You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Scan barcode
A review by randi_jo
The Price of Redemption by Shawn Carpenter
Did not finish book. Stopped at 31%.
To start out: I have not read the Master and Commander series that this book was based on (heavily?). So maybe some things are the way they are because of that and I'm on the ignorant side.
Anyway, I did end up DNFing this at 31%. I'm not one for DNFing and normally I'd push through, but The Price of Redemption has the misfortune of coming to me at a time where there are SO MANY good fantasy books coming out right now that I don't really have the patience (stubbornness?) to make myself continue.
Some contributing factors to my decision:
⚓ Why isn't this a historical fantasy rather than toted as a full blown fantasy? Obviously the map is just the British Isles and Europe with different names. . . same with language/cultures/governments etc. Like, why make things more complicated than necessary? Not only am I stuck trying to follow every single nuance of 18th century English Naval Command, but now I have to figure out what made up name denotes which country on top of it.
⚓ There is a lot of dialogue. A lot. And it's very stilted at the best of times and unintelligible without heavy googling at the worst. Honestly I think of the 30% I read, at least 20% of it was just people talking. And maybe I might've understood all the jargon if I'd read Master and Commander. Maybe. They mostly talked about how ships work or the command chain or maybe obliquely about magic or introducing more and more characters who are very samey.
⚓ Enid feels very male-gazey. She's noble and handsome and people sniff her/notice her scent and admire her neck and the hollows under her collarbones. In fact if she hadn't used that one paragraph of magic in the first chapter, I'd be willing to believe she was just there to be a distraction to all the men! Also she is literally sniffed, the man is publicly rebuked for it, and THEN the captain who punished him spends an inordinate amount of time waxing poetic to himself about the curve of her neck. Just. Ok. I honestly feel like character dynamics and interactions would've been better/more organic if Enid had been a man.
⚓ I just was not having fun. Enid mentions if they'll go out and have some good old naval battles and whatnot to disrupt trade and Rue literally says oh no we have to sail a week with no fun times to get new orders. At the pace (three to four days had passed so far!!) of the story thus far I am too tired to find out how narratively long that week will be.
Anyway, I did end up DNFing this at 31%. I'm not one for DNFing and normally I'd push through, but The Price of Redemption has the misfortune of coming to me at a time where there are SO MANY good fantasy books coming out right now that I don't really have the patience (stubbornness?) to make myself continue.
Some contributing factors to my decision:
⚓ Why isn't this a historical fantasy rather than toted as a full blown fantasy? Obviously the map is just the British Isles and Europe with different names. . . same with language/cultures/governments etc. Like, why make things more complicated than necessary? Not only am I stuck trying to follow every single nuance of 18th century English Naval Command, but now I have to figure out what made up name denotes which country on top of it.
⚓ There is a lot of dialogue. A lot. And it's very stilted at the best of times and unintelligible without heavy googling at the worst. Honestly I think of the 30% I read, at least 20% of it was just people talking. And maybe I might've understood all the jargon if I'd read Master and Commander. Maybe. They mostly talked about how ships work or the command chain or maybe obliquely about magic or introducing more and more characters who are very samey.
⚓ Enid feels very male-gazey. She's noble and handsome and people sniff her/notice her scent and admire her neck and the hollows under her collarbones. In fact if she hadn't used that one paragraph of magic in the first chapter, I'd be willing to believe she was just there to be a distraction to all the men! Also she is literally sniffed, the man is publicly rebuked for it, and THEN the captain who punished him spends an inordinate amount of time waxing poetic to himself about the curve of her neck. Just. Ok. I honestly feel like character dynamics and interactions would've been better/more organic if Enid had been a man.
⚓ I just was not having fun. Enid mentions if they'll go out and have some good old naval battles and whatnot to disrupt trade and Rue literally says oh no we have to sail a week with no fun times to get new orders. At the pace (three to four days had passed so far!!) of the story thus far I am too tired to find out how narratively long that week will be.