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4.01 AVERAGE
4.01 AVERAGE
Read for book club.
So, Matt Colville runs a company in the RPG world and has a popular Youtube channel. I'm a big fan, and have watched most of his stuff as well as listened to a couple of D&D campaigns that he's run on stream. In the early years, before his company took off, he would usually comment at the end of his videos that he had a couple of self-published fantasy novels.
I wasn't super sure that "RPG advice I like" would translate well to "book I like," but I was pleasantly surprised with this book. Initially I was only reading it on my own, but after getting into it I decided to choose it as a book club read.
--Some spoilers follow--
I mostly really liked Heden as a main character. The fact that he starts out as an older, basically retired adventurer is neat. He is a priest (or cleric in D&D terms), which tends to be more of a supporting figure to fighter/wizard/rogue heroes. I love the image that he finally bought the bar that he always wanted to own, but has never opened it. I'm not especially knowledgeable about PTSD, but I thought it was an admirable choice to try to portray how it would play out in a fantasy setting.
I *mostly* thought the book avoided problems in its portrayal of women, which tends to be a problem in fantasy. I can think of basically one scene that involves women/sex stuff that I thought could have been handled better.
The mystery is an interesting one and I kind of think only a self-published author could really have gotten away with having it resolve in the utter failure of the protagonist, which I thought was a bold and successful choice. The mystery-solving with the knights could get a little tedious at times, but I thought it was a pretty realistic portrayal of how it would go with a non-super-sleuth person trying to just figure stuff out by talking to people. The idea of the knights order was cool, although I think there could have been a lot fewer of them as there were only a few distinct personalities.
I liked it enough to read the sequel...which unfortunately I didn't like as much!
So, Matt Colville runs a company in the RPG world and has a popular Youtube channel. I'm a big fan, and have watched most of his stuff as well as listened to a couple of D&D campaigns that he's run on stream. In the early years, before his company took off, he would usually comment at the end of his videos that he had a couple of self-published fantasy novels.
I wasn't super sure that "RPG advice I like" would translate well to "book I like," but I was pleasantly surprised with this book. Initially I was only reading it on my own, but after getting into it I decided to choose it as a book club read.
--Some spoilers follow--
I mostly really liked Heden as a main character. The fact that he starts out as an older, basically retired adventurer is neat. He is a priest (or cleric in D&D terms), which tends to be more of a supporting figure to fighter/wizard/rogue heroes. I love the image that he finally bought the bar that he always wanted to own, but has never opened it. I'm not especially knowledgeable about PTSD, but I thought it was an admirable choice to try to portray how it would play out in a fantasy setting.
I *mostly* thought the book avoided problems in its portrayal of women, which tends to be a problem in fantasy. I can think of basically one scene that involves women/sex stuff that I thought could have been handled better.
The mystery is an interesting one and I kind of think only a self-published author could really have gotten away with having it resolve in the utter failure of the protagonist, which I thought was a bold and successful choice. The mystery-solving with the knights could get a little tedious at times, but I thought it was a pretty realistic portrayal of how it would go with a non-super-sleuth person trying to just figure stuff out by talking to people. The idea of the knights order was cool, although I think there could have been a lot fewer of them as there were only a few distinct personalities.
I liked it enough to read the sequel...which unfortunately I didn't like as much!
Overall a fantastic story, but I couldn't stand the writing style. Luckily the sequel seems to be better.
Such an great read! It kept me on the edge of my seat and made me do everything I could to devote time to reading it!
Fantastic debut novel from Colville. Really intriguing characters and setting.
D&D nerds: if you've wondered how the Oath of the Ancients Paladin (aka the "Green Knight") worls, read this book. You'll want to run one.
D&D nerds: if you've wondered how the Oath of the Ancients Paladin (aka the "Green Knight") worls, read this book. You'll want to run one.
This is not a book for me. I would not recommend to a friend unless they wanted to read a frustrating main character and a depressing book. I had absolutely 0 background on the author who I now know is a big D&D content creator. A big D&D content creator that my boyfriend’s best friend happens to love which is why the book ended up on our bookshelf.
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
So, I really enjoyed this. My expectations were relatively low going in. Early on, the world building absolutely spellbound me. I like this world a great deal, and liked teasing together every small detail presented to assemble the larger picture. I would have liked it if it was simply an adventure tale. But this was much more than that. Instead of some D&D-inspired save-the-world epic, this is a much more personal tale, really making me think about big ideas and how we each process our failures and what we do to keep going. I read through this quickly,and already look forward to diving in again. Recommended.
Priest was an interesting read. The world building is cool and the characters have soooooo much potential but I found the writing hard to follow at times. The characters made weird decisions and it was just so confusing and frustrating at times. I think the book just has a special flow to it. The ending definitely redeemed the book for me and has me looking toward to book two. Overall the book was solid, I wouldn’t read it again but I’m glad I gave it a chance.
I liked this book a lot, I'm not going to write a very lengthy review of it
but things that worked: quick introduction into the world and trusting the reader to be able to understand "this is a fantasy universe with Magic and Monsters, and Priests can recite prayers that have magical connotations" without spending 1,000s of pages setting up the lore and history of the unvierse. It's just "This is a world with magic. The Woods are dangerous because Fae and Celestials control them. Humans, Dwarves, and Halflings are all people in this world. Got it? Good." Another thing that I very much enjoyed is the believeablility and humanness of Heden, the main character. He has a very Detective Murtaugh "I'm too old for this shit" vibe about him that can be grating at times but is otherwise enjoyable
What doesn't work: As much as I like just being dropped into the fantasy land and being expected to know whats going on, this is very much written for people who have a base understanding of Dungeons and Dragons and how the mechanics of that world work (Priests and Druids being magic, Halflings being thieves, bards being cunning sources of information etc). If I had read this a year ago without ever having played a game, I could see myself getting upset about certain aspects. The dialogue, especially between The Green Order and Heden is very circular, and doesn't exactly go anywhere.
(SPOILER ALERT) My biggest beef with this book is, in my opinion, the best, and most fleshed out character is just dumped with about a quarter of the book remaining and I wanted more of them.
but things that worked: quick introduction into the world and trusting the reader to be able to understand "this is a fantasy universe with Magic and Monsters, and Priests can recite prayers that have magical connotations" without spending 1,000s of pages setting up the lore and history of the unvierse. It's just "This is a world with magic. The Woods are dangerous because Fae and Celestials control them. Humans, Dwarves, and Halflings are all people in this world. Got it? Good." Another thing that I very much enjoyed is the believeablility and humanness of Heden, the main character. He has a very Detective Murtaugh "I'm too old for this shit" vibe about him that can be grating at times but is otherwise enjoyable
What doesn't work: As much as I like just being dropped into the fantasy land and being expected to know whats going on, this is very much written for people who have a base understanding of Dungeons and Dragons and how the mechanics of that world work (Priests and Druids being magic, Halflings being thieves, bards being cunning sources of information etc). If I had read this a year ago without ever having played a game, I could see myself getting upset about certain aspects. The dialogue, especially between The Green Order and Heden is very circular, and doesn't exactly go anywhere.
(SPOILER ALERT) My biggest beef with this book is, in my opinion, the best, and most fleshed out character is just dumped with about a quarter of the book remaining and I wanted more of them.