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princessleopard's review against another edition
3.0
Preface: I received a free copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.\
Actual rating: 2.75 stars
The first third or so of this book intrigued me. It's sort of a fantasy/magitek world, which I don't often see, and some of the heroes were interesting. I was most interested in our female heroine, Mia. She was tough and spunky, without feeling unrealistic. I liked her aloof/cold nature, and was hoping for some character development along the way. Her relationship with her golem, Zeus, also had a ton of potential.
Unfortunately, Mia ends up pretty minimized in the story (and Zeus disappears entirely after 10 pages or so of screentime), as she ends up mind-controlled to help our male main character and his son. She becomes attached to them via magical means, and has a romantic subplot with our male hero for no discernable reason. Even after her mind control is undone, she's still attached to them, without any of the relationship-building scenes that would have made this believable.
Our other characters are similarly weak. Giselle just looks after 4-5 nameless, faceless children the entire time, who serve no purpose other than to be jerked around. She has silly biases and supposedly undergoes a change surrounding them, but there's no purpose to them in this story. At the end, she ends up being the one commanding the troops for some reason, despite just repeating everything her handmaiden says. Aaron could have been interesting, but he's side-lined pretty hard. Vex had potential, but he never really explains anything he's doing, and his romantic teasing with Celia was gross (he's literally a thousand-plus-year-old mage trapped in a rotting body, and Celia feels about 18, though I'm not sure if her age is ever specified). The bard character is similarly flat, unrealistic, and honestly disgusting. The story would have been stronger without him being included at all. He just serves to provide shock value and make Giselle look like an buffoon for trusting him.
The plot starts out with a clear goal - save the kid, avenge the baron - but quickly gets muddled as soon as Vex appears on the scene. To be honest, I'm not sure what his motives are, or what he was trying to accomplish. The reader and the characters just end up tugged from location to location without any clear thread to the plot, and the conclusion ends up being underwhelming.
Overall, this setting and a few of the characters had potential, but it was fumbled. The plot was unclear, the characters were flimsy, and the interesting parts of the setting ended up being underutilized.
Actual rating: 2.75 stars
The first third or so of this book intrigued me. It's sort of a fantasy/magitek world, which I don't often see, and some of the heroes were interesting. I was most interested in our female heroine, Mia. She was tough and spunky, without feeling unrealistic. I liked her aloof/cold nature, and was hoping for some character development along the way. Her relationship with her golem, Zeus, also had a ton of potential.
Unfortunately, Mia ends up pretty minimized in the story (and Zeus disappears entirely after 10 pages or so of screentime), as she ends up mind-controlled to help our male main character and his son. She becomes attached to them via magical means, and has a romantic subplot with our male hero for no discernable reason. Even after her mind control is undone, she's still attached to them, without any of the relationship-building scenes that would have made this believable.
Our other characters are similarly weak. Giselle just looks after 4-5 nameless, faceless children the entire time, who serve no purpose other than to be jerked around. She has silly biases and supposedly undergoes a change surrounding them, but there's no purpose to them in this story. At the end, she ends up being the one commanding the troops for some reason, despite just repeating everything her handmaiden says. Aaron could have been interesting, but he's side-lined pretty hard. Vex had potential, but he never really explains anything he's doing, and his romantic teasing with Celia was gross (he's literally a thousand-plus-year-old mage trapped in a rotting body, and Celia feels about 18, though I'm not sure if her age is ever specified). The bard character is similarly flat, unrealistic, and honestly disgusting. The story would have been stronger without him being included at all. He just serves to provide shock value and make Giselle look like an buffoon for trusting him.
The plot starts out with a clear goal - save the kid, avenge the baron - but quickly gets muddled as soon as Vex appears on the scene. To be honest, I'm not sure what his motives are, or what he was trying to accomplish. The reader and the characters just end up tugged from location to location without any clear thread to the plot, and the conclusion ends up being underwhelming.
Overall, this setting and a few of the characters had potential, but it was fumbled. The plot was unclear, the characters were flimsy, and the interesting parts of the setting ended up being underutilized.
lucyamclaren's review against another edition
2.0
I did enjoy this book a fair amount, especially with the interesting and diverse world. I felt that the concepts were inventive and unique. The horrors and goliaths were introduced early and were intriguing enough to make me read on. I really liked the little snippets at the beginning of each chapter, though these didn’t seem to have much bearing on the story as a whole.
The characters were quite fun, though I felt some of the relationships were a little rushed (I personally didn’t see the feelings grow between Henri and Mia so this seemed forced to me). I liked Vex and Harald and the banter between them. I thought Buckley could’ve made a great antagonist if he was given more motivation than just “more power”.
What I struggled with was that, at points, I thought this could’ve used another round of editing. There were typos and spelling errors throughout which were distracting. Some places seemed rushed and like characters were jumping ahead without a proper buildup that might have increased tension and stakes. Ultimately, I didn’t feel much about the final battle because I didn’t really know what was being fought for - by either the good or bad guys.
Ultimately, however, I did finish this story because there are good ideas here and they are at times well executed. With a bit more polish, this could be an excellent book.
The characters were quite fun, though I felt some of the relationships were a little rushed (I personally didn’t see the feelings grow between Henri and Mia so this seemed forced to me). I liked Vex and Harald and the banter between them. I thought Buckley could’ve made a great antagonist if he was given more motivation than just “more power”.
What I struggled with was that, at points, I thought this could’ve used another round of editing. There were typos and spelling errors throughout which were distracting. Some places seemed rushed and like characters were jumping ahead without a proper buildup that might have increased tension and stakes. Ultimately, I didn’t feel much about the final battle because I didn’t really know what was being fought for - by either the good or bad guys.
Ultimately, however, I did finish this story because there are good ideas here and they are at times well executed. With a bit more polish, this could be an excellent book.
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