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tylerhayes 's review for:
The Runaway King
by Jennifer A. Nielsen
It was alright. If nothing else, it was a quick read, so I can't judge it's finer points too harshly. Also I just came off of the GOT (ASOIAF) series and it's not really fair to compare these two series. But the quality of writing is noticably worse in this book. And it is a YA novel, but some of those are quite well written too. I felt that the world building, characters, everything was just not written as well as I had hoped.
Part of my disappointment with this book comes from the way it nearly abandons the setup from the last book. Jaron is king... And then goes off into hiding immediately. Also, we don't get to see much of Jaron and the previous characters; Amarinda, Imogen, Mott, etc. And when we do, jaron is terrible to them, even though they're supposed to be his friends. That really gets to one of my main issues; jaron as a protagonist in this book is way too mistrusting, and just outright terrible to people he's supposed to like. It's kind of infuriating. Like the whole drama of the book could have been spared by one or two heart-to-hearts. But I digress. The book definitely got better once he got to the pirates and runs into Imogen again. He starts acting a little better and eventually has a bit of an arc that I'm hoping will make him less insufferable in the third book. I actually read from this part to the end in one sitting, so it definitely isn't bad, and has its good moments. One more thing - the plot holes/convenience does kind of get to me. How are 50 pirates going to cripple a landlocked country? Why can jaron not be the pirate king at first, but it's fine if he gets it from Roden and not the other pirate guy. Anywaysz hoping the third book will finally flesh out some of these stories and make jaron a bit more likeable... At least to his friends.
Part of my disappointment with this book comes from the way it nearly abandons the setup from the last book. Jaron is king... And then goes off into hiding immediately. Also, we don't get to see much of Jaron and the previous characters; Amarinda, Imogen, Mott, etc. And when we do, jaron is terrible to them, even though they're supposed to be his friends. That really gets to one of my main issues; jaron as a protagonist in this book is way too mistrusting, and just outright terrible to people he's supposed to like. It's kind of infuriating. Like the whole drama of the book could have been spared by one or two heart-to-hearts. But I digress. The book definitely got better once he got to the pirates and runs into Imogen again. He starts acting a little better and eventually has a bit of an arc that I'm hoping will make him less insufferable in the third book. I actually read from this part to the end in one sitting, so it definitely isn't bad, and has its good moments. One more thing - the plot holes/convenience does kind of get to me. How are 50 pirates going to cripple a landlocked country? Why can jaron not be the pirate king at first, but it's fine if he gets it from Roden and not the other pirate guy. Anywaysz hoping the third book will finally flesh out some of these stories and make jaron a bit more likeable... At least to his friends.