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just_hebah's review against another edition
5.0
It was lovely to return to the world of the Dominion of the Fallen. I think I liked this one even better than its predecessor, House of Shattered Wings.
Relationships took more of a center stage here, like those of Fallen angel Berith and her mortal lover, Francoise, mother to their child; the complicated relationships between Fallen Asmodeus and, well, pretty much anyone in his orbit; dragon kingdom spy Thuan and both his family as well as the House Hawthorn dependents he comes to know in his tenure in the house. There are still inter-house and inter-kingdom politics and power-plays galore, but I think the balance between the personal and the broader conflicts is well done.
Once again, I just love the world Bodard has created here. I wouldn't want to live in it, mind you, but I thoroughly enjoy my time there as a reader. The dragon kingdom beneath the Seine is just as complicated--and prone to corruption from within--as the Fallen houses above, and the relationship between the two is messy and fraught. The dangers of addictive angel essence, touched on through the character of Madeleine in the first book, have bigger implications in this one, and as in history, drug trafficking is leveraged for political advantage.
This one can, I think, be read without reading the first book, but I do recommend reading them in order, so character arcs and reveals have more impact.
Relationships took more of a center stage here, like those of Fallen angel Berith and her mortal lover, Francoise, mother to their child; the complicated relationships between Fallen Asmodeus and, well, pretty much anyone in his orbit; dragon kingdom spy Thuan and both his family as well as the House Hawthorn dependents he comes to know in his tenure in the house. There are still inter-house and inter-kingdom politics and power-plays galore, but I think the balance between the personal and the broader conflicts is well done.
Once again, I just love the world Bodard has created here. I wouldn't want to live in it, mind you, but I thoroughly enjoy my time there as a reader. The dragon kingdom beneath the Seine is just as complicated--and prone to corruption from within--as the Fallen houses above, and the relationship between the two is messy and fraught. The dangers of addictive angel essence, touched on through the character of Madeleine in the first book, have bigger implications in this one, and as in history, drug trafficking is leveraged for political advantage.
This one can, I think, be read without reading the first book, but I do recommend reading them in order, so character arcs and reveals have more impact.
fivemack's review against another edition
4.0
For a book revolving around a clash between fallen angels, Celestial Immortals and dragon kingdoms, this has a quiet aesthetic; three quarters of the book spent gathering forces before everything springs to life at the end.
metafiktion's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
a_l_deleon's review against another edition
4.0
So far, each of the books in this series read like a stand-alone, but have some key elements that tie them together. I enjoyed reading the House of Binding Thorns just as much as The house of Shattered Wings. I think, for myself, it’s the bringing together two entirely different cultural mythologies in one story that really intrigue me with this series. I will be reading the next one soon.
majaingrid's review against another edition
3.0
2021 reread
It’s said to work as a stand-alone. But it doesn’t. Read House of Shattered Wings before reading this one.
First time I read this book I had very little memories of Shattered Wings, which kinda hurt my reading experience a little. This second time around I’m reading this with Shattered Wings fresh in my mind (after also having reread that one). Did it help the reading experience? Well, it at least helped me understand it better because I knew who all the characters were.
BUT. I hardly care for the characters. I like Philippe and he didn’t have that much page/chapter time. Thuan’s chapters I could enjoy too. But Madeleine. She wasn’t my favourite in the first book and I did not much like her here either and she’s got the most page/chapter time. The plot is not as interesting either, and for the majority of the book It's difficult to even grasp what the plot is. I do appreciate de Bodard basing her story on France colonising on Vietnam and the Opium wars. It’s important to make historical events like these known to more people so that more can learn about it.
I’m in love with the world de Bodard has created. This Paris in ruins, ran by Housed ran by Fallen angels and dragon kingdoms.
2017 read
As much as I wanted to love this book, because I do like Borard's writing and the world she created in this series, I just couldn't bring myself fully into it. Felt myself skimming the second half of the book just to be done with it.
It’s said to work as a stand-alone. But it doesn’t. Read House of Shattered Wings before reading this one.
First time I read this book I had very little memories of Shattered Wings, which kinda hurt my reading experience a little. This second time around I’m reading this with Shattered Wings fresh in my mind (after also having reread that one). Did it help the reading experience? Well, it at least helped me understand it better because I knew who all the characters were.
BUT. I hardly care for the characters. I like Philippe and he didn’t have that much page/chapter time. Thuan’s chapters I could enjoy too. But Madeleine. She wasn’t my favourite in the first book and I did not much like her here either and she’s got the most page/chapter time. The plot is not as interesting either, and for the majority of the book It's difficult to even grasp what the plot is. I do appreciate de Bodard basing her story on France colonising on Vietnam and the Opium wars. It’s important to make historical events like these known to more people so that more can learn about it.
I’m in love with the world de Bodard has created. This Paris in ruins, ran by Housed ran by Fallen angels and dragon kingdoms.
2017 read
As much as I wanted to love this book, because I do like Borard's writing and the world she created in this series, I just couldn't bring myself fully into it. Felt myself skimming the second half of the book just to be done with it.
sleeping_while_awake's review against another edition
3.0
The House of Binding Thorns is the sequel to The House of Shattered Wings. I will fully admit I forgot most of the plot of the first book, even characters that I noted I liked I couldn't quite remember their actions.
I think you could read this as a standalone, since I managed to make it through really only remembering Phillip's background. If you're interested in the world and characters, then you can go back and read book one.
I read the first book about two years prior. I didn't realize it was that long of a time span. I don't know if I'm getting old, or if I read so many books that only the ones with really unique characters and plot stick in my mind over time.
The House of Binding Thorns focuses on House Hawthorn. Madeleine, the angel essence user from the first book, is now back at Hawthorn. She's having trouble kicking her habit and she's fearful the head of the house, Asmodeus, is going to kill her.
She's unfortunately bound with magic to the house, so there's no real escaping. Asmodeus allows her to go on a visit to the dragon kingdom with some other members of the house - Clothilde, the house human magician being a key character.
Clothilde wants to know what happened to Ghislaine, a member of the house that went to visit the dragon queen, Ngoc Bich, as Ghislaine hasn't returned. Ngoc Bich and the rest of her court state Ghislaine left healthy and they have no idea what happened to her.
Other povs:
A young dragon named Thuan is at House Hawthorn, pretending to be human, and he is trying to gather intelligence. He thinks House Hawthorn is weakening the dragon kingdom somehow.
A houseless Fallen, Berith, and her partner Françoise live in poverty. Berith is slowly dying, and she wants Françoise and her soon to be born child to be safe. Berith has a connection to House Hawthorn that is revealed, and it gets the two of them somewhat caught up in the main events of the novel.
Phillipe from the first book interacts mainly with Berith and Françoise. He keeps seeing ghosts of Isabella and Morningstar.
There's some bad dragon people and some bad Fallen from another house. It's a mystery plot like the first one, with lots of brooding characters. There's not one character that actually knows everything that's going on, although Asmodeus is at the front of most of it.
It's hard to do a summary of this book because there are lots of plotlines that start out that are question marks. This is the kind of plot where not everything is fully explained out.
The ending felt like a hard sprint. So many characters all having showdowns. It was epic and bloody, but it was hard to have what seemed liked 50 pages of intense endings for the characters.
There is less gore than the previous book. There's almost no angel harvesting, if you had an issue with that. The only mention is regarding a body in a morgue area that is being harvested, but other than that no kidnapping scenes. Plenty of people do get stabbed, however.
The characters are moody and always brooding. It does make it hard to care for one character over the other, since they all have the same attitude, but at least their motivations were rather clear and I never forgot what one character was about. There's still many Vietnamese characters, and characters with varied sexual orientation.
The ending was positive and possibly points to less ruthlessness in this world.
I am interested in de Bodard's work. I like the writing style and world-building, and I think in a few more books she is really going to come out with something spectacular. My biggest gripe with this one is that it just felt like too many characters for too short of a time.
I thought the second book was rather similar to the first book, perhaps with a bit more of a complex plot, so it's likely that if you read the first one, you'll feel similar about the second one.
I think you could read this as a standalone, since I managed to make it through really only remembering Phillip's background. If you're interested in the world and characters, then you can go back and read book one.
I read the first book about two years prior. I didn't realize it was that long of a time span. I don't know if I'm getting old, or if I read so many books that only the ones with really unique characters and plot stick in my mind over time.
The House of Binding Thorns focuses on House Hawthorn. Madeleine, the angel essence user from the first book, is now back at Hawthorn. She's having trouble kicking her habit and she's fearful the head of the house, Asmodeus, is going to kill her.
She's unfortunately bound with magic to the house, so there's no real escaping. Asmodeus allows her to go on a visit to the dragon kingdom with some other members of the house - Clothilde, the house human magician being a key character.
Clothilde wants to know what happened to Ghislaine, a member of the house that went to visit the dragon queen, Ngoc Bich, as Ghislaine hasn't returned. Ngoc Bich and the rest of her court state Ghislaine left healthy and they have no idea what happened to her.
Other povs:
A young dragon named Thuan is at House Hawthorn, pretending to be human, and he is trying to gather intelligence. He thinks House Hawthorn is weakening the dragon kingdom somehow.
A houseless Fallen, Berith, and her partner Françoise live in poverty. Berith is slowly dying, and she wants Françoise and her soon to be born child to be safe. Berith has a connection to House Hawthorn that is revealed, and it gets the two of them somewhat caught up in the main events of the novel.
Phillipe from the first book interacts mainly with Berith and Françoise. He keeps seeing ghosts of Isabella and Morningstar.
There's some bad dragon people and some bad Fallen from another house. It's a mystery plot like the first one, with lots of brooding characters. There's not one character that actually knows everything that's going on, although Asmodeus is at the front of most of it.
It's hard to do a summary of this book because there are lots of plotlines that start out that are question marks. This is the kind of plot where not everything is fully explained out.
Spoiler
House Astragale worked with some dependents of House Hawthorn to provide angel essense to the dragons, which weakened the dragons, who then retaliated. Not sure how much Astragale/defectors planned all of this out, since the dragons seemed to get really mad at Hawthorn right away.The ending felt like a hard sprint. So many characters all having showdowns. It was epic and bloody, but it was hard to have what seemed liked 50 pages of intense endings for the characters.
There is less gore than the previous book. There's almost no angel harvesting, if you had an issue with that. The only mention is regarding a body in a morgue area that is being harvested, but other than that no kidnapping scenes. Plenty of people do get stabbed, however.
The characters are moody and always brooding. It does make it hard to care for one character over the other, since they all have the same attitude, but at least their motivations were rather clear and I never forgot what one character was about. There's still many Vietnamese characters, and characters with varied sexual orientation.
The ending was positive and possibly points to less ruthlessness in this world.
Spoiler
Thuan stabs Asmodeus with Morningstar's sword, and somehow makes both of them part dragon/Fallen. House Hawthorn then has both of them as a head of house. And Thuan is rather clear he's not going to act like the Fallen typically do, and he seems to have more compassion.I am interested in de Bodard's work. I like the writing style and world-building, and I think in a few more books she is really going to come out with something spectacular. My biggest gripe with this one is that it just felt like too many characters for too short of a time.
I thought the second book was rather similar to the first book, perhaps with a bit more of a complex plot, so it's likely that if you read the first one, you'll feel similar about the second one.
ohbthr's review against another edition
4.0
4.5 - I love the expansion of the world in this one. We get a lot more information about the Houseless and the dragon kingdom in this installment. Looking forward to the next one!
ekfmef's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
5.0
I really wanted to love this book because the setting is amazing. However it was incredibly boring until I had read 3/4 of the book. After that the plot became clear but at first it was just a lot of vignettes from people trying to survive / people being their dark broody selves. I'm not sure about giving part three a try.
---
2023
I don't know why I didn't get it the first time around - was it too long ago that I'd read the first part? Anyway, I loved this part two. It again examines all the important questions and there's a very nice arc to it. I love fantasy that grapples with the issues of our time. Changed the rating from 3 to 5 stars.
---
2023
I don't know why I didn't get it the first time around - was it too long ago that I'd read the first part? Anyway, I loved this part two. It again examines all the important questions and there's a very nice arc to it. I love fantasy that grapples with the issues of our time. Changed the rating from 3 to 5 stars.
natalielorelei's review against another edition
3.0
This was enjoyable, but I did not love it nearly as much as I loved the first book, namely because the atmosphere was different (Silverspires is everything I want in a setting) and because, of my 3 favorite characters, one was completely absent (Selene) and the other two were doing things that I found a lot less interesting than what they were getting up to in the first book (Philippe and Madeleine). However, I really liked Thuan, I loved Francoise, and the book gets bonus points for adding in an awesome and interesting trans lady character. Even Asmodeus grew on me.
Overall, good fun, will definitely read the next one, although I really hope any next book has a lot more Selene.
Overall, good fun, will definitely read the next one, although I really hope any next book has a lot more Selene.
acupofcyanide's review against another edition
5.0
YES THUAN YOU GET YOUR HUSBAND!! Asmo in a more protagonist role is much less scary than Asmo in an antagonist role. Still scary though. Antagonist/protagonist roles are certainly much more defined in this book and I think that's largely to do with the fact that we don't get as intimate of a look on the antagonist's grievances. Overall great story!