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A review by katyanaish
House Name by Michelle West
4.0
I very much enjoy this series - and had a hard time putting this down - but there were some things about it that were odd.
Firstly, the thing we have seemingly been building towards - the demons in the undercity, the coming of the Lord of the Hells... which Rath sacrificed his life to give warning about - it is handled about 2/3 into the book, and oddly, none of our main characters are there.
I'm aware that several other series tie into this one. The instructions on the series read order, though, were to read these first 3 books in House War, and then read the Sun Sword series ... and so it was very odd to find myself in a climactic battle, that the main characters of House War have been working towards... but not have literally any of them present. Yes, there were lots of secondary characters there, including ones I like very much - Merlonne APhaniel, Sigurne, Devon ATerafin - but it was hard to feel super emotionally invested in this fight when Jewel, the den, and Aramais were all not present, and we've simply never spent that much time with these other characters. I recognize that the fight was important. I wanted them to win because I didn't want the world to end. I just felt oddly disconnected from it, with the series main characters all just hanging out back at the house waiting for word.
And I missed Rath - I really loved him - but I have to say that I like Aramais. She's harder - she has to be - but you can see the depth of her care, and I have tremendous respect for her. If we had to lose Rath, I can live with Aramais filling his shoes as Jewel's ... guardian, for lack of a better word.
I loved seeing more of the world - the Exalted, the Kings, the Ten - and getting a fuller picture of it all. It was just odd having the main characters hand the big fight off to characters we barely know.
I am definitely reading onward. I'm just not sure if I should flop over to the Sun Sword series - which seems to involve a totally different set of characters - or continue on with the House War series, and then hit the Sun Sword afterward, to fill in the perspective of these different characters. Because I don't really want to move away from Jewel and the Terafin until I see where they end, you know?
Firstly, the thing we have seemingly been building towards - the demons in the undercity, the coming of the Lord of the Hells... which Rath sacrificed his life to give warning about - it is handled about 2/3 into the book, and oddly, none of our main characters are there.
I'm aware that several other series tie into this one. The instructions on the series read order, though, were to read these first 3 books in House War, and then read the Sun Sword series ... and so it was very odd to find myself in a climactic battle, that the main characters of House War have been working towards... but not have literally any of them present. Yes, there were lots of secondary characters there, including ones I like very much - Merlonne APhaniel, Sigurne, Devon ATerafin - but it was hard to feel super emotionally invested in this fight when Jewel, the den, and Aramais were all not present, and we've simply never spent that much time with these other characters. I recognize that the fight was important. I wanted them to win because I didn't want the world to end. I just felt oddly disconnected from it, with the series main characters all just hanging out back at the house waiting for word.
And I missed Rath - I really loved him - but I have to say that I like Aramais. She's harder - she has to be - but you can see the depth of her care, and I have tremendous respect for her. If we had to lose Rath, I can live with Aramais filling his shoes as Jewel's ... guardian, for lack of a better word.
I loved seeing more of the world - the Exalted, the Kings, the Ten - and getting a fuller picture of it all. It was just odd having the main characters hand the big fight off to characters we barely know.
I am definitely reading onward. I'm just not sure if I should flop over to the Sun Sword series - which seems to involve a totally different set of characters - or continue on with the House War series, and then hit the Sun Sword afterward, to fill in the perspective of these different characters. Because I don't really want to move away from Jewel and the Terafin until I see where they end, you know?