Scan barcode
A review by bookish_kristina
Madness of the Horde King by Zoey Draven
5.0
Another dark and gritty alien read. 4.5 stars. I might have enjoyed this one the best so far. It was a little rough getting started as I found it difficult to connect with both characters. Vivienne, the heroine, was a scared mouse of a woman at first, taken as a slave to the Gertrun, she was the most downtrodden female character yet. But she had a special power, she could read feelings and influence them, she could control people’s minds, which played out in very entertaining fashion with a huge culmination at the end. For the hero, Davik, he was a grumpy, self deprecating character with an awful backstory, the worst so far. Because both of them were so damaged, the beginning was heavy and dragged a bit. But it got much better once they travelled away from Dothick City into the wilds of Drakkar. There was a lot of world building in this book, Draven revealed much more to us about the planet, it’s creatures and other inhabitants and why the aliens (the non Drakari) were not allowed to hunt. Some of this info was frustrating because I’d have loved to have known this stuff like maybe TWO BOOKS AGO! But it was nice to finally have it.
This book had an element of the paranormal in it, as both characters have supernatural powers and the magic of the planet and it’s gods were invoked in a pretty spectacular fashion near the end. This was interesting but a weird choice to start paranormal in the third book, I guess I will have to chock it up to the author diving more deeply into her works, which was good as this book was excellent, but the first book certainly suffered for the lack of detail, but luckily she corrected it in this one.
The conflict in this book was great for me because it was all external. We didn’t have any dumb moments from the characters causing break ups, we didn’t have any conflict within the horde either, which was nice and a change from the last two books. I quite like how each of these books is quite different and Draven isn’t repeating herself in any of these stories. There are consistent and similar elements linking the books together, but each story is unique and builds on the cool world she has created. I’m kind of addicted and seem to be reading these back to back to back. We will see if she can keep my attention for two more…
This book had an element of the paranormal in it, as both characters have supernatural powers and the magic of the planet and it’s gods were invoked in a pretty spectacular fashion near the end. This was interesting but a weird choice to start paranormal in the third book, I guess I will have to chock it up to the author diving more deeply into her works, which was good as this book was excellent, but the first book certainly suffered for the lack of detail, but luckily she corrected it in this one.
The conflict in this book was great for me because it was all external. We didn’t have any dumb moments from the characters causing break ups, we didn’t have any conflict within the horde either, which was nice and a change from the last two books. I quite like how each of these books is quite different and Draven isn’t repeating herself in any of these stories. There are consistent and similar elements linking the books together, but each story is unique and builds on the cool world she has created. I’m kind of addicted and seem to be reading these back to back to back. We will see if she can keep my attention for two more…