Reviews

I enjoyed it, but not as much as book 1. The academy was an interesting setting, and definitely something I'm drawing a lot of inspiration from for one of my D&D worlds. Following paragraph has minor spoilers only, but hidden just to be safe:

Spoiler

One thing that bothered me was that Maris was relegated to a minor character for much of the story. I realise it is the Quint Trilogy, but I enjoyed it more while they were essentially co-protagonists than when it was all about him. With Maris set aside for much of the story, the lack of female characters was extra noticeable. The society of Sanctaphrax presented is cut-throat, elitist, and all these deep flaws and tensions are part of what make it interesting, but I feel that if sexism isn't highlighted amongst those flaws then there is no purpose to writing the academy as men-only. The petty or violent rivalries serve a purpose as it enables the plot to involve dramatic personal tensions between characters. The elitism serves purpose because it sets up the narrative of sky-scholars and earth-scholars hating each other. The selfish backstabbing nature of the culture serves purpose because it enables the plot to cover the lack of trust and sudden betrayals. The fact that only males can be knights and scholars serves no purpose as the only thing it contibutes to the plot is that there are no women around. At no point is it condemned or used as a source of tension or character development aside from a line or two in book one where Maris thinks her father spends more attention on Quint than on her because she's a girl. Unsurprisingly, she is back in the story by the end of the book, and I'm looking forward to whatever the third might contain

sanjastajdohar's review against another edition

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5.0

4.5
A great sequel of the series, half a point less for not having enough Maris in it. The focus shifted on Quint entirely and the inner workings of the Academy and other levels. I liked the new characters and the story development was really interesting and quite unpredictable at times. Can't wait to read the next one.

derekrm's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

Definitely a lot slower than the previous books in the series and not as good as the first book in the Quint series. Focused too much on the Knights Academy and not enough on the plot.

ryn_k's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

madif's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

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? No

4.0

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