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saltypiratewench's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
2.5 rounded down to 2
This book was strange in that it was highly difficult to motivate myself to finish it and I felt annoyed much of the time I was reading it, but in the end I still think there was a good story. Certainly there were good moments that had me hooked, but in between so much dull drudgery to get through.
Often the best most interesting action was glossed over in less than 2 paragraphs, while sensory descriptions in completely calm scenes were drawn out to several pages. The necromancy felt like an after thought, instead of being something that makes the MC really stand out from everyone else. NO ONE really stood out in this book, they were all so interchangeable I forgot who someone was repeatedly. The names were also too similar. Characters did things I did not understand and felt they had no motivation to do, most back story was not fleshed out at all, no one really cared about anyone else and it was all very superficial. The random "oh am I attracted to this person?" was so out of place with the story line too... like "Ma'am, you are a in the middle of a revolution, please stop thinking about dick." It would be different if it were one of THOSE kind of books, but it is NOT!
There is a good story here though! It just gets lost in what honestly felt like a rough draft put through a spell checker. I bought all 3 from Thriftbooks because I LOVE a good protagonist woman necromancer and the covers are intriguing (but there at no point was an arabic style outfit featured in the pages) . Part of me wants to keep reading to see if it gets any better, but glancing at the reviews does not seem promising... I want to know, but I also don't want to feel so bogged down again, staring forlornly at my other books. It is so strange! I usually feel hate, meh, or love a book and this one somehow made me feel all 3.
This book was strange in that it was highly difficult to motivate myself to finish it and I felt annoyed much of the time I was reading it, but in the end I still think there was a good story. Certainly there were good moments that had me hooked, but in between so much dull drudgery to get through.
Often the best most interesting action was glossed over in less than 2 paragraphs, while sensory descriptions in completely calm scenes were drawn out to several pages. The necromancy felt like an after thought, instead of being something that makes the MC really stand out from everyone else. NO ONE really stood out in this book, they were all so interchangeable I forgot who someone was repeatedly. The names were also too similar. Characters did things I did not understand and felt they had no motivation to do, most back story was not fleshed out at all, no one really cared about anyone else and it was all very superficial. The random "oh am I attracted to this person?" was so out of place with the story line too... like "Ma'am, you are a in the middle of a revolution, please stop thinking about dick." It would be different if it were one of THOSE kind of books, but it is NOT!
There is a good story here though! It just gets lost in what honestly felt like a rough draft put through a spell checker. I bought all 3 from Thriftbooks because I LOVE a good protagonist woman necromancer and the covers are intriguing (but there at no point was an arabic style outfit featured in the pages) . Part of me wants to keep reading to see if it gets any better, but glancing at the reviews does not seem promising... I want to know, but I also don't want to feel so bogged down again, staring forlornly at my other books. It is so strange! I usually feel hate, meh, or love a book and this one somehow made me feel all 3.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Death, War, and Death of parent
Minor: Child death
blodeuedd's review
2.0
I do not really know how to review this one, how to rate this one. My problem was that I neither liked or disliked this book. I felt that it was rather forgettable.
What was my issue? See I did not care bout anyone. I got confused way too much. Suddenly someone new was talking. Suddenly someone was dead. And I was all, when did that happen? I also found myself not even knowing what I was reading at the moment. So I did not really care bout the story either.
But it had promise, I still plan to read book 2 as I have it. But, that but again, I just feel meh about it.
As for the story, she was there to cause rebellion. Did not feel she did so. She had some guy who worked for her (meh), some woman (meh). They met someone in the city (meh.) Seriously the only interesting person was this weird man who investigated stuff.
So I say, meh.
What was my issue? See I did not care bout anyone. I got confused way too much. Suddenly someone new was talking. Suddenly someone was dead. And I was all, when did that happen? I also found myself not even knowing what I was reading at the moment. So I did not really care bout the story either.
But it had promise, I still plan to read book 2 as I have it. But, that but again, I just feel meh about it.
As for the story, she was there to cause rebellion. Did not feel she did so. She had some guy who worked for her (meh), some woman (meh). They met someone in the city (meh.) Seriously the only interesting person was this weird man who investigated stuff.
So I say, meh.
bookishvice's review
3.0
I got this book thinking of a fast paced, thrilling adventure with a rocking heroine main character who is a necromancer and is sent to spy on another country were assassins are breaking havoc and she is there to help them. Well…that wasn’t quite what I got.
I barely got to know or care about Isyllt, the “heroine”. Her traveling companions Adam and Xinai were just that, traveling companions. Though Xinai does get more story time because she is from Symir and gets deeply involved with her homeland’s revolution.The plot unfolded slowly and while interesting in the end, at times it failed to completely grab my spaz-y attention. The names were quite hard to remember and match them to the characters. They all sounded too foreign and hard for me to remember easily, even the main characters. There are a lot of made up words and no glossary for reference, which again made it hard to keep everything in order. By the third part and last of the novel I was only half hooked on the story and still wanted to know more about the characters.
That being said I found the descriptions beautifully done; I could really imagine the city of Symir with all the water canals, the humid rainforest atmosphere and the river. The characters personalities ARE interesting and you WANT to get to know them, but you just don’t. The characters have a good ‘structure’, they just need to be fleshed out so that the reader can connect with them.
I’ll definitely continue the series and read The Bone Palace just because I want to know more about Isyllt and her necromancer powers, Asheris (her newly found hot djinn friend), and Kiril, (her ex-lover and boss who only gets mentioned in this first book).
I barely got to know or care about Isyllt, the “heroine”. Her traveling companions Adam and Xinai were just that, traveling companions. Though Xinai does get more story time because she is from Symir and gets deeply involved with her homeland’s revolution.The plot unfolded slowly and while interesting in the end, at times it failed to completely grab my spaz-y attention. The names were quite hard to remember and match them to the characters. They all sounded too foreign and hard for me to remember easily, even the main characters. There are a lot of made up words and no glossary for reference, which again made it hard to keep everything in order. By the third part and last of the novel I was only half hooked on the story and still wanted to know more about the characters.
That being said I found the descriptions beautifully done; I could really imagine the city of Symir with all the water canals, the humid rainforest atmosphere and the river. The characters personalities ARE interesting and you WANT to get to know them, but you just don’t. The characters have a good ‘structure’, they just need to be fleshed out so that the reader can connect with them.
I’ll definitely continue the series and read The Bone Palace just because I want to know more about Isyllt and her necromancer powers, Asheris (her newly found hot djinn friend), and Kiril, (her ex-lover and boss who only gets mentioned in this first book).
zoe_e_w's review
3.0
This book started off so good, and all the way through, I was enjoying the complex plot split between 3 main POVs and one bit POV. But the final 50 pages are just awful, and the moment of denouement explaining one character's inconsistent behavior paints her as a pathetically weak character, despite her back story being that of a tough merc witch and a survivor of a genocide that wiped out her family's village.
What worked for me in this story at first because it was unique is revealed in the end as proof that all of the characters are bumblers. None of the characters are as skilled as the writer implies, so they all fail. I want to explain in excruciating detail why things that pleased me now infuriate me because the ending makes it clear that I was misreading the book. But I can't explain my irritation without spoiling the whole thing.
So I will just sum up that if a writer is going to present characters as tough and strong magic users, only to make them into pathetic NPC-like losers during their first encounter with a spirit, then they shouldn't give me a back story building up a tough character. There was a weak character who looked like she was learning strength from the main character, and I expected her to be possessed by a ghost because she was meek and pathetic, but slowly growing stronger. Instead it's the strong witch character who's the weakest of the three women. I find it sad that a woman who saw the world as a merc and fought for her independence comes home and abandons her partner of many years to join a racist hate group who murder people en masse for not agreeing with them. The excuse given for her acceptance wouldn't be so flimsy if she wasn't a powerful witch, if she was just a merc with no magic defenses. But she is a witch, and once I realized how weak she was being presented as, it started to rub on me in those final pages.
Also problematic was how the rest of the book divided POVs cleanly, and then in the final 50 pages, there's some instances of head hopping. A man who recently died is resurrected only seconds later and used as a body shield against rifles. But when the zombie is shot, the writer incorrectly says the blood is already congealing. Not with them only having been dead thirty seconds, I don't think so.
Then the second weakest female decides to commit the most pointless act of self-sacrifice I've ever seen, making a bargain that still kills lots of people, and doesn't prevent the other disaster from destroying the city. So this is a pointless, but "heroic" suicide, (which is supposedly what she's learned from the other women, that throwing her life away is a good thing) leading to a final chapter and epilogue so rotten, I had to fight not to throw the book even when I was down to the last pages.
I wanted this to be a book about courtesan spies thwarting a terrorist plot. Instead, it's a shit sandwich about three inept dumb-asses who show up in town in time to watch the racists blow up the city in their faces. I think what irritates me most of all is how well written the vast majority of the book is. The scenes are vividly described without being purple, and the fight scenes had been pretty intense. But in the last 50 pages, the quality of the writing plummets. NOTHING works right from that point forward. Even Isyllt, who had been a great character, turns into a walking stereotype. It's almost like a different person took over for those last pages, and they had no clue what they were doing. It makes me wonder if the writer had something else penned, and the editor or publisher forced this shit ending on them because it "made more sense" or something. Well in my not so humble opinion, the ending ruins the rest of the book.
I'm giving the book 3 stars for the quality of the writing, but my distaste with the ending is so strong that I'm severely tempted to give it 2. I would not recommend this book to anyone, because most people do not like bait and switch deceptions of this magnitude. The story promised a great adventure. It delivers the most unsatisfying high fantasy experience of this year.
What worked for me in this story at first because it was unique is revealed in the end as proof that all of the characters are bumblers. None of the characters are as skilled as the writer implies, so they all fail. I want to explain in excruciating detail why things that pleased me now infuriate me because the ending makes it clear that I was misreading the book. But I can't explain my irritation without spoiling the whole thing.
So I will just sum up that if a writer is going to present characters as tough and strong magic users, only to make them into pathetic NPC-like losers during their first encounter with a spirit, then they shouldn't give me a back story building up a tough character. There was a weak character who looked like she was learning strength from the main character, and I expected her to be possessed by a ghost because she was meek and pathetic, but slowly growing stronger. Instead it's the strong witch character who's the weakest of the three women. I find it sad that a woman who saw the world as a merc and fought for her independence comes home and abandons her partner of many years to join a racist hate group who murder people en masse for not agreeing with them. The excuse given for her acceptance wouldn't be so flimsy if she wasn't a powerful witch, if she was just a merc with no magic defenses. But she is a witch, and once I realized how weak she was being presented as, it started to rub on me in those final pages.
Also problematic was how the rest of the book divided POVs cleanly, and then in the final 50 pages, there's some instances of head hopping. A man who recently died is resurrected only seconds later and used as a body shield against rifles. But when the zombie is shot, the writer incorrectly says the blood is already congealing. Not with them only having been dead thirty seconds, I don't think so.
Then the second weakest female decides to commit the most pointless act of self-sacrifice I've ever seen, making a bargain that still kills lots of people, and doesn't prevent the other disaster from destroying the city. So this is a pointless, but "heroic" suicide, (which is supposedly what she's learned from the other women, that throwing her life away is a good thing) leading to a final chapter and epilogue so rotten, I had to fight not to throw the book even when I was down to the last pages.
I wanted this to be a book about courtesan spies thwarting a terrorist plot. Instead, it's a shit sandwich about three inept dumb-asses who show up in town in time to watch the racists blow up the city in their faces. I think what irritates me most of all is how well written the vast majority of the book is. The scenes are vividly described without being purple, and the fight scenes had been pretty intense. But in the last 50 pages, the quality of the writing plummets. NOTHING works right from that point forward. Even Isyllt, who had been a great character, turns into a walking stereotype. It's almost like a different person took over for those last pages, and they had no clue what they were doing. It makes me wonder if the writer had something else penned, and the editor or publisher forced this shit ending on them because it "made more sense" or something. Well in my not so humble opinion, the ending ruins the rest of the book.
I'm giving the book 3 stars for the quality of the writing, but my distaste with the ending is so strong that I'm severely tempted to give it 2. I would not recommend this book to anyone, because most people do not like bait and switch deceptions of this magnitude. The story promised a great adventure. It delivers the most unsatisfying high fantasy experience of this year.
bergamotandbooks's review
I picked this up from the library and only got about 30 pages in before I decided that it didn't intrigue me enough to keep reading. Might pick it up again later, who knows.
sheyri's review
4.0
TW:
This book immediately took me in! The setting is fascinating and the locations beautiful. I can certainly recommend it.
The writing is a bit odd at times though.
Xinai's and Adam's relationship is just wonderful, by the way.
Spoiler
violence, death, occupation, terror organisationThis book immediately took me in! The setting is fascinating and the locations beautiful. I can certainly recommend it.
The writing is a bit odd at times though.
Xinai's and Adam's relationship is just wonderful, by the way.
shane_tiernan's review
2.0
We gave this one about 60 pages. The writing wasn't bad at all, but the characters didn't seem to have any personality. I really like some of the names and the plot seemed interesting, but I just found myself not caring what happened (and my wife agreed).
NEXT!
NEXT!
thexgrayxlady's review
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.75
While it was a fun adventure in an interesting setting, the character motivations felt muddy. While I wanted to like the complicated politics, the plot was sometimes hard to follow and didn't involve as much necromancy as I would have liked. I'd still give the next book in the series a chance if I found it at the used book superstore.