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A review by tashasbookishcorner
Way of the Argosi by Sebastien de Castell
4.0
This was an enjoyable, fast paced story with a likeable main character.
Ferius is an unreliable narrator, often jumbling things up in her head and being confused. That makes sense in the context of the story but sometimes make things a little hard to follow, where she got her name from in particular was quite confusing. This is one of the few YA books I've read where the traumatized teenager actually seems to act like a traumatized teenager, so kudos to De Castell for that.
The plot seemed a little loose, I think partly because of the aforementioned narrator confusion and because half the book is Ferius before she meets an Argosi, the sections following her through a year of her life and the various miserable things she goes through in different places, where you're kind of only getting clips of her life almost.
The worldbuilding was interesting enough but I wanted more from the actual places, how the world worked. It did feel like some of the worldbuilding when it came to place was slightly glossed over. I haven't read the series this is a prequel to so I'm not sure if things were gone into more detail there. I did love the worldbuilding around the Argosi however, I thought that was thorough and interesting. I particularly liked the cards they carry, with each painted by the Argosi and repeating their experiences.
Ferrius doesn't get to spend long with the supporting characters for the first half of the book but they were varied and memorable. Durral was a good supporting character and I liked the father daughter dynamic between him and Ferius. The teaching scenes reminded me of a Jedi and a Padawan.
I really loved the artwork in the book, the section divider artwork was beautiful, as is the cover.
Ferius is an unreliable narrator, often jumbling things up in her head and being confused. That makes sense in the context of the story but sometimes make things a little hard to follow, where she got her name from in particular was quite confusing. This is one of the few YA books I've read where the traumatized teenager actually seems to act like a traumatized teenager, so kudos to De Castell for that.
The plot seemed a little loose, I think partly because of the aforementioned narrator confusion and because half the book is Ferius before she meets an Argosi, the sections following her through a year of her life and the various miserable things she goes through in different places, where you're kind of only getting clips of her life almost.
The worldbuilding was interesting enough but I wanted more from the actual places, how the world worked. It did feel like some of the worldbuilding when it came to place was slightly glossed over. I haven't read the series this is a prequel to so I'm not sure if things were gone into more detail there. I did love the worldbuilding around the Argosi however, I thought that was thorough and interesting. I particularly liked the cards they carry, with each painted by the Argosi and repeating their experiences.
Ferrius doesn't get to spend long with the supporting characters for the first half of the book but they were varied and memorable. Durral was a good supporting character and I liked the father daughter dynamic between him and Ferius. The teaching scenes reminded me of a Jedi and a Padawan.
I really loved the artwork in the book, the section divider artwork was beautiful, as is the cover.