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ergative's review against another edition
4.0
sklepia's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
jedbird'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
4.5
Felix is a selfish ass, and Mildmay is, compared to his character in the first book, much less sure of himself, but the change in circumstances surely has much to do with it. Felix's lust for his brother, an uncomfortable mention in the first book, is dealt with in more depth here, though I was relieved that
Felix determines that they must return to the Mirador and they embark on a journey. They pick up some additional travelers along the way, including imprisoned magicians and a sharp-minded actress. The task before our heroes is to restore the Virtu, which is such a ridiculous maguffin, but it gives everyone something to do.
There's something of a clean slate going into the third book, which I am starting reading immediately.
Of note, the typesetting in this series is awful. It appears to have been scanned in and never corrected. There's a Horn Gate that half the time is rendered as Hom Gate. There's Tibernian and Tibemian. There's thamaturgic and thaumaturgie. There are random numbers and backslashes, missing punctuation, breaks in the middle of lines. It's pretty shameful.
ginnikin's review against another edition
4.0
elenajohansen's review
3.0
Though at least the incest part isn't happening, as I feared it would. Mildmay found out about his half-brother's desire for him, but upon reflection, his major objection wasn't that it would be incest, but that he's simply not attracted to men at all. So Felix isn't trying to get with him, and in fact, takes another lover altogether. One he doesn't usually seem to actually like very much, but whatever, because it keeps him off Mildmay, right?
The non-faux-romance plot is decent, but not amazing. After spending the entire first book trekking across an enemy empire in order to find the place where Felix's magic-induced madness could be cured, he and Mildmay then have to safely make it back home so that Felix can restore the broken Virtu. Which (while being a mystical object of little importance to the reader) is at least a reasonable goal for the man who broke it in the first place, albeit unwillingly. It's a sort of redemption arc (I stress the sort of because it doesn't restore Felix's standing among his peers much at all) but it works as a personal milestone.
In fact, it works so well, I'm wondering what the next two books could even be about. A few loose ends aside, this easily could have been the second book of a duology rather than book two of four.
My last criticism is definitely the pacing. After taking most of the book to get back to the Mirador, with the journey being touted as dangerous as all hell, then the ending sequence takes them halfway back through enemy territory to its heart, the Bastion, in the blink of an eye to resolve Mildmay's kidnapping, which happened with so few pages left to read that I honestly believed it was going to be a cliffhanger for book three. And it isn't. The conclusion is rushed and unsatisfying.
After all that, though, I still enjoyed the book. In fact, the highly individualized tone of the first-person narration, no matter whether it was Felix's or Mildmay's, kept me turning pages at lightning speed. And I was fascinated by the notion of labyrinths underpinning both the magic system and the story arcs, and I definitely want to know more about those.
I'm just not sure what to expect going forward.
hissingpotatoes's review against another edition
3.0
mugsandpugs's review against another edition
5.0
I'm trash. I know I'm trash. And I'm okay with that.
BUT THIS BOOK CONTAINED EVERYTHING THAT MAKES MY WEE LITTLE TRASHY HEART THUMP. WOOOOOOOO.
Alright. Felix? Is a JERK in this book, and I'm 100% here for it. I LOVE characters who are assholes, who KNOW they're assholes, who admit and acknowledge (but never apologize for!) it... And I love, even more, when that has consequences. Sure, everyone thinks Felix is COOL and UNTOUCHABLE, and he LIKES IT LIKE THAT.
... Except for when he hurts the people he cares about. Which he does. Regularly. And he can't stop. You can actually feel the moments when he realizes too late what he's doing and he drags his heels in like mayday-- mayday! Caused pain to someone I love! But there's no taking it back, and there's no changing it. Felix does some really, really not okay things in this book. (Which honestly I found a little refreshing after his wide-eyed woobie innocence in the first book. That wasn't Real Felix. THIS is Real Felix, and I'm pleased we got to spend more time with him.)
MILDMAY. LOVE OF MY LIFE. What a gem you are, Mildmay; a diamond in the rough. He's so PUT UPON in this book. He's so GOOD. The first half of this book was just Mildmay dragged into situations where he had to rescue people, MOSTLY people he doesn't like, or people who get uncomfortable (literal) boners while he's rescuing them, and nobody appreciates him. Is it weird that every time the foul-mouthed, scar-faced assassin is on the page, all I can squeal is "my BABY!!!" ?
Spoiler
Also? I'm here for how he's just. Well, my brother thinks I'm sexy. Guess I gotta just deal with that, too. SIGH. So: Yes. I love these flawed disaster characters. I love their slang and dialect, and how the story switches POVs so rapidly, but it's not at all hard to keep up with. I love the matter-of-fact weird magical-ness of the world that we're just thrust into and expected to keep up with. And, because I am trash, whenever the text blesses me with lines such as THIS little nugget of angsty gold:
“It's like you got to have everybody's heart, and if they don't give it, you rip it out and watch it bleed.”
Or THIS melodramatic pot of ambrosia:
"“What you're asking me to do is monstrous.""So? Ain't we both monsters?”
Well. All the better, ain't it?
Spoiler
Also, male/female sex scenes in books usually make me roll my eyes, but this one was... whew. Yes, queen. female character was taller, it was her idea, they both asked for consent from each other. explicit mention of clitoral stimulation. no gratuitous descriptions of ANYONEs body parts (if anything, they both were pretty average looking). male character got female character off repeatedly before asking if she wanted penetration, or if she’d prefer to stop. when female character touched male character somewhere he didn’t like, he asked her to stop. She did, apologized for the mistake, and promised not to do it again. brief– only about 2.5 pages long Basically: it was written how I like to write f/m sex scenes and this Pleases me.redheadbeans's review against another edition
5.0
Great writing, good humor. The magic system is a bit ehhhh at times and I kind of skimmed those portions. I can appreciate that a lot of good thought was put into it, but it's a bit too much for me. Thankfully the character building was given the greater focus, so. The plot is another sort of long journey with the central focus of the story now being Felix and Mildmay's relationship. Which is good. It's fun to read about.
Overall, great book. Already enjoying what I've read of book 3.
codenamerogue's review against another edition
4.0