Sean

You get to keep a star for the “barely an inconvenience” reference. It made me laugh out loud.

I enjoy the books of the entire world in general, but Corin is just such an unlikable character, particularly when compared to Keras, that honestly I'd rather ANYONE ELSE be the narrator. Sera or Mara even. Hell, I'd probably absolutely love an entire book of Vanniv's POV. I'd even take Researcher. I keep hoping Corin will get grievously injured and someone else will have to take over storytelling duties.

-1 star for including the character that made me actively despise the Iron Druid series. Yes, the Iron Druid author is actually the one that took a big old dump all over his readers and told them how much he despises them, but Granuile's (sp?) character was the one delivering the message. To have her show up here, even in a limited capacity, almost made me drop this series altogether.

Thankfully she didn't matter much or have much page-time, but that being said, since she was so trivial to the story, it is clear that she was only included as a “look at me, I am using a character from a series I keep hinting about!” She could have been any random druid except for the fact that he decided there aren't any except the Iron Druid and her. I'm assuming he got permission to use her, despite not using her actual name, but who knows. Same with the other cameos late in the book.

I can only hope that she leaves by the start of the next book. This one was fine, and I enjoyed it for the most part, but I'm still gonna deduct that star because it forced me to remember how badly that series turned from something I loved to something I hated. I believe I never even read the final book or two, despite knowing the series was ending, because it turned to complete crap and actively worked to drive people like me away. I can't imagine she'll stick around, but if she does, game over man, game over.

Before I trash this series, I want to say that the author (Arand) is actually a skilled writer. I enjoy the way he writes for the most part (the thinking followed by mid-conversation thing makes me rage after having seen it a hundred times though), and some of his characters are particularly well-done and noteworthy. He has skill and talent.

That being said, this was one of the singularly worst series I've ever read. The main character is so unlikable that I wanted him to die and let someone else take over the narrative. 95% of all the supporting characters were bland and indistinguishable. The last two books were little more than the same plot repeated over and over, just with variations in scale. At the resolution, there was zero tension or concern.

I only kept reading because it was part of the bigger Runner story. Do yourself a favor and find a summary of the perhaps 5 minutes worth of tie-in. Or click the spoiler below I guess.

I will say that, at the time of this review I've already read the next series, Fostering Faust, and it is much better. Not amazing, but after this turd it seemed like that ray of sunshine bursting through the clouds.

The unknown voice that is "testing" Steve is Zeus, the AI that is fighting against Runner. He was testing to see if Steve could destabilize the entire place, and since he did (via making the whole place depend upon him, and then Zeus taking him away), he passed the test and got sent on to do the same in world after world. He also got to take one person with him, Nancy the wight. And of course, after being an absolute shit of a human being, Steve finally started to think like the "Are we the bad guys?" meme. Too late, dumbass. But maybe he'll try to turn on Zeus later, no idea. Hopefully he never shows up again, because I hate him.

I'm coming back to write a review for the first book after making it to book 10 I think? Sure, I rated this one pretty well, but if I were to rate the series in totality it would maaaaaybe be a 2 star.

Avoid this series. If you need reasons why, first and foremost, the author basically just took a bunch of other ideas and characters and threw them together into his story. Lovecraft's Cthulhu stuff is all public domain now, so he's free to use that, but the main character (Cain) even uses Lovecraft's works as reference material in the book, so not a lot new is being created in that corner. Toss in a bunch of Greek and Norse gods that are also free to use, along with a big chunk of fae stuff that we've all seen in dozens of series, and now you have almost the entirety of the background for the series.

For that last little smattering of unoriginality, now toss in blatant but “names are changed so I don't get sued” references to Dresden, Iron Druid, a couple other series I'm not familiar with (Nate Temple or Church or something?), which are literally implying that they all exist in the same world despite those other authors likely never intending anything of the sort, then literally steal a character from Iron Druid for an entire book (name changed again, you can't prove anything!!!) and THEN make one of the books literally a blatant ripoff of Piers Anthony's On a Pale Horse, right down to the horse being named Mortis, and you'll quickly see how there is very little originality in this series at all. Reading the real source material for all of this, including Lovecraft, would be a better use of your time.

And that little bit of originality? A dickhead main character who is also somehow a whiny little bitch, and a bratty young girl that apparently thinks being a bitch is endearing. My biggest gripe is that one character “betrays” Cain (not really, it is like your co-worker not telling you he's also your boss) and up through book ten or whatever I got to, neither Cain nor Hannah (the whiny little bitch) can let it go or trust this other character, despite them doing everything they can to help since then and putting up with being treated like shit. This character should have told them where to go long ago and never spoken to them again.

So yeah, I'm very sorry I read as much of this series as I did. I'm angry at myself for continuing as long as I did, but I guess I wanted to keep giving it a chance. Don't be like me, avoid at all costs. Read those other series instead. This guy is nothing but a hack and a plagiarist.

FFS.

Let's forget the fact that this book and the last one were sorta boring and just paint by numbers art. They are still about subject matter that appeals to me. But of course we spend a large portion of the penultimate book in the series being concerned about pronouns instead.

And spoiler alert, I peeked ahead to the beginning of the next book due to how this one ended, and I was immediately confronted with a Trigger Warning. Really? Eleven previous books about a guy that literally lived in Hell for years, ruled it for a time, has murdered probably hundreds (thousands?) of sentient beings, dealt with every kind of foul individual you can think of, has even died a couple of times himself...and someone needs a goddamn trigger warning on the final book??

So glad the series will be over with after the next one. I realize I'm living the “sunken cost” fallacy by saying I have too much invested not to finish the series, but man, this is one of the last series I ever thought I'd have to deal with this. At least I'll know to avoid any of his/her/their future works.

Literally my favorite moment in a book in a long, long time:

"I am the end," Lindon said.I got goosebumps at that point. Somebody was about to get wrecked! Finally!

I've rated all of these at 3, but they are honestly more like 2.5 and I just round up to give the benefit of the doubt. This one, however, gets the 2 because I'm actually starting book 9, and in book 8 the translator STILL doesn't know that it is “chock full” instead of “chalk full.” This book in particular had 2 instances of it if I remember correctly, and was sort of boring, thus the 2* here. Sure, maybe that isn't the author's fault for the translations, but I'm rating the English versions so I have to reflect that experience.

Overall the books are fine, nothing really special but entertaining enough. Hardly anything permanently negative ever happens to the main character though. Short-term negatives happen all the time, but he just picks a path and miraculously everything becomes super easy, barely an inconvenience. Technically something bad happens in a later book, but I'm skeptical that it will remain bad at all. I could be wrong.

Also, the fact that the native tongue is Russian is VERY obvious even with the translations. Mindsets and demeanors are pretty different than the standard Western ones, and idioms are a little different. Like how everyone “bats their eyelashes” which to us is more of a seductive thing, but I'm pretty sure to them it is similar to being stunned or agape. Or everyone being so close together you can't “swing a cat.” First of all, I need a lot of room to swing a cat, so clearly they aren't very close together. And most of us prefer to swing dead cats per the English phrase “can't swing a dead cat without hitting” whatever it is that is plentiful. Still, nothing too jarring, but it is sometimes amusing to see the differences even with a translator that I would assume is fairly familiar with English.

Would have maybe been 4 stars like some of the others, but I'm getting overly tired of all the sentences that start like this:

That's...actually not a bad idea.
I...never thought of that.
You're...not wrong.

I'm sure I have quirks of my own that I don't notice and others do, but I'm not a published author. I am amazed that no beta reader or editor or someone hasn't mentioned how often this author uses this particular structure. Or maybe they have, and he still can't help himself. I am not one of those people that hates “nonstandard” writing, so ellipsis away for all I care. BUT! Stop doing it in exactly the same way, roughly 100 times per novel!!

The first book was very unique and engaging and I enjoyed it quite a bit. I had no idea there was going to be another book, and I was satisfied with the ending of the story at that point. I don't know if the author always intended for there to be more books, but I feel like he didn't, and only wrote another to capitalize on that success. I'm not blaming him for doing so, as I'd likely do exactly the same thing. But this one felt sort of pointless, and committed that sin of trying to explain something that might have been better left to our imaginations. I haven't checked, but I also feel like there is at least a third book planned. If not, and this is really the end of Molly's story, the ending of this one left much to be desired and ruined the ending of the first one. On top of that, if I had actually paid full price ($11.99!!) for a book that was over before I even felt I had begun, I'd have looked for a refund.

I hate giving bad reviews, but this book did nothing for me, and made me wonder why it existed. Or, if the plan was always to have more books, why they weren't all just put into one normal-sized book.

I know it is unlikely the author will read this, let alone respond, but I have to ask if this book was written with the express intent of making me dislike literally every single character? And absolutely loathe the main character, Steve?

As I said in my review of book 1, I have no one to blame but myself. If book 3 doesn't improve dramatically, I'm just going to skip all these Darren penname books and find a wiki that tells me if there is anything worth knowing about the overall Runner universe or not, without having to read this trash.

I know from reading Super-Sales out of order that at some point the author decides to have his characters say more than “Dunno, don't care” followed by Steve Smash, so there's a little hope, but I am definitely becoming dumber on my journey to get there. If there were a drinking game that made me drink every time Steve said he doesn't care, I'd be dead long ago.

Oh, and having your character think, and then having dialogue from another character start up halfway through what they were saying, as if Steve wasn't paying attention (because...he doesn't care enough to pa attention! get it??) was “ok” the first time or two. Now it is super annoying, and is almost as common as Steve not caring. Stahp! 30 or 40 times of any “quirk” is way too many, and I still have another book to go!

Dammit, I wonder if this is what abused spouses feel like. Or most of the people Steve meets, now that I think about it.

Read any of the other 1* reviews for my thoughts. I should have listened, so let me be your warning and steer you away from this book. It is terrible. I actually stopped a little before 50% and have no intention of ever finishing it, particularly after seeing from the reviews that it never gets any better, nor is there any actual resolution.

Furthermore, except for the actual pic of the author, I would have almost bet real money that this was yet another pseudonym for William Arand/Randi Darren, as I can't fathom the possibility that there are TWO authors in the same genre that litter their books with sentences starting with “I mean”. This guy once did it FOUR TIMES in the span of ONE PAGE! That might beat Arand's record. That's also where I finally called it quits for this book. My sanity is worth more than this.

If I were king, I'd have someone round up every author guilty of this and sentence them to life in prison listening to a recording of those two words over and over, forever. It rustles my jimmies so hard now that I can't help but notice it any time someone does it. Please, for the love of God, any new authors out there looking to self publish...search for that phrase and delete every single instance of it starting a sentence. A good editor would have done it for you, but I'm giving you this advice completely free of charge.

Would have been a 5 star if the character of Ryoka never existed. I've literally never hated a character more than I hate her. To be clear, this is different than a well-made character that is designed to be hated. Freddy Kreuger is a horrible, despicable villain. But you can at least understand his motivations while you root for the heroes to beat him. Ryoka is, ostensibly, supposed to be a hero. Not to mention how she is miraculously good at every single thing she tries to do, even if it makes absolutely no sense for her to succeed. How can I ever root for someone that is such a terrible human being? I don't care if she's broken due to her past or whatever (we aren't given enough reason to know why she's this vile at this point anyway, so why speculate?), she's utterly repulsive, and I dread every chapter from her POV. I wish she would just die and never be mentioned again. Plenty of vastly more likable characters have already died, but for whatever reason this Mary Sue gets to live on and make me debate continuing with the rest of the story. The two chapters of hers in a row (anyone that has read it will know the two) sincerely made me go seek advice from others as to whether or not it was worth continuing.

The author's “wokeness” doesn't help either, but I hear that fades as the story progresses. If not, I'll eventually have to drop it no matter how good the rest of it might be. I see enough of politics in real life, or hear enough a-holes telling me that white men are the root of all evil, that I don't need someone throwing it in my face in a fantasy world about fantasy people too. I wonder when people will realize that close to 50% of the USA voted for the other guy/girl (whichever side you are on). Do you really want to piss off half of your potential audience? The few people you might pick up via virtue signaling is not worth the potential loss, I'd think.

I loved Hobb's Farseer trilogy, so I was ready to love this one.

25% into the first book, and I literally despise every character except the sea serpents (which have had about 3 pages devoted to their weirdness to this point). I would actually enjoy reading a description of the characters all fighting each other in some sort of battle royale to the death more than what they are currently doing, which is mostly whining and/or being utterly despicable people. I'm not kidding, without being outright murderers or rapists, these people are some of the worst I've ever read about. And since Dexter and Joe Abercrombie are favorites of mine, I guess some murderers are portrayed as far more interesting than these characters. Sad thing is, I know Hobb is capable of writing characters I care about. She just chose not to in this book, for some reason.

I shouldn't have to read further than this to find something to keep me going. So I'm giving up. Maybe the rest of the book and trilogy are the greatest literary creations ever, but I'll never find out because I don't care to keep trying.

Hopefully getting back to Fitz and The Fool will be better than this.

I'm an idiot.

Why do I keep reading these? Every main (male) character is exactly the same as all the others in this shared universe: a huge asshole that specifically says things like, “Don't care. Someone else figure it out” repeatedly...yet basically does whatever he wants anyway. Every supporting (female) character is exactly the same as some other female character in one of the other books.

Only the premise changes. Since this one was sort of like a Civ or Rimworld type setting, and the previous one was a dungeon-core setting, I thought perhaps things would be changed up enough to keep it interesting in my hunger for some good litrpg. Nope. Literally all the same character archetypes just thrown into a slightly different start, but seemingly all headed to similar conclusions. Unless they are these Randi Darren penname books, then you get the added bonus of being able to skip several pages at a time (all the “juicy” parts–hah!) throughout the book (unless you're a teenage boy I suppose).

If it weren't for all the potential tie-ins with Runner along the way (who was also a huge asshole), I can't think of a single good reason to keep reading these. Yet I still do; thus, I'm an idiot.

Having finished the three books of this series, are we never going to find out what happened to the woman he buried underground quickly when all the champions were rushing at him? Is it at least addressed somewhere later in the “Sovereign-verse?” I read Super-Sales already (had no idea it was a universe until shit stopped making sense in book 3 there) and it definitely wasn't mentioned.

Furthermore, the vast majority of this book was written in such a way that I felt there was ill-intent from various people like Marybelle, Shirley, Wynne, etc. I kept expecting to have some sort of coup attempt from within on the dungeon or something. But no, they all just love him so much that everything they do is for his betterment. Which is no different than any other female in any series of this ‘verse. Don't get me wrong, I know what I'm in for in this genre of books, and I hate stupid drama just for the sake of stupid drama, but don't write in such a way that it seems like there is impending trouble...and then there never is; just more of the same.

You know how people complain about Marvel movies injecting humor into scenes where it isn't needed, or is out of place? That's the main character in this book, Rocky.

On top of that, he thinks he's incredibly smart for some reason, despite having no memories. He's got everything figured out, until he realizes he doesn't, but then goes right back to assuming that he does once the current danger has passed.

I'm just going to say it; he's too stupid to live. He's mentally challenged. I actively root for him to die. This is a pretty short book, particularly with all the spacing between paragraphs and formatting. It still seemed way, way, waaaaaay too long because I hate the main character so much.

I honestly don't know how people can give this a positive rating, let alone 5 stars. The writing is awful, the characters are awful and shallow, and the world is nothing new if you've read the STYX series he wrote. I've read the first one of that, and while I don't remember much, and it certainly wasn't this bad, I gave it 3/5 so it wasn't amazing I guess. There are dozens of litrpg series out there better than this one, and even if they are generic they probably don't have retarded main characters like Rocky.

Avoid at all costs.

This is literally one of the best books I've ever read. I had forgotten almost all of it, but now I am reminded of just how amazing it is.

It also has one of the best commentaries ever on the subject of slavery, racism, etc. Delivered by a black woman over 100 years old in the 60s.

“You want the people of Bruton to remember their ancestors were slaves?” Mom asked.

“Yes, I do. I want 'em to remember it not to feel pity for themselves, or to feel put-upon and deservin' of what they don't have, but to say to themselves, ‘Look where I have come from, and look what I have become.' ”

The Lady turned to face us. “Ain't no way out but up,” she said. “Readin'. Writin'. Thinkin'. Those are the rungs on the ladder that lead up and out. Not whinin' and takin' and bein' a mind-chained slave. That's the used-to-be world. It ought to be a new world now.” She moved around the room, and stopped at a picture of a fiery cross. “I want my people,” she said quietly, “to cherish where they've come from. Not sweep it under a rug. Not to dwell on it either, because that's nothin' but givin' up the future. But to say, ‘My great-granddaddy pulled a plow by the strength of his back. He worked from sunup to sundown, heat and cold. Worked for no wages but a master's food and a roof over his head. Worked hard, and was sometimes whipped hard. Sweated blood and kept goin', when he wanted to drop. Took the brand and answered Yes, massa, when his heart was breakin' and his pride was belly-down. Did all this when he knew his wife and children might go up on the auction block and be torn away from him in the blink of an eye. Sang in the fields, and wept at night. He did all this and more, and by God ... by God, because he suffered this I can at least finish school.' ” She lifted her chin in defiance of the flames. “That's what I want 'em to think, and to say. This is my dream.”

After reading the first book, I purposely never read the second book because I knew I would forget everything by the time the third one came out. Now that the time is here, I'm so glad that I finally get to read everything straight through.

Without getting into spoilers, after my initial read of the first book, I assumed the series would conclude at a particular point, but to my surprise that point came at the end of the second book, so I have a whole entire book beyond what I expected! And I don't feel like anything was missing getting to this point either.

Having read countless fantasy/sci-fi novels over the years, normally getting a really fleshed out “magic system” is a huge plus for myself and a lot of other readers. There are what, at least four distinct ones in the first two books already?? Leylines, kaas, animal spirits (let's lump nature spirits and shaman foresight spirits in here too, but you could easily separate those as well), and then whatever you want to call Dragon, Fox, Heron, Ox, etc. And again, each of those are really completely different from each other. It is crazy to me that any ONE of those systems could easily have been the basis for a series, yet we get all of them, and we get quite a bit of information about them too.

I can't wait to get started on the third book and see where this all ends up.

P.S. Arak'Jur is my boy.

I liked this book. I didn't love it. I'd say closer to 3.5 stars than 4, but I like to give the benefit of the doubt. And after reading all the other reviews, I'm going to stick with 4. Furthermore, I'm going to continue to enjoy my life and not inject all this insane projection into books that don't deserve them. We live in [current year] where people get ostracized for portraying a different ethnicity or a transgender in a film or whatever other insane issue people are complaining about today. Girls that just want to have a pretty prom dress get called out for “cultural appropriation.”

So Andy Weir writes a novel that has a Saudi girl as the main character. One of her best friends is gay. Multiple highly influential and powerful people in the book are women, and non-white to boot. Hell, the KENYAN Space Agency is the main company. Kenya. Not the US. Not anywhere in Europe. Kenya. And back to Jazz, despite her father's religious teachings, she's sexually active (her body, her right, amirite?). She's also incredibly intelligent and literally reads new science for a couple of hours and seems to completely understand it. And she's spunky and self-reliant and nobody is going to tell her what she can or cannot do. Quite frankly, I've just listed off multiple personality and story traits that almost always annoy me about a book, because it comes off as nothing but virtue signalling. A “look at me, I care about diversity too!” characters and setting. Normally, I'd be the one 1-starring this because I hate the main character so much, and all the “progressives” would be telling me how misogynistic and white male privileged I am. Yet I liked Jazz, and I didn't care that she was female, or Saudi, or any of the things I listed. And here I am defending her to a bunch of people that would literally have their heads explode if they cast a white guy as Black Panther.

I think I know why. Because Andy Weir is a white male. So he obviously can't know how to write anything but a white male. I mean, let's forget the fact that authors have been writing wonderful characters of the opposite gender and differently nationalities, religions, and beliefs for centuries. Let's forget the fact that MANY of the female reviewers of this book (yes, I assumed their gender) have reviewed absolutely atrocious books (at least in terms of the female main characters) like Twilight and 50 Shades and any number of novels with a bare-chested man with flowing hair on the cover, and reviewed them HIGHER THAN THIS BOOK. Go ahead and verify that, I'll wait. Read the reviews too, but don't eat beforehand if you are squeamish. You know what I'm saying is true.

So which is it? Is a strong, diverse, independent, intelligent woman what you really want? Or is it a helpless, bumbling, sexually repressed klutz that finally meets that strong, virile man that sets them straight with a little discipline and tough (or is that rough?) love? Because you don't get to have it both ways.

Now, this isn't to say that people have to like the book. Honestly, it wasn't anywhere near as entertaining as The Martian for me. I'm a huge believer in everyone having their own opinions and shouldn't be called out for it. Like the one reviewer, if you don't like to read about welding, you don't like to read about welding. (There's honestly not anywhere near as much as the review would lead you to believe, but hey, you can think any welding is too much, and I'm ok with that.) But the number of people complaining about the main character not acting like a “real” person...that's why it's a freaking book!! I know there are probably a small number of people that want to read about someone doing normal everyday things, but most of us don't. Perhaps you would have liked a book from the perspective of one of the normal residents of Artemis who just experienced the events of this book, but had no idea why or how any of it happened? Me, I'd rather read about the extraordinary events of an extraordinary character. My life is super boring enough already, I don't need to read about it too. Of course Jazz is a freaking genius and precocious and even annoying at times; that's why she's the main character!

Next time I suggest that Andy Weir write a novel about a shirtless guy with flowing long hair, who meets a klutzy girl that only finds her true strength and spirit after much pining after the shirtless guy. Sure, I won't read it, but billions of women will, and they'll rate it higher than they did Artemis.

This book just didn't do it for me. I'm sure it will for a lot of others, but not me. I literally could not stand the main character, and not for the reasons you might assume if you've already read the book (or at least some of the reviews). It wasn't because she was female, nor was it because she was gay. I don't care one bit about any of that as long as the character is interesting and compelling and someone I can root for. This main character was someone I rooted for, oh yeah I did...I rooted for her to be murdered so the rest of the characters could go on with their lives and not be in mortal peril due to her series of absolutely ridiculous actions. Without spoiling anything, every single conflict in the book arises from her getting angry and doing or saying the exact opposite of what everyone else in the book would have done. Because feelings.

Now don't get me wrong, there is a time and a place for “rebelling” or “challenging norms” or whatever virtue-signalling term you like. But if you grew up in a world like this where merely talking out of turn might end with you, or your loved ones, or maybe your entire village's violent deaths...you'd probably at least think twice about doing it multiple times in the span of a few days.

It is very clear that this was written from the very beginning to be about “female empowerment”, but to me at least it failed miserably. Everyone else pays the price for her stupidity, and if you really want to get analytical, she's “rescued” by a male character every time as well (except perhaps the last fight, but even then someone else provides the means). This is no Ripley from Alien or Sarah Conner from Terminator, some of the best female characters that jump to mind. This is Bella from Twilight, except instead of needing to be rescued due to being clumsy and dumb, this time she is dumb and can't keep her mouth shut for even the one minute that would have avoided every bad thing that happens.

Practically everything in the book is telegraphed way ahead of time too. You might not know exactly how things will happen, but you have a pretty good idea. You even come to expect that she'll say exactly the wrong thing at the wrong time and just roll your eyes and watch it unfold.

It gains the second star due to the one unexpected turn of events late in the book. That was well done. Still not enough to get me to read more in the future, but I did enjoy that part at least. I feel bad any time I “trash” a book, because I know writing is incredibly difficult and personal and if it were me reading what I just wrote above, after years of working on a book, I'd probably take it badly. But I also value honest reviews here, so at least someone might be a little better prepared if they do decide to pick up the book.

Jesus, after reading some of these reviews I had to write my own.

Here, I'm going to make this easy for you.

Are you someone that gets offended by every little thing that doesn't agree with your world view? Are you a Social Justice Warrior? Are you more concerned about what color to dye your hair prior to going to your Resistance meeting than actually having a conversation with someone that might disagree with you? Is everything wrong in your life not your fault, but due to someone hurting your feelings?

If this is you, don't read this book.

If, however, you are even remotely rational, and enjoy the Black Company, then by all means, read this book and smile over the fact that another BC book is finally in your greedy little hands.

Loved this series, but I have to deduct a star from the final book because I felt it took a long, long time to tell a relatively simple story. I know I'm reducing an entire novel to absurdity, which isn't fair, but in the grand scheme of things, this book was literally 95% walking to the end. Sure, stuff happened along the way that mattered...but not enough where I felt it needed to take up that much time. I know I'm not a published author and Hobb is far more capable than I will ever be, but that's how I felt while reading it. I'm glad I finished it, and will definitely read the following several series, but this one fell a little flat for me until the end.

One was enough, not going to bother with the rest of the series.

Too many POVs, first of all. Many of the events really didn't need to be told from so many different perspectives. On top of that, I honestly just didn't care about any of the characters, so seeing the next chapter's character left me uninspired and not really enthused about pressing on.

Many of the characters were downright pathetic even. Except the women of course! Before you think I'm a misogynist or whatever, I love a good strong female character. I have no problem with a woman being a badass. Every single woman in the King Henry Tapes (Richard Raley) is a legitimately authentic and believable “strong woman” and I love all of them (Annie B most!). Multiple females in Malazan come to mind, as well as some Abercrombie ladies, and most of the women in Soul of the World (Mealing). Hell, The Lady from The Black Company is one of my favorite characters of all time.

The difference is, you feel that they are all deserving of being a badass. They aren't just handed it like the girl in this book that I cared so little about I can't even remember her name. She was feeling angsty and rebellious so secretly trained behind her mother's back “for two and a half years, about once a week” and is suddenly besting veteran knights who not only have vastly more experience than her and were likely groomed from freaking birth to actually BE knights, but also have an undeniable physical advantage from the actual descriptions given in the book. If a transgender can dominate women's swimming or track and field, then men taller and heavier and stronger and faster and better trained than this wannabe-knight would absolutely destroy her. Or at least the second or third one of them in a row would after she got tired, assuming she's somehow just THAT naturally gifted.

The book became yet another showcase of how girls are just better without showing us how they can actually be better. Women can obviously be better than men at many things. So show us how they are, don't just say, “Because I said so.” Even the pale guy you think is going to be the main character (Asho maybe?) trained for like 5 times the amount she did, and she shows him up their very first showing. Half the time she trained against a TREE! Not the Groot kind either. Give me a break.

More of the same that I complained about from the first book.

Main character breezes through every challenge without even breathing hard (literally). Absolutely no sense of tension or suspense because he simply cannot lose.

Completely meaningless death at the end, likely to make us think that there are actual stakes to everything happening. Spoiler alert: there aren't. That character had like 3 minutes of total lines throughout two books. Could have never existed and it would be practically the same.

I gave it two books. Don't care enough to read the rest of them. The “mystery” isn't enough to keep me slogging through.

I'm being generous with two stars for each. Could have easily been 1*, but I don't want to be too big of a jerk.