Take a photo of a barcode or cover
maitrey_d 's review for:
The Providence of Fire
by Brian Staveley
Well, this book certainly didn't suffer from the second book syndrome. Staveley's first book of this trilogy, the Emperor's Blades I thought was somewhat like re-inventing the wheel. Almost cookie-cutter characters, and a coming-of-age plot, with some gruesome twists thrown in.
The Providence of Fire can also be accused of something like that I think, but only a little. The secondary characters are given some place to shine, and what looked like mind-numbingly stupid training of one of the protagonists in the previous book is nicely developed to build a gripping story.
I read this as an audiobook, and the narrator, Simon Vance has done a brilliant job. This is definitely going to turn into an audio only series for me.
So couple of other quick things I liked about this book:
The plot with its various arcs had a nice symmetry to it. All the main characters, and some of the minor ones face similar choices, especially regarding trust, responsibilities, and truth. The choices they make had major impacts on the plot, and how sometimes these choices mirrored each other, and sometimes they didn't, but as a reader, you will notice them, and hopefully enjoy them while thinking about them.
The villains, especially a race of super-beings were mildly interesting, but Staveley cleverly showed that humans don't need the help of some godlike aliens to be awful to each other. We can butcher each other, giving perfectly plausible explanations without any outside help.
Finally, the book was fun. A definite step-up from its predecessor, and I think, it is set up brilliantly for the concluding book.
The Providence of Fire can also be accused of something like that I think, but only a little. The secondary characters are given some place to shine, and what looked like mind-numbingly stupid training of one of the protagonists in the previous book is nicely developed to build a gripping story.
I read this as an audiobook, and the narrator, Simon Vance has done a brilliant job. This is definitely going to turn into an audio only series for me.
So couple of other quick things I liked about this book:
The plot with its various arcs had a nice symmetry to it. All the main characters, and some of the minor ones face similar choices, especially regarding trust, responsibilities, and truth. The choices they make had major impacts on the plot, and how sometimes these choices mirrored each other, and sometimes they didn't, but as a reader, you will notice them, and hopefully enjoy them while thinking about them.
The villains, especially a race of super-beings were mildly interesting, but Staveley cleverly showed that humans don't need the help of some godlike aliens to be awful to each other. We can butcher each other, giving perfectly plausible explanations without any outside help.
Finally, the book was fun. A definite step-up from its predecessor, and I think, it is set up brilliantly for the concluding book.