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kaiyakaiyo's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
There was a lot of suffering in this book! Some of it was gratuitous, but overall I really like when fantasy doesn’t gloss over how fucking disgusting and dreary life could be in these historical settings. Battle half-planned half-freestyle, mud everywhere, cold as fuck, and everything sucks until the fight is over; it felt more accurate than if Vasya had ridden up in shiny armor with the perfect plan and giant allies. Still have complaints about the heavy-handed sexual assault & harassment throughout these books as an attempt at “historical accuracy” but … whatever
My biggest complaint that took this down a full star: The Bear actually liking Konstantin was… weird. I don’t love retroactive queering of villains, and this iteration of it felt especially shoehorned and strange. The author could have easily written in a few queer monks or cheyrti if they were that anxious to inject queerness after like 600+ pages of het-fest… loads of potential material given how willing they were to bend and freestyle mythology… Having the murderous mentally ill monk with a fetish for harming women he desires and the giant chaos bear that literally possessed and assaulted said monk be lightly gay for each other was ill-timed and ill-chosen. Don’t get me wrong, I live for queerness in historical fantasy but i thought we’d long ago established that throwing a little fruit into abusive, horrible villain characters was not an okay way to add diversity…
Graphic: Blood, War, Death, Violence, and Misogyny
Moderate: Torture, Sexual harassment, Religious bigotry, Toxic friendship, Grief, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Vomit
thewildmageslibrary's review against another edition
4.5
I absolutely adore Vasya's growth, especially in this book. Can't say much without spoilers, so just read these.
CW: same "it's set in the 14th century, so" as the others
Graphic: War, Grief, Sexism, Animal death, Religious bigotry, Violence, Blood, Confinement, Misogyny, Death, and Murder
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Toxic relationship, Sexual assault, and Sexual content
Minor: Child death
saintyeehaw's review against another edition
- 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
3.5
Graphic: Sexual content, Blood, Child death, Confinement, Kidnapping, Pedophilia, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, War, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Grief, Animal death, Death, Emotional abuse, Adult/minor relationship, and Murder