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4.35 AVERAGE
4.35 AVERAGE
An absolutely incredible sequel to the fantastic Of Blood and Fire. I loved the development of the original casts’ arcs here and the introduction of new viewpoints. This is much more sprawling and epic in scale, while also being super tight from a writing and pacing point of view. Can’t wait to dig in to Of War and Ruin!
It pains me to only give this book three stars because I’m a huge fan of Ryan and this series.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s an amazing story. I’m bought in through and through, and hope to finish the series soon.
The only issue I had was with the prose. And that bugs me because I try my best not to be a prose snob. There are just times when Ryan uses the same descriptive words over and over again, for different characters, and it gets noticeable after a while. There’s a chapter about Rist where I think Ryan mentions how dry is throat was at least 20 times.
Again, love the story, huge fan of what Ryan is doing here with the series and publishing these himself. There were just some issues that I kept running into throughout the book. Still, I recommend you pick this one up!
Don’t get me wrong, it’s an amazing story. I’m bought in through and through, and hope to finish the series soon.
The only issue I had was with the prose. And that bugs me because I try my best not to be a prose snob. There are just times when Ryan uses the same descriptive words over and over again, for different characters, and it gets noticeable after a while. There’s a chapter about Rist where I think Ryan mentions how dry is throat was at least 20 times.
Again, love the story, huge fan of what Ryan is doing here with the series and publishing these himself. There were just some issues that I kept running into throughout the book. Still, I recommend you pick this one up!
Wow, what a book! I was intrigued, and invested in all of the characters. The ending…I have no words…just WOW! I must read the next book, like now! This is Ryan Cahill’s best book yet with such good nuggets of wisdom interspersed throughout:
“The sun will set, and it will rise again, and it will do so the next day and the next. The gods are in charge of such things, but it is by our own will that we pick ourselves up when we fall.”
“When everything around you gets to be too much, focus on one thing and only one thing. Give your mind a task.”
“I do not mean you cannot hold fear in your hearts, for courage is not the absence of fear. It is the will to act in spite of fear.”
There is humor and sorrow, action and calm, pain and joy. This is definitely up there with my favorite books of all time. We continue in Calen’s perspective, but now we get even more! We also follow perspectives from Dan, Rist, Ella, Dahlen, Dayen, and Kallinvar. With the additional perspectives, we get even more aspects of the world and the relationships therein. The twists, turns, and reveals had me turning pages and constantly wanting to know more.
“The sun will set, and it will rise again, and it will do so the next day and the next. The gods are in charge of such things, but it is by our own will that we pick ourselves up when we fall.”
“When everything around you gets to be too much, focus on one thing and only one thing. Give your mind a task.”
“I do not mean you cannot hold fear in your hearts, for courage is not the absence of fear. It is the will to act in spite of fear.”
There is humor and sorrow, action and calm, pain and joy. This is definitely up there with my favorite books of all time. We continue in Calen’s perspective, but now we get even more! We also follow perspectives from Dan, Rist, Ella, Dahlen, Dayen, and Kallinvar. With the additional perspectives, we get even more aspects of the world and the relationships therein. The twists, turns, and reveals had me turning pages and constantly wanting to know more.
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Characters: 4/5
Story: 4/5
Personal Enjoyment: 5/5
Average Rating: 4.33, rounds down to four stars.
Story: 4/5
Personal Enjoyment: 5/5
Average Rating: 4.33, rounds down to four stars.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
What a ride! After the end of book 1, I was kind of on the fence about diving into book 2, but man am I glad I did.
The story was pretty fast paced especially starting around 40% of the book. What I particularly enjoyed with the world Ryan Cahill created is that while the world building is intricate and extensive, it's not overly complex, which makes it easy to read and accessible for a vast majority of readers. If ever I read a few pages while tired, I didn't have to backtrack to analyze and understand the story structure, which made for a smooth read. The politics, on the other hand, were wonderfully layered. Also the story itself while broad was pretty straight forward. You don't have to mind the twists, turns, and complications that you'll find in books such as Malazan Book of the Fallen or The Licanius Trilogy. It made this 800 page beaut go by effortlessly. Honestly, I had a little bit of a book hangover after this one, and if my TBR wasn't planned out, I would have picked up the montrosity that is the size of book 3 up right away.
I do feel like the characters were better written in this book than book 1, more defined, more realistic, more depth. Women also took up secondary roles, compared to book 1, and weren't labeled solely as beautiful. The plot was interesting and far-reaching, though I will say I felt it to be a tad predictable at times such as with Rist's arc and Arden's. I, of course, had my preferences with the pov characters (my least favorites being Rist and Dayne). The only sour note that I felt while reading was with the confusion I felt everytime the pov switched between one of the 4 characters with names starting with Da-. That drove me a little nuts for the first page of each of those chapters until I remembered which Da- name was in which situation.
The story was pretty fast paced especially starting around 40% of the book. What I particularly enjoyed with the world Ryan Cahill created is that while the world building is intricate and extensive, it's not overly complex, which makes it easy to read and accessible for a vast majority of readers. If ever I read a few pages while tired, I didn't have to backtrack to analyze and understand the story structure, which made for a smooth read. The politics, on the other hand, were wonderfully layered. Also the story itself while broad was pretty straight forward. You don't have to mind the twists, turns, and complications that you'll find in books such as Malazan Book of the Fallen or The Licanius Trilogy. It made this 800 page beaut go by effortlessly. Honestly, I had a little bit of a book hangover after this one, and if my TBR wasn't planned out, I would have picked up the montrosity that is the size of book 3 up right away.
I do feel like the characters were better written in this book than book 1, more defined, more realistic, more depth. Women also took up secondary roles, compared to book 1, and weren't labeled solely as beautiful. The plot was interesting and far-reaching, though I will say I felt it to be a tad predictable at times such as with Rist's arc and Arden's. I, of course, had my preferences with the pov characters (my least favorites being Rist and Dayne). The only sour note that I felt while reading was with the confusion I felt everytime the pov switched between one of the 4 characters with names starting with Da-. That drove me a little nuts for the first page of each of those chapters until I remembered which Da- name was in which situation.
“Stories were beautiful. They were words that painted a canvas in your mind. But death could not be beautiful.”
Me, personally, I enjoyed this and I WILL be tapping into the rest
Myia nithír til diar. My soul to yours.
Of Darkness and Light by Ryan Cahill was one of the books that I have really been looking forward to after reading the rest of his The Bound and The Broken series. I've been a massive fan since book one and I'm definitely here for the long run now. I was really impressed by the "Story So Far" that was added at the start since there was a few things that I needed a refresher on and it just brought me back into this world.
I had high praise for Of Blood and Fire which was a brilliant introduction to this series with some of my favourite characters and plot arcs. His novella - The Fall provided incredible world-building and character moments that I have been eagerly awaiting Of Darkness and Light ever since and this definitely delivered.
We are thrown straight into the world from the very start. This time, we are treated to numerous different point of view characters that Cahill has balanced incredibly well here. Each character had a compelling and important part of the story to tell and sometimes having a lot of POVs can really hinder the reader's experience. Instead, Cahill has provided a lot of different perspectives from protagonists and antagonists alike and has really found his own in telling this story. The Knights of Achyron POVs were my favourite as they provided some truly epic scenes and I'm glad they had a lot more to tell. The lore has been vastly expanded upon and what may have been a generic fantasy setting has been combined with an immersive, deep world that we are easily lost in.
It's easy to see that Cahill has grown as an a writer here as Of Darkness and Light was even more flowing and seamless from Of Blood and Fire. His escalation in prose was enough to see that this series may be one for the ages. I won't go much into the story but if Cahill's intent was to have me emotional with sombre joy then he succeeded.
Of Darkness and Light is everything that this sequel needed and tells its own narrative in a fascinating world with an engaging plot and wonderful characters. This is an epic addition to the saga that blew me away, much like the rest of the series, and I cannot wait to see what comes next. Thank you to Ryan for sending me an advanced copy, he really knows how to treat his audience. This series is a staple to my shelf and I cannot recommend this enough.
Of Darkness and Light by Ryan Cahill was one of the books that I have really been looking forward to after reading the rest of his The Bound and The Broken series. I've been a massive fan since book one and I'm definitely here for the long run now. I was really impressed by the "Story So Far" that was added at the start since there was a few things that I needed a refresher on and it just brought me back into this world.
I had high praise for Of Blood and Fire which was a brilliant introduction to this series with some of my favourite characters and plot arcs. His novella - The Fall provided incredible world-building and character moments that I have been eagerly awaiting Of Darkness and Light ever since and this definitely delivered.
We are thrown straight into the world from the very start. This time, we are treated to numerous different point of view characters that Cahill has balanced incredibly well here. Each character had a compelling and important part of the story to tell and sometimes having a lot of POVs can really hinder the reader's experience. Instead, Cahill has provided a lot of different perspectives from protagonists and antagonists alike and has really found his own in telling this story. The Knights of Achyron POVs were my favourite as they provided some truly epic scenes and I'm glad they had a lot more to tell. The lore has been vastly expanded upon and what may have been a generic fantasy setting has been combined with an immersive, deep world that we are easily lost in.
It's easy to see that Cahill has grown as an a writer here as Of Darkness and Light was even more flowing and seamless from Of Blood and Fire. His escalation in prose was enough to see that this series may be one for the ages. I won't go much into the story but if Cahill's intent was to have me emotional with sombre joy then he succeeded.
Of Darkness and Light is everything that this sequel needed and tells its own narrative in a fascinating world with an engaging plot and wonderful characters. This is an epic addition to the saga that blew me away, much like the rest of the series, and I cannot wait to see what comes next. Thank you to Ryan for sending me an advanced copy, he really knows how to treat his audience. This series is a staple to my shelf and I cannot recommend this enough.