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A review by missrenn
The Sons of Thestian by M.E. Vaughan
5.0
I received a galley of this book from author M.E. Vaughan in exchange for my honest review. Thank you, mevaughan !
My Rating: ★★★★★
It’s taken me a while to write this review, not for lack of love of this novel because to be quite honest it was fantastic, but because I couldn’t find a way to get what I wanted to say out of my brain. The Sons of Thestian was a novel that exceeded my expectations when it came to high fantasy. M.E. Vaughan really outdid herself in regards to the overall story telling and characters that she created.
I was pleasantly surprised that this story didn’t land in the category of high fantasy novels that fall into the habit of putting all the focus on building the world while leaving its characters and overall plot to fall short. Vaughan did a stupendous job of using her characters and their dialogue to describe the world and cultures that surrounded them in this story. I felt that for most of the book the focus was on building up the characters and their relationships with one another—which in turn furthered the plot. We, as readers, don’t really get to see many main characters having conversations with their relatives during their big missions, so it was really refreshing to get a taste of that in this book.
Along with having fantastic story telling skills, the author is also able to create such diverse, interesting characters. Throughout the story we follow Jionathan, Rufus, and Fae as they have their adventure, but we also get glimpses into what is happening with other characters such as Zachary and Rufus’s father. In these brief chapters we not only get to see what is happening somewhere where our main characters aren’t, we also get glimpses into that characters personality. Having all of these unique characters is only the tip of the iceberg, however. The best thing is that, we get to see so much diversity. Vaughan has set up a cast of characters that run the gamut of diversity. On multiple occasions it is mentioned that one of our main characters, Rufus, is open about his bisexuality, not to mention all of the POC representation throughout the book. Vaughan also destroys traditional gender stereotypes with characters like Luca and Fae, two badass warrior women who’ll fight to protect those they care about (like Prince Jionathan).
The plot, while not my all time favorite thing about this book (I’m more likely to love a group of characters than an overall plot) still kept me on the edge of my seat. Vaughan weaved such an intricate story that readers won’t see the big twist until the very end. I did find that the overall plot was hard to follow because of these twists, but just keep reading; it’ll all make sense in the end I swear.
Overall, I love the way Vaughan used her characters to build up her world. It made everything seem more natural instead of having the whole first book being dedicating to building up this diverse world. The characters, with both their development over the course of the story and their diversity stole the show for me because I felt as though they were the ones driving the plot forward.
I’d recommend this to anyone who loves BBC’s Merlin, the writing of Sarah J. Maas, and Faerie folklore.
My Rating: ★★★★★
It’s taken me a while to write this review, not for lack of love of this novel because to be quite honest it was fantastic, but because I couldn’t find a way to get what I wanted to say out of my brain. The Sons of Thestian was a novel that exceeded my expectations when it came to high fantasy. M.E. Vaughan really outdid herself in regards to the overall story telling and characters that she created.
I was pleasantly surprised that this story didn’t land in the category of high fantasy novels that fall into the habit of putting all the focus on building the world while leaving its characters and overall plot to fall short. Vaughan did a stupendous job of using her characters and their dialogue to describe the world and cultures that surrounded them in this story. I felt that for most of the book the focus was on building up the characters and their relationships with one another—which in turn furthered the plot. We, as readers, don’t really get to see many main characters having conversations with their relatives during their big missions, so it was really refreshing to get a taste of that in this book.
Along with having fantastic story telling skills, the author is also able to create such diverse, interesting characters. Throughout the story we follow Jionathan, Rufus, and Fae as they have their adventure, but we also get glimpses into what is happening with other characters such as Zachary and Rufus’s father. In these brief chapters we not only get to see what is happening somewhere where our main characters aren’t, we also get glimpses into that characters personality. Having all of these unique characters is only the tip of the iceberg, however. The best thing is that, we get to see so much diversity. Vaughan has set up a cast of characters that run the gamut of diversity. On multiple occasions it is mentioned that one of our main characters, Rufus, is open about his bisexuality, not to mention all of the POC representation throughout the book. Vaughan also destroys traditional gender stereotypes with characters like Luca and Fae, two badass warrior women who’ll fight to protect those they care about (like Prince Jionathan).
The plot, while not my all time favorite thing about this book (I’m more likely to love a group of characters than an overall plot) still kept me on the edge of my seat. Vaughan weaved such an intricate story that readers won’t see the big twist until the very end. I did find that the overall plot was hard to follow because of these twists, but just keep reading; it’ll all make sense in the end I swear.
Overall, I love the way Vaughan used her characters to build up her world. It made everything seem more natural instead of having the whole first book being dedicating to building up this diverse world. The characters, with both their development over the course of the story and their diversity stole the show for me because I felt as though they were the ones driving the plot forward.
I’d recommend this to anyone who loves BBC’s Merlin, the writing of Sarah J. Maas, and Faerie folklore.