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A review by jyb
The Forgetting Moon by Brian Lee Durfee
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I feel... mixed about this book. I think it'd be best to this in a pros and cons fashion, as it will make things easier.
First, the pros:
The religion and the associated worldbuilding in this story is INCREDIBLY fascinating. I love the clashing of all the religious sects that are under one main religion. The fact that they are all disagreeing about the interpretation of one religion rather than being multiple different ones is especially juicy and tense for the characters and plot. (And one reveal at the end makes things REALLY interesting for the founding of the religion, so I got really hooked by that.) As for the plot, I thought it was definitely intriguing. I'm always a fan of prophesied plots/characters and chosen ones in stories (though I know many aren't a fan of them), so seeing them here got me excited. I also love seeing prophecies get twisted because of wrong/different interpretations, so that was fun to read about. When exciting, action filled moments in this book happened, they did not let me down. Every scene that was meant to be tension-filled and thrilling genuinely had those characteristics, especially as a grimdark book. So when I got to those points, I was very excited to read them. However... that's pretty much most of the good I can say about the book.
Now, for the cons:
There's a lot to say here, but my biggest issues with this book were the bloat and the pacing. First of all, there is SO much info-dumping via dialogue or characters' thoughts that is often just way too much. There are many times where it's just paragraph upon paragraph of telling the reader what they should know instead of like... showing it by letting it play out through the scene? Moreover, there is so much bloat with information that is often just unnecessary and takes up time in the book. Hell, I think they could've cut like 100-200 pages from this book and it would've been pretty similar. Nothing interesting actually happens until, like, 25% of the way in. I was often just so bored reading through some of the POVs and waiting for characters to actually get on with the plot that I was solidly skimming heavily through some chapters. I didn't care! I honestly barely liked any of the POVs, and I often only started liking them because they were involved in an interesting plot – not because of the characters themselves.
Neither Jondralyn or Tala interested me as characters. Jondralyn seemed to get progressively more childish, which annoyed me to no end, while Tala actually seemed to mature – which did get interesting, but only in around the latter quarter of her POV. Nail was only interesting because he had an interesting plot surrounding him. I liked how he was different from his friends, but his initial whining and childishness got on my nerves. However, I think his POV will get more interesting in the series, especially because of something in the ending. As for Gault... his inner conflict and window to the other side was kind of interesting, but after being bored by his POV already then reading how he is lusting over a girl his daughter's age... I lost all interest. Moreover, that bit basically becomes his entire POV: thinking about his daughter and then being obsessed with a different girl of his daughter's age. Utterly uncompelling.
Adding onto characters, I think I've definitely been spoiled by other series, because holy shit, so many villains seem almost completely black and white! I'd say out of all the antagonists in this series, there are maybe one or two that are actually kind of morally grey. And even still, they lean more towards being completely bad than somewhere in the middle.Jondralyn and Tala's brother is found to be under someone's thumb because of his gay relationship with another character, which is sad, but every single other action he takes is quite awful and erratic, so I'm not sure that's much of a morally grey character and moreso feeling pity for that situation. (I was actually surprised there was any mention of non-straight relationships, considering how straight the book initially felt when I was reading. Though I'm not sure how well the concept is treated in-series...) The 'good guys' are more morally grey, but when we only get that from the 'good' side and then basically nightmarish people on the 'evil' side it's just not that strong.
I also have another small nitpick, but honestly, when it's a grimdark series, I think you should do better. There's a scene whereNail is fleeing from his entire town being (BRUTALLY) slaughtered and yet... he runs past this massacre for a solid five to ten minutes as if in a video game, not being touched at all until he's knocked out. Hello? We've gotten graphic descriptions of mutilation, decapitation, slitting throats and all the like and we get no injures on what we've basically designated our main character . Talk about plot armor (especially in a grimdark book!). You could argue that he has training, but when reading it it felt like dumb luck, and no training was ever mentioned to save him. That scene kind of threw me off when I was reading it.
Overall, this book – after finishing it – had an interesting plot and world bogged down by bloat, slow pacing, and meh characters. Cut 150 or so pages and you'd have a better book. I honestly felt like I was slogging through the book while reading it, and I really wasn't sure if I was actually going to continue with the series (I actually thought about DNFing because I was so bored). But after that ending and some consequences for some characters... I do really want to know what happens. I'm unsure whether or not to continue. I might just look for spoilers in others' reviews. After everything, I give this 3 stars.
Edit: Okay, apparently all the prophecies and chosen one thing is amisdirect and Nail's not even important? What the hell is the point of me getting invested in this then? Sure, subverted tropes can be good, but not when they're what hooked me in in the first place... Something similar was done in The Faithful and the Fallen but that series didn't have prophecies and chosen ones holding up the entire plot, so I wasn't as annoyed. I'm not continuing with this series.
First, the pros:
The religion and the associated worldbuilding in this story is INCREDIBLY fascinating. I love the clashing of all the religious sects that are under one main religion. The fact that they are all disagreeing about the interpretation of one religion rather than being multiple different ones is especially juicy and tense for the characters and plot. (And one reveal at the end makes things REALLY interesting for the founding of the religion, so I got really hooked by that.) As for the plot, I thought it was definitely intriguing. I'm always a fan of prophesied plots/characters and chosen ones in stories (though I know many aren't a fan of them), so seeing them here got me excited. I also love seeing prophecies get twisted because of wrong/different interpretations, so that was fun to read about. When exciting, action filled moments in this book happened, they did not let me down. Every scene that was meant to be tension-filled and thrilling genuinely had those characteristics, especially as a grimdark book. So when I got to those points, I was very excited to read them. However... that's pretty much most of the good I can say about the book.
Now, for the cons:
There's a lot to say here, but my biggest issues with this book were the bloat and the pacing. First of all, there is SO much info-dumping via dialogue or characters' thoughts that is often just way too much. There are many times where it's just paragraph upon paragraph of telling the reader what they should know instead of like... showing it by letting it play out through the scene? Moreover, there is so much bloat with information that is often just unnecessary and takes up time in the book. Hell, I think they could've cut like 100-200 pages from this book and it would've been pretty similar. Nothing interesting actually happens until, like, 25% of the way in. I was often just so bored reading through some of the POVs and waiting for characters to actually get on with the plot that I was solidly skimming heavily through some chapters. I didn't care! I honestly barely liked any of the POVs, and I often only started liking them because they were involved in an interesting plot – not because of the characters themselves.
Neither Jondralyn or Tala interested me as characters. Jondralyn seemed to get progressively more childish, which annoyed me to no end, while Tala actually seemed to mature – which did get interesting, but only in around the latter quarter of her POV. Nail was only interesting because he had an interesting plot surrounding him. I liked how he was different from his friends, but his initial whining and childishness got on my nerves. However, I think his POV will get more interesting in the series, especially because of something in the ending. As for Gault... his inner conflict and window to the other side was kind of interesting, but after being bored by his POV already then reading how he is lusting over a girl his daughter's age... I lost all interest. Moreover, that bit basically becomes his entire POV: thinking about his daughter and then being obsessed with a different girl of his daughter's age. Utterly uncompelling.
Adding onto characters, I think I've definitely been spoiled by other series, because holy shit, so many villains seem almost completely black and white! I'd say out of all the antagonists in this series, there are maybe one or two that are actually kind of morally grey. And even still, they lean more towards being completely bad than somewhere in the middle.
I also have another small nitpick, but honestly, when it's a grimdark series, I think you should do better. There's a scene where
Overall, this book – after finishing it – had an interesting plot and world bogged down by bloat, slow pacing, and meh characters. Cut 150 or so pages and you'd have a better book. I honestly felt like I was slogging through the book while reading it, and I really wasn't sure if I was actually going to continue with the series (I actually thought about DNFing because I was so bored). But after that ending and some consequences for some characters... I do really want to know what happens. I'm unsure whether or not to continue. I might just look for spoilers in others' reviews. After everything, I give this 3 stars.
Edit: Okay, apparently all the prophecies and chosen one thing is a