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3.82 AVERAGE
3.82 AVERAGE
It’s not unheard of for YA authors to jump the gap into the fantasy genre, after all, one of the biggest authors in fantasy right now is Sarah J. Maas.
Taran Matharu appeared in the YA scene about 10 years back with the Summoner series, and his writing and story crafting have improved little since then. I read the Summoner series, it was completely decent, Harry Potter mixed with Pokemon, sure, easy. It had all the tropes of a typical YA fantasy and I let it slide because I was just looking for something mindless to read at the time.
There have been plenty of books that I’ve poo-pooed for bringing nothing new to the genre, mindlessly ripping off tropes or better books, and I have finally found it, the MOST uninspired, uniform, “Fantasy” book to ever exist. If I was more cliche, I’d accuse the author of using AI to write this book, but then again, the AI would find something interesting to steal from other works.
Even the TITLE isn’t original, Cornelia Funke beat him to the punch over two decades earlier with a book actually worth reading!
Jai, the main character, is the bastard son of a dead king, who is now a live-in house maid to the dying, decrepit Emperor who slayed his father. Instead of making an attempt at a well rounded character, the author follows the route of making Jai a complete loser, useless, etc. so he gets free pity points. Things just happen to this character the whole book, and then he changes into a “badass” by the end of the book because he took initiative once, barely, and we’re supposed to believe it lol. I took more initiative than the main character by reading this book.
The Sabine Empire is just Rome, but with Gryphons, they’re also ridiculously racist. The author does that thing where instead of writing a halfway believable empire, he just makes an evil, snobbish, racist empire so Jai can get mistreated so we “empathize” and then he has his justification to bring it down. Jai has two brothers who are introduced at the start so they can say “We love you so much Jai!”, and then are killed off within 20 pages of being introduced.
The dragons are your typical affair, wings, fire, etc. And people can form telepathic connections with certain animals/creatures, reusing the same gimmick he used for the demons in his previous Summoner series. Dragons only come from the “It’s basically Iceland or Norway, idk, just think ‘Vikings’” Kingdom as does the secondary protagonist Frida.
Can I be honest with you, dear reader? There’s really just one reason this book has gotten the Fantasy label versus just being another YA affair. Somewhere along the way, the author got it into his head that what makes this an ADULT book is to make the book horny, and pathetically horny at that. So this book has some steamy scenes then, right?
Single celled organisms have more sex than these sexless muppets who we call “main characters”. Because I had to witness this, you must too. Early on in the book, the main character Jai goes to warn the visiting Northern Princess and her Handmaid Frida about the upcoming treachery. Of course the Princess and the Handmaid are soaking in the hot springs so Jai has to strip down for some contrived reason and sneak his way in. The Handmaid of course sneaks up on him and pins him to the ground on his stomach and then, so very nakedly and boobily, sits down on his back. This is where the author writes “He tried not to think of the soft mounds pressed against his upper back… or the thatch of her pudenda brushing against his buttocks.”
The thatch of her pudenda.
The
Thatch
Of
Her
Pudenda
From a quick google search, Pudenda is a late middle English term with its roots in Latin meaning “(things) to be ashamed of”. And that, Dear Reader, sums up my thoughts on this book. Pudenda.
0/5.
Taran Matharu appeared in the YA scene about 10 years back with the Summoner series, and his writing and story crafting have improved little since then. I read the Summoner series, it was completely decent, Harry Potter mixed with Pokemon, sure, easy. It had all the tropes of a typical YA fantasy and I let it slide because I was just looking for something mindless to read at the time.
There have been plenty of books that I’ve poo-pooed for bringing nothing new to the genre, mindlessly ripping off tropes or better books, and I have finally found it, the MOST uninspired, uniform, “Fantasy” book to ever exist. If I was more cliche, I’d accuse the author of using AI to write this book, but then again, the AI would find something interesting to steal from other works.
Even the TITLE isn’t original, Cornelia Funke beat him to the punch over two decades earlier with a book actually worth reading!
Jai, the main character, is the bastard son of a dead king, who is now a live-in house maid to the dying, decrepit Emperor who slayed his father. Instead of making an attempt at a well rounded character, the author follows the route of making Jai a complete loser, useless, etc. so he gets free pity points. Things just happen to this character the whole book, and then he changes into a “badass” by the end of the book because he took initiative once, barely, and we’re supposed to believe it lol. I took more initiative than the main character by reading this book.
The Sabine Empire is just Rome, but with Gryphons, they’re also ridiculously racist. The author does that thing where instead of writing a halfway believable empire, he just makes an evil, snobbish, racist empire so Jai can get mistreated so we “empathize” and then he has his justification to bring it down. Jai has two brothers who are introduced at the start so they can say “We love you so much Jai!”, and then are killed off within 20 pages of being introduced.
The dragons are your typical affair, wings, fire, etc. And people can form telepathic connections with certain animals/creatures, reusing the same gimmick he used for the demons in his previous Summoner series. Dragons only come from the “It’s basically Iceland or Norway, idk, just think ‘Vikings’” Kingdom as does the secondary protagonist Frida.
Can I be honest with you, dear reader? There’s really just one reason this book has gotten the Fantasy label versus just being another YA affair. Somewhere along the way, the author got it into his head that what makes this an ADULT book is to make the book horny, and pathetically horny at that. So this book has some steamy scenes then, right?
Single celled organisms have more sex than these sexless muppets who we call “main characters”. Because I had to witness this, you must too. Early on in the book, the main character Jai goes to warn the visiting Northern Princess and her Handmaid Frida about the upcoming treachery. Of course the Princess and the Handmaid are soaking in the hot springs so Jai has to strip down for some contrived reason and sneak his way in. The Handmaid of course sneaks up on him and pins him to the ground on his stomach and then, so very nakedly and boobily, sits down on his back. This is where the author writes “He tried not to think of the soft mounds pressed against his upper back… or the thatch of her pudenda brushing against his buttocks.”
The thatch of her pudenda.
The
Thatch
Of
Her
Pudenda
From a quick google search, Pudenda is a late middle English term with its roots in Latin meaning “(things) to be ashamed of”. And that, Dear Reader, sums up my thoughts on this book. Pudenda.
0/5.
adventurous
challenging
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
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
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
adventurous
tense
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:
No
adventurous
medium-paced
adventurous
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
adventurous
emotional
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes