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onthesamepage's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
ARC provided by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
This book did not need to be 570+ pages long.
I've read from Mark Lawrence before, specifically Red Sister, and that's a series I fully intend to continue. I remember really enjoying his writing and the way the story developed, and went into this expecting to have a great time.
Sadly, I did not.
There is so much repetition in this book. I was willing to give the author the benefit of the doubt initially, hoping that, at some point, the repetition would be shown to have some mysterious purpose that I just couldn't grasp yet. But it serves none. Here's one example:
This book did not need to be 570+ pages long.
I've read from Mark Lawrence before, specifically Red Sister, and that's a series I fully intend to continue. I remember really enjoying his writing and the way the story developed, and went into this expecting to have a great time.
Sadly, I did not.
There is so much repetition in this book. I was willing to give the author the benefit of the doubt initially, hoping that, at some point, the repetition would be shown to have some mysterious purpose that I just couldn't grasp yet. But it serves none. Here's one example:
The days following the destruction of an Escape were the ones when another Escape was most likely to free itself from the Mechanism. The Soldier would stand guard.
One flip of the page later, this is followed by:
The destruction of one Escape often presaged the appearance of another, and this was the place they’d appear.
This is just one example, but it happened a lot. There are also multiple instances where we flash back to an earlier time just so we can see the exact details of how the characters came to be where they are, instead of just moving the story along. All this made the reading experience more tedious than it should have been. Because underneath all the repetition and needless meandering, there's a solid plot and a compelling mystery.
I always make it a point to mention both positive and negative things about a book in my 3 star reviews, but for the life of me I could barely think of anything positive to say aside from, "his writing is nice", and "the two main characters were interesting and I loved following Livira". And that says something when a book is this long, and the start of a series to boot. The thing is, I don't know if there's enough mystery or plot left for an entire trilogy. Sure, not everything gets explained to us, but by the end I felt like I had a solid grasp on how this world works and how things tie together, even though not everything is spelled out. One of the big themes is how history repeats itself. The story jumps around a couple of timelines, which means I already got a glimpse of the past. Sure, it doesn't fully explain how Evar came to be, but the seeds are there, and I don't know if I'm interested enough to read another 1000+ pages to finish the series. I'm not saying I know for sure that I'm right about everything in this world—I'm sure the author will add new elements that I haven't thought of yet. But as of the end of this book, I just don't see enough potential in the plot for an entire trilogy.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, War, Violence, Racial slurs, and Racism
Moderate: Classism
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