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A review by cslwoodward
Shadow of a Dark Queen by Raymond E. Feist
3.0
This is a military book with some fantasy and magic sprinkled here and there. A lot of the book is spent on an army unit and their quest travelling across the land to complete a mission. Unfortunately, I wasn’t the biggest fan of that.
It’s well written for the most part. What is given is enjoyable writing and descriptions with a few weak spots here and there (a rape scene within 20 pages of the protagonist losing their virginity? Okay then) and plot points that are incredibly specific that would only work in the situations provided by Feist (The big camp gathering about 60% into the book). There was some hint towards moral ambiguity near the end but it didn’t reeeally deliver like I was hoping.
A number of characters feel incredibly weak in the story, so much so that I found I could likely swap them out with each other and not have much change in the narrative or story. Nakor came into his own a bit later, becoming a Sho Pi 2.0. Better in basically every way. Hatonis, Jadow, Praji and Luis could all be removed from the story and I doubt I would remember any of them - I only know their names because I wrote them down. Having more depth in these side characters other than a different name would have been a welcome addition.
When the military stuff took a pause for the magic stuff to happen, that’s when I enjoyed it most. Hell, even then I was still waiting for something cool to happen and was only rewarded in the last 100 or so pages.
With this said, there are some glowingly fantastic moments throughout: the gallows walk, the execution of the climax, the giant demon during the prologue (sans lore drop)? All master class moments of tension and keeping the reader interested throughout the section.
It’s just a shame it’s so military based because I don’t think I enjoyed it as much as I was hoping. Let’s see how book 2 turns out.
It’s well written for the most part. What is given is enjoyable writing and descriptions with a few weak spots here and there (a rape scene within 20 pages of the protagonist losing their virginity? Okay then) and plot points that are incredibly specific that would only work in the situations provided by Feist (The big camp gathering about 60% into the book). There was some hint towards moral ambiguity near the end but it didn’t reeeally deliver like I was hoping.
A number of characters feel incredibly weak in the story, so much so that I found I could likely swap them out with each other and not have much change in the narrative or story. Nakor came into his own a bit later, becoming a Sho Pi 2.0. Better in basically every way. Hatonis, Jadow, Praji and Luis could all be removed from the story and I doubt I would remember any of them - I only know their names because I wrote them down. Having more depth in these side characters other than a different name would have been a welcome addition.
When the military stuff took a pause for the magic stuff to happen, that’s when I enjoyed it most. Hell, even then I was still waiting for something cool to happen and was only rewarded in the last 100 or so pages.
With this said, there are some glowingly fantastic moments throughout: the gallows walk, the execution of the climax, the giant demon during the prologue (sans lore drop)? All master class moments of tension and keeping the reader interested throughout the section.
It’s just a shame it’s so military based because I don’t think I enjoyed it as much as I was hoping. Let’s see how book 2 turns out.