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A review by theshaggyshepherd
Lightblade by Zamil Akhtar
3.0
I read Gunmetal Gods a little over a year ago and while the storyline took a turn that wasn’t to my liking, I was really impressed with the writing itself. It felt well crafted and was a breeze to get through. I was therefore excited to give another book by the same author a try. While I can see why this one would work for others (again, check out Jamedi’s review here), sadly this one didn’t quite turn out to be for me either. There were some elements that were really cool and the author is obviously super creative, it just overall isn’t my kind of story.
Compared to what I remember of his other book, the writing for this one felt a little choppier in places, I struggled with feeling the emotions I should based on the words and scenes, and the dialogue felt a little awkward here and there as well. I also really struggled to picture the world this was set in with its mix of fantasy and tech aspects.
I didn’t read the blurb before reading the book so I didn’t know about this comparison until getting my blog post ready but it very much had a Matrix feeling to it. The dreams were a cool way to allow for more training time without risking weird timeline issues in the real world that would’ve made the reader skeptical about the MC’s experience and skills. Using the light spectrum/sunshine as a base for magic was also very different from anything I’ve read before so I enjoyed that as well. I was a little apprehensive about this book being considered progression fantasy as I haven’t felt too happy with that in the past but I thought this particular element was integrated into the story really well.
Sadly overall though, the book was a little too weird for me between the craziness that happened within and outside of the dreams. I also had no clue what was going on for a while towards the end and found the ending a little bit cheesy.
In contrast to that again though, the main trio was a really good group of characters to follow. They felt consistent in their personalities and had some fun humor. I especially enjoyed the self-doubt and questions of the main character as that felt very familiar to me personally. I also liked some of the reveals we finished up with.
So as you can tell, this book left me with quite a mixed bag of feelings. There were multiple pros and cons. Again, I can see the talent of the author despite not quite enjoying where the story takes me and will probably pick up more of his books in the future.
Compared to what I remember of his other book, the writing for this one felt a little choppier in places, I struggled with feeling the emotions I should based on the words and scenes, and the dialogue felt a little awkward here and there as well. I also really struggled to picture the world this was set in with its mix of fantasy and tech aspects.
I didn’t read the blurb before reading the book so I didn’t know about this comparison until getting my blog post ready but it very much had a Matrix feeling to it. The dreams were a cool way to allow for more training time without risking weird timeline issues in the real world that would’ve made the reader skeptical about the MC’s experience and skills. Using the light spectrum/sunshine as a base for magic was also very different from anything I’ve read before so I enjoyed that as well. I was a little apprehensive about this book being considered progression fantasy as I haven’t felt too happy with that in the past but I thought this particular element was integrated into the story really well.
Sadly overall though, the book was a little too weird for me between the craziness that happened within and outside of the dreams. I also had no clue what was going on for a while towards the end and found the ending a little bit cheesy.
In contrast to that again though, the main trio was a really good group of characters to follow. They felt consistent in their personalities and had some fun humor. I especially enjoyed the self-doubt and questions of the main character as that felt very familiar to me personally. I also liked some of the reveals we finished up with.
So as you can tell, this book left me with quite a mixed bag of feelings. There were multiple pros and cons. Again, I can see the talent of the author despite not quite enjoying where the story takes me and will probably pick up more of his books in the future.