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morris42's review
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Gore, Murder, War, Death, Genocide, Cursing, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, and Blood
trashroyal's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
chloeproc01's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
3.5
desolation73's review
5.0
A book I'd have read much quicker if I hadn't caught covid for the second time . I am looking forward too reading more.
lenci's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
_ottavia_'s review against another edition
4.0
Finalmente una buona uscita, di cui non vedo l'ora di leggere il seguito. L'ho iniziato con aspettative bassissime, viste le recensioni altalenanti, eppure mi ha presa subito e avrei voluto leggerlo più in fretta di quanto ho fatto. Davvero avvincente e pieno di elementi che personalmente trovo interessanti. I fan di Mistborn prima trilogia dovrebbero provarlo.
qjbrown96's review
3.0
Pretty good and unique fantasy story. I didn’t get a WOW factor like other people with this but it was good enough for me to continue with the series at some point
rwatkins's review against another edition
2.0
It was ok. Overall: 1.5/5 (8/25)
If you like mixing guns and magic together or characters pushed to exhaustion, maybe you will like this book but I can not recommend it. With repeated catch-and-release plotlines, world-building elements that are contradictory, tensions frequently building up to poorly executed, anti-climactic moments and the mistreatment of every female character, there are too many misfires. I will not be reading any more of this series.
Spoilers Below.
Plot: 1/5
There are 3 main plotlines with 3 MCs. Each plotline is gonna get resolved near the midpoint and transition into a new plotline. Each new plotline is resolved by the end to some degree, with new ones presented at the end for the next book in the series. It stands on it's own and doesn't feel like just a setup for other books and I appreciate that. This formatting structure for the plot was a great idea - but the execution was bad. Really, really bad.
Tamas for the first half is going to be trying to gain control of the city after his rebellion. He spends the second half dealing with assassins and traitors.
Taniel chases an escaped mage for the first half. The second half, his father sends Taniel to assassinate his best friend.
Adamat is researching in libraries for a secret the first half. Then he's looking into Tamas' traitor on the Counsel for the second half.
Tamas is a stupid leader, Taniel is a poor soldier and Adamat is a crappy investigator. But that doesn't matter because there are no meaningful consequences connected to their strengths or weaknesses anyway. So many dumb character choices. Tamas sends one unit to deal with an entire invading army with overwhelming troop numbers and that works. Tamas has a broken leg but still takes on a legion of baddies and wins. Tanriel is a junky who shoots better the higher he gets. Adamat just flat out asks each Counsel member if they're the traitor and that eventually works. Plot points felt manufactured and character choices unbelievable. I did not like the plot.
Setting: 2/5
This is flintlock fantasy with a Napoleonic flare.
We get three maps, but half the locations mentioned in this book are not found on any of those maps.
There are 3 magic systems presented as a sort of paper-rock-scissors setup (Wardens beats Powder Mages, PM's beats Privileged, Privileged beats Wardens). But this isn't followed through in the plot, as the PM's destroy everything in their paths as needed, no problem. Then there are the Knacked, which I liked the idea of.
Adro is surrounded by mountains. The caldera of a volcano serves as the launch pad for a space travelling God. And that's about it for the world-building. Nothing interesting about the city Adopest where most the story unfolds, and nothing unique about the world besides the magic systems. It was ok.
Characters: 1/5
3 MC's with no Character Arcs or changes in any of the characters. All 3 men make dumb decisions repeatedly. Tamas catches the guy who fridged his wife and lets him go. Twice! Taniel finds the mage who killed three brothers-in-arms and just lets her walk away (like father, like son). Adamat has his family threatened and just lets the baddy leave to go hunt down his family. I'm picking-up a pattern.
The background female characters are treated pretty poorly with death, infidelity, being Evil Witches, polygamy/harems and child-sexualization all represented.
The MC's were flat and dumb, the female characterizations were all problematic, so I didn't like the characters presented in this book.
Style: 3/5
The pacing was odd at times - the story would lag as a character tries to work out a problem, then rush towards a false climax, usually a baddie that walks away after a battle unchallenged, then quickly concludes and leaps to the next plot point where things lag again. There is zero time spent on reflection or consequences of actions. There was progression, but it was disconnected from character action. The story just pushed forward.
No flowery prose here. Brief, concise descriptions with simple dialogue.
There wasn't a noticeable shift in voice between characters. They were distinguished instead by their different situations and plotlines.
Not a lot of style choices here, but it was easy to follow and read through. I liked the few style choices I could see made in the writing.
Themes: 1/5
This was not a theme-heavy book and there wasn't much focus on themes. The problematic use of women in this book was unintended (I assume) and negative. McClellan touches on the challenges of rebuilding after a coup, but barely. It doesn't explore what to replace the monarchy with. Themes aren't explored much so it's hard to like them.
If you like mixing guns and magic together or characters pushed to exhaustion, maybe you will like this book but I can not recommend it. With repeated catch-and-release plotlines, world-building elements that are contradictory, tensions frequently building up to poorly executed, anti-climactic moments and the mistreatment of every female character, there are too many misfires. I will not be reading any more of this series.
Spoilers Below.
Plot: 1/5
There are 3 main plotlines with 3 MCs. Each plotline is gonna get resolved near the midpoint and transition into a new plotline. Each new plotline is resolved by the end to some degree, with new ones presented at the end for the next book in the series. It stands on it's own and doesn't feel like just a setup for other books and I appreciate that. This formatting structure for the plot was a great idea - but the execution was bad. Really, really bad.
Tamas for the first half is going to be trying to gain control of the city after his rebellion. He spends the second half dealing with assassins and traitors.
Taniel chases an escaped mage for the first half. The second half, his father sends Taniel to assassinate his best friend.
Adamat is researching in libraries for a secret the first half. Then he's looking into Tamas' traitor on the Counsel for the second half.
Tamas is a stupid leader, Taniel is a poor soldier and Adamat is a crappy investigator. But that doesn't matter because there are no meaningful consequences connected to their strengths or weaknesses anyway. So many dumb character choices. Tamas sends one unit to deal with an entire invading army with overwhelming troop numbers and that works. Tamas has a broken leg but still takes on a legion of baddies and wins. Tanriel is a junky who shoots better the higher he gets. Adamat just flat out asks each Counsel member if they're the traitor and that eventually works. Plot points felt manufactured and character choices unbelievable. I did not like the plot.
Setting: 2/5
This is flintlock fantasy with a Napoleonic flare.
We get three maps, but half the locations mentioned in this book are not found on any of those maps.
There are 3 magic systems presented as a sort of paper-rock-scissors setup (Wardens beats Powder Mages, PM's beats Privileged, Privileged beats Wardens). But this isn't followed through in the plot, as the PM's destroy everything in their paths as needed, no problem. Then there are the Knacked, which I liked the idea of.
Adro is surrounded by mountains. The caldera of a volcano serves as the launch pad for a space travelling God. And that's about it for the world-building. Nothing interesting about the city Adopest where most the story unfolds, and nothing unique about the world besides the magic systems. It was ok.
Characters: 1/5
3 MC's with no Character Arcs or changes in any of the characters. All 3 men make dumb decisions repeatedly. Tamas catches the guy who fridged his wife and lets him go. Twice! Taniel finds the mage who killed three brothers-in-arms and just lets her walk away (like father, like son). Adamat has his family threatened and just lets the baddy leave to go hunt down his family. I'm picking-up a pattern.
The background female characters are treated pretty poorly with death, infidelity, being Evil Witches, polygamy/harems and child-sexualization all represented.
The MC's were flat and dumb, the female characterizations were all problematic, so I didn't like the characters presented in this book.
Style: 3/5
The pacing was odd at times - the story would lag as a character tries to work out a problem, then rush towards a false climax, usually a baddie that walks away after a battle unchallenged, then quickly concludes and leaps to the next plot point where things lag again. There is zero time spent on reflection or consequences of actions. There was progression, but it was disconnected from character action. The story just pushed forward.
No flowery prose here. Brief, concise descriptions with simple dialogue.
There wasn't a noticeable shift in voice between characters. They were distinguished instead by their different situations and plotlines.
Not a lot of style choices here, but it was easy to follow and read through. I liked the few style choices I could see made in the writing.
Themes: 1/5
This was not a theme-heavy book and there wasn't much focus on themes. The problematic use of women in this book was unintended (I assume) and negative. McClellan touches on the challenges of rebuilding after a coup, but barely. It doesn't explore what to replace the monarchy with. Themes aren't explored much so it's hard to like them.
mrbear's review
2.0
I just didn’t like it. The characters weren’t that interesting or well developed beyond their major plot contributions, the story was very high fantasy in many respects in a way that felt too arbitrary and prone to a lot of deus ex machina, and the story didn’t develop in a particularly compelling way.
Some things explicitly that bothered me:
1. No one (particularly Taniel) seems to think Ka-Poel can protect herself, even though she routinely solves all their problems.
2. Why are we supposed to like or be interested in Tamas/Adamat?
3. Why does Tamas not care that there seems to be a huge war with his main enemy going on in which his side is undermanned and outgunned for what seems like months.
4. Why is there so much unexplained backstory about Tamas that seems random and irrelevant? This reminded me of Mistborn with Kelsier’s wife, but even less fitting (at least his motivations become clearer with time and alluded to early on).
5. Too many characters, none with depth.
I could go on, but it was overall a frustrating read that took me a long time and didn’t feel at all worth it.
Some things explicitly that bothered me:
1. No one (particularly Taniel) seems to think Ka-Poel can protect herself, even though she routinely solves all their problems.
2. Why are we supposed to like or be interested in Tamas/Adamat?
3. Why does Tamas not care that there seems to be a huge war with his main enemy going on in which his side is undermanned and outgunned for what seems like months.
4. Why is there so much unexplained backstory about Tamas that seems random and irrelevant? This reminded me of Mistborn with Kelsier’s wife, but even less fitting (at least his motivations become clearer with time and alluded to early on).
5. Too many characters, none with depth.
I could go on, but it was overall a frustrating read that took me a long time and didn’t feel at all worth it.