Reviews with content warning for Violence - Realm Breaker

Realm Breaker follows Corayne, a pirate's daughter drawn into a scheme to protect the realm from otherworldly dangers, as someone schemes to rip apart the boundaries between worlds. Good for fans of the chosen one and found family tropes, and filled with fighting, betrayals and travels. I especially enjoyed the nautical parts which are reminiscent of Pirate's of the Carribean and the classic plot twists I would expect from Aveyard. The main improvement for me would be that I don't feel very connected to Corayne, who I feel should be the main protagonist, but this is made up for by the good exploration of the bold, determined and sassy character of Sorasa; and found the chapter pacing a little clunky at times with the backwards time jumps.

Content Warnings

wrensreadingroom's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

5.0

Content Warnings

speterson47's review

Go to review page

3.0

I loved the Red Queen series, and deeply wanted to love this one. I enjoyed it but for some reason had a tougher time getting into this one. However, I can't put my finger on why that is. The characters were interesting and interacted well with each other. There was good action and setup. I honestly think I was perhaps just too distracted when I was reading the beginning of the book. I would say I recommend to Fantasy lovers, but not those new to the genre.

Content Warnings

erins_bookshelf_'s review

Go to review page

adventurous tense fast-paced

4.5

I put off reading this book for a while because I wasn't the biggest fan of the Red Queen series, but this was so good and I'm glad I finally got to it! It does fall into the 'chosen one' trope area but honestly I don't even care because it's a really good story and the reason for why she's the only one who can save everyone makes sense rather than it just being "because of magic" or something like that.
I need to get the second book as soon as possible because I'm loving this story so far and I need more of it!!

Content Warnings

queer_bookwyrm's review

Go to review page

adventurous mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

3 ⭐ CW: Violence, descriptions of blood and gore, torture, PTSD

Realm Breaker by Victoria Aveyard is book one in the Realm Breaker series. I was quite disappointed with this one, actually. I loved the Red Queen series, but this fell flat to me.

We follow a group of seven people who are on a quest to save the Allward. Corayne, Spindle touched and the chosen one is the one one who can save the realm from being torn apart by her uncle, who only wants chaos and destruction. Andry, the dutiful squire wracked with survivor's guilt and PTSD and possible love interest for Corayne. Sorasa, (the best character) the sarcastic assassin who has the best banter, and I wanted to know more about her backstory. Dom, the immortal Elder who is our resident himbo and good boy who doesn't get along with Sorasa. Charlie, the forger and ex-priest with a heart of gold, and is clearly pining for a boy. Sigil, the bounty hunter and all around badass and scary lady. And finally, Valtik, the witch that doesn't make any sense, but gets them out of a pinch anyway.

Personally, I thought there were too many different POVs, and the result was a very slow and drawn out story. I was 80% of the way through the book before the gang was completed. It just took way too long to get to where you knew the story was going. I also don't care enough about most of these characters, because we don't get enough time with each of them. Sorasa was the only one I had strong feelings about.

If you don't mind a slow build up in book one, this could be a good epic YA Fantasy read, but if you're looking for fast paced action, this isn't it. I don't think I'll continue the series.

Content Warnings

booksthatburn's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous slow-paced

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

3.0

This was almost a DNF for me, except that by the time I was thoroughly bored by very little happening of importance, I was already almost done. As an audiobook, at least, the story flies by, unafraid to spend a very long time on each event without quite being dull. I wasn’t engaged by the chemistry of the main band of heroes, though a particular character who appears helpful and then is shown to be nefarious was much more interesting. This lands in a weird middle ground, like it’s trying to be a character-centered narrative with a traveling party that’ll be a tightly-knit found family by the end, and it’s aiming to be a grand journey epic that takes its time and goes to interesting places and is more concerned with the journey than the destination. I can recognize that it has an assassin with a mysterious past, a battle-hardened immortal, a squire trying to never fail anyone like he failed his last knight, a young woman finally making her way in the world, and an old woman who is prophetic and mysterious. It also has a queen trying to consolidate her power, a mysterious and malevolent prince, and a traveler trying to get help. However, these brief descriptions are more exciting than what actually happens in the story. I recognize the roles they play in the narrative but I don’t care about them as people and I keep forgetting who everyone is. I made my list of important characters without reviewing the list from the official blurb (available above), and my list doesn't quite match because it feels like the characters were chosen based on tropes, but a slightly different list were actually interesting in the story.

Part of what makes everyone feel interchangeable is that most of their individual goals aren’t well-defined. The main antagonist wants to open the spindles as a kind of revenge for his twin being stolen and raised to an inheritance that he only lost due to the luck of being born second. That explains why he’s angry but doesn’t sufficiently explain why he chose this particular plan as his revenge. The queen is my favorite character, her goals and motives are really clear and they make sense in the story. I understand why she’s doing what she’s doing, whether or not I think it’s wise or good. As for the others, they want to stop the spindles from being opened because the spindles let in deadly creatures. Great, love a “save the world goal”, but their individual goals other than “stop the antagonist and don’t die” are lost in favor of cultivating mystery and potential later reveals. It makes them feel interchangeable, because even if their goals are explained before or during the journey they don’t seem to affect what actually happens. At one point they get imprisoned, and not only has one of them been in prison before, they’ve been in this particular prison and already has a way to get out as soon as they decide to implement it. It means that even a prison break (traditionally a pretty dramatic bit of story) is anticlimactic and almost immediately solved.

The events of the prologue felt like they should have been the end of the first book, there's so much tension and depth in such a brief space, and then the rest of the book doesn't live up to that promise.

The worldbuilding related to the spindles is interesting, but the details don’t have time to matter before this portion of the trilogy is over. I have no interest in the sequels. This was bland in an inoffensive but uninteresting way. I don’t hate it, I don’t like it, it’s just blah and I don’t recommend it.

Content Warnings

abbypeekreads's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

After reading and loving Aveyard's Red Queen series, I was so excited to see she has another series going. While Realm Breaker felt totally different from her previous series, a lot of what I love about Aveyard's books was there, and I'm happy to say that overall I enjoyed this book!

First, let's discuss the world building. I had a bit of a back and forth relationship with it, mainly because I felt it bogged the story down in the back half. But even so, I always appreciate when a world is incredibly well-developed, and Allward is nothing less than that. Each region was so unique, each with their own geographical descriptions and cultural norms, and it made for an intriguing and complex landscape for the story's events.

I had so much fun getting to know the characters of this story. They were a ragtag bunch, which I surprisingly formed attachments to early on. Each of them brought a unique perspective to the story, and while most of them didn't have much 'development', I think there's a lot of room left to explore their growth throughout the series, which gets me excited. I craved a bit more detail regarding Taristan's backstory and motivations, but I have a feeling that will come later in the series.

All in all, I had fun diving into this new world Aveyard has created! It gave me Lord of the Rings vibes, which I hadn't been expecting but ended up liking a lot. While there was still a few things left to be desired with this book, and I had hoped for more focus on the magical elements of the world and the Spindles, it's good to remember that this is just the first book in a full series. I'm certain that more and more will be revealed over time, which only makes me more excited to get to Blade Breaker soon!

Content Warnings

frannyd's review

Go to review page

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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

3.75

Content Warnings

More...