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the_forest_one 's review for:
Soulkeeper
by David Dalglish
First off, amazing worldbuilding and easily digestible writing makes this a good and easy read. Considering i read about 550 pages in one sitting, its either that or I have a problem. Anyhoo.
The Characters
I like Devin, the main character, but his story has been told before. Admittedly, he is a much nicer person than every other 'honor bound 30 something male with a dead wife tragic backstory'. Who is also the greatest swordsman in the land.
Jacaranda's story is not satisfying. At all. It doesn't help that i keep being told she's a badass but never shown she's a badass. Except for that one time she sat on top of a guy to cut his throat I guess? :/ She's implied to be a lethal assassin but never does anything more impressive than every other character in the sfory. She doesn't shine on her own. Devin is better at her than what she's supposedly good at. Tye is better than at at what she is supposedly good at. The magic the other character's have makes her skills irrelevant. Almost nothing she does actually effects the plot. At all. All of twice she was a voice of reason. It very much feels like her only role in the story was to say "soulless exist and now they're getting their souls back" and then to give Devin a romantic interest. A romantic interest who was trafficked and sexually assaulted and exploited and a slave for literal years. She's also not emotionally mature. She can't be, she didn't have emotions a month ago. She also literally falls in love with the first guy she saw after getting emotions. To be fair to Devin he is very nice but that doesn't mean i like it.
Adria and Tommy featured almost equally until the end. Neither impressed me very much. I like Tommy but he has a drinking problem and (almost) none of the stuff he had going on ever happened "on screen". I didn't particularly like Adria. She seemed selfish and cowardly tbh. Letting the world cow her and letting others decide what to do with power she was given. Which made the ending very unsatisfactory for me.
Puffy and Tesmarie were adorable sidekicks. Both were very good at showing how Dragon-sired weren't evil, they were just people. Tes even had some very pure interactions with humans that showed humans aren't evil either, but fear makes you complacent and unwilling to step forward.
The Ending
The ending for me came out of left field. It also didn't answer all my questions, but I suppose thats what books 2 and 3 are for.
I didn't like Adria in the first place so her becoming a Goddess at the end, and the fact that her magic wasn't even related to her chosen field in life was weird. I didn't like it.
Jacaranda getting shot felt ingenuous. It showed Adria's new power and satisfied Tye's story, but felt like 3 steps back for Devin. His story just repeated and he was already a very tropy character to begin with.
Villains
Janis seems like a really cool villain, except he's just a sadist with daddy issues. Whoopie. What an original villain. Truly groundbreaking.
Tye the White was also a sadist... Who just killed for pleasure, same as Janis. Whoopie.
Viciss was only sort of a villain. He's a cosmic force, i can't really fault him for being "above it all". Dude needs to commit to whether or not he's gonna kill Janus though. Don't have magic children if you're gonna act like shit to them and then blame them for having problems.
The Characters
I like Devin, the main character, but his story has been told before. Admittedly, he is a much nicer person than every other 'honor bound 30 something male with a dead wife tragic backstory'. Who is also the greatest swordsman in the land.
Jacaranda's story is not satisfying. At all. It doesn't help that i keep being told she's a badass but never shown she's a badass. Except for that one time she sat on top of a guy to cut his throat I guess? :/ She's implied to be a lethal assassin but never does anything more impressive than every other character in the sfory. She doesn't shine on her own. Devin is better at her than what she's supposedly good at. Tye is better than at at what she is supposedly good at. The magic the other character's have makes her skills irrelevant. Almost nothing she does actually effects the plot. At all. All of twice she was a voice of reason. It very much feels like her only role in the story was to say "soulless exist and now they're getting their souls back" and then to give Devin a romantic interest. A romantic interest who was trafficked and sexually assaulted and exploited and a slave for literal years. She's also not emotionally mature. She can't be, she didn't have emotions a month ago. She also literally falls in love with the first guy she saw after getting emotions. To be fair to Devin he is very nice but that doesn't mean i like it.
Adria and Tommy featured almost equally until the end. Neither impressed me very much. I like Tommy but he has a drinking problem and (almost) none of the stuff he had going on ever happened "on screen". I didn't particularly like Adria. She seemed selfish and cowardly tbh. Letting the world cow her and letting others decide what to do with power she was given. Which made the ending very unsatisfactory for me.
Puffy and Tesmarie were adorable sidekicks. Both were very good at showing how Dragon-sired weren't evil, they were just people. Tes even had some very pure interactions with humans that showed humans aren't evil either, but fear makes you complacent and unwilling to step forward.
The Ending
The ending for me came out of left field. It also didn't answer all my questions, but I suppose thats what books 2 and 3 are for.
I didn't like Adria in the first place so her becoming a Goddess at the end, and the fact that her magic wasn't even related to her chosen field in life was weird. I didn't like it.
Jacaranda getting shot felt ingenuous. It showed Adria's new power and satisfied Tye's story, but felt like 3 steps back for Devin. His story just repeated and he was already a very tropy character to begin with.
Villains
Janis seems like a really cool villain, except he's just a sadist with daddy issues. Whoopie. What an original villain. Truly groundbreaking.
Tye the White was also a sadist... Who just killed for pleasure, same as Janis. Whoopie.
Viciss was only sort of a villain. He's a cosmic force, i can't really fault him for being "above it all". Dude needs to commit to whether or not he's gonna kill Janus though. Don't have magic children if you're gonna act like shit to them and then blame them for having problems.