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A review by allisonwonderlandreads
Nightwatch over Windscar by K. Eason
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
I love that lit-up feeling you get when you're only a few pages into a sequel, but that's all it takes to get super hype about beloved characters. Like, look at them banter! Look at them caring for stray cats! This book did that for me.
Nightwatch Over Windscar has the ambiance and tension of exploring ruins... that you expect are now occupied by mysterious, enemy forces. It has electric fight scenes and action nonstop just like the first in the duology. It's tiring in the sense that I was on constant edge but not in the sense that I wanted to put the book down. Like at all. I'll admit that I missed the detective components from book one, but infiltrating a cult offered plenty of drama to sustain me.
Here's the problem. Spoilers to follow. Proceed at your own risk.
I ship Gaer and Iari forever. My emotional reaction to the end of the book is largely contingent on whether it's the end of the series. Which it is. After all the emotional turbulence, it was an unexpected letdown to reach the end of the action and find no closure to all the unsaid romantic tension of the series -- the main draw for me. At a group level, what with all the teammates Gaer and Iari have sort of adopted, we get pointed in a new direction for what their future might look like, and I enjoyed that. But in terms of Gaer and Iari's bond, whether it's romantic or ultimately just a strong partnership that transcends the others in their lives (fair), we get some nonsense. You don't get to END the book with the main characters being too scared of feelings to have real conversations. That should come earlier! Come on, now! Instead, our protagonists are separated for most of the book (lame), and then they avoid each other, and then they freak out and resolve nothing. Hence why I can't even say for certain the nature of their relationship as they intend it. ~They~ don't even know. And then they ride off into the sunset like bye, you'll never know-- hope the lack of resolution doesn't eat you up from the inside or anything. As you might be able to tell, I am in fact in that "being eaten alive" subset of the population.
Here's the thing, this is a fun book at the end of a unique duology. It's not that I hated it-- it's just that the very thing I loved most about the series was left open-ended. If you can a) handle that or b) show up for other parts of the book beyond the central relationship, you're going to have a grand old time. Thanks to DAW for my copy to read and review!
Nightwatch Over Windscar has the ambiance and tension of exploring ruins... that you expect are now occupied by mysterious, enemy forces. It has electric fight scenes and action nonstop just like the first in the duology. It's tiring in the sense that I was on constant edge but not in the sense that I wanted to put the book down. Like at all. I'll admit that I missed the detective components from book one, but infiltrating a cult offered plenty of drama to sustain me.
Here's the problem. Spoilers to follow. Proceed at your own risk.
I ship Gaer and Iari forever. My emotional reaction to the end of the book is largely contingent on whether it's the end of the series. Which it is. After all the emotional turbulence, it was an unexpected letdown to reach the end of the action and find no closure to all the unsaid romantic tension of the series -- the main draw for me. At a group level, what with all the teammates Gaer and Iari have sort of adopted, we get pointed in a new direction for what their future might look like, and I enjoyed that. But in terms of Gaer and Iari's bond, whether it's romantic or ultimately just a strong partnership that transcends the others in their lives (fair), we get some nonsense. You don't get to END the book with the main characters being too scared of feelings to have real conversations. That should come earlier! Come on, now! Instead, our protagonists are separated for most of the book (lame), and then they avoid each other, and then they freak out and resolve nothing. Hence why I can't even say for certain the nature of their relationship as they intend it. ~They~ don't even know. And then they ride off into the sunset like bye, you'll never know-- hope the lack of resolution doesn't eat you up from the inside or anything. As you might be able to tell, I am in fact in that "being eaten alive" subset of the population.
Here's the thing, this is a fun book at the end of a unique duology. It's not that I hated it-- it's just that the very thing I loved most about the series was left open-ended. If you can a) handle that or b) show up for other parts of the book beyond the central relationship, you're going to have a grand old time. Thanks to DAW for my copy to read and review!