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spookybarn's review
3.0
What's here is great. I found the various storylines and characters interesting, and it seems inevitable that they will all converge at some point into an epic finale. Unfortunately, Book One ends without any resolution or payoff at all. I wouldn't even call it a cliffhanger... it just ends. I'm looking forward to future volumes, but this one is hard to recommend on its own.
tdeshler's review
4.0
It was interesting to read about a period about which I know very little. I'm not sure how historically accurate it is, but seemed realistic. The alternating chapters of Christian knights and Mongols was effective. The ending of this volume offered no resolution, but I will keep reading.
vailynst's review
3.0
3.5 Stars
Mini-Review:
For such a long book, not a whole lot happens.
- Great setup for the multiple characters. Interesting mix of historical & fabled characters/places.
- Excellent visuals with little words for violent acts but not a whole lot for describing anything else.
- 2 Thumbs Up for fights, use of weaponry, riding, etc
- Surprised by the elegant romance that's tossed into the story. Potential tragedy?
- One of the more interesting narration jobs done by Luke Daniels. Nice!
- I feel like I need to go & read some of the other authors now to see if I can figure out who wrote which parts.
Mini-Review:
For such a long book, not a whole lot happens.
- Great setup for the multiple characters. Interesting mix of historical & fabled characters/places.
- Excellent visuals with little words for violent acts but not a whole lot for describing anything else.
- 2 Thumbs Up for fights, use of weaponry, riding, etc
- Surprised by the elegant romance that's tossed into the story. Potential tragedy?
- One of the more interesting narration jobs done by Luke Daniels. Nice!
- I feel like I need to go & read some of the other authors now to see if I can figure out who wrote which parts.
nkmeyers's review
3.0
Didn't do it for me in the end. Threads of story got too busy and character development stalled.
zivan's review against another edition
3.0
The combat scenes are great, the rest of the story falls flat.
The characters are not believable the messing with history is forced.
If you want to read about the Mongols, I recommend listening to Dan Carlins Hard Core History "Wrath of the Khans" podcasts: http://podbay.fm/show/173001861/e/1339639677?autostart=1
The characters are not believable the messing with history is forced.
If you want to read about the Mongols, I recommend listening to Dan Carlins Hard Core History "Wrath of the Khans" podcasts: http://podbay.fm/show/173001861/e/1339639677?autostart=1
vettius29's review against another edition
5.0
Great story. Two story lines that have a long way to go before they intersect.
Left me hungry for the next volume!
Left me hungry for the next volume!
roba's review against another edition
4.0
This mostly reads like a write-up of a D&D campaign. I am absolutely fine with that. Hope they hurry up with part two.
gilmae's review against another edition
3.0
uhhh, it was all right.
Written by a committee, albeit like it was an agile software project, but still. A committee. It's committee-ness showed in a couple of places, the way it meandered around like no one knew quite what they were attempting to achieve apart from have a handy dandy excuse when loved ones and insurance agencies realised these people were hitting each other with great big fuck up hunks of metal and screamed, "Why are you allowing that person to hit you with a great big fuck off hunk of metal, you idiot?!?"
I think they spent a little too much time on the old sword-hitting verisimilitude and mocking book trailers via the medium of a book trailer, and forgot to do some of the important stuff like, you know, having something to say. Or, say, how about this - why should I care about these characters. Cause here's a hint, I don't. Almost. I don't care about the knights and their cockamamie scheme, either part of it. I don't care about the other gladiators. I really don't care about Cnan and how Percival makes her lady garden tingle. That last part is an interesting one, because I do care about Lian and Gansukh. That's because Lian and Gansukh get introduction and characterisation - possibly due to there only being two of them, not a dozen or so, and I can fix who they are in my mind. Hence I have a handle upon which to affix empathy, unlike the others who are mostly just names with little behind them. Istvan is a revenge driven homocidal maniac, Yasper is an alchemist. Can't remember who Percival's friend was, and Percival is just a faceless 21st century impression of what medieval Occitan troubadours thought chivalry should be. And Cnan is am empty suit of clothes.
So, it's all right, and inevitably I'll buy the rest of the series. I sure as hell won't subscribe to the multimedia content based on this novel, which I suspect is self-defeating - I bet there's a bunch of the missing context and meaning hidden back there behind the paywall.
Written by a committee, albeit like it was an agile software project, but still. A committee. It's committee-ness showed in a couple of places, the way it meandered around like no one knew quite what they were attempting to achieve apart from have a handy dandy excuse when loved ones and insurance agencies realised these people were hitting each other with great big fuck up hunks of metal and screamed, "Why are you allowing that person to hit you with a great big fuck off hunk of metal, you idiot?!?"
I think they spent a little too much time on the old sword-hitting verisimilitude and mocking book trailers via the medium of a book trailer, and forgot to do some of the important stuff like, you know, having something to say. Or, say, how about this - why should I care about these characters. Cause here's a hint, I don't. Almost. I don't care about the knights and their cockamamie scheme, either part of it. I don't care about the other gladiators. I really don't care about Cnan and how Percival makes her lady garden tingle. That last part is an interesting one, because I do care about Lian and Gansukh. That's because Lian and Gansukh get introduction and characterisation - possibly due to there only being two of them, not a dozen or so, and I can fix who they are in my mind. Hence I have a handle upon which to affix empathy, unlike the others who are mostly just names with little behind them. Istvan is a revenge driven homocidal maniac, Yasper is an alchemist. Can't remember who Percival's friend was, and Percival is just a faceless 21st century impression of what medieval Occitan troubadours thought chivalry should be. And Cnan is am empty suit of clothes.
So, it's all right, and inevitably I'll buy the rest of the series. I sure as hell won't subscribe to the multimedia content based on this novel, which I suspect is self-defeating - I bet there's a bunch of the missing context and meaning hidden back there behind the paywall.
threebluesocks's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
I, more the most part, didn't really find this enjoyable to read. Though some aspects of the worldbuilding were interesting and likely informative (I do not know enough about 13th century Asia to tell if the information was accurate, but everything seemed fairly believable), the plot and characters were relatively weak and made it difficult to get invested in the story. The problems with this book come primarily from strange choices with pacing and a lack of distinctive characterization.
The journey that Cnan and her knights go on was the less interesting half of the book, in my opinion. Though their goal is a straightforward and challenging quest established fairly early on, the only progress made is traveling physically closer to their destination. Though I knew this was only the first book in a series and was not expecting this group to complete their journey, I really wish more progress was made than this. Additionally, the knights that accompany Cnan are very similar and lacking in characterization. Long journeys are often used to introduce small or major problems that allow different characters to show off their strengths and suffer for their weaknesses, either helping or hindering the group and allowing readers to become invested in the group's fate, but this did not seem to be capitalized on in this book. Throughout much of the journey, the knights are fairly interchangeable, and I only felt I was beginning to learn about them in the last couple chapters. Even Cnan, who gets the most characterization of the group, feels flat. There's a lot of potential in her character, and I hope it was explored in the sequels, but this first book doesn't do a great job of setting up her or her knight companions.
On the other hand, Gansukh's and Lian's palace adventures are far more interesting, and I would have been happy to read a whole book of them interacting and scheming. The characters in the palace are given strong personalities that are easily distinguishable from one another, they build alliances and rivalries, and solve problems through their preexisting skillset and using lessons they learned from each other. The chapters that focused on their story felt very tense and seemed to be building towards something; I was always disappointed when we switched away from their POV.
The chapters with Kim and his Pile of Bones friend and the chapters with the leftover Shield Brothers at their camp felt very out of place, and didn't impact our main adventuring group much. I'm assuming they have ramifications explored in the sequels, but I think they may have been more impactful had they been saved for book two.
Overall, this book seems to struggle to maintain tension, and I had a lot of trouble getting invested in the characters or their struggles. Switching between two major POVs (Cnan/the knights and Gansukh/Lian) often caused confusion since chapters often end on cliffhangers before switching POVs, and it takes a bit to remember what cliffhanger the other group left off on. There was a lot of action in this book, but it often felt slow and meandering anyway since all of the characters seem compelled to give constant exposition in their internal monologues. I will say, though, that the actual fight scenes were incredibly fun to read, and the one-on-one encounters did a good job of making me genuinely worry for the characters.
A huge warning for anyone planning to read this book: it is written as though it is the first section of one very long book rather than like book one of a series. There is no clear climax or ending, and the characters do not complete arcs. I do not have plans to read any more of the series, but some of the other reviews for this book imply that the later books improve on many of this one's flaws, so take that into account if you liked the premise of this book, but found it a bit slow and lacking in plot/character development. This book has the tone of a big, long exposition, and that's likely the role it plays in the series.
The journey that Cnan and her knights go on was the less interesting half of the book, in my opinion. Though their goal is a straightforward and challenging quest established fairly early on, the only progress made is traveling physically closer to their destination. Though I knew this was only the first book in a series and was not expecting this group to complete their journey, I really wish more progress was made than this. Additionally, the knights that accompany Cnan are very similar and lacking in characterization. Long journeys are often used to introduce small or major problems that allow different characters to show off their strengths and suffer for their weaknesses, either helping or hindering the group and allowing readers to become invested in the group's fate, but this did not seem to be capitalized on in this book. Throughout much of the journey, the knights are fairly interchangeable, and I only felt I was beginning to learn about them in the last couple chapters. Even Cnan, who gets the most characterization of the group, feels flat. There's a lot of potential in her character, and I hope it was explored in the sequels, but this first book doesn't do a great job of setting up her or her knight companions.
On the other hand, Gansukh's and Lian's palace adventures are far more interesting, and I would have been happy to read a whole book of them interacting and scheming. The characters in the palace are given strong personalities that are easily distinguishable from one another, they build alliances and rivalries, and solve problems through their preexisting skillset and using lessons they learned from each other. The chapters that focused on their story felt very tense and seemed to be building towards something; I was always disappointed when we switched away from their POV.
The chapters with Kim and his Pile of Bones friend and the chapters with the leftover Shield Brothers at their camp felt very out of place, and didn't impact our main adventuring group much. I'm assuming they have ramifications explored in the sequels, but I think they may have been more impactful had they been saved for book two.
Overall, this book seems to struggle to maintain tension, and I had a lot of trouble getting invested in the characters or their struggles. Switching between two major POVs (Cnan/the knights and Gansukh/Lian) often caused confusion since chapters often end on cliffhangers before switching POVs, and it takes a bit to remember what cliffhanger the other group left off on. There was a lot of action in this book, but it often felt slow and meandering anyway since all of the characters seem compelled to give constant exposition in their internal monologues. I will say, though, that the actual fight scenes were incredibly fun to read, and the one-on-one encounters did a good job of making me genuinely worry for the characters.
A huge warning for anyone planning to read this book: it is written as though it is the first section of one very long book rather than like book one of a series. There is no clear climax or ending, and the characters do not complete arcs. I do not have plans to read any more of the series, but some of the other reviews for this book imply that the later books improve on many of this one's flaws, so take that into account if you liked the premise of this book, but found it a bit slow and lacking in plot/character development. This book has the tone of a big, long exposition, and that's likely the role it plays in the series.
jen1110's review against another edition
3.0
Interesting concept. I'm going to read the next couple before totally making up my mind.