the sequel. I would give this book a miss.
I know very little about military tactics, but almost everything the Merduks do after conquering Aekir seems to make very little sense. Their strategies, their logistics - I question how much thought went into plotting it all out. It reminds me of old-time action movies where the hero can shoot thousands of bullets without ever re-loading. A lot of the political maneuvering also comes off as very ham-handed and ill-thought out. Not diplomatic at all.
I thought Kearney probably shouldn't have bothered trying to write female characters because he sucks at it - the frigid, barren wife; the hot, fertile, manipulative whore; the overweight, mustachioed busybody (who appears off-page). Very two-dimensional archetypes. Corfe's wife makes two appearances - one as the reluctant captive of the Merduks, one as the concubine-soon-to-be-wife of the their leader. What literary purpose she serves is unclear, although she resigns herself to her fate as concubine because once the Merduks have raped her, she is unclean and unfit for Corfe (her own interpretation). Hey, there's the madonna/whore thing again! The only other female character is a girl werewolf who comes off OK, although she's described as very boyish in her looks, so maybe that's why she gets a little more personality.
There's a weird undercurrent of homosexuality/homophobia here that I don't have the psychology to understand. Hawkwood gets very angry at being accused of buggering cabin boys, even though he did bugger the cabin boy, several men are attracted to the fairly boyish werewolf girl, who physically reminds Hawkwood of the cabin boy. Both the girl and the cabin boy end up sharing a similar fate, which I bet a psychologist could have a field day with.
Obviously this book sets up for a sequel. I think it's probably also pretty obvious from this review that I won't be reading the sequel. I would give this book a miss.