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3.95 AVERAGE
3.95 AVERAGE
It picked up towards the end, but I found the first half a little tedious. Soldier, priest, politician -- none of the character setups were really novel, but they were well done. I did like the kettrals and the vaniate. Similiar to the Dagger and Coin series (but not as broad and complex) jumping through different and concurrent POVs. I did think the sister was definitely slighted -- she wasn't given nearly the same number of pages and wasn't fleshed out really at all. Hopefully that will change in the next books.
I did feel it started of a bit shaky, not shaky bad, just not..awesome. Ok that sounds weird, but you know it's when someone tells you the book is gonna be awesome and you expect it from the start. But as I got to know the characters the book got better and better.
But, honestly was is necessary to use the swear word kent-kissing on every page?! I have nothing against swear words but it was overkill.
There are 3 main characters, but the sister, Adare got a few pages, so I do not know her at all. Disappointing.
Valyn, the 2nd son has been training for 8 years. A tough shitty life with some mean ass soldiers. And now he wonders if someone is after him. He seemed a bit dumb at times but he grows, I liked him.
The heir to the throne Kaden was sent to the mountains to train with some crazy ass monks who had him working hard. He was smart, he thought about things, I liked him.
The best part though was the first 2 pages, intriguing stuff right there. The whole world building is interesting, I do want to learn more.
And at the end, yes I want to read book 2.
But, honestly was is necessary to use the swear word kent-kissing on every page?! I have nothing against swear words but it was overkill.
There are 3 main characters, but the sister, Adare got a few pages, so I do not know her at all. Disappointing.
Valyn, the 2nd son has been training for 8 years. A tough shitty life with some mean ass soldiers. And now he wonders if someone is after him. He seemed a bit dumb at times but he grows, I liked him.
The heir to the throne Kaden was sent to the mountains to train with some crazy ass monks who had him working hard. He was smart, he thought about things, I liked him.
The best part though was the first 2 pages, intriguing stuff right there. The whole world building is interesting, I do want to learn more.
And at the end, yes I want to read book 2.
I wanted to love this book. The cover art was solid. The summary sounded so great--two brothers, each doing completely opposite things, yeah that's cool, and a sister who sounds like a political badass? Right on! And the reviewers were raving so hard...
THE GOOD
-Good world-building. I'm interested in the regions the story might go next.
-Made-up swearing that actually sounds good! (i.e. "kent-kissing" & "shael-spawned") Based off the name of their gods, so it makes sense and rings natural in the dialogue. Seems like a dumb thing to appreciate, I know, but I just finished reading a fantasy book where the author just replaced normal swear words with "the pit". It made the dialogue sound super cheesy.
-I thought the pacing was just fine. Yes, it's slow, but nothing out of the average for the fantasy genre. It let the tension build up until the last quarter of the book.
--Strong prologue!
THE BAD
-That politically badass sister I wanted to read about? Yeah, she got about five chapters in the entire book. While Valyn is training to be an actual badass and Kaden is learning how to use an ancient technology to protect his empire from an "extinct" race, she is getting overly emotional and accidentally sleeping with her greatest enemy. Which leads me to my next point...
-The treatment of the female characters. Now, are there more than one? Yes, there are several. And some of them even talk to each other! About things that aren't men, although most of the interactions between women are hostile. (Ha Lin and Gwenna, Triste and the Skullsworn assassin oh shit I can't remember her name) But it was the treatment of Ha Lin that made me especially uneasy. After finding a brutally murdered prostitute, she is enraged as any decent person should be. But her rage is belittled by Valyn, Laith, and Gent. "Why are you sure the attacker has to be a man? Women commit violence too!" "We didn't hurt these prostitutes...we paid them when we were done fucking them gently!" It started to feel like the author had something he wanted to indirectly say about feminism. And also, that he had no clue about women's issues.
-And how many times did he write sentences like "She could have been talking about the weather" or "he could have been commenting on the amount of salt on his dinner" to describe a character's flat tone? Just enough times to be annoying.
-And the ending, despite being a cool fight scene where assholes finally get their comeuppance, had some weird bits. It is stressed throughout the book that leaches don't give up their wells (the source of their unnatural powers). Valyn and crew figure out Balendin's, but never tell Balendin that they know. Despite this, Balendin suddenly starts blabbing about his emotion leaching in a very generic-villian way. And Kaden, despite being told for page after page that he isn't ready to achieve the vaniate (total emptiness), he suddenly achieves it after imagining a bird. No struggle. Just picturing a bird flying away, that did the trick.
It's a decent story, don't get me wrong. And maybe it's my fault for going into it with high expectations. But it's got flaws that really diminished my enthusiasm by the time I finished the book.
THE GOOD
-Good world-building. I'm interested in the regions the story might go next.
-Made-up swearing that actually sounds good! (i.e. "kent-kissing" & "shael-spawned") Based off the name of their gods, so it makes sense and rings natural in the dialogue. Seems like a dumb thing to appreciate, I know, but I just finished reading a fantasy book where the author just replaced normal swear words with "the pit". It made the dialogue sound super cheesy.
-I thought the pacing was just fine. Yes, it's slow, but nothing out of the average for the fantasy genre. It let the tension build up until the last quarter of the book.
--Strong prologue!
THE BAD
-That politically badass sister I wanted to read about? Yeah, she got about five chapters in the entire book. While Valyn is training to be an actual badass and Kaden is learning how to use an ancient technology to protect his empire from an "extinct" race, she is getting overly emotional and accidentally sleeping with her greatest enemy. Which leads me to my next point...
-The treatment of the female characters. Now, are there more than one? Yes, there are several. And some of them even talk to each other! About things that aren't men, although most of the interactions between women are hostile. (Ha Lin and Gwenna, Triste and the Skullsworn assassin oh shit I can't remember her name) But it was the treatment of Ha Lin that made me especially uneasy. After finding a brutally murdered prostitute, she is enraged as any decent person should be. But her rage is belittled by Valyn, Laith, and Gent. "Why are you sure the attacker has to be a man? Women commit violence too!" "We didn't hurt these prostitutes...we paid them when we were done fucking them gently!" It started to feel like the author had something he wanted to indirectly say about feminism. And also, that he had no clue about women's issues.
-And how many times did he write sentences like "She could have been talking about the weather" or "he could have been commenting on the amount of salt on his dinner" to describe a character's flat tone? Just enough times to be annoying.
-And the ending, despite being a cool fight scene where assholes finally get their comeuppance, had some weird bits. It is stressed throughout the book that leaches don't give up their wells (the source of their unnatural powers). Valyn and crew figure out Balendin's, but never tell Balendin that they know. Despite this, Balendin suddenly starts blabbing about his emotion leaching in a very generic-villian way. And Kaden, despite being told for page after page that he isn't ready to achieve the vaniate (total emptiness), he suddenly achieves it after imagining a bird. No struggle. Just picturing a bird flying away, that did the trick.
It's a decent story, don't get me wrong. And maybe it's my fault for going into it with high expectations. But it's got flaws that really diminished my enthusiasm by the time I finished the book.
The high rating for this book is well-deserved. The story is a little bit dragged out, but I never once found myself bored by the details. Mr. Staveley is quite the eloquent writer. The action scenes lack the power punch I've come to associate with other high-rating fantasy books, but it's one flaw I'm able to overlook. What I'm NOT able to let go, however is how weak the supposed female protagonist is written. Granted, she only has less than 5 (?) chapters to her name but those chapters were supposed to be at the thick of it all: in the Palace itself. So why does it feel like Adare is just flotsam that's being lugged around by the tide? I'm sincerely hoping she gets to be more kickass in the next book.
I gave this four, which I’ll keep, but then I read other reviews and I didn’t realize how much other annoying stuff I noticed but in audiobook form during a road trip I didn’t fully catch. “Kent-kissing” = just no. The character arcs were very fast at ramping into something convenient in the end because that’s where the characters needed to be. I kept getting bored by the monastery scenes even though they were supposed to be the most interesting. Adair’s chapters were the best but her ending felt weird to me as did the two brothers’.
To say this book was a journey is an understatement. I loved 2 of the characters in this book, but the third (the daughter) almost seemed to be ignored, which honestly was ok because I found her annoying, at first. However, the author did a great job of turning my interest around closer towards the end of the book. My only complaint with this book would have to be the map, it felt unneeded and became so bothersome I just found myself ignoring it. I will eventually pick up book 2 but I'm in no particular rush to read it. After all of that I bet you're wondering why the 4 stars. Well it comes down to the fact that the writing was smooth, the action was solid, and I was genuinely interested in the way things turn out. Definitely worth giving the book a try.
Maybe I just wasn’t in the right mood for this book, maybe if I started it at a later point I might have enjoyed it, but alas - I really didn’t like it.
The only reason I’m giving it two stars and not one is because I legitimately enjoyed the monastery chapters. Kaden’s lessons were interesting and beautifully written. And that’s where the good things I have to say about the book end.
For my own personal ease, I’ll just list out my issues with it so I can write them and then be done with this book forever:
- Adare got five chapters out of 50. Five. And she’s supposed to be one of the main characters?
- Adare, the only female main character, couldn’t exist without a male character to guide her decisions and have a sexual relationship with her? She’s supposed to be smart and ambitious and raised in that political landscape and yet she’s blushing at bad compliments and can’t make decisions on her own?
- Lin, who was supposed to be an intelligent and strong female character, is tricked to go out to a cliff side by someone she definitely doesn’t trust? Alone? That entire situation is JUST fodder to feed Valyn’s “righteous” anger.
- Lin, again a strong female character that Valyn has a real friendship with, couldn’t just be a platonic friend but HAD to have a romantic moment with him? That one is more my own issues with male and female characters being denied platonic friendships with the opposite sex, but still.
- Lin fucking dies in service of Valyn’s character development. Which is a pitfall male writers fall into all the time, and it should be considered a writing sin.
- All the female characters in this book are harassed, raped, murdered, belittled, or such insignificant side characters that it doesn’t matter that they’re strong or interesting.
I’ve read really good female characters written by male authors. And not all books need to include everything good in the writing world in one place, but if one of your three main characters is a woman, give her more than 10% of your chapters and make her multidimensional instead of some horny, angry, over emotional stereotype of what a man THINKS a woman is.
The only reason I’m giving it two stars and not one is because I legitimately enjoyed the monastery chapters. Kaden’s lessons were interesting and beautifully written. And that’s where the good things I have to say about the book end.
For my own personal ease, I’ll just list out my issues with it so I can write them and then be done with this book forever:
- Adare got five chapters out of 50. Five. And she’s supposed to be one of the main characters?
- Adare, the only female main character, couldn’t exist without a male character to guide her decisions and have a sexual relationship with her? She’s supposed to be smart and ambitious and raised in that political landscape and yet she’s blushing at bad compliments and can’t make decisions on her own?
- Lin, who was supposed to be an intelligent and strong female character, is tricked to go out to a cliff side by someone she definitely doesn’t trust? Alone? That entire situation is JUST fodder to feed Valyn’s “righteous” anger.
- Lin, again a strong female character that Valyn has a real friendship with, couldn’t just be a platonic friend but HAD to have a romantic moment with him? That one is more my own issues with male and female characters being denied platonic friendships with the opposite sex, but still.
- Lin fucking dies in service of Valyn’s character development. Which is a pitfall male writers fall into all the time, and it should be considered a writing sin.
- All the female characters in this book are harassed, raped, murdered, belittled, or such insignificant side characters that it doesn’t matter that they’re strong or interesting.
I’ve read really good female characters written by male authors. And not all books need to include everything good in the writing world in one place, but if one of your three main characters is a woman, give her more than 10% of your chapters and make her multidimensional instead of some horny, angry, over emotional stereotype of what a man THINKS a woman is.
Poor, poor Adare, she deserved so much more than what she got in this book. Actually, every female in this book was lacking, most of them characterized by either their stoic military toughness, or how their bodies show in their clothing (sometimes both at the same time). With that said, I did enjoy the Valyn scenes during his elite training, despite the murder mystery plot that derails the potential assassination storyline. Kaden did not have a lot to do in terms of development until the book was nearly 2/3 complete, and more or less acted like his brother. I may pick up the next in the series BUT... I am not feeling any particular rush.
The writing is a bit inelegant, but he weaves a good tale.
Nothing really new in terms of material, but I was entertained.
Edit: On second read, Staveley really seems to have some problems with women. Not sure how I glossed over the rampant misogyny the first time around.
Edit: On second read, Staveley really seems to have some problems with women. Not sure how I glossed over the rampant misogyny the first time around.