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A review by nessa_arandur
The Last Hawk by Catherine Asaro
1.0
1.5 stars, but I've rounded down to 1 because although the writing was good, the story made it the most uninteresting Skolian Saga book I've read so far.
I wasn't interested in the world for once. So much attention was on the dice game and how the world used it for matters from politics to physics... but I had no real reason to care about it because of course Kelric was the best at it ever (#MarySue).
His romances were basically steeped in Stockholm Syndrome which made them decidedly unsexy. Maybe when this was written (in 1997), gender-flipping the "protagonist-in-distress to a stronger, more powerful love interest" trope was unusual, but when no matter how much I love a good gender-flipped trope, the fact that these people are holding him captive on a world that is slowly poisoning him to death, all of the "romance" just came across as gross. I really didn't enjoy this book, but I do like Asaro's writing and hope the rest of the series gets better.
I wasn't interested in the world for once. So much attention was on the dice game and how the world used it for matters from politics to physics... but I had no real reason to care about it because of course Kelric was the best at it ever (#MarySue).
His romances were basically steeped in Stockholm Syndrome which made them decidedly unsexy. Maybe when this was written (in 1997), gender-flipping the "protagonist-in-distress to a stronger, more powerful love interest" trope was unusual, but when no matter how much I love a good gender-flipped trope, the fact that these people are holding him captive on a world that is slowly poisoning him to death, all of the "romance" just came across as gross. I really didn't enjoy this book, but I do like Asaro's writing and hope the rest of the series gets better.