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A review by penguin_emperor_of_the_north
Requiem of Silence by J.D.L. Rosell
3.0
That is a nice cover, to be honest I saw that cover on one website and that dragon looming over the person just drew me in. Really, really nice.
There's this trope in modern fantasy that I think of as 'reverse-Gnosticism' where there's this higher spirit realm that's just inherently dangerous to people. Where people can just try to influence the higher realms if they can but ultimately they're just along for the ride and trying to hang on.
That's what this book made me think of, like Famine, Clepsamammia and Valem are just doing their thing so to speak, they're not malicious or hostile to humanity really, it's just that Famine isn't so much hungry as he is Hunger and Valem's not so much angry as he is Anger. And well, the embodiment of Anger might not be the best next door neighbor.
As far as execution goes, I overall enjoyed the book. The main area that drug it down for me was the number of new terms and places and concepts. Like when I need to keep remembering the difference between Bali ishakas and Qao Fu it hurts the flow of the book.
But I appreciated the main character especially. She was reasonably flawed but had a unwavering insistence that she would do the right thing no matter what which appeals to me.
There was one scene near the end. Which ain't right but it's one of those decisions, I can definitely see how I'd make it but then she suddenly . And I had to set the book down and call her an idiot. What? you couldn't predict that would happen?
But, on balance, I think I prefer a protagonist who makes mistakes and screws up to a protagonist who's always right about everything and always succeeds. So, it felt more like real character flaw than anything derailing the book.
There's this trope in modern fantasy that I think of as 'reverse-Gnosticism' where there's this higher spirit realm that's just inherently dangerous to people. Where people can just try to influence the higher realms if they can but ultimately they're just along for the ride and trying to hang on.
That's what this book made me think of, like Famine, Clepsamammia and Valem are just doing their thing so to speak, they're not malicious or hostile to humanity really, it's just that Famine isn't so much hungry as he is Hunger and Valem's not so much angry as he is Anger. And well, the embodiment of Anger might not be the best next door neighbor.
As far as execution goes, I overall enjoyed the book. The main area that drug it down for me was the number of new terms and places and concepts. Like when I need to keep remembering the difference between Bali ishakas and Qao Fu it hurts the flow of the book.
But I appreciated the main character especially. She was reasonably flawed but had a unwavering insistence that she would do the right thing no matter what which appeals to me.
There was one scene near the end
Spoiler
where Airene decides to set off a volcano in the middle of a city while Famine is on it in order to weaken Famine and allow her to trap himSpoiler
decides she wants to back out (when it was too late but she didn't know it was too late yet) because of the number of people that it'd killBut, on balance, I think I prefer a protagonist who makes mistakes and screws up to a protagonist who's always right about everything and always succeeds. So, it felt more like real character flaw than anything derailing the book.