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3.9 AVERAGE
3.9 AVERAGE
I really enjoyed this trilogy!!! If you are into assassins and magic you gotta read this book.
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Pretty good plot, moved at a fast pace. Sometimes suffered from moving too fast, where things weren't really set up. Writing quality was passable, had good moments.
adventurous
dark
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
4.5 I really enjoyed this book, it started a little and the world building wasn't the best. But once you got into it it was really good- I had trouble putting it down.
Ok, I'll be honest - I didn't finish this book...but a couple of my friends really liked it and recommend that I force myself to get through it in order to get to the next in the series. I just felt like it was very slow and not well put together. I was confused and felt lost most of the time while reading it. Maybe I'll give it another shot after some time. But for now this is going on the shelf.
I managed to get as far as Kylar getting his mojo going and decided I'd had enough. It's not that I hate the characters or the setting, I just don't like any of it. Blint is exceedingly random, Kylar is as exciting as driving down a Midwestern highway, and the world they inhabit is equally random and dull. I guess I should give the author some kudos since I imagine that's a difficult combination to pull off, and yet he does it with such skill.
Maybe my expectations were wrong. I thought his was a story of intrigue and stabby-stabby. Instead, it's a slightly non-standard coming-of-age story with a lot of angst-hidden, whiny-boy BS strung out for three books with hocus-pocus and magic balls. Yay.
Maybe my expectations were wrong. I thought his was a story of intrigue and stabby-stabby. Instead, it's a slightly non-standard coming-of-age story with a lot of angst-hidden, whiny-boy BS strung out for three books with hocus-pocus and magic balls. Yay.
I was disappointed that I didn't like this book as much as I had hoped given it's GR rating and also the good reviews from reviewers I typically align with. Also, it's probably more of a 2.5 star book.
The good: the plot. The plot kept me intrigued and the pacing was decent. Kylar Stern and Durzo Blint are 2 wetboys (assassins) that are highly skilled at what they do (poisoning, sword fighting, perhaps even a bit of magic). This book is mostly the tale of the coming-of-age of Kylar, Blint's young apprentice.
The bad: the characters. Oh how I didn't like any of the characters. Kylar Stern, our hero, is just... ugh. And I hate that term: ugh, but it's just the best I could come up with. He's shallow. He wants nothing more than to be like his hero Durzo Blint the wetboy (assassin) and yet doesn't want to do the things a wetboy does. I guess before you decide what career path you want to take you should first know what that career is all about.
Durzo Blint was just an all around haughty drunk. Wetboys aren't supposed to fall in love, but guess what: he did. The women were terrible tropes, with Momma K being the all wise, kind, prostitute, keen businesswoman that she was. And Elena, Kylar's love from when they were kids, is an angel. And that's really it for those two women (who are literally all the women in the book, literally there are TWO). To be fair, I guess there were only about 5-6 men.
Something else that just really was like nails on a chalkboard for me are some of the author's choice of words / spelling. I don't know, maybe the term 'wetboy' actually means something to someone. The interwebs say it is another word for an assassin but also not another word for an assassin. Either way, the word's a terrible choice. It sounds just awful, and I hated reading it aloud in my head. Another thing: the only word "fantasied" (like Edward = Eddard a la GRRM) was wytch instead of witch. Why just this one word? It bugged me constantly. Only fantasy-ing one word, why bother.
The plot was decent, though, which is surprising. As I reader, I enjoy a good plot just as much as anyone. Weeks is a good storyteller, but he really needs to work on characterization. I'll read the next 2 in the series and see if we get some better characters.
This review is disjointed and amateur but makes some good points. This book has disjointed and amateur characters, but has some good plot.
The good: the plot. The plot kept me intrigued and the pacing was decent. Kylar Stern and Durzo Blint are 2 wetboys (assassins) that are highly skilled at what they do (poisoning, sword fighting, perhaps even a bit of magic). This book is mostly the tale of the coming-of-age of Kylar, Blint's young apprentice.
The bad: the characters. Oh how I didn't like any of the characters. Kylar Stern, our hero, is just... ugh. And I hate that term: ugh, but it's just the best I could come up with. He's shallow. He wants nothing more than to be like his hero Durzo Blint the wetboy (assassin) and yet doesn't want to do the things a wetboy does. I guess before you decide what career path you want to take you should first know what that career is all about.
Durzo Blint was just an all around haughty drunk. Wetboys aren't supposed to fall in love, but guess what: he did. The women were terrible tropes, with Momma K being the all wise, kind, prostitute, keen businesswoman that she was. And Elena, Kylar's love from when they were kids, is an angel. And that's really it for those two women (who are literally all the women in the book, literally there are TWO). To be fair, I guess there were only about 5-6 men.
Something else that just really was like nails on a chalkboard for me are some of the author's choice of words / spelling. I don't know, maybe the term 'wetboy' actually means something to someone. The interwebs say it is another word for an assassin but also not another word for an assassin. Either way, the word's a terrible choice. It sounds just awful, and I hated reading it aloud in my head. Another thing: the only word "fantasied" (like Edward = Eddard a la GRRM) was wytch instead of witch. Why just this one word? It bugged me constantly. Only fantasy-ing one word, why bother.
The plot was decent, though, which is surprising. As I reader, I enjoy a good plot just as much as anyone. Weeks is a good storyteller, but he really needs to work on characterization. I'll read the next 2 in the series and see if we get some better characters.
This review is disjointed and amateur but makes some good points. This book has disjointed and amateur characters, but has some good plot.
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book was a little different for my taste but it’s one of my partner’s favorite series so I wanted to give it a try. Mainly it was a lot more political than I would normally go for but the world building and the magic system is very cool! The women are written tragically, by which I mean so badly it hurts— the only exception being Mama K. All other women are boy obsessed and only there to die, be maimed, or serve as a thing for the hero to rescue which is honestly just boring and insulting.
I tried to read this about a year ago but I had to put it down and take a long break due to the descriptive and honestly horrifying nature of the sexual violence in the first 40-50 pages. Once I got beyond that point though it wasn’t really a recurring theme so I was able to read it without feeling triggered.
I tried to read this about a year ago but I had to put it down and take a long break due to the descriptive and honestly horrifying nature of the sexual violence in the first 40-50 pages. Once I got beyond that point though it wasn’t really a recurring theme so I was able to read it without feeling triggered.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Blood, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Moderate: Emotional abuse
Minor: Addiction, Child death, Abandonment
After the first 50 pages or so, when Rat is killed the talk of sexual violence basically goes away almost entirely.