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harleyrae's review
While I hate to DNF books, I felt that it was completely necessary to do so at this time. First I want to say that I am not DNFing this book because it was bad or anything along those lines. I am enjoying this book, but for me right now it is best to put this book down for awhile. I have not been in the mood to read this book lately, and I don't want to force myself to continue on reading a book and hate it because I feel like I must finish this book, when there is still the chance that I will one day pick this up again and enjoy it because I am actually wanting to read this book.
So I am not putting this down because I'm not enjoying it, I just feel that it is currently best for me to put this down until a later date when I am excited about continuing on with this story.
As I've state above, I do plan on picking this book up again sometime soon.
So I am not putting this down because I'm not enjoying it, I just feel that it is currently best for me to put this down until a later date when I am excited about continuing on with this story.
As I've state above, I do plan on picking this book up again sometime soon.
clarkco's review
4.0
A very appealing if very traditional fantasy story with likeable characterizations. Recommended for fantasy fans.
prisoner_of_books's review
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- 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
4.0
cyanide_latte's review
3.0
Finally I finished reading this, and I'm disappointed to kick this review off by saying that I feel like giving three stars to it is being slightly generous, because I had really wanted to like this.
I'd first seen this book in the library almost 8 years ago now, and had thumbed through it after reading the summary. It didn't necessarily capture my attention at the time apart from the fact the cover was striking and when I read the small blurbs about the authors at the back of the book, I was intrigued by them in particular. The authors are a mother-and-son team, and the son has overcome complications and struggles with cerebral palsy in order to record the story of this book on tape so his mother could assist him in writing it. That fact especially caught my attention and it stuck with me throughout the years, because later I vaguely remembered the book by the cover art and the description of the authors, even if I couldn't remember the authors' names or the book's title. [I went to Name That Book for assistance in looking it up, and the lovely people there helped me find it by title again.] I purchased both books in the duology from Amazon and I was so super excited to give this a chance.
Here's the thing: I think this story has an interesting premise and a lot of potential as far as world-building goes, but it's so character driven that I believe that is what stalls the narrative and the plot from really progressing.
We follow our protagonist, Aron, from the moment he's taken from his family in this sort of ritual called the Harvest, wherein children are assessed and taken by one of the two major guilds (Stone, the assassins, or Thorn, the...whatever they are, scholars or magicians or something that puts on stuffy superior airs) to be raised among their ranks. He doesn't want to go and his family doesn't want him to go, but legally nobody is allowed to defy the guilds their right to select Harvest prizes, and when Aron's taken by the Stone guild, much to his and his family's dismay, there's not really anything to be done for it. To go into more detail than that will be spoilers, so I'll tag the majority of my review accordingly.
Aron's taken by the assassins, who also have with them another apprentice in tow as well as some girl they've picked up at random, Dari, who is more than she seems. Early early into the story, we learn there are different dynasty lines of these people, who are called the Fae and Aron is of the Brailing line. Dari a Fury or a Stregan or a Ross or something, good lord it's confusing, but basically she's Not Fae, and the book opened with some set of sayings in which it talks about how Fae shouldn't intermix with Non-Fae in order to avoid breeding disasters and a bunch of other things, blah blah blah. And Dari, with her personal powers to go through the Veil (which in itself is only vaguely explained,) finds out that Aron's family was executed by Lord Brailing's guard only shortly after Aron was taken by the Stone assassins. From that point, the book primarily focuses on Aron's anger and thirst for vengeance and his overall mixed emotions regarding everything that has happened in his life.
In that regard, I'm glad that the whirlwind of crap he goes through isn't just shoved to the side or forgotten because he starts crushing on Dari or because he does his best to accept and embrace the new life he'll have as he trains to become an assassin. The murder of his family becomes a huge driving force for his character, and when he and his assassin master pledge themselves in loyalty to Dari to keep her secret and aid in her mission, helping find Dari's missing sister additionally becomes a big driving motivation for him.
But as a result, I felt as though those dominating facts sort of did stall the plot. Clearly there's a lot going on with the political climate between all the dynast factions and shady things the Thorn guild's been up to, but much of that tends to get glossed over when we're following things from Aron's or Dari's perspectives. Aron's too focused on the here and now and the few things that motivate him, where Dari is focused on the goal of finding her sister, assisting Aron in controlling and learning about his power he didn't know he had, and her...weird...lustful schoolgirl crush on Aron's master, Stormbreaker, that kind of came out of left field. I don't consider either of these characters to be reliable or even interesting narrators that I can really get emotionally invested in, and again, I feel like the narrative and the pacing and plot suffer as a result. The most interesting chapters for me were the few from the perspective of Nic.
Now, Nic is kind of kept off to the side of the main focus, though the narrative makes it pretty clear how important he is to the plot. He is a prince and a cripple, and has watched all of his other siblings die. During his mourning of his sister dying, an attempt is made on his own life, and he is picked up by Stormbreaker's sister while she and her traveling companions were out for Harvest. Most of the insight regarding the political climate comes from those few chapters we see from Nic's perspective, when he's not in a state of unnatural sleep in which his mind and spirit wander and come into contact with Aron. Stormbreaker's sister, Tia Snakekiller, tends to Nic and the two of them have more than one discussion regarding his fate and everything that is happening as tension between the dynast lords comes to a head.
But again, those chapters are few and far between. The majority of the book focuses on Aron (and Dari,) and the first 3/4ths of the book focus on everything that happens while they're on their way to the Stone Guild. The last quarter focuses on Aron first getting to the guild, making an enemy of one of the other assassin apprentices, a little bit of his training (most of it is usually glossed over,) some supernatural weirdness surrounding areas within the guild (which don't get explained,) and...then it just kind of ends on a cliffhanger as Aron and rival/enemy apprentice, Galvin, are sent out on a dangerous journey to the guild's abandoned, ruined keep to check on supplies there, as a punishment and exercise in getting over their hard feelings towards one another.
This book doesn't really have much of a climax, falling action, or conclusion. Perhaps some of that could be attributed to the fact that the second book seems to be more of a "next half" of the first. Opening the second book, it starts with "chapter 34" where this one ended on "chapter 33". I think that this book, like Sherwood Smith's Crown Duel was initially intended to be a single book but for whatever reason, was separated into two and it shouldn't have been. I think the story would have benefited more from being kept into a single novel that was just longer than average. There is rising action in Oathbreaker: Assassin's Apprentice certainly, but that's about all there is. Again, there's no climactic moments, there's no falling action, and there's no conclusion. There seems to be attempts at world-building, and while I appreciate that there are no major infodumps used and the characters typically try to explain aspects of the world, the world-building itself feels very...clumsy and haphazard, if not rushed altogether. I have doubled back and re-read entire sections of this book just to try to understand the dynasts, the racial differences, etc. and I still cannot tell you pretty much anything beyond there are Fae and then there are Not Fae, and also Thorn Guild Is Shady and Can Suck An Egg. I feel like I'm leaving this book more confused than I was going in, and I think I'll still be confused when I start the second half, no matter when I may start it. I also just can't really connect with or like any of the characters that dominate the spotlight in this book; I only really am interested in Nic and Snakekiller at this point, and I fear the possibility of going through the second book and not liking them by the end of it.
All in all, I won't say that I'm not glad I read this, because I am. I wanted to read this and I'm happy to have gotten a copy and done so, but at this point, it was so hard for me to get into the story to begin with and it took me so long to get through this book, I'm just relieved I'm finished with it for now. I don't know when I'll pick up the second half, Oathbreaker: A Prince Among Killers, because I don't know if I have the patience for it right now.
I'd first seen this book in the library almost 8 years ago now, and had thumbed through it after reading the summary. It didn't necessarily capture my attention at the time apart from the fact the cover was striking and when I read the small blurbs about the authors at the back of the book, I was intrigued by them in particular. The authors are a mother-and-son team, and the son has overcome complications and struggles with cerebral palsy in order to record the story of this book on tape so his mother could assist him in writing it. That fact especially caught my attention and it stuck with me throughout the years, because later I vaguely remembered the book by the cover art and the description of the authors, even if I couldn't remember the authors' names or the book's title. [I went to Name That Book for assistance in looking it up, and the lovely people there helped me find it by title again.] I purchased both books in the duology from Amazon and I was so super excited to give this a chance.
Here's the thing: I think this story has an interesting premise and a lot of potential as far as world-building goes, but it's so character driven that I believe that is what stalls the narrative and the plot from really progressing.
We follow our protagonist, Aron, from the moment he's taken from his family in this sort of ritual called the Harvest, wherein children are assessed and taken by one of the two major guilds (Stone, the assassins, or Thorn, the...whatever they are, scholars or magicians or something that puts on stuffy superior airs) to be raised among their ranks. He doesn't want to go and his family doesn't want him to go, but legally nobody is allowed to defy the guilds their right to select Harvest prizes, and when Aron's taken by the Stone guild, much to his and his family's dismay, there's not really anything to be done for it. To go into more detail than that will be spoilers, so I'll tag the majority of my review accordingly.
In that regard, I'm glad that the whirlwind of crap he goes through isn't just shoved to the side or forgotten because he starts crushing on Dari or because he does his best to accept and embrace the new life he'll have as he trains to become an assassin. The murder of his family becomes a huge driving force for his character, and when he and his assassin master pledge themselves in loyalty to Dari to keep her secret and aid in her mission, helping find Dari's missing sister additionally becomes a big driving motivation for him.
But as a result, I felt as though those dominating facts sort of did stall the plot. Clearly there's a lot going on with the political climate between all the dynast factions and shady things the Thorn guild's been up to, but much of that tends to get glossed over when we're following things from Aron's or Dari's perspectives. Aron's too focused on the here and now and the few things that motivate him, where Dari is focused on the goal of finding her sister, assisting Aron in controlling and learning about his power he didn't know he had, and her...weird...lustful schoolgirl crush on Aron's master, Stormbreaker, that kind of came out of left field. I don't consider either of these characters to be reliable or even interesting narrators that I can really get emotionally invested in, and again, I feel like the narrative and the pacing and plot suffer as a result. The most interesting chapters for me were the few from the perspective of Nic.
Now, Nic is kind of kept off to the side of the main focus, though the narrative makes it pretty clear how important he is to the plot. He is a prince and a cripple, and has watched all of his other siblings die. During his mourning of his sister dying, an attempt is made on his own life, and he is picked up by Stormbreaker's sister while she and her traveling companions were out for Harvest. Most of the insight regarding the political climate comes from those few chapters we see from Nic's perspective, when he's not in a state of unnatural sleep in which his mind and spirit wander and come into contact with Aron. Stormbreaker's sister, Tia Snakekiller, tends to Nic and the two of them have more than one discussion regarding his fate and everything that is happening as tension between the dynast lords comes to a head.
But again, those chapters are few and far between. The majority of the book focuses on Aron (and Dari,) and the first 3/4ths of the book focus on everything that happens while they're on their way to the Stone Guild. The last quarter focuses on Aron first getting to the guild, making an enemy of one of the other assassin apprentices, a little bit of his training (most of it is usually glossed over,) some supernatural weirdness surrounding areas within the guild (which don't get explained,) and...then it just kind of ends on a cliffhanger as Aron and rival/enemy apprentice, Galvin, are sent out on a dangerous journey to the guild's abandoned, ruined keep to check on supplies there, as a punishment and exercise in getting over their hard feelings towards one another.
This book doesn't really have much of a climax, falling action, or conclusion. Perhaps some of that could be attributed to the fact that the second book seems to be more of a "next half" of the first. Opening the second book, it starts with "chapter 34" where this one ended on "chapter 33". I think that this book, like Sherwood Smith's Crown Duel was initially intended to be a single book but for whatever reason, was separated into two and it shouldn't have been. I think the story would have benefited more from being kept into a single novel that was just longer than average. There is rising action in Oathbreaker: Assassin's Apprentice certainly, but that's about all there is. Again, there's no climactic moments, there's no falling action, and there's no conclusion. There seems to be attempts at world-building, and while I appreciate that there are no major infodumps used and the characters typically try to explain aspects of the world, the world-building itself feels very...clumsy and haphazard, if not rushed altogether. I have doubled back and re-read entire sections of this book just to try to understand the dynasts, the racial differences, etc. and I still cannot tell you pretty much anything beyond there are Fae and then there are Not Fae, and also Thorn Guild Is Shady and Can Suck An Egg. I feel like I'm leaving this book more confused than I was going in, and I think I'll still be confused when I start the second half, no matter when I may start it. I also just can't really connect with or like any of the characters that dominate the spotlight in this book; I only really am interested in Nic and Snakekiller at this point, and I fear the possibility of going through the second book and not liking them by the end of it.
All in all, I won't say that I'm not glad I read this, because I am. I wanted to read this and I'm happy to have gotten a copy and done so, but at this point, it was so hard for me to get into the story to begin with and it took me so long to get through this book, I'm just relieved I'm finished with it for now. I don't know when I'll pick up the second half, Oathbreaker: A Prince Among Killers, because I don't know if I have the patience for it right now.
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