Reviews - Ruin: La lancia di Skald

1.56k reviews for:

Ruin: La lancia di Skald

John Gwynne

4.5 AVERAGE

selena_so_far's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

jai_sedai's review against another edition

4.5

4.50/5.00

Followed Veradis' order without hesitation. And it is clear that he would have killed his own countrymen without hesitation. Another fool too loyal to think for himself. He shook his head. Where does Nathair find them?

TRUTH AND COURAGE!!

Ruin, the ultimate answer to the question of why do people love this series so much. Why is there so much hype for The Faithful and The Fallen. Ruin is a blockbuster. This book is made for high budget TV. The character moments, the duel, the battles, the plot twists, all add up to one phenomenally addictive read. John Gwynne lands all the punches, makes me cry, scream and roar at the events. I feel so deeply guilty for not giving this book a 5.00/5.00. The problem is really the thematic simplicity and the dialogue still being barely average.

Despite this point, I was prepared to throw a 5.00/5.00 out of just plot, characters and emotional impact, but the thematic twist at the very end of the book did not land too well for me. I agree that this is completely unexpected twist, happens so out of nowhere and is shocking. Makes for great storytelling. But I am not convinced that the author can pull this trope off. Remember that this trope is handled to perfection by giants in the genre like Frank Herbert, and so this twist feels a bit too forced and undeserved. A simple good vs evil theme is enough for this story. The next book, Wrath will tell me if this trope is well handled by this series.

I am finally on the Papa Gwynne Train!

Emotional Impact -> Spectacular book, enough said already. That moment when Spoiler Corban duels and kills Sumur, and he performs a running mount and Jael's men cheer for him! . What a scene, what a spectacular scene TRUTH AND COURAGE!!

Prose -> The endless POV cycling has been resolved in this book, where POVs shift when needed based on the story progression. This is a massive problem I had with the second book that has been resolved in this book. And why do so many arrows save so many main POV characters at the last moment. It's almost funny because it happens like 7 times lol. The action scenes are written so so well! But the dialogue can be so much better. I think John Gwynne with better dialogue and slightly better worldbuilding makes George RR Martin. But this book is not Martin, and that is very obvious.

Characters -> Veradis is shaping up to be one of my favorite characters in this series. The villains in this story are truly terrifying, the darkness in this story is rage-inducing and shocking. Spoiler Nathair-Veradis friendship, Gar-Tukul parental love, Camlin's Braith problem and the Corban-Brina-Craf relationships are so satisfying to read

Plot -> Ruin has some of the best plots in fantasy action genre. the ASOIF level plotting and character arcs is finally paying off. The final twist, the multiple battles all feel well deserved and natural.

Worldbuilding -> While I have been less than enthusiastic about this world, I am starting to enjoy the familiarity and consistency of this world. That moment when Spoiler Jael's men cheer Corban's running mount is a wonderful cultural moment for this series which I believe has been missing in this story for a while. Moments like this make epic fantasy. We need more.

chrisb913's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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

Truth & Courage!!!!

Is what I'd like to be screaming right now had i not just been emotionally devastated by this book/series yet again.

Gwynne continues to blow me away with this epic tale of heroes and villains and everyone in between.

He may not be for everyone, but this series is cementing him as one of my all time favorites writers.

kholinkosmic's review against another edition

5.0

I have never been more frustrated in my life. When I heard ppl say this was a play on the chosen one trope, I thought they were referring to gwynne’s writing or just praising it, but nooo it’s a all a lie. Meical’s confession angered me so much, but his death didn’t help, because it just felt like an even bigger waste. I don’t know how I’m supposed to get through wrath knowing everyone’s deaths are for nothing. Also cywen’s fate isn’t looking too good and corban is on his own with no one to tell about everything meical told him. At first fidele and maquin’s storyline and everyone believing nathair was what got to me, but I didn’t know how much worse it could get. I have no idea how John gwynne is going to wrap this up and I’m so scared for my favorite characters.