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A review by vespix
The Fell Sword by Miles Cameron
4.5
The hundred thousand PoVs of the first Traitor Son book are back with a vengeance. The Red Knight takes his company east to the Morean Empire, spawning twenty PoVs by that act alone, but we can't very well leave Alba unattended, can we know? Things are moving among the Sossag, and among the Jacks, at Albinkirk and at the Gallish court, and somebody's awful family are about to enter the scene as well. If you're here, you've probably read and enjoyed The Red Knight, or are a masochist. Either way, The Fell Sword will not disappoint you.
I liked The Fell Sword better than The Red Knight, if only because the latter took over 50% to reel me in. The Fell Sword had an easier job, because I already loved half of the characters (the other half were new) and had trust in Miles Cameron's ability to weave all of these PoVs together eventually. He didn't, not quite; this book is setting the scene for the future much more than the first, but the main Morean narrative was strong enough to support a few dozen lesser PoVs. It was fresh, completely different to the siege of Lissen Carack. I'm excited to see where the series goes in next volumes.
Now, downsides: I swear this book was never proofread. Names of the characters got mixed up on multiple occasions. Sometimes the names were spelled completely wrong, and I had to guess from titles and context whom the author meant. There were quite a few typos as well, but that's no fault of the author. It's hard to catch typos when your mind is reciting a familiar text rather than reading. I expected better from a publisher as big as Gollancz.
The only gripe I have with Miles Cameron himself is that he decided to expand terminology for the magic system in the second book, and it wasn't done smoothly at all. Suddenly there's ops and potentia and every character is using the terms, rather than perhaps limiting them to a certain community at first. And the worst of it? The terms weren't even put to any good use. Dear authors, changing worldbuilding stuff mid-series is never a good idea, but if you must, first double check if you must, then at least do it skilfully.
I liked The Fell Sword better than The Red Knight, if only because the latter took over 50% to reel me in. The Fell Sword had an easier job, because I already loved half of the characters (the other half were new) and had trust in Miles Cameron's ability to weave all of these PoVs together eventually. He didn't, not quite; this book is setting the scene for the future much more than the first, but the main Morean narrative was strong enough to support a few dozen lesser PoVs. It was fresh, completely different to the siege of Lissen Carack. I'm excited to see where the series goes in next volumes.
Now, downsides: I swear this book was never proofread. Names of the characters got mixed up on multiple occasions. Sometimes the names were spelled completely wrong, and I had to guess from titles and context whom the author meant. There were quite a few typos as well, but that's no fault of the author. It's hard to catch typos when your mind is reciting a familiar text rather than reading. I expected better from a publisher as big as Gollancz.
The only gripe I have with Miles Cameron himself is that he decided to expand terminology for the magic system in the second book, and it wasn't done smoothly at all. Suddenly there's ops and potentia and every character is using the terms, rather than perhaps limiting them to a certain community at first. And the worst of it? The terms weren't even put to any good use. Dear authors, changing worldbuilding stuff mid-series is never a good idea, but if you must, first double check if you must, then at least do it skilfully.