Reviews

Wow, I am amazed by how much of a turnaround I had reading this book compared to Of Darkness and Light. I was initially planning on only finishing this novella as a way to kill time before another book releases, and then DNFing the series. However, this book single-handedly roped me back into the series. I think Ryan Cahill is significantly better given a page limit, and like the prior novella, he excels at a more action-focused and brisk pacing without large swaths of meandering travel or POV hopping. Even more impressive in terms of quality jump is the character-focused narrative here. There is plenty of action, but more depth is given to Dayne here than anything else I've seen in the series so far, and it even fleshes out some of the more intriguing side characters from the main series. And while Belina is not necessarily the best female character I've read, she's significantly better than any other ones from the main series. She's an active character, given plenty of badass moments, and her entire character does not revolve around a male character. I don't mean to insult Cahill's earlier work, but I just want to quantify how huge of a jump in writing quality this novella is, and how it addresses some of my core concerns from my earlier Of Darkness and Light review. If Of War and Ruin carries this momentum forward, I will be very happy, even though the huge page count makes me a bit weary.

noshoes94's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

darylg13's review

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adventurous dark emotional informative sad tense fast-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

These books just keep getting better and better! I was super excited to read the Exile which is basically a back story for Dayne Ateres with some other characters that I won't mention for fear of spoiling it for others. Dayne instantly became a favourite character of mine during Of Darkness and Light so I was really excited to read more of Daynes story and how he came to be where he was in book 2. I'm a pretty slow reader usually but I absolutely flew through this book and enjoyed it from start to finish.

I've been on a run of reading good books lately but there's not many books like The Exile where I have to sit back and fully appreciate just how amazing that book actually was.