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A review by mindelanowl
Heir to the Sky by Amanda Sun
2.0
The blurb for this book really interested me. A floating kingdom, with monster-infested lands below? A main character that has been trained to be the leader of this kingdom, who sounds like she might be an interesting strong female lead? Okay, I'll check that out!
The floating kingdom and monster-infested lands part of the blurb was partially delivered as promised. Through the main character, Kali, the author does a decent job of explaining some of the customs and historical aspects of her kingdom, but it comes across as an info-dump at times. Once Kali falls to the earth below, however, things start to fall apart.
Kali encounters several monsters on the earth below her kingdom. So many, in fact, that at times it feels as though the author threw them in when she couldn't figure out how to continue a conversation between Kali and other characters, or when she felt the plot running out of steam. The other humans that Kali meets while on the earth are all very flat and uninteresting, without any real identity outside of their interest in her or their willingness to help her return to her home. As the majority of the book was spent interacting with the characters and monsters Kali encounters after falling from her home, the fact that these two elements are very weak greatly impacts the quality of the book overall.
This book was disappointing because the blurb made it seem so promising, but the character development, mediocre world building, and poor handling of the monster scenes really made this whole thing a very lackluster reading experience for me.
The floating kingdom and monster-infested lands part of the blurb was partially delivered as promised. Through the main character, Kali, the author does a decent job of explaining some of the customs and historical aspects of her kingdom, but it comes across as an info-dump at times. Once Kali falls to the earth below, however, things start to fall apart.
Kali encounters several monsters on the earth below her kingdom. So many, in fact, that at times it feels as though the author threw them in when she couldn't figure out how to continue a conversation between Kali and other characters, or when she felt the plot running out of steam. The other humans that Kali meets while on the earth are all very flat and uninteresting, without any real identity outside of their interest in her or their willingness to help her return to her home. As the majority of the book was spent interacting with the characters and monsters Kali encounters after falling from her home, the fact that these two elements are very weak greatly impacts the quality of the book overall.
This book was disappointing because the blurb made it seem so promising, but the character development, mediocre world building, and poor handling of the monster scenes really made this whole thing a very lackluster reading experience for me.