Reviews tagging 'War'

Malice by John Gwynne

31 reviews

missgarceau's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

I just really didn’t have a particularly fun time reading this tbh.

Had I checked content, I would have skipped it entirely.

Definitely do not recommend going in blind.

I did well with the prose, and overall plot and character development.

It’s only book 1- so there’s plenty left to be developed. That’s a given.
Like all big epics- I was mentally prepared for the information overwhelm. The amount of characters could give Wheel of Time a run for its money. 

I was disappointed in the strategies and political plots. Felt very “made for TV” and typically why I avoid political plots, in general.

A part of me felt like this was the typical “dude fantasy” that I avoid at all costs. I’m not entirely sure that’s inaccurate.

But, I still binged the shit out of it- and immediately dove into the second book. Guess that means I didn’t complete hate it. It’s complicated.

Commentary re CW:

The animal brutality was just sooooo unnecessary and I’m pretty sure NO ONE WANTS THAT!!! It was… a LOT! And the sound effects were just insult to injury. I wanted to DNF and chuck the entire thing sooooo many times. But people I trust have convinced me to carry on.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Death, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, and Abandonment

roorooreads's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense 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? It's complicated

4.75

This book was an emotional ride. Punches were not pulled and I had a great time meeting and leanring about all the characters. I did have to take notes so i could keep everyone straight at first and it was slow on the beginning but after that, especially at the end, I couldn't put it down. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Torture, Violence, Blood, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Bullying

Minor: Alcoholism and Self harm

helliecreed's review against another edition

adventurous slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Violence, and War

Minor: Ableism

corlif's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad 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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Violence, Death of parent, and War

Moderate: Bullying and Child abuse

kliberty21's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-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? Yes

4.25

Malice is a slow burn with a BIG pay-off. There is a large cast of characters, but once they are introduced and the web begins to spin, and the wheels start turning, strap yourself in for one incredible ride!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, and Violence

Moderate: Bullying, Death of parent, and War

Minor: Alcoholism, Physical abuse, and Torture

arian_dragonelf's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

This took a long while for me to get into. That’s really the only thing that kept me from giving it 5 stars. This was intense. I could handle all the fighting scenes, but it was hard for me to get through the animal deaths.

Poor Buddai! I teared up imagining the faithful hound lying on his master’s chest as he died.

That was rough. I did see some things coming, but that wasn’t a bad thing. I was kind of irritated that we didn’t get any information about Corban. John Gwynne had been teasing it for I don’t know how many chapters, and then the book just ends. Thankfully I do have Valor, but I don’t know if I want to go straight in. I think I need to sit in this for a little bit. I need to go read a cozy mystery or reread a favorite romance. There is only so much head chopping a person can take!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, and War

Moderate: Gore, Kidnapping, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

rachel_faerie's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

The beginning was a nice slow world and character building experience but once I connected to the characters man I fell in love with it and had a great time. 

Also wow John Gwynne is RUTHLESS lol I can’t believe this was his debut!? I can’t wait to get to book 2 🥲

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Violence, and War

thoughtsontomes's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

There is a lot of setup in this book for the greater conflict of the overall series, and as such it is pretty heavy. There’s a tension building throughout and a lot of characters involved. It can be confusing at first, especially since some storylines are similar, but they start to differentiate as the book goes on. This is a series with a lot of character death though, so be warned. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Bullying, Child death, Gore, Blood, and Death of parent

Moderate: Ableism and War

multiple dog deaths

chrisb913's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I am incredibly shocked this was a debut novel. The way Gwynne had me gripped to the edge of my seat as I devoured this story. I had heard there was slow pacing and that is factual. But I could not put this book down. The character work for me was phenomenal. The way he incorporated so many povs into this story, yet still was able to seamlessly weave the narrative between them and progress the overarching plot between so many different subplot going on. If this was his first novel, and everything gets better from here? I cannot wait to continue on.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, and Violence

Moderate: Bullying, Death of parent, and War

Minor: Alcoholism, Physical abuse, and Torture

btaylorg's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

3.75

I dislike giving ratings now because depending on my mood and who you are it could go lower or higher. But a friend was curious my thoughts on this book so here they are. 

It was a fine book. It trode well known and worn literary roads. People complain about tropes, but they are tropes for a reason. When done well, tropes work. I did not find myself hating the obvious tropes in fact I found them to be moderately to well written. 
Where this novel shines is in the action scenes. There is a certain visceral nature to the scenes, As the author describes the sword, shield, and spear combat, there is a balance in very specific combat descriptions and the frenzied nature of a battle.

Now to the negatives.
I felt there were too many point of view characters. I found myself annoyed that I was intrested in one story and then forced to jump to another that I just did not care about. I understand why that was the case given what needed to be shown in order for the book to make sense. But still that was a bit rough for me.

Also consider yourself warned. This novel has a very slow start. It does pick up. But be prepared to go though a large part of the novel before it gets more engaging. 

Overall it was a enjoyable read. From what I understood this was the author's first novel so I'm giving him a little leeway. Many great authors make less then stellar, if not tired, first entries to thier series but then follow up with something truly engaging and special (I'm looking at you Pierce Brown and your Red Rising series) but this novel did what it needed. It got me engaged and had me enter a warlike fantasy world inside its pages. It may not be for everyone but I will continue the series. Excited to see Swords and spears clash with giants and gods.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore and War