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A review by aphrael
The Way Into Chaos by Harry Connolly
3.0
The story is fairly traditional fantasy in terms of the world it's set in and the way it's written. However, there's an interesting effort by the writer to subvert expectations of the traditional 'prince goes on a quest' and other fantasy tropes. I have a great love of capable characters, and while shit certainly hits the fan, these people get stuff done without being superhuman about it. Also, there are purple zombie bears. I know they're supposed to be terrifying but honestly I can't help picturing them to be a little silly ;).
This book deserves some applause for the fact that the world seems to be populated by a roughly equal amount of women and men. It does end up leaning a bit female heavy at some point, but after hundreds of fantasy books with an overwhelming male majority I think that's only fair.
The biggest thing wrong with this book is that it's not a 20 Palaces book. The next biggest thing wrong with the book is that it ends in a real weird spot. Luckily it's a series so I'm sure the next book will pick up where this one left off. One of the last scenes ends a bit too deus ex machina for me: A character is in trouble but all of a sudden she accidentally finds something nobody knew existed but that can fix exactly that problem. However, she's in situation that specifically allows for previously unheard of things to exist, so I'm going to assume this will get more fleshed out in the next books.
This book deserves some applause for the fact that the world seems to be populated by a roughly equal amount of women and men. It does end up leaning a bit female heavy at some point, but after hundreds of fantasy books with an overwhelming male majority I think that's only fair.
The biggest thing wrong with this book is that it's not a 20 Palaces book. The next biggest thing wrong with the book is that it ends in a real weird spot. Luckily it's a series so I'm sure the next book will pick up where this one left off. One of the last scenes ends a bit too deus ex machina for me: A character is in trouble but all of a sudden she accidentally finds something nobody knew existed but that can fix exactly that problem. However, she's in situation that specifically allows for previously unheard of things to exist, so I'm going to assume this will get more fleshed out in the next books.