A review by keyolea
The Thousand Eyes by A.K. Larkwood

adventurous dark slow-paced

2.0

I loved the first quarter of this book. I was excited to see where the characters were going to go in their new life as adventurers, and how they would interact with the rise of the old gods.
Then there was a 15 year time jump that killed the whole story for me.

Jumping 15 years into the future destroyed any affinity I had for the characters. What was Shuthmili doing the whole time? the author even has her wonder the same thing when Tsereg gets the god empress to take off the mantle. Her love for Csorwe is not enough for me to hand wave away 15 YEARS of war crimes as the hand of the god empress while all she achieves towards getting Csorwe back is releasing Sethennai. The most powerful mage of a generation makes a life altering bargain with a goddess and this does NOTHING towards her goal.  

As far as  I can tell, the only reason for this time jump is so Tsereg can be the last chosen bride. why? we don't need them in the story at all. 15 years also makes it totally unbelievable that Csorwe wakes up totally fine. What happened to divine forces destroying mortal bodies? Scrap the time jump or reduce it. Let Oranna manifest as the Unspoken instead of just shoving another powerful woman aside to be a sacrificial mother. Let Shuthmili's bargain with Zinandour actually play a role in bringing back Csorwe, or taking down Sethennai. /spoiler>