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4.43 AVERAGE
4.43 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
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:
Yes
adventurous
dark
hopeful
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:
Yes
This book is quite long and there are parts where there is nothing really happening. And then there are parts where a lot of things are happening and most of the time I was thinking, this book could have been a little shorter... ^^'
I did like the dark and twisted turn of Stephanie and how she is trying to justify herself.
I did like the dark and twisted turn of Stephanie and how she is trying to justify herself.
Well first of all, I wanna say that I don't have a favourite book, or series but if I did.
This series would be my favourite (Along with pjo).
The writing is amazing, the dialogue is perfect.
The characters, and dynamics, the climaxes everything. This series is gold.
AND EVERY SINGLE LIVING BEING SHOULD READ THESE SERIES.
This series would be my favourite (Along with pjo).
The writing is amazing, the dialogue is perfect.
The characters, and dynamics, the climaxes everything. This series is gold.
AND EVERY SINGLE LIVING BEING SHOULD READ THESE SERIES.
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-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:
Yes
SPOILERS AHEAD FOR LAST STAND OF DEAD MEN, DYING OF THE LIGHT AND THE SECOND SERIES SO BEWARE!!!!
As a kid, I loved this book, and it was definitely one of my top favourites in the series. So on my reread, I was super excited to see if it still held up in my memory (especially after coming directly from Kingdom of the Wicked which had been an almost perfect book in my eyes).
But man… this book was so horrifically disappointing.
Big stand outs to me that really bugged me: there is so much fatphobia aimed at Saracen, a horrifically racist Asian caricature who is SUCH A CREEP to poor Scapegrace (who I’m still not quite sure if we are suppose for laugh AT or WITH- either way is honestly weird), poorly explained reasoning behind the lack of female cleavers and probably some racist undertones with certain mentions of the African Sanctuary (completely ignoring the fact that AFRICA is the continent and not a single country- like- ok …)
So much in this book has aged so poorly (and/or wasn't good to begin with). I wasn’t necessarily surprised to see fatphobia having a play in some of the humour as Landy has used some horrendous schtick like that in the last book and previous books- but all this piled on top of one another and put into one book not only breaks the immersion, but makes me question some things about the author himself :/
And don’t even get me started on the weird crush that Valkyrie has on Skull even though she literally JUST turned 18!!!! And has known this man since she was a minor!!!! And he is 400+ YEARS OLD!!!!! Like- I hate the fact that this was something set up back in Dark Days and I really hoped it wouldn’t have been as prominent a thing on my reread of this series- but it’s so CREEPY!!!! I really wish something like this would have been retconned earlier in the series because reading this as a full grown adult only makes me feel icky…
I’m only hoping Landy retcons or fixes this somehow in the second series (especially knowing certain things about Valkyries relationship status in the second series)
And besides that, this book draaaaaaaagggsss. I was so excited to read about the Dead Men again- and remembered absolutely loving their dynamics as a kid. But I feel Landy doesn’t use the Dead Men to their full potential- or at least- give us enough time with them because he’s too busy with some absolutely uninteresting political mumbo jumbo that I didn’t even pay attention to half the time because it was written so boring. And I LOVE political themes and scenes in my books- however- Landy doesn't write it well in this book at all :/ I can’t even give a proper critique of it because I just- don’t remember any of it because it was all just. So. Boring. I wished during those chapters that we could just get back to the Dead Men, or one of the villains or literally ANYONE ELSE (minus that horrendous racist Asian caricature of a character, I was very pleased to see he quite literally just- ran away eventually).
This book sadly doesn't really pick up until the last quarter, when you can really feel the pace picking up again and things get extremely tense and serious for the cast. And suddenly, Landy is writing gorgeously again!! I LOVED reading the Dead Men crumble after losing so many and after being so horrifically betrayed by one of their own. I loved reading Valkyries descent into becoming Darquesse!!! Those moments were so emotional and powerful - but sadly, thats some of the only praises I have for this book. Something that good is brought down by all this BAD.
And don’t even get me started on the whole plot with Stephanie…. I genuinely think what Landy was trying to do with Stephanie and prove that she’s her own person who has her own life outside of Valkyrie and even has a soul of her own is a VERY interesting theme!! Stephanie could have been a character I felt extremely endeared towards and was rooting for… had she not already killed one of the twins and been plotting to kill Valkyrie!!!! And knowing how this all manifests in the next book, it makes me feel even less for her. I find it very difficult to sympathise with Stephanie with the fact that her killing one of the twins (and permanently fucking up the relationship between them and their family in the books to come) never went anywhere… making their death meaningless and nothing but a cruel action taken by a person who was being an idiot… no amount of tragic things happening to her, or how much she is consistently arguing with the main cast about her own sentience, is going to make me feel for her in this respect. And I want to like her!!! She’s giving us as readers- every reason to like and root for her other than that!!! But this all could’ve been fixed had she just- never killed one of the twins!!!! (Her plotting to kill Valkyrie I feel is somewhat more malleable as it makes sense she’d want to take over her life as she would view that as HER OWN life- but killing a twin makes no sense in that plot… it feels more like Landy did that at the end of the last book just so there would be ONE MORE plot twist and shock for the reader- which wasn't needed after the amazing twist that had come previously).
The action is fun as usual (when we get it), the banter is fun and witty (again, when we get it), the betrayal by Ravel and the death of Ghastly still hurts like hell and made me bawl my eyes out all over again. That betrayal is still one I’m sour about (in the best way) to this day, that shit truly stuck with me all these years later and it was so tragic reading about one of my favourite characters in the series die again (a death that I feel was actually well used and timed).
Otherwise, I was so horribly disappointed by this book. I almost quit the series entirely because of it (though I can never truly part from the hilarious skeleton man), but it has definitely made me rethink about who I spend my money on. Don’t think I will go out of my way to buy Landy’s books from the shelves again myself unless I see some massive personal reworking with the racist, fatphobic and creepy things he’s put in this series so far. I do truly hope things get better in future books, as I really do love and treasure this series. This was (hopefully) just a bad one.
As a kid, I loved this book, and it was definitely one of my top favourites in the series. So on my reread, I was super excited to see if it still held up in my memory (especially after coming directly from Kingdom of the Wicked which had been an almost perfect book in my eyes).
But man… this book was so horrifically disappointing.
Big stand outs to me that really bugged me: there is so much fatphobia aimed at Saracen, a horrifically racist Asian caricature who is SUCH A CREEP to poor Scapegrace (who I’m still not quite sure if we are suppose for laugh AT or WITH- either way is honestly weird), poorly explained reasoning behind the lack of female cleavers and probably some racist undertones with certain mentions of the African Sanctuary (completely ignoring the fact that AFRICA is the continent and not a single country- like- ok …)
So much in this book has aged so poorly (and/or wasn't good to begin with). I wasn’t necessarily surprised to see fatphobia having a play in some of the humour as Landy has used some horrendous schtick like that in the last book and previous books- but all this piled on top of one another and put into one book not only breaks the immersion, but makes me question some things about the author himself :/
And don’t even get me started on the weird crush that Valkyrie has on Skull even though she literally JUST turned 18!!!! And has known this man since she was a minor!!!! And he is 400+ YEARS OLD!!!!! Like- I hate the fact that this was something set up back in Dark Days and I really hoped it wouldn’t have been as prominent a thing on my reread of this series- but it’s so CREEPY!!!! I really wish something like this would have been retconned earlier in the series because reading this as a full grown adult only makes me feel icky…
I’m only hoping Landy retcons or fixes this somehow in the second series (especially knowing certain things about Valkyries relationship status in the second series)
And besides that, this book draaaaaaaagggsss. I was so excited to read about the Dead Men again- and remembered absolutely loving their dynamics as a kid. But I feel Landy doesn’t use the Dead Men to their full potential- or at least- give us enough time with them because he’s too busy with some absolutely uninteresting political mumbo jumbo that I didn’t even pay attention to half the time because it was written so boring. And I LOVE political themes and scenes in my books- however- Landy doesn't write it well in this book at all :/ I can’t even give a proper critique of it because I just- don’t remember any of it because it was all just. So. Boring. I wished during those chapters that we could just get back to the Dead Men, or one of the villains or literally ANYONE ELSE (minus that horrendous racist Asian caricature of a character, I was very pleased to see he quite literally just- ran away eventually).
This book sadly doesn't really pick up until the last quarter, when you can really feel the pace picking up again and things get extremely tense and serious for the cast. And suddenly, Landy is writing gorgeously again!! I LOVED reading the Dead Men crumble after losing so many and after being so horrifically betrayed by one of their own. I loved reading Valkyries descent into becoming Darquesse!!! Those moments were so emotional and powerful - but sadly, thats some of the only praises I have for this book. Something that good is brought down by all this BAD.
And don’t even get me started on the whole plot with Stephanie…. I genuinely think what Landy was trying to do with Stephanie and prove that she’s her own person who has her own life outside of Valkyrie and even has a soul of her own is a VERY interesting theme!! Stephanie could have been a character I felt extremely endeared towards and was rooting for… had she not already killed one of the twins and been plotting to kill Valkyrie!!!! And knowing how this all manifests in the next book, it makes me feel even less for her. I find it very difficult to sympathise with Stephanie with the fact that her killing one of the twins (and permanently fucking up the relationship between them and their family in the books to come) never went anywhere… making their death meaningless and nothing but a cruel action taken by a person who was being an idiot… no amount of tragic things happening to her, or how much she is consistently arguing with the main cast about her own sentience, is going to make me feel for her in this respect. And I want to like her!!! She’s giving us as readers- every reason to like and root for her other than that!!! But this all could’ve been fixed had she just- never killed one of the twins!!!! (Her plotting to kill Valkyrie I feel is somewhat more malleable as it makes sense she’d want to take over her life as she would view that as HER OWN life- but killing a twin makes no sense in that plot… it feels more like Landy did that at the end of the last book just so there would be ONE MORE plot twist and shock for the reader- which wasn't needed after the amazing twist that had come previously).
The action is fun as usual (when we get it), the banter is fun and witty (again, when we get it), the betrayal by Ravel and the death of Ghastly still hurts like hell and made me bawl my eyes out all over again. That betrayal is still one I’m sour about (in the best way) to this day, that shit truly stuck with me all these years later and it was so tragic reading about one of my favourite characters in the series die again (a death that I feel was actually well used and timed).
Otherwise, I was so horribly disappointed by this book. I almost quit the series entirely because of it (though I can never truly part from the hilarious skeleton man), but it has definitely made me rethink about who I spend my money on. Don’t think I will go out of my way to buy Landy’s books from the shelves again myself unless I see some massive personal reworking with the racist, fatphobic and creepy things he’s put in this series so far. I do truly hope things get better in future books, as I really do love and treasure this series. This was (hopefully) just a bad one.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Racism, Sexism, Violence, War
Moderate: Fatphobia
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
dark
funny
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Used to read these as a kid/teen. Picking them up now as something comforting to read before bed. Not my favourite in the series, the narrative was a bit sporatic and seemed to lack the sense of direction I felt other books in the series had. Still some very fun moments and twists that provide pay off but also some aspects that felt quite corny. Landy has his long itinerary of characters down and the quick wit of the dialogue and intensity of the (more often than not excessively long) action scenes are still what make these books enjoyable. Overall some good highs, some lulls and some laughs.
emotional