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A review by luclicious
Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo
3.0
The second book in the Shadow and Bone trilogy. Once again proving that the second book in a trilogy is all about the set up for the third or a huge filler for the whole series.
This sequel to Shadow and Bone is about Alina and Mal fleeing from Ravka after the events of the previous book. After a couple of dangerous trips across seas and the fold they find themselves on Ravka ground again. Alina has an interest in 3 mythical beast. One of them they already met in book 1. She get's more and more obsessed with the idea of amplifying her powers to finally defeat The Darkling. She must prove herself a great leader of Grisha to stop him.
So this middle book was just meh. I have a profound understanding that the middle book in a trilogy can't be the action packed or as story driven as the first or last book. But having a middle book gives so much time to explore the world and having great characters arcs. None of that happened for me in this book. The first 100 pages were really good with action packed scenes and a pretty clear path what would lie ahead. After that the book became a day in the life log where everything that was happing wasn't that interesting. Alina made more annoying statements that I would like to admit. Mal wasn't giving the right amount of time to explore his character here. I mean I like that he has to find a way in coping in such a different environment by having him turn into a alcoholic brut in a couple 10 to 20 pages is just too fast. The Darkling wasn't really featured in this one so he felt a bit underwhelming as a villain. He wasn't given enough time to be bad and fucking things up so to say. The edition of Nickolai was a welcome suprise. To be honest I think he was my favourite part of Siege and Storm. Even so much that I now have an interest in picking up King Of Scars which wasn't present before. While I was reading I couldn't stop thinking about how much this world made me think of A Darker Shade Of Magic. Both series have awesome ideas that could be turned into great novels. Only to have them both not live up to their full potential. The ending was a little so so in my taste. It felt a bit rushed and right before the battle begins I couldn't beleave I only had 50 pages left to read.
Overal an okay series. Eventhough this one was just meh I'm still interested in what will happen in book 3.
This sequel to Shadow and Bone is about Alina and Mal fleeing from Ravka after the events of the previous book. After a couple of dangerous trips across seas and the fold they find themselves on Ravka ground again. Alina has an interest in 3 mythical beast. One of them they already met in book 1. She get's more and more obsessed with the idea of amplifying her powers to finally defeat The Darkling. She must prove herself a great leader of Grisha to stop him.
So this middle book was just meh. I have a profound understanding that the middle book in a trilogy can't be the action packed or as story driven as the first or last book. But having a middle book gives so much time to explore the world and having great characters arcs. None of that happened for me in this book. The first 100 pages were really good with action packed scenes and a pretty clear path what would lie ahead. After that the book became a day in the life log where everything that was happing wasn't that interesting. Alina made more annoying statements that I would like to admit. Mal wasn't giving the right amount of time to explore his character here. I mean I like that he has to find a way in coping in such a different environment by having him turn into a alcoholic brut in a couple 10 to 20 pages is just too fast. The Darkling wasn't really featured in this one so he felt a bit underwhelming as a villain. He wasn't given enough time to be bad and fucking things up so to say. The edition of Nickolai was a welcome suprise. To be honest I think he was my favourite part of Siege and Storm. Even so much that I now have an interest in picking up King Of Scars which wasn't present before. While I was reading I couldn't stop thinking about how much this world made me think of A Darker Shade Of Magic. Both series have awesome ideas that could be turned into great novels. Only to have them both not live up to their full potential. The ending was a little so so in my taste. It felt a bit rushed and right before the battle begins I couldn't beleave I only had 50 pages left to read.
Overal an okay series. Eventhough this one was just meh I'm still interested in what will happen in book 3.