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4.5 AVERAGE
4.5 AVERAGE
I knew everything was going too well… I’ve never been so afraid to read the final few chapters of a book!
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
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
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
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:
Complicated
adventurous
dark
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
THIS BOOK!!!! My first review of this book was something along the lines of “yeah “ruin” is an accurate name for this because it ruined me” and I can say that THAT IS STILL TRUE!!!! I knew what was going to happen the whole time and I was still anxious and scared!!! I love (most) of these characters so much and this series means so much to me!!!
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This was a pretty enjoyable read. The action and the scale of battle are the biggest highlights. Everything feels very visceral in combat, which makes reading feel like a movie. The characters continue to be mostly enjoyable, the plot continues to develop, the stakes continue to get higher. However, some flaws are becoming more and more apparent.
What made Malice particularly good was that it was very grounded in its characters and its plot. Now, the plot is far more vast than before, there are far more characters than before, and unfortunately I don’t think Gwynne can keep up with the maintenance. Other than action, things just kind of… happen. It doesn’t feel like I’m experiencing the development alongside the characters, it feels like I’m just told what the characters are doing and learning and it’s being left at that.
The romance in this book is half baked. It’s not good. I’m not really attached or invested in any of it.
The book also feels like it’s trying to be dark and gritty… without being dark and gritty. There’s no real character death that matters, nothing that really sticks. The darkest part of this book is dark (the plot between Lykos and Fidele) but that’s only one part that actually gets the blood boiling. Whenever a character is in danger… I usually don’t feel too much stress about them dying.
All in all, I enjoyed Ruin. It’s flawed, but still fun!
What made Malice particularly good was that it was very grounded in its characters and its plot. Now, the plot is far more vast than before, there are far more characters than before, and unfortunately I don’t think Gwynne can keep up with the maintenance. Other than action, things just kind of… happen. It doesn’t feel like I’m experiencing the development alongside the characters, it feels like I’m just told what the characters are doing and learning and it’s being left at that.
The romance in this book is half baked. It’s not good. I’m not really attached or invested in any of it.
The book also feels like it’s trying to be dark and gritty… without being dark and gritty. There’s no real character death that matters, nothing that really sticks. The darkest part of this book is dark (the plot between Lykos and Fidele) but that’s only one part that actually gets the blood boiling. Whenever a character is in danger… I usually don’t feel too much stress about them dying.
All in all, I enjoyed Ruin. It’s flawed, but still fun!
adventurous
challenging
dark
inspiring
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
emotional
inspiring
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:
Complicated
dark
emotional
sad
tense
fast-paced
04/11/2021 update
The more i think about this book the more i want to lower its rating. I have really tried to find the strength to pick up the last book of the series, but i would do it just for Veradis, and honestly, though i love my boy, I don’t think that’s enough. So goodbye “faithful and the fallen” i really tried but our journey ends here. I’ll probably read a summary of the last book online.
2.5/5
So you should know the story by now if you don’t there are bad guys and good guys and blood and violence and love too, one of the best animal companion in fantasy and my two favourite talking crows ever (though I am reading sandman and Matthew is a slowly becoming one of my favourite talking ravens too).
The story of this third instalment starts exactly from where we left our characters at the end of Valour, just like minutes after if not seconds, and then there’s lots of travelling and some fighting. We follow mainly Corban and his group, Maquin and Fidele, Carlin whose protecting and helping Edana to retrieve the throne of Arden, and some the “bad guys”.
Now to the characters, I really really really didn’t care for some of the view point especially Tukul and his stupid comments about Corban and Coralean and their future children and also that man called his horse like his wife which I find kinda creepy. Also didn’t care for the whole storyline of Maquin and Fidele in the woods, I found them both quite annoying, they do improve a lot when they start interacting with other people thankfully.
I really liked Camlin’s POV, he’s one of my favourite characters since book two, he’s smart and he isn’t bogged down by some stupid romance (Maquin I’m looking at you).
Now to my biggest disappointment: we just got seven (7) chapters of Veradis, and he’s my favourite character of all, and I was so so mad that we got so little of him. Considering what happens to him in this book i hope we’ll get a lot more in the next one.
The pace of the story was decent, it was slower in the beginning because everyone had to go somewhere very far away, and honestly by now I’ve read like 1500 pages of Croban running around the Banished lands and it was a relief when he finally settled in one place. Other group of characters also traveled a lot but we kinda flash forwarded those parts. Apart from this i felt like the rhythm of the story was good but it became really compelling only in the last 30% when everything was happening and coming together. The best moments in the end were when different groups were meeting, and people were no longer scattered around but were all in one place.
This also worked really good with the multiple POV, because being able to watch a battle from different angles was amazing.
SPOILER
Whatever happens in the end at least Meical died knowing that Asroth and Calidus were dancing to his tune.
The more i think about this book the more i want to lower its rating. I have really tried to find the strength to pick up the last book of the series, but i would do it just for Veradis, and honestly, though i love my boy, I don’t think that’s enough. So goodbye “faithful and the fallen” i really tried but our journey ends here. I’ll probably read a summary of the last book online.
2.5/5
So you should know the story by now if you don’t there are bad guys and good guys and blood and violence and love too, one of the best animal companion in fantasy and my two favourite talking crows ever (though I am reading sandman and Matthew is a slowly becoming one of my favourite talking ravens too).
The story of this third instalment starts exactly from where we left our characters at the end of Valour, just like minutes after if not seconds, and then there’s lots of travelling and some fighting. We follow mainly Corban and his group, Maquin and Fidele, Carlin whose protecting and helping Edana to retrieve the throne of Arden, and some the “bad guys”.
Now to the characters, I really really really didn’t care for some of the view point especially Tukul and his stupid comments about Corban and Coralean and their future children and also that man called his horse like his wife which I find kinda creepy. Also didn’t care for the whole storyline of Maquin and Fidele in the woods, I found them both quite annoying, they do improve a lot when they start interacting with other people thankfully.
I really liked Camlin’s POV, he’s one of my favourite characters since book two, he’s smart and he isn’t bogged down by some stupid romance (Maquin I’m looking at you).
Now to my biggest disappointment: we just got seven (7) chapters of Veradis, and he’s my favourite character of all, and I was so so mad that we got so little of him. Considering what happens to him in this book i hope we’ll get a lot more in the next one.
The pace of the story was decent, it was slower in the beginning because everyone had to go somewhere very far away, and honestly by now I’ve read like 1500 pages of Croban running around the Banished lands and it was a relief when he finally settled in one place. Other group of characters also traveled a lot but we kinda flash forwarded those parts. Apart from this i felt like the rhythm of the story was good but it became really compelling only in the last 30% when everything was happening and coming together. The best moments in the end were when different groups were meeting, and people were no longer scattered around but were all in one place.
This also worked really good with the multiple POV, because being able to watch a battle from different angles was amazing.
SPOILER
Whatever happens in the end at least Meical died knowing that Asroth and Calidus were dancing to his tune.