Reviews

The Gallows Black by Sam Sykes

danj91's review

5.0

A nice, quick little adventure with a character that's becoming one of my favorites in any fantasy series I've read.

erdicooper's review

3.0

This is a fun companion adventure to Seven Blades of Black, and if you enjoy Sal and Liette as much as I do, it'll be a treat :)

turtledonut's review

adventurous emotional 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? Yes

4.5

bpsalinas's review

3.0

Totally silly action fantasy with fun characters, ridiculous contrivances, and an angry magic gun. You’ll burn through it pretty quickly, roll your eyes more than once, but ultimately have a pretty good time.

cass17alb's review

adventurous challenging dark fast-paced

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

3.5

isoka's review

adventurous dark funny fast-paced

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

4.25

human_condition's review

adventurous emotional funny fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

sealana's review

2.0

If you're going to write a prequel at least make it interesting. At least make it add intrigue to the main series, make it raise questions, make it engrossing enough that the reader can forget they know what comes after.

This short story didn't deliver in any of that.

While it was nice watching how Sal and Liette met, the introduction of an antagonist whose fate we know did a huge disservice to the story, I wasn't interested because I knew how things were going to end one way or another.

I don't know, it also doesn't feel like this adds anything to the story. You could delete it from the trilogy and things wouldn't change, my feelings for the first book would remain the same if I had never read this, and this also doesn't answer any questions left by SBiB.

In short, I felt like this could've accomplished a lot more. On the basic sense it was entertaining, funny and witty and action-packed, but it lacked a lot of substance.

_egg_wash's review

adventurous medium-paced

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

3.0

scarredman's review

medium-paced

3.5

I wouldn't recommend reading this before the first book, it's a prequel but there's a few spoilers for the first book and a few things that aren't explained at all so you'll just be lost reading it if you do before the first book. This book also wasn't as well written as the first one.