Reviews tagging 'Fire/Fire injury'

First Rider's Call by Kristen Britain

2 reviews

itsnotalakeitsanocean's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

This book was a slog to get through. It felt like there were long stretches of nothing followed by scenes that happened way too fast, and I ended up skimming most of this book as a result.

Things I liked
  • The opening leading up to the massacre of the soldiers at the cairn was a great way to open the story. It was absolutely devastating to lose the characters that we'd just gotten to know and they felt like they had rich histories that now only exist as a living memory in those that survived.
  • I love the fact the Green Riders bought back the Rememberance Ceremony of old and rediscovered their history. I feel like the book should have been more about that than some of the other plots - particularly because, as much as I like the ceremony, it felt a bit tacked on at the very end of the book instead of being a cathartic way to honor the dead.
  • I loved the part of the subplot involving the wall where people essentially set up a tourist attraction at the site of the breach, only for things to take a horrific turn when one of the monstrous creatures kills a noble. Britain somehow managed to capture the essence of privileged people with little common sense putting themselves in danger with deadly consequences that we see too often today.

Other things I didn't like
  • Once again Karigan is just not a compelling main character, essentially fumbling her way through the plot and being inexplicably overpowered/skilled in places that doesn't make sense (no I'm not counting "she has the most super special brooch in all of history" as a good excuse). It gets worse on two separate occasions: 

    One, her just being outright rude to her new instructor Drent. Sure he's a bit of a bastard himself, but I feel like his gruff demeanor makes sense (but is not justified mind you) when you consider he is teaching very advanced techniques and is training people that are expected to survive life or death situations. It feels like Britain got bored of writing a training montage and just had Karigan suddenly decide to be an asshole as a means to get Drent to dismiss her from his instruction. 

    Second,
    the ghost of the First Rider has to take over her body as a Deus Ex Machina to stop her from dying in Blackveil. It completely ruined all of the tension of the scene and ruined the potentially good idea of Karigan being good when it comes to training but inexperienced in actual combat
  • King Zachary continues to try having his cake and eat it too with an asinine love triangle between him, Karigan and Estora. My dude, how did you expect Karigan to react by giving her that mirror? I stopped reading before this happens but
    I'm told it's eventually resolved by Karigan being a mistress to Zachary whilst Estora is his wife politically speaking. Why they couldn't have resolved it this way earlier I'll never understand.
  • Penderic is the most annoying character that had no purpose for existing other than being an ableist stereotype and Alton's jealous brother. I feel like he could have been cut and barely anything would have changed.
  • Despite being a driving force behind a conspiracy, the members of the Second Empire didn't feel like they had a tangeable impact compared to the Wild Magic that was going around corrupting everything.

Also on a final (subjective) note my favourite character, Beryl Spencer, didn't show up at all.
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murrayscottferguson's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious medium-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

4.0

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