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A review by sinamile
The Yngling by John Dalmas
2.0
(This is mostly two stars because I didn't completely hate it, otherwise: woza one star)
You know how Game of Thrones (I'm talking baout the TV show) spent years telling us how dangerous and evil the Night King is and then doing what they did at the end, and like how they spent years showing us how villainous Cerci is (making us crave seeing her fall from grace) only to end things the way they did? This book? Yeah, that, but even worse (or I own a very bad copy that missed important plot points because that's the only reasoning I have that sounds reasonable enough to explain what I just read).
Hhayi khona ma-eh, hhayi khona. This is not the one.
The premise for this book is intriguing, but the book itself is a mess. Not actually, but it's a mess in that there is absolutely zero conflict. The main character just breezes through everything, everything is just so easy for him.
Books like this one should be, at least, 400 pages long. But this one is short and that, I think, is one of its biggest mistakes. This book needs to be longer because there is so much that needs to be explored. The psi thing is interesting, but it's done so lazily that it didn't intrigue me, didn't make me care.
Speaking of not caring, I didn't care about not a single character. There is so much that needed to be explored for me to care about the characters, but it just wasn't given. Every character here just feels like an insignificant side character, even Nils. Like he's the main character, I'm supposed to be given enough story to care about it, but I'm not, he's just there. I'm given nothing.
Everything, as I said before, happens way too easily. There ks not a moment in the entire book where Nils feels pressure, where he fails, where he struggles. He learns new skills in a singlr sentence, he doesn't struggle through it. I like my characters struggling, thanks. He's a true Gary Stu, no need to learn a thing because it comes so naturally.
Aayiiiii, I cannot.
Nils is so damn plain and flat. He's about as interesting as a cardboard box. I'd have more fun watching cement being mixed and being left to dry. He has no growth whatsoever. He's perfect from the very first moment he's introduced and just... I don't care then. If I'm not going to watch him being terrible at his gift (even as a natural) and see him slowly learn how to control it, or maybe even slowly learn how to emote (because he's so emotionally detached to everything) then I don't want it! Give me conflict, give me pain, or give me nothing at all.
I will definitely not be continuing the series because I alreayd know I'm going to loathe the rest of the books if they continue this way. I have no desire to 'give book 2 a try' because wow, book one has failed me and book 2 is too short to have properly explored everything, too. I'm too disappointed to even try, so hard miss.
It should be noted that the writing is good, that I did enjoy what I read mostly, it's just that the story is way too short to have fully explored everything. It did not reach its potential and came off almost as lazy, or maybe a prequel to an already well established character, maybe. So.... So.
It should also be noted that by the end I was not retaining nay information and was shocked and confused when the book ended.
CW/TW: death, blood, graphic description of gore, graphic violence, graphic description of animal death, murder, mention of rape, racism, genocide, invasion, swords/sword violence, knife/knife violence, slavery, torture, imprisonment, stanning/stab wounds, ableist slurs, ableism, war, graphic child death
You know how Game of Thrones (I'm talking baout the TV show) spent years telling us how dangerous and evil the Night King is and then doing what they did at the end, and like how they spent years showing us how villainous Cerci is (making us crave seeing her fall from grace) only to end things the way they did? This book? Yeah, that, but even worse (or I own a very bad copy that missed important plot points because that's the only reasoning I have that sounds reasonable enough to explain what I just read).
Hhayi khona ma-eh, hhayi khona. This is not the one.
The premise for this book is intriguing, but the book itself is a mess. Not actually, but it's a mess in that there is absolutely zero conflict. The main character just breezes through everything, everything is just so easy for him.
Books like this one should be, at least, 400 pages long. But this one is short and that, I think, is one of its biggest mistakes. This book needs to be longer because there is so much that needs to be explored. The psi thing is interesting, but it's done so lazily that it didn't intrigue me, didn't make me care.
Speaking of not caring, I didn't care about not a single character. There is so much that needed to be explored for me to care about the characters, but it just wasn't given. Every character here just feels like an insignificant side character, even Nils. Like he's the main character, I'm supposed to be given enough story to care about it, but I'm not, he's just there. I'm given nothing.
Everything, as I said before, happens way too easily. There ks not a moment in the entire book where Nils feels pressure, where he fails, where he struggles. He learns new skills in a singlr sentence, he doesn't struggle through it. I like my characters struggling, thanks. He's a true Gary Stu, no need to learn a thing because it comes so naturally.
Aayiiiii, I cannot.
Nils is so damn plain and flat. He's about as interesting as a cardboard box. I'd have more fun watching cement being mixed and being left to dry. He has no growth whatsoever. He's perfect from the very first moment he's introduced and just... I don't care then. If I'm not going to watch him being terrible at his gift (even as a natural) and see him slowly learn how to control it, or maybe even slowly learn how to emote (because he's so emotionally detached to everything) then I don't want it! Give me conflict, give me pain, or give me nothing at all.
I will definitely not be continuing the series because I alreayd know I'm going to loathe the rest of the books if they continue this way. I have no desire to 'give book 2 a try' because wow, book one has failed me and book 2 is too short to have properly explored everything, too. I'm too disappointed to even try, so hard miss.
It should be noted that the writing is good, that I did enjoy what I read mostly, it's just that the story is way too short to have fully explored everything. It did not reach its potential and came off almost as lazy, or maybe a prequel to an already well established character, maybe. So.... So.
It should also be noted that by the end I was not retaining nay information and was shocked and confused when the book ended.
CW/TW: death, blood, graphic description of gore, graphic violence, graphic description of animal death, murder, mention of rape, racism, genocide, invasion, swords/sword violence, knife/knife violence, slavery, torture, imprisonment, stanning/stab wounds, ableist slurs, ableism, war, graphic child death