Scan barcode
thinkingrobot's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Content Warnings
Minor: Gore, Violence, Grief, and Transphobia
bluejayreads's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
I picked this up because I needed an audiobook to listen to on a long drive and this was one of the few that my library had immediately available (because I was looking the day before the drive - I am not great at planning). The back cover copy was mediocre and didn't have a lot of expectations, but I figured it had to be on my to-read list for a reason.
This book was incredibly unique and surprisingly engaging. For starters, it's told mostly in second person. The narrator is unnamed (although it's slowly revealed through the story who they actually are) and Eolo's part of the story is told in second person, as if it was told to him. The story alternates between Eolo's story and the narrator's story. While Eolo works through the main plot - a usurper to the throne of the Lease, plus a plot to majorly screw up Iraden in pursuit of personal power - the narrator's parts fill in the world and how the system of gods works.
I'm a total sucker for worlds with really unique takes on gods. Part of the fun of this book is discovering how the gods fit into the world, but I will say this: It is possible to kill a god, and that's a very important fact to the story.
The interesting part about the narration being mostly second person is you don't get a whole lot of characterization. Eolo is clever and the reasonable voice to Mawat's hot-headedness (and also a trans man, although that's just a part of who he is as opposed to anything relevant to the plot). Eolo tends to be withdrawn and not speak up, while Mawat plunges ahead and sometimes acts rashly. They're really good foils for each other, and I enjoyed seeing Eolo step up and assert himself a little bit more as everything goes to hell in a handbasket.
The plot is delightfully complicated, and you don't find out how the narrator's story ties into Eolo's until the very end. Now that I think about it, that's really what kept me engaged in the story - the many layers of complexity to the story (and also the question of how the narrator fit into the story they were telling to/about Eolo). That and the really awesome concept of gods and how they fit into this world.
My only real criticism of the story is the ending - it seemed to come out of nowhere, with the narrator doing something that seemed wildly out of character. I would have accepted it if it had felt like the narrator was building towards something like that, but I didn't get any foreshadowing. (Although my husband, who was listening in the car with me, said he saw a lot of similarities with Hamlet in the story so maybe the author ended it the way she did to keep up the Hamlet parallels. I've never seen/read Hamlet so I can't comment on that.)
This story is highly engaging and very unique. I don't know that I particularly loved it, in the sense that it inspired feelings of enjoyment, but it held my interest the whole way through, kept me curious and anticipating the conclusion, and then satisfied my curiosity with an (almost) completely satisfying conclusion. I thoroughly enjoyed the read.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Confinement, Gore, and Death
Minor: Suicide
Suicide is mentioned/discussed (not in a mental illness context, but in the context of providing a consenting human sacrifice to a god), but no suicide is actually committed.
More...