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leenyx's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
0.25
*NOTE* I finished about 50% of this one.
I tried to give this one the old college try for nostalgia's sake, but the problem with reading a series you loved when you were ten is you start to notice all the problematic things you weren't equipped to notice before.
For instance, the ambiguously non-white Sachakans of this book are a slave-owning, hyper masculine society set up as antagonists to the white, virtuous, non-slaving Kyralians. Which is a great big yikes from me.
The few "good" Sachakans are somehow tempered in some way by Kyralia. There are two (??? I'm a little unsure, because their culture has literally no impact on their behavior or actions) wives of Kyralian magicians who are Sachakan, a magician who has Sachakan descent (whose wife comments that with his dark complexion, he got the only good Sachakan trait, oof), a Sachakan slave rescued by the MC and a Kyralian wizard, and a biracial Sachakan/Kyralian girl who was raised in Kyralia, and talks about Sachakan culture with the utmost disdain.
This book made me cringe so hard in the first chapter I almost dropped it then, but I decided to give it another try. But it never got any better. The author talks about slavery with *no* self-awareness. We cannot divorce ourselves - as readers or writers - from our history, especially as it pertains to white colonialism. So this book about White saviors and villians of an ambiguous shade seems like a misstep, at best.
I tried to give this one the old college try for nostalgia's sake, but the problem with reading a series you loved when you were ten is you start to notice all the problematic things you weren't equipped to notice before.
For instance, the ambiguously non-white Sachakans of this book are a slave-owning, hyper masculine society set up as antagonists to the white, virtuous, non-slaving Kyralians. Which is a great big yikes from me.
The few "good" Sachakans are somehow tempered in some way by Kyralia. There are two (??? I'm a little unsure, because their culture has literally no impact on their behavior or actions) wives of Kyralian magicians who are Sachakan, a magician who has Sachakan descent (whose wife comments that with his dark complexion, he got the only good Sachakan trait, oof), a Sachakan slave rescued by the MC and a Kyralian wizard, and a biracial Sachakan/Kyralian girl who was raised in Kyralia, and talks about Sachakan culture with the utmost disdain.
This book made me cringe so hard in the first chapter I almost dropped it then, but I decided to give it another try. But it never got any better. The author talks about slavery with *no* self-awareness. We cannot divorce ourselves - as readers or writers - from our history, especially as it pertains to white colonialism. So this book about White saviors and villians of an ambiguous shade seems like a misstep, at best.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Blood, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, and Torture
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