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Moderate: Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Moderate: Death, Racism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, War, Classism
Minor: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Child death, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail
I loved all of the characters even the more minor ones. They were all so well developed and had such distinct personalities. I even loved the one who was killing everyone and will be seen as the "bad guy". They all had a lot of depth throughout the book and stood out as individuals. I rooted for every single one of them to get what they wanted.
I also really liked the pacing of this book. Like I said, it does drop you in like right away with a character who is killing people as he's trying to kill a king, so it starts off on a high note which I think was a great way to start because when that was over you were completely ready to slow down and get a deeper sense of the world that you needed in order to move on. But the book itself was also separated into parts with interludes in between. I really enjoyed that it took a step back from the main story with those and added a side story to give you more information about the world and how it works without inundating you with exposition. It really worked with the pacing of the novel as a whole.
So yeah this was definitely a 10/10 read and I will be recommending it to anyone who is interested in high fantasy.
Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Self harm, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Classism
Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Death, Genocide, Gore, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, War, Classism
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Genocide, Physical abuse, Slavery, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Murder, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Moderate: Ableism, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Dementia, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, Deportation
Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Vomit, Police brutality, Trafficking, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Sexual harassment, War
Graphic: Child death, Death, Racism, Slavery, Violence, Medical content, Trafficking, Medical trauma, Murder, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Moderate: Confinement, Gore, Misogyny, Sexism, Blood, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Alcohol
Minor: Torture, Vomit, Death of parent
Graphic: Violence, Medical content, War, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Death, Slavery
Minor: Suicidal thoughts
Graphic: Gore, Violence, War
Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Police brutality, Medical content, Trafficking, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
And so, does the destination matter? Or is it the path we take?
I... kind of feel like I've read a lightly novellized non-fiction book on natural history, except it's the natural history of a made-up world. The worldbuilding here is amazing, that's for sure. Everything is so original and vivid and beautifully detailed. The magic, the way the world works, the politics and societal structure, there's so much, and it fits together beautifully. Unfortunately, the story itself never made me have any particularly strong feelings. I would have preferred to hang out in this awesome world by myself, whether via a videogame or a TTRPG medium, instead of getting to know it via this book.
Up until the very last part, everything is just so slow-paced. It took me about 100 pages to get invested enough into at least a couple of characters (Kaladin and then Shallan) that I decided I wasn't going to DNF, after all. On one hand, it's basically the 10% mark, which is a reasonable place to go from undecided to hooked. On the other hand, um, 100 pages. :D
And those two characters for the most part remained the only ones I truly cared for throughout the whole book. A number of others were intriguing, but I never quite clicked with them. I'm still trying to figure out what made me so hard to be invested in most of the cast, since plenty of characters had the type of personalities and conflicts that I usually enjoy reading about. I think it has something to do with the style of writing. Most of the character arcs were on the flat side, with the characters stuck in the same personal crises for pages and pages on end. And the characters and their problems were so obviously used as lenses for studying the world. And then there was the slow pacing and the fact that nothing really happened for over 2/3 of the huge book. All of that created the impression like I was reading the backstories, not witnessing the real action.
Actually, once I look back at the experience, I think this is exactly how I perceive it: there were 700-750 pages of backstory, and then 250-300 pages of gradually increasing stakes, tension, and action. And yeah, I guess plenty of details I learned while getting immersed in that backstory helped make the actual plot hit harder, once the story got that far. But was there truly no other way to tell this story?
(The question is rhetorical; I'm pretty sure there was, but all those alternate ways would have involved less focus on worldbuilding, and I could feel in every word how much the author loves the world he created and wants others to be fascinated with it, too. And, hey, it worked! I was pretty fascinated! And now I kind of want to witness more involved and dynamic plots set against the same backdrop...)
Graphic: Slavery, Violence, War
Moderate: Child death, Medical content
Graphic: Death, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, War, Classism
Moderate: Suicide, Blood, Medical content, Suicide attempt, Abandonment
Minor: Adult/minor relationship