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3.95 AVERAGE
3.95 AVERAGE
Epic fantasy in a treacherous world.
Great characters, brilliant world-building, superior prose and a gripping plot. What more could you ask for?! A great start to what's sure to be a most excellent trilogy.
Great characters, brilliant world-building, superior prose and a gripping plot. What more could you ask for?! A great start to what's sure to be a most excellent trilogy.
Rating: 3.65/5 (yes, I know, very specific)
So, I enjoyed this book, despite many of the problems that it faced, I wholeheartedly enjoyed it, and the feeling that I am getting from this book is that it is the start of a build up throughout the rest of the series, so I'm absolutely going to be reading the next one.
Good Elements
1) Interesting world
I found the world interesting. Unlike many of today's fantasies that are copy pasted settings from ours with different names and a bit of magic, the world that Staveley has built felt fresh, yet still keeping within comfortable bounds. This was one of the main things that kept me going through the book, as the world building was interesting to read. I enjoyed reading about the different training methods that were involved in the two main POV sections, and found the contrasts between them interesting. To add to this, the world is shown to the readers gradually, always leaving me hanging for more details.
2) Characters
While, I will admit that the POV characters did get frustrating at many times, they, as well as many of the other non-POV characters certainly got their moments to shine. The characters felt real to me, and I enjoyed (mostly) watching them stumble through their lives, making mistakes not always learning from them, as well as judgements that were made rushed in moments of tension that you could understand the reasoning for them being made.
Neutral comments
1) Pacing Style
The pacing in this book is a style that I have seen mostly in fantasy books, and involves the following of main characters though what they see as their ordinary life, the sort where, when you look back at the plot, nothing has happened-but everything has happened, and it's still interesting. Stylistically, I found this an interesting choice as with the epic nature of the plot, it would often be taken in the direction of thriller style pacing, or something close. However, I am not going to comment my opinions on this choice too much, but I found that the style did not detract from my reading of this book.
2) Ending (spoiler free!)
Now, I have two points to make about the ending- one good, the other more a neutral comment, so, they cancel each other out, right? Right? Well, the ending was solid and really drew the plot points together and made the three storylines come together. However, it did make the book feel like a prequel, rather than the first book, as I have a feeling that the plot will build up from this point. Not sure what I think of that, but hey, I liked the ending, so it can't be that bad.
Bad Elements
1) Pacing
While I am fine with the style of pacing that was employed in this book, at a few points, it certainly felt like it was dragging as well as going in circles. However, it wasn't nearly enough to ruin my enjoyment of this book, but still detracted a fair bit from my enjoyment.
So, I enjoyed this book, despite many of the problems that it faced, I wholeheartedly enjoyed it, and the feeling that I am getting from this book is that it is the start of a build up throughout the rest of the series, so I'm absolutely going to be reading the next one.
Good Elements
1) Interesting world
I found the world interesting. Unlike many of today's fantasies that are copy pasted settings from ours with different names and a bit of magic, the world that Staveley has built felt fresh, yet still keeping within comfortable bounds. This was one of the main things that kept me going through the book, as the world building was interesting to read. I enjoyed reading about the different training methods that were involved in the two main POV sections, and found the contrasts between them interesting. To add to this, the world is shown to the readers gradually, always leaving me hanging for more details.
2) Characters
While, I will admit that the POV characters did get frustrating at many times, they, as well as many of the other non-POV characters certainly got their moments to shine. The characters felt real to me, and I enjoyed (mostly) watching them stumble through their lives, making mistakes not always learning from them, as well as judgements that were made rushed in moments of tension that you could understand the reasoning for them being made.
Neutral comments
1) Pacing Style
The pacing in this book is a style that I have seen mostly in fantasy books, and involves the following of main characters though what they see as their ordinary life, the sort where, when you look back at the plot, nothing has happened-but everything has happened, and it's still interesting. Stylistically, I found this an interesting choice as with the epic nature of the plot, it would often be taken in the direction of thriller style pacing, or something close. However, I am not going to comment my opinions on this choice too much, but I found that the style did not detract from my reading of this book.
2) Ending (spoiler free!)
Now, I have two points to make about the ending- one good, the other more a neutral comment, so, they cancel each other out, right? Right? Well, the ending was solid and really drew the plot points together and made the three storylines come together. However, it did make the book feel like a prequel, rather than the first book, as I have a feeling that the plot will build up from this point. Not sure what I think of that, but hey, I liked the ending, so it can't be that bad.
Bad Elements
1) Pacing
While I am fine with the style of pacing that was employed in this book, at a few points, it certainly felt like it was dragging as well as going in circles. However, it wasn't nearly enough to ruin my enjoyment of this book, but still detracted a fair bit from my enjoyment.
Despite its readability, a mediocre, predictable fantasy with barely any fantasy.
Longer review to come.
Longer review to come.
Several things impinged on my ability to suspend disbelief here. The world is spoken of as a harsh and brutal place, à la Westeros, but the protagonists do not seem to think or behave as people who have grown up in such a world. Sometimes they don’t seem to think at all, and you listen for hours, cringing, as the characters fail to consider the completely obvious explanation for something. As other reviewers have noted, one of the most climactic battles relies on an eye-roll-inducing event . The book dabbles twice with moral quandaries, but doesn’t seriously engage with them, leaving you with protagonists who .
Still, it’s reasonably entertaining.
Spoiler
(the bad guy knocks out a bunch of characters but conveniently leaves them alive, and they wake up fine as soon as he’s dealt with)Spoiler
adapt fairly quickly to their compatriots having performed direct murdersStill, it’s reasonably entertaining.
3.5 stars. I really enjoyed this book, especially Valyn's storyline, and am looking forward to reading the next book to see what happens, specifically with Valyn and the other Kettral. But I definitely had a few issues with it, mainly because it fell into some "fantasy cliches" that are waaaaay overdone. First of all, the "bad guys" were SO predictable. Sami Yurl was literally Draco Malfoy in another world. He and his sidekick Balendin were cartoonishly horrible, poorly written, and had zero tension. Cruelty for no reason to me denotes poor writing. Yurl was so cruel because he was a rich merchant's son? Too easy. The "red herrings" of Annick and the Priest were not convincing at all, and the bad guys end up being exactly who you thought they would be. Second, several of the place names and stylistic choices were a bit too similar to Brandon Sanderson, JK Rowling, or George RR Martin, which also seemed a bit uncreative to me. The Eyrie (spelled the same way as Martin), for example, or Hull's Trial being so similar to the Triwizard Tournament. The names of the characters and religions reminded me too much of the Stormlight Archive, and the Kettral were just like the hippogriffs. Third, Kaden's storyline was SO BORING. I skimmed all of his chapters because daily beatings and senseless punishment in a monastery as a plot device is SO overdone in this genre. Adare's storyline, on the other hand, was woefully underserved. She's supposed to be this high-ranking minister, and yet she can't control herself from temper tantrums? Seems childish, and a bit sexist. Least amount of pages, most unflattering portrayal is of the female character. Hmm. Overall I'd recommend this book, but it left me wanting more.
Excellent novel, almost a 5 star from me which is hard to get! Exceptionally good for a debut novel, and it was one of those books that have you thinking about it in the midst of working, just waiting to finish so you could get back to reading it and see what happens next. After a few disappointing fantasy reads lately, this was a welcome read and I am keen to read the next.
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
What more can you ask for? Badass assassins, warrior monks, ancient conspiracies, political intrigue, this story has it all and then some.
Enjoyed the political intrigue, liked the characters and situations.
Didn't give it that last star because I was annoyed that a strong, complicated female character got fridged to provide character development for one of the male characters. Ugh.
Didn't give it that last star because I was annoyed that a strong, complicated female character got fridged to provide character development for one of the male characters. Ugh.
I loooooooooved this! Despite some unnecessarily long info dumps & Valyn acting like a typical teenage boy in nearly every one of his chapters, I got inexorably drawn into this book. The chapters are set up much like GoT where each chapter has a focus on one of the three children of the Emperor; the eldest Adare had the fewest chapters but the best reveal at the end (I began to smell it out at the beginning of that very chapter but it was still a big omg moment). Since this book was focused on the characters so much, we didn't get to learn a lot about the world or its societies & I hope that's elaborated upon in the next book. There's a whole hierarchy of gods - some 'younger' ones that even personally meddled in affairs?! - but they don't sound Malazan-esque so I don't think I'll have to steel myself for that level of carnage lol
I'm kind of kicking myself now for having sat on this book for so long, but if anything it does mean I can jump straight into the 2nd book now!
I'm kind of kicking myself now for having sat on this book for so long, but if anything it does mean I can jump straight into the 2nd book now!