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vizira's review against another edition
5.0
this was an impulse buy that I knew nothing about and was completely blown away by
tani's review against another edition
4.0
This book did not lend itself to my usual stop-and-go reading style, and I was further hindered in the beginning by the terrible summary, which gives away events that do not happen until almost halfway through the book! I definitely had a bit of a rough middle with this, I'll say that. Still, the world-building! All the details that were put into this book! And the characters! Yup, color me impressed. I do wonder if it might not have gone better if I'd read some of the other books in the universe first though. Still, I will be reading more Sherwood Smith!
pipn_t's review
There was no plot. I really wanted to like it but nothing happened to the main character in the entire first half of the book, and I didn’t care about any of the characters who did have plot happening to them, so I gave up. A shame, I was hoping to enjoy this one.
snazel's review against another edition
Wow, that was not unenjoyable, but my word nothing really happened. That was a 800 page book that was really dependant on a previous four books, and setting up for another four.
I liked a lot of the people! Ace main character! Fun world! And five hundred pages devoted to a few months of fashion followed by three hundred pages for ten years of magic work described in metaphor. *puts chin on fist, considers book*
I liked a lot of the people! Ace main character! Fun world! And five hundred pages devoted to a few months of fashion followed by three hundred pages for ten years of magic work described in metaphor. *puts chin on fist, considers book*
aw21594377's review against another edition
3.0
Felt really long and don't particularly remember much of the plot or characters. The things I do remember are probably not what the author wants to be remembered and I feel specifying them would be a disservice to the overall intent of the novel.
hanakorc's review against another edition
2.0
Oh, boy. I keep reading Sherwood Smith's stuff because I was such a huge fan of Crown Duel. Unfortunately, besides Cornets and Steel, nothing has been even close to as good.
This book is 700 pages long. It took about 400 pages for me to get involved in the story, and the book doesn't get really interesting until the last 20 pages. It seems to build a little bit off Inda, so perhaps I would have appreciated it more if I had read that.
This is one of those books that I cannot figure out why it was so long. This book could have easily been condensed into 400-500 pages. The characters had good depth but the plot moved slowly. I also really struggle visualizing the world this book takes place in, and all of the crazy fan and hand gestures.
Overall, I can't say I'd recommend this.
This book is 700 pages long. It took about 400 pages for me to get involved in the story, and the book doesn't get really interesting until the last 20 pages. It seems to build a little bit off Inda, so perhaps I would have appreciated it more if I had read that.
This is one of those books that I cannot figure out why it was so long. This book could have easily been condensed into 400-500 pages. The characters had good depth but the plot moved slowly. I also really struggle visualizing the world this book takes place in, and all of the crazy fan and hand gestures.
Overall, I can't say I'd recommend this.
kwugirl's review against another edition
3.0
Again, this whole series is quite progressive--main character here is asexual, which led to some ruminations on how much of an effect it had on her motivations. Also the description of the plot is misleading, but there's more of the "villains also have a coherent worldview" peeks. It was fun to skim through [b:A Stranger to Command|21643325|A Stranger to Command|Sherwood Smith|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1402277307s/21643325.jpg|3921267] and have the [b:Inda|222837|Inda (Inda, #1)|Sherwood Smith|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1309284273s/222837.jpg|215796] references fresh in my mind for the connections, so I'd save this one for after the others.
egelantier's review against another edition
4.0
so i thought, i need to read something quick and easy, and next thing i knew, i was reading banner of the damned, all glorious 695 pages of it. ooooooops.
it's a very distant (400 years in the future) sequel to inda (that's why i was wary of reading it before, and in some ways i was right, because apparently it took marlovens less than five generations to completely fuck up everything inda and evred and hadand and co sweated and suffered for. i rooted for you, marlovens, we all rooted for you! but worth it), centered about emras, a young asexual (it's a point in her personal history but not the issue of the book; sartorias-deles verse is wonderfully and casually blase about all the permutations of orientations and relationships, and it's one of the things i love passionately about these books) girl growing up in a heyan-like royal court of colend.
emras is a scribe, which is a profession and a vocation centered about not interfering, not influencing events and always telling the truth; as a result she's a sheltered, naive, kind and decent person, and it, of course, means that soon she will discover that a) lying is the most fun a girl can have without taking her clothes off (ha) and b) good intentions pave the way exactly to the destination you'd expect.
anyway, the first part of the book is about emras growing up in colend and being assigned as a personal scribe to lasva, a brilliant and warm young princess struggling with her turbulent first love, and with her place in the court; and in the second lasva will go away to marloven hesea, a cold, martial kingdom, marry prince ivandred and do her best to wed peace and war, whereas emras will learn magic and discover, erm, things about herself she'd rather not.
it's glorious high fantasy in the same way inda is glorious high-fantasy: worldbuilt at a breathtaking scope, seamlessly blending high politics and personal lives and intersections thereof, populated with breathing multifaceted people just trying to do their best (or, occasionally, their worst), dealing with culture clash and with various ways of communication and miscommunication, quietly and with dignity showing many facets of love.
there's a lot of wonderful meta-commentary on inda (which exists as the in-universe text, in several permutations of various truthfulness), but the book stands pretty firmly alone as well. and there's a clever, clever twist built in (not shocking twist, per se, because you spot it far ahead of emras) that makes the whole book an exercise in breathless waiting for the tragedy.
but for me the most frustrating weakness of the book was in its strength: emras is a brilliant meta narrator (remember how in inda the pov will switch from omnipresent to tight third and back? it's addressed here), but the very nature of her narrative meant that in the second part of the book she willfully isolates herself from the things most interesting to me: lasva and ivandred's fraught relationship, lasva's attempts at integration, culture clash, everyday marloven lives. basically, i loved the book i read, but i'm sad for the book i could have read; but it's probably the point of the story, as well.
as always, highly and strongly recommended.
it's a very distant (400 years in the future) sequel to inda (that's why i was wary of reading it before, and in some ways i was right, because apparently it took marlovens less than five generations to completely fuck up everything inda and evred and hadand and co sweated and suffered for. i rooted for you, marlovens, we all rooted for you! but worth it), centered about emras, a young asexual (it's a point in her personal history but not the issue of the book; sartorias-deles verse is wonderfully and casually blase about all the permutations of orientations and relationships, and it's one of the things i love passionately about these books) girl growing up in a heyan-like royal court of colend.
emras is a scribe, which is a profession and a vocation centered about not interfering, not influencing events and always telling the truth; as a result she's a sheltered, naive, kind and decent person, and it, of course, means that soon she will discover that a) lying is the most fun a girl can have without taking her clothes off (ha) and b) good intentions pave the way exactly to the destination you'd expect.
anyway, the first part of the book is about emras growing up in colend and being assigned as a personal scribe to lasva, a brilliant and warm young princess struggling with her turbulent first love, and with her place in the court; and in the second lasva will go away to marloven hesea, a cold, martial kingdom, marry prince ivandred and do her best to wed peace and war, whereas emras will learn magic and discover, erm, things about herself she'd rather not.
it's glorious high fantasy in the same way inda is glorious high-fantasy: worldbuilt at a breathtaking scope, seamlessly blending high politics and personal lives and intersections thereof, populated with breathing multifaceted people just trying to do their best (or, occasionally, their worst), dealing with culture clash and with various ways of communication and miscommunication, quietly and with dignity showing many facets of love.
there's a lot of wonderful meta-commentary on inda (which exists as the in-universe text, in several permutations of various truthfulness), but the book stands pretty firmly alone as well. and there's a clever, clever twist built in (not shocking twist, per se, because you spot it far ahead of emras) that makes the whole book an exercise in breathless waiting for the tragedy.
but for me the most frustrating weakness of the book was in its strength: emras is a brilliant meta narrator (remember how in inda the pov will switch from omnipresent to tight third and back? it's addressed here), but the very nature of her narrative meant that in the second part of the book she willfully isolates herself from the things most interesting to me: lasva and ivandred's fraught relationship, lasva's attempts at integration, culture clash, everyday marloven lives. basically, i loved the book i read, but i'm sad for the book i could have read; but it's probably the point of the story, as well.
as always, highly and strongly recommended.
bookstuff's review against another edition
4.0
I spent more than half the book annoyed at the narrator's naivete, and stayed up way too late finishing this big fat book.
And now I'm sad that there isn't a sequel.
And now I'm sad that there isn't a sequel.