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A review by writervid
Immortal Reign by Morgan Rhodes
2.0
Well, I'm disappointed.
Like a few other reviewers have said, how DO you come back from the hot mess that is Crystal Storm? The answer: you can't. At least, not in this book.
To start--the narrative. The thing that Rhodes did so well in Falling Kingdoms was the balancing of the narrative, making sure each central character got enough page time that they could still impact the plot and establish themselves as characters. That failed here, just as it did in Crystal Storm, in part due to the intense expansion of the main cast, and in part due to the fact that half of them weren't dealing with the main plotline. As much as I love Amara and wanted her plotline to be wrapped up in a satisfying way, her doing that in Kraeshia took away from the stakes of the A-plot, and demonstrated how scattered this book's focus was.
I do think the core issue of this book lies in not knowing where the focus should be, or simply refusing to fulfill that focus. Clearly, the A-plot is the destruction of the Kindred. However, all of the branches off of this subplot--Jonas' visions of Timotheus, Lucia and Lyssa, Nic fighting Kyan in his head--are all given equal weight to the actual main objective, despite having little bearing on it. Timotheus' visions of the future exist only to give us angst. Lyssa seems like a foolish plot tool that never should have existed in the first place. The only one that truly makes sense to have that much weight is Nic battling Kyan, but even that isn't explored to its fullest extent. These subplots that are meant to service the main plot detract from it because they complicate a very simple issue, add unnecessary angst, and are only really in existence to rope Jonas and Lucia into the mix again. Even the ones that relate to Magnus and Cleo have little consequence, because they're all automatically solved in the scene. If there was a more linear plotline and a more active effort throughout the text to destroy the Kindred, the book would be better. If the characters (outside of Lucia, who clearly will never change) still needed to grow and space to change, so their subplots could have some weight, these would be less detracting. But by the end of Crystal Storm, they've stopped growing, because they're really already at their final destination. I miss my conniving Gathering Darkness characters; where are they?
The lack of focus--both from those above mentioned subplots, plenty of others, and a lack of character growth--all help the climax feel stunted and stupid. It doesn't feel dramatic. It doesn't even feel necessary. And I didn't really care. If this was still a character driven series, the climax could have been entertaining, as it was in Frozen Tides (I'm still not over the ending of Frozen Tides). If there were still stakes to be raised, the climax could have been good. But we don't see why the climax is important. The issue of how to destroy them gets solved too easily. And then there are no consequences to the ending. I would've LOVED to see someone die (who isn't Gaius, because he already should've been dead) after the main character death dry spell we've had. If Jonas HAD killed Lucia, I would have loved it (she would stop being annoying and inconsistent, and we'd finally have a merciless story again). But the lack of these key character deaths feels too perfect. The pairing off feels too perfect. I don't want perfect climaxes and perfect endings with shiny bows on top; that's not real. The gore, while a bit patternistic in the first books, felt more realistic, and was a good reminder of STAKES. Of what could HAPPEN. And since I haven't been reminded lately, I didn't really care.
That being said, I do love this world. I love the concepts and the premise, as poorly executed as they are in this book. The writing style is very commercial and easy to get sucked into.
But this ending sucked.
Like a few other reviewers have said, how DO you come back from the hot mess that is Crystal Storm? The answer: you can't. At least, not in this book.
To start--the narrative. The thing that Rhodes did so well in Falling Kingdoms was the balancing of the narrative, making sure each central character got enough page time that they could still impact the plot and establish themselves as characters. That failed here, just as it did in Crystal Storm, in part due to the intense expansion of the main cast, and in part due to the fact that half of them weren't dealing with the main plotline. As much as I love Amara and wanted her plotline to be wrapped up in a satisfying way, her doing that in Kraeshia took away from the stakes of the A-plot, and demonstrated how scattered this book's focus was.
I do think the core issue of this book lies in not knowing where the focus should be, or simply refusing to fulfill that focus. Clearly, the A-plot is the destruction of the Kindred. However, all of the branches off of this subplot--Jonas' visions of Timotheus, Lucia and Lyssa, Nic fighting Kyan in his head--are all given equal weight to the actual main objective, despite having little bearing on it. Timotheus' visions of the future exist only to give us angst. Lyssa seems like a foolish plot tool that never should have existed in the first place. The only one that truly makes sense to have that much weight is Nic battling Kyan, but even that isn't explored to its fullest extent. These subplots that are meant to service the main plot detract from it because they complicate a very simple issue, add unnecessary angst, and are only really in existence to rope Jonas and Lucia into the mix again. Even the ones that relate to Magnus and Cleo have little consequence, because they're all automatically solved in the scene. If there was a more linear plotline and a more active effort throughout the text to destroy the Kindred, the book would be better. If the characters (outside of Lucia, who clearly will never change) still needed to grow and space to change, so their subplots could have some weight, these would be less detracting. But by the end of Crystal Storm, they've stopped growing, because they're really already at their final destination. I miss my conniving Gathering Darkness characters; where are they?
The lack of focus--both from those above mentioned subplots, plenty of others, and a lack of character growth--all help the climax feel stunted and stupid. It doesn't feel dramatic. It doesn't even feel necessary. And I didn't really care. If this was still a character driven series, the climax could have been entertaining, as it was in Frozen Tides (I'm still not over the ending of Frozen Tides). If there were still stakes to be raised, the climax could have been good. But we don't see why the climax is important. The issue of how to destroy them gets solved too easily. And then there are no consequences to the ending. I would've LOVED to see someone die (who isn't Gaius, because he already should've been dead) after the main character death dry spell we've had. If Jonas HAD killed Lucia, I would have loved it (she would stop being annoying and inconsistent, and we'd finally have a merciless story again). But the lack of these key character deaths feels too perfect. The pairing off feels too perfect. I don't want perfect climaxes and perfect endings with shiny bows on top; that's not real. The gore, while a bit patternistic in the first books, felt more realistic, and was a good reminder of STAKES. Of what could HAPPEN. And since I haven't been reminded lately, I didn't really care.
That being said, I do love this world. I love the concepts and the premise, as poorly executed as they are in this book. The writing style is very commercial and easy to get sucked into.
But this ending sucked.