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equleart's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
complicated feelings on it. CONTENT WARNING for..everything, jfc SPOILERS too
-so maybe I just stumbled into a genre I just don't get? but holy fuck that was the most rapey story I have ever read and holy fuck that includes Hiroaki Samura's entire catalogue.
-I really like the protagonist Nora, she's extremely entertaining, proactve, makes you want to root for her.
I really enjoyed the glimpse we get of the world and its history and magic, and I was hooked and thoroughly entertained pretty much from page one.
-The action was also a ton of fun and very well presented, there were quite a few very interesting and new character dynamics, at least among the few non-rapists in the book. and that's kinda where shit goes sour for me.
-The amount and kinds of rape and sexual assault in this are stomachturning and unnecessary.
SPOILERS from here on.Nora gets almost raped in like the first chapter. And as much as I disliked reading it, it had a point.
-set up the dangerous company, drove a wedge between Nora and her brother, who apparently couldnt give less of a shit, and makes Nora's situation a very interesting one, not in small part because she is otherwise, despite the circumstances, an extremely sex-positive person.
-SO anyway, she breaks the dude's nose. and flees. into her home village, where all the women are being kept as sex slaves by bandits. she kills them. and goes back to the bandits that first tried to rape her.
-They arrive at a very nice, pleasant fortress where everything is neat and two separate characters (whom she travels with for the whole book) threaten to rape her. the place gets attacked and she witnesses.. oh boy, mass rape.
-so they leave. on the way, one of them sneaks up on he while she pees in the dark, cuts her privates and surprise, threatens to rape her.
-They arrive at basically a magical brothel cult place, of the you-are-never-going-to-leave variety. A woman breaks the rules, her child gets sacrificed and could you have guessed? she gets gangraped to death.
-Nora witnesses this and only escaped being also raped by the crowd waiting to rape the first woman by being sexually assaulted as a signal that she's 'taken'
-she's thrown into a fighting pit with the implication that she's gonna get raped to death if she loses.
-in the last place, there's also a male character getting both on screen and implied raped multiple times, just for good measure
-THIS ALL HAPPENS IN 340 PAGES. THREE HUNDRED AND FORTY.
-It's so extremely prevalent that when she gets confined at the end, completely helpless, it feels WRONG that she ISNT being raped also.
-it goes so far beyond any real need as past the first incident, it doesnt even seem to affect Nora for more than a page and the theme never goes anywhere. hell she even keeps the flirty relationship with one of the bandits from the start going, even though his father keeps threatening to rape her.
-it's puzzling and seems to actually just be there for shock value. the author mentions in the endnotes that that child-sacrifice brothel cult was actually based on biblical, if not real historical events. except, for the entire male clientele lining up to rape a fresh mother who's catatonic from having her newborn sacrificed until she dies.
so again- I'm torn. I like the non-rape parts of the book, but it's a lot of rape for me to go 'yeah, I wanna read this' cause I don't, really. I wouldn't have started this if I knew the contents. I've dropped longer books for half the shit in here and if I didnt finish it in a very short week of reading I wouldve DNF'd this as well, and even though I finished it I have this extremely bad taste in my mouth. cause you couldve literally just removed every rape past chapter 1 and not lost anything of value. I conclude that it wasnt for me.
-so maybe I just stumbled into a genre I just don't get? but holy fuck that was the most rapey story I have ever read and holy fuck that includes Hiroaki Samura's entire catalogue.
-I really like the protagonist Nora, she's extremely entertaining, proactve, makes you want to root for her.
I really enjoyed the glimpse we get of the world and its history and magic, and I was hooked and thoroughly entertained pretty much from page one.
-The action was also a ton of fun and very well presented, there were quite a few very interesting and new character dynamics, at least among the few non-rapists in the book. and that's kinda where shit goes sour for me.
-The amount and kinds of rape and sexual assault in this are stomachturning and unnecessary.
SPOILERS from here on.
-set up the dangerous company, drove a wedge between Nora and her brother, who apparently couldnt give less of a shit, and makes Nora's situation a very interesting one, not in small part because she is otherwise, despite the circumstances, an extremely sex-positive person.
-SO anyway, she breaks the dude's nose. and flees. into her home village, where all the women are being kept as sex slaves by bandits. she kills them. and goes back to the bandits that first tried to rape her.
-They arrive at a very nice, pleasant fortress where everything is neat and two separate characters (whom she travels with for the whole book) threaten to rape her. the place gets attacked and she witnesses.. oh boy, mass rape.
-so they leave. on the way, one of them sneaks up on he while she pees in the dark, cuts her privates and surprise, threatens to rape her.
-They arrive at basically a magical brothel cult place, of the you-are-never-going-to-leave variety. A woman breaks the rules, her child gets sacrificed and could you have guessed? she gets gangraped to death.
-Nora witnesses this and only escaped being also raped by the crowd waiting to rape the first woman by being sexually assaulted as a signal that she's 'taken'
-she's thrown into a fighting pit with the implication that she's gonna get raped to death if she loses.
-in the last place, there's also a male character getting both on screen and implied raped multiple times, just for good measure
-THIS ALL HAPPENS IN 340 PAGES. THREE HUNDRED AND FORTY.
-It's so extremely prevalent that when she gets confined at the end, completely helpless, it feels WRONG that she ISNT being raped also.
-it goes so far beyond any real need as past the first incident, it doesnt even seem to affect Nora for more than a page and the theme never goes anywhere. hell she even keeps the flirty relationship with one of the bandits from the start going, even though his father keeps threatening to rape her.
-it's puzzling and seems to actually just be there for shock value. the author mentions in the endnotes that that child-sacrifice brothel cult was actually based on biblical, if not real historical events. except, for the entire male clientele lining up to rape a fresh mother who's catatonic from having her newborn sacrificed until she dies.
so again- I'm torn. I like the non-rape parts of the book, but it's a lot of rape for me to go 'yeah, I wanna read this' cause I don't, really. I wouldn't have started this if I knew the contents. I've dropped longer books for half the shit in here and if I didnt finish it in a very short week of reading I wouldve DNF'd this as well, and even though I finished it I have this extremely bad taste in my mouth. cause you couldve literally just removed every rape past chapter 1 and not lost anything of value. I conclude that it wasnt for me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Sexual violence, Rape, Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Confinement, Incest, Sexual assault, and Torture
decodethebooks's review
5.0
5 stars★★★★★
The Living Blade series:
✿ [b:Touch of Iron|30238526|Touch of Iron (The Living Blade, #1)|Timandra Whitecastle|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1463729436l/30238526._SY75_.jpg|50701656] ★★★★★
✿ [b:On the Wheel|34325797|On the Wheel (The Living Blade, #2)|Timandra Whitecastle|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1489645621l/34325797._SY75_.jpg|55389983]★★★★
✿ [b:Mother of Slag|41431023|Mother of Slag (The Living Blade, #3)|Timandra Whitecastle|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1551342727l/41431023._SY75_.jpg|64654103] dnf
☞ Trigger warnings: *contains spoilers*
Wow wtf.
This book is not for the faint of heart and can be used as an introduction to dark fantasy. This book is split into three parts that would be three different books if it was a YA. It is expansive story where the characters are traveling across the map during most of the book.
Nora is a fierce fiery character with penchant for violence that gets her in trouble a time or two. I love it when the main character is in training to be able to kill everyone with ease.
Nora and Owen are such interesting twins with such distinctive personalities that complement each other. Owen pissed me off a few times but I understood the intent and why he did the things he did.
The plot was interesting with gritty depictions of war and a cool mythology surrounding the gods and The Living Blade. The antagonists had depth and the world rich. The romance was on the back burner with the quest taking precedent.
This was a brilliant book that laughed when they punched you in the face and then gave you ice as an apology that is not really an apology.
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judeisanicon's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
ufcasey's review
3.0
3.5 stars
This book follows a pretty normal story arc for the first book of a fantasy series: novice hero (in this case, heroine) sets out on an adventure, meets someone who teaches them how to fight, the reader encounters a plot twist, we meet a big bad guy complete with big fight scene, and then the story ends with the adventure not over but rather having just begun.
The world-building is a bit patchy. I still don't really know what a wight is exactly, no map was given so the journey doesn't quite make sense in my head, and the myth behind the 'Living Blade' isn't really fleshed out. What is it? What are you supposed to do with it? Also, the back story of Nora and why she and her twin brother Owen ran away in the first place never made much sense to me; I wish that was done better. Also, and this is just my own nit-picky thing, in fantasy books usually modern day curse words are substituted for something else along the lines of 'blast you' instead of 'fuck you'. But in this book 'fuck' appeared in several instances and it really did take me back. Not out of prudishness, it just seemed out of place.
I enjoyed Nora's character with her obstinance and strong-will, but found her brother Owen to be a bit of a throwaway. We never get to understand him any deeper than the surface observation that he likes to read books and is into gaining more knowledge. The love interest, Diaz, is suitably mysterious enough to keep a reader's interest, but I do wish a couple more bones were thrown to us about his back story. The potential love triangle romantic interest, Shade, is only halfheartedly thrown in there. I wish he was given more 'screen time' to set him up as more of a real competition with Diaz. For the bad guys: Prince Bashan is just a creepy mean guy who seems kind of flat, but Suranna is definitely a despicable character that you love to hate.
The plot itself I found very engaging. I rooted for Nora to develop and mature. I liked all of the fighting scenes in general. It got a little slow while at the temple but then the entire last third of the book was just fantastic (I can't go into more details without spoiling it). I am very interested in seeing what happens next. I will say, overall I could have done with a lot less rape references.
I received this book for free via Goodreads Giveaways.
This book follows a pretty normal story arc for the first book of a fantasy series: novice hero (in this case, heroine) sets out on an adventure, meets someone who teaches them how to fight, the reader encounters a plot twist, we meet a big bad guy complete with big fight scene, and then the story ends with the adventure not over but rather having just begun.
The world-building is a bit patchy. I still don't really know what a wight is exactly, no map was given so the journey doesn't quite make sense in my head, and the myth behind the 'Living Blade' isn't really fleshed out. What is it? What are you supposed to do with it? Also, the back story of Nora and why she and her twin brother Owen ran away in the first place never made much sense to me; I wish that was done better. Also, and this is just my own nit-picky thing, in fantasy books usually modern day curse words are substituted for something else along the lines of 'blast you' instead of 'fuck you'. But in this book 'fuck' appeared in several instances and it really did take me back. Not out of prudishness, it just seemed out of place.
I enjoyed Nora's character with her obstinance and strong-will, but found her brother Owen to be a bit of a throwaway. We never get to understand him any deeper than the surface observation that he likes to read books and is into gaining more knowledge. The love interest, Diaz, is suitably mysterious enough to keep a reader's interest, but I do wish a couple more bones were thrown to us about his back story. The potential love triangle romantic interest, Shade, is only halfheartedly thrown in there. I wish he was given more 'screen time' to set him up as more of a real competition with Diaz. For the bad guys: Prince Bashan is just a creepy mean guy who seems kind of flat, but Suranna is definitely a despicable character that you love to hate.
The plot itself I found very engaging. I rooted for Nora to develop and mature. I liked all of the fighting scenes in general. It got a little slow while at the temple but then the entire last third of the book was just fantastic (I can't go into more details without spoiling it). I am very interested in seeing what happens next. I will say, overall I could have done with a lot less rape references.
I received this book for free via Goodreads Giveaways.
celticmyst's review
4.0
Man, I am so torn on how to rate this book. I'm going with 3.5/5 stars. First of all I'll say I flew through it and immediately bought the other two books because I needed to know what happened, damnit. Despite its flaws I found this to be an enjoyable story without many of the issues that commonly plague self-published authors.
Let's start with our main character, Noraya (Nora) Smith. I don't think it's ever explicitly said how old she is, but based on comments from other characters I assumed her to be around 17. As someone who was once a teenage girl, Nora's internal monologue is pretty accurate, meaning it's WILDLY ANNOYING. Mood swings all over the place. Again--very accurate, but it meant I had a hard time liking her. Speaking of liking her, I also couldn't figure out what on earth Buuuut admittedly I was still super into the sort-of romance. I shipped it hard, y'all. What is wrong with me.
The writing was good overall. Excellent descriptions. The big thing that bothered me about the prose was the random bits of modern language--Diaz saying "crap"? Eh. It often jerked me out of the story.
The world here is a very depressing place. I liked the worldbuilding--there's not much info dumping, and we just kind of find out things along with Nora on the way. I was super intrigued by the religious system (hello bizarre sex temple) and the legend of the Living Blade. The worldbuilding lost me in one main aspect: this is supposedly a society that shits all over women (there is a lot of rape, none on-screen but yeah it gets old), yet most of the leaders we meet are women. There was a big disconnect there. Seemed like the author wanted to have women in power but also have women being repressed? It didn't really work. Especially since one of Nora's big motivations is escaping "traditional womanhood"/marriage/etc and how hopeless it is for her to escape that life.
Nora and Owen's relationship was sweet. There are precious few sibling relationships in fantasy, let alone twins.
I have already finished the second book and am about to read the third. It's hard to know who to recommend this book to, though. It's got a YA-ish protagonist (except with more cursing) in a very grimdark world. It's a weird mashup but I dug it.
Let's start with our main character, Noraya (Nora) Smith. I don't think it's ever explicitly said how old she is, but based on comments from other characters I assumed her to be around 17. As someone who was once a teenage girl, Nora's internal monologue is pretty accurate, meaning it's WILDLY ANNOYING. Mood swings all over the place. Again--very accurate, but it meant I had a hard time liking her. Speaking of liking her, I also couldn't figure out what on earth
Spoiler
Diaz saw in her. He's 87 years old, has been all over the world and back, is generally experienced, mature, etc, and...he's super into a 17-18 year old girl? But why? I never could quite figure out what he saw in her, except that she was confusing and determined and cursed a lot.The writing was good overall. Excellent descriptions. The big thing that bothered me about the prose was the random bits of modern language--Diaz saying "crap"? Eh. It often jerked me out of the story.
The world here is a very depressing place. I liked the worldbuilding--there's not much info dumping, and we just kind of find out things along with Nora on the way. I was super intrigued by the religious system (hello bizarre sex temple) and the legend of the Living Blade. The worldbuilding lost me in one main aspect: this is supposedly a society that shits all over women (there is a lot of rape, none on-screen but yeah it gets old), yet most of the leaders we meet are women. There was a big disconnect there. Seemed like the author wanted to have women in power but also have women being repressed? It didn't really work. Especially since one of Nora's big motivations is escaping "traditional womanhood"/marriage/etc and how hopeless it is for her to escape that life.
Nora and Owen's relationship was sweet. There are precious few sibling relationships in fantasy, let alone twins.
I have already finished the second book and am about to read the third. It's hard to know who to recommend this book to, though. It's got a YA-ish protagonist (except with more cursing) in a very grimdark world. It's a weird mashup but I dug it.
morebookspleaseblog's review
5.0
Can a review be started with “Holy shit!” Wow! This book was amazing! Touch of Iron was everything I expected and more. The plot was fast paced and full of history and legend of this fantasy country with well developed and interesting characters. Nora is a kickass heroine. She’s tough, funny and definitely smarter than anyone gives her credit for. At the same time… she’s spontaneous, careless and at times reckless. As Nora follows her twin brother, Owen, to help the fallen prince, Bashan, find the Living Blade to regain his kingdom, she meets an interesting group of men and danger at every turn.
One of the most interesting in the group is half-human, half-wight Master Diaz. I love everything about him. He is a warrior, a teacher, a gentleman and an outcast. His duty is to protect the innocent and guide the lost. Nora just happens to be both. However, Nora has a major part to play with the Living Blade. Both Master Diaz and Nora have demons they need to battle from their past and an internal battle of what is right and what is wrong versus what needs to be done. With all this going on, Nora must determine who can and can’t trust.
Every page was a page-turner full of excitement and curiosity, history and action, characters to love and hate. The story is compelling and I can’t wait for the second installment!
One of the most interesting in the group is half-human, half-wight Master Diaz. I love everything about him. He is a warrior, a teacher, a gentleman and an outcast. His duty is to protect the innocent and guide the lost. Nora just happens to be both. However, Nora has a major part to play with the Living Blade. Both Master Diaz and Nora have demons they need to battle from their past and an internal battle of what is right and what is wrong versus what needs to be done. With all this going on, Nora must determine who can and can’t trust.
Every page was a page-turner full of excitement and curiosity, history and action, characters to love and hate. The story is compelling and I can’t wait for the second installment!
ebbenoit's review against another edition
5.0
This book was quite the surprise. I honestly didn't think it would be great but I was absolutely blown away. I'll be honest, the beginning was a little hard to get through at times. There was a lot of set up that was unclear in its purpose and I couldn't really see where the story was going for a while, and not in a good way. But when the storyline picked up, it picked up and refused to put you down.
This world is harsh and absolutely unforgiving, and because of those elements Nora, the main character has learned to be just as harsh. Of course she has snark, and sass, and badassery mixed in there too, (which are always my favorite personality traits in a character).She is aware of the conventional role she's supposed to play and gives a big "f*** you" to anyone who tries to stand in her way.
There were multiple plot twists that kept me on the edge of my seat, and I can't wait to read the next one.
***Warning: this book does contain rape and attempted rape scenes for those who could be sensitive to that****
This world is harsh and absolutely unforgiving, and because of those elements Nora, the main character has learned to be just as harsh. Of course she has snark, and sass, and badassery mixed in there too, (which are always my favorite personality traits in a character).She is aware of the conventional role she's supposed to play and gives a big "f*** you" to anyone who tries to stand in her way.
There were multiple plot twists that kept me on the edge of my seat, and I can't wait to read the next one.
***Warning: this book does contain rape and attempted rape scenes for those who could be sensitive to that****
clendorie's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
4.0