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wrensreadingroom's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Colonisation, Chronic illness, Death, Physical abuse, Classism, Abandonment, Alcohol, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Death of parent, Blood, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Mental illness, Sexism, Toxic friendship, Murder, Drug use, Police brutality, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Misogyny, Stalking, Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Violence, Vomit, and War
redplanetreads's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
tense
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? It's complicated
4.0
Favorite Female Character: Corayne An-Amarat
Favorite Male Character: Andry Trelland
I really liked this one! I’ve been reading work by this author for a while, and I have to say that her writing has grown so much since her first series. RB felt a little non-linear and confusing at times, but once I really got into it I fell in love with the setting and the characters. With an expansive world build and enthralling storyline of danger, deception, and royal intrigue, I would recommend this for fans of LOTR, Six of Crows, and general sweeping fantasy novels.
Favorite Male Character: Andry Trelland
I really liked this one! I’ve been reading work by this author for a while, and I have to say that her writing has grown so much since her first series. RB felt a little non-linear and confusing at times, but once I really got into it I fell in love with the setting and the characters. With an expansive world build and enthralling storyline of danger, deception, and royal intrigue, I would recommend this for fans of LOTR, Six of Crows, and general sweeping fantasy novels.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail and Death
Moderate: Grief and Blood
Minor: Sexual content
booksthatburn's review against another edition
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
Graphic: Violence, War, Murder, Blood, and Death
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Grief, Alcohol, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Chronic illness, Adult/minor relationship, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Animal cruelty, Ableism, Excrement, and Slavery
maple_dove's review
Couldn't get interested. Fantasy doesn't appeal to me unless it's alongside a genre that I really like.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Animal death, Violence, Grief, and Murder
nora_knight's review
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
As the introductory book to a series, I enjoyed it. It took a while to introduce each of the characters and set off on their quest, but it seems to set up an exciting adventure and I'm already anticipating reading the next book.
Content Warnings
Moderate: War, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Self harm, Grief, Death, and Murder
Minor: Alcohol, Slavery, Death of parent, and Confinement
mayaschmerf's review
adventurous
emotional
funny
inspiring
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? No
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, War, Murder, Grief, Animal death, Death, Cursing, and Blood
frantically's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
This was SO GOOD. It's everything you want from epic fantasy — awesome descriptions, allll the kingdoms, immortals, heirs that somehow only have cousins, not siblings, and names that look like keyboard smashes.
You can really see how Aveyard's writing has become so much more mature since RQ. I loved all the characters and their stories linked really well together.
I especially loved Erida, mainly because she reminds me of my favourite historical women (I'm a history major, forgive me). She's such a well written morally gray/black/idek character and I'm so so excited to see how her story progresses and all the other ones as well.
You can really see how Aveyard's writing has become so much more mature since RQ. I loved all the characters and their stories linked really well together.
I especially loved Erida, mainly because she reminds me of my favourite historical women (I'm a history major, forgive me). She's such a well written morally gray/black/idek character and I'm so so excited to see how her story progresses and all the other ones as well.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Death of parent, Gore, Death, Violence, War, Blood, and Confinement
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail and Grief
Minor: Animal death and Animal cruelty
ordernumberseventeen's review
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
good, a lot of detail, too much sometimes, domachridhan>>>>>, 3 days
Content Warnings
Moderate: Blood, Death, Gore, Grief, and Murder
kittykaz's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
The found family in this was immaculate. They don’t just work well as a group, but each individual relationship between them was fleshed out, making the whole team so much more dynamic. As for the wordlbuilding and the actual plot, it didn’t stand out to me from the vast majority of high fantasy series, although the absence of the typical “elves, dwarves and humans versus some weird goblings”-spiel was a very nice surprise. It’s not an Us versus Them conflict, but instead the conflict lies in the interests of the opposing sides. There is a clear focus on the personal goals each character is working to achieve which makes it easy to root for (or against) your favourite characters.
Additionally, this was one of the few examples of a Multiple POV format well done. Every character had new insights to offer, providing the reader with a whole new layer of the story that is entirely unique to the narrating character.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Violence, and War
Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Grief
marylinaris's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
5.0
While there are several things I didn't like about this book, I did overall enjoy my reading experience of this book.
Let's start with the negatives.
• This book had way too many POVs, especially when it came the main group had found themselves together. That was also the point I felt as if there were too many characters present - I mean, I was intrigued by Andry in the beginning but it felt like he didn't really get that much attention in the later part of the book, similar with Corayne, who is just kinda present for parts of the book.
• So much book, so little plot. While I feel like the plot picked up in the last third of the book the rest had a lot of chapters with little plot development. This only irks me a little though because I did enjoy the character focused storytelling, though I hoped for more to happen overall.
• The action scenes fell flat for me most of the time. In contrast to the rest of the book, a lot happened in a lot less pages and they felt confused about what was happening (no matter who was the POV character, which is probably my main problem with it).
The positives on the other hand:
• The world building felt like a familiar fantasy setting but unique enough not to come off as a bland copy.
• I really like all of the characters - except Taristan, who only got slightly intriguing in the last chapter. Out of all of them Dom is the most compelling character by far, though. I love him. Would die for him. 10/10 would read the next book just for him.
Let's start with the negatives.
• This book had way too many POVs, especially when it came the main group had found themselves together. That was also the point I felt as if there were too many characters present - I mean, I was intrigued by Andry in the beginning but it felt like he didn't really get that much attention in the later part of the book, similar with Corayne, who is just kinda present for parts of the book.
• So much book, so little plot. While I feel like the plot picked up in the last third of the book the rest had a lot of chapters with little plot development. This only irks me a little though because I did enjoy the character focused storytelling, though I hoped for more to happen overall.
• The action scenes fell flat for me most of the time. In contrast to the rest of the book, a lot happened in a lot less pages and they felt confused about what was happening (no matter who was the POV character, which is probably my main problem with it).
The positives on the other hand:
• The world building felt like a familiar fantasy setting but unique enough not to come off as a bland copy.
• I really like all of the characters - except Taristan, who only got slightly intriguing in the last chapter. Out of all of them Dom is the most compelling character by far, though. I love him. Would die for him. 10/10 would read the next book just for him.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence
Minor: War, Grief, Death of parent, and Confinement