Cassie

Before They Are Hanged is a book that I have a hard time putting my feelings on into words. This book was certainly an enjoyable one, but I have some pretty major frustrations with it after my time spent with it.

But, let's start with the positives first, as those outweigh the negatives by a fairly large margin.
The characters are still absolutely stellar, much like they were in The Blade Itself, each PoV character having an extremely strong voice in their inner monologue, giving you a more defined feeling of who they were.
A
s per the last book, Glokta remains my favourite, and if he carries on this way in Last Argument Of Kings, he'll end the series as my favourite character. But, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Jezal, who earns the most improved award, this time actually having some semblance of a character arc, which is genuinely very entertaining to read, albeit rather tropey.

This is great, since in TBI, he was a bit of a tool, and his chapters could occasionally turn into slogs if it was just him pottering about. This time he feels like a centerpiece for his chapters, instead of something that we're forced to endure while he experiences other people doing things.
Logen's old band is also a standout in this book, despite their minimal page time, and I'm very excited to see more from them throughout Book 3

The expansions to the world in the book are also a joy. We get more of an insight into the North, though I do wish that we were able to see more of an advancement of that plot however, as barring one major event following a hike in the woods, there really wasn't much going on in the North.

The journey west was a really enjoyable romp, with some super enjoyable action sequences, and fantastic worldbuilding, both for the history of the world, and the magic system.

Then there's Glokta's journey to Dagoska to fend off the Gurkish hordes was my favourite part of the book however. I love politics in fantasy, so seeing court politics in the middle of a siege was really fun, especially with Glokta's sardonic running commentary. This combined with further insights into his personal history made this a really fun section for me to read.

Other than that, there's the same usual positives for First Law. The dialogue is tight, and at times out right hilarious, the prose is solid, and it's pacing is perfect. But I do have a major issue with the book.

Ending spoilers are gonna follow, so I recommend not reading past here if you're yet to read the book. 4.5 stars out 5, I highly recommend reading it.
Anyway, onto the mini rant.

Why was a huge portion of the book wasted on the quest for the Seed, only for it to mean literally nothing at the end. I genuinely felt a little robbed of my time after reaching that twist. I get it, Macguffins fucking suck. They're almost never done well, so this is a twisting of that trope. But my god, it wasn't done well in this book in my opinion. Obviously my feelings on this are subject to change depending on how LAOK handles the fallout from this, but this being pulled didn't make me all that desperate for book 3. I'm still going to continue, as I have heard nothing but praise for the ending, but holy shit, I hated the conclusion to that story, especially considering it was the one I was most interested in.

I love Good Omens. The TV series that is. I'd never read Good Omens before watching it, and it took me a subsequent 4 or 5 viewings to finally decide to sit down and read the book. And it turns out that the reason the show is so good, is because the book it's based on is also absolutely fantastic.

I don't think I need to give a spiel about the two authors involved, as I'm sure that everybody is at least, to some extent, familiar with them. But I'm going to anyway, because I like talking about how great they are.

Sir Terry Pratchett is the author of Discworld, and up until this year, I was only familiar with him through reputation alone. Well now I've read two of his books, this and Mort, I fully understand the love and affection he gets. This is an author who is, in no uncertain terms, worth every second of your time that you spend in his worlds, because he JUST. DOESN'T. MISS. I'll likely be reading through the entirety of Discworld over the course of the next year or two, just because of how good this and Mort were. He focuses on the joys of living, and has an ability to take the piss out of anything he sets his eyes on without it feeling bad natured.

And then we have Neil Gaiman, author of Coraline, American Gods, Stardust, Sandman, and so many other books that if I were to list them all of this review would get long enough I might end up needing to find a publisher for it. He specializes in darker, creepier atmospheres, and his books tend to be more catered towards an adult audience. I'm not all that familiar with him, this is only my second book of his, but I have watched adaptations of his other works.

These two writing styles lend themselves to the other brilliantly. On paper, they shouldn't work, but they really do. The dark, depressing elements of the apocalypse are contrasted with Pratchett's brilliantly absurd humour.

And then there's the characters. I personally prefer the TV shows versions of the leads, as I find them a bit more human, which in my opinion lends itself better to the themes of the story overall, but they're absolutely fantastic. Crowley is an absolute treat of a character, being an archetype that I really enjoy, a demon who's reason for being cast down was them being a pretty alright person.

Aziraphale is an angel of the lord, who really isn't all that good at being one. He really likes the food, but more than that, loves books, going so far as to run an antique bookstore in Soho.

The plot revolves very simply around our 2 characters desperately trying to stave off the end of the world, and somehow, losing the antichrist. So now the race is on, and we have frontline seats. The story is paced like a rollercoaster, the pedal never taken off of the proverbial metal, which is glorious. No page feels like wasted time, every single sentence feeling like it serves a purpose.

The prose itself is really nice, having this nice little jaunty feeling to it that lends itself to the story really well. That being said, at times the dialogue can be really on the nose and exposition-y for my taste, especially when dealing with the children in the story, as Prattchet has a very specific way of writing children's dialogue, where it's very direct, which can make the dialogue feel a bit robotic at times.

I highly recommend the book, as it is an absolute pleasure to read. 5/5 thoroughly looking forward to my reread.

This book has been advertised by the community really poorly. Fans of the series will swear up and down that it's what Grim Dark is meant to be, and that it's this extremely gritty series, that pulls no punches. While yes, I agree that it has some heavy hitting moments, this is by no means the darkest book I've read, nor does it really feel particularly Grim Dark.

And this is to the books benefit in my opinion. I can't imagine a change that would have made the book better for me, however, for some readers, the lack of momentum on the plot will be massive turnoff that will be difficult to get over. This book is all about the character work, and it shines. The Blade Itself has some of the most well realized characters that I've ever read in fantasy, with Abercrombie deftly turning them on their heads regularly, completely shifting your perspective on them, without it ever feeling like a betrayal of the character that we'd seen up until this point.

I'd give a basic synopsis of the plot, but there isn't really much to talk about that isn't in the blurb on the back of the book. Most books will move past the blurb, but TBI doesn't until the last two or three chapters. And again, for a lot of people, this will be crippling for their enjoyment of the story.

I've been told this improves by the end of the series, which is good, since a full trilogy with that slow of a story would have been an issue for me. But this book feels like an extended prologue, that wants to spend it's time establishing the characters so that when the shit hits the fan, you already know who's who.

The writing is stellar, the prose rarely does anything too special, but the dry wit that's regularly on display is excellent. There were multiple jokes that had me needing to put the book down while I waited for a laughing fit to subside. On top of that, every single PoV character has a distinct voice that separates them from the other members of the sizable cast. By the end of the book, you'll have been in the head of 6 different characters.

On top of that, Abercrombie's choice of character for certain events is pristine. He'll show you an event from the PoV of a character that you weren't expecting to see it from, and in doing so, will elevate the event above what it otherwise would have been. A prime example of this is when a character is trying to gain access to a city, and you would have expected to see it from that character's PoV, but instead, it's delivered from another characters view, allowing you to see the reasonable doubt they display about these newcomers, while also enhancing a side character in the eyes of the reader.

Overall, I'm gonna rate the book a solid 4.5/5. I'd like to see more progress made in the story in future installments, and if Abercrombie keeps the same quality of character writing while delivering on that, they'll likely land a full 5 stars, because this book was fantastic.

Wow. Just wow. This book, from the offset, absolutely floored me with it's prose. Prior to this, I'd never tabbed a book, but by the time I'd finished it, it sat with around 50 tabs jutting haphazardly out of it. It is truly one of the most beautifully written books that I've ever read, and for that alone I would recommend it. However, the rest of the book is just as noteworthy.

I'd never read a Hobb book prior to this, which is something I rather find myself regretting now, since it turns out that I've been missing out on some of the best modern fantasy on offer.

Fitz is an incredibly strong protaganist, diverging from the, at the time very popular, beefy muscle man archetype of fantasy protaganists. His stoicism in the face of a rather difficult life is fantastic, and Hobb gets you invested in him by starting the story with the reader meeting him as a child. You very quickly get a strong picture of who Fitz is, and who he has the potential to become.
Being a bastard in the court, his birth causing his father, the heir to the throne to leave, Fitz' is treated incredibly harshly by certain members of the court, with one of his uncles calling for his death at the beginning of the book. He finds solace in those who treat him well, becoming fiercely loyal to them.

His evolution throughout the story is stellar, each ounce of suffering a boon for his character. And ooh boy, does Fitz suffer. This book is certainly tame in comparison to how the series is described, but by no means does that mean that Fitz gets off scot free. Fitz loses a lot throughout this story, and always grows for the loss.

The supporting cast is equally as strong, each member of it being written exceptionally tightly by Hobb, in a manner that allows you to get to grips with them, even though they all keep parts of themselves from Fitz, as he's too young to truly know them. This is a really impressive feat for Hobb to achieve, as the story is being told by Fitz in the future, who presumably knows a lot more about them at the time of him writing his history than we the reader do, but she doesn't try to spoil future developments, and hint at how things might play out.

Burrich is a distinct highlight of a character, acting as one of Fitz' father figures throughout the story, alongside Chade. He's oathbound to Fitz' father, Chivalry, so raises Fitz' so that Fitz' may live up to be the kind of man worthy of the blow that Chivalry's honour took in siring him. Throughout the story, Burrich was a consistently strong character, being my favourite of the extended cast of the book.

The world itself is also really well fleshed out, with a fairly unique ruling system, believable internal strife in the kingdom and politics lying just beneath the surface that make you desperate to learn as much as you can about the world.

The extended lore of the world, specifically about it's folklore, is really intriguing, and I look forward to learning more about it as I dive deeper into the series.

There's also a very intriguing magic system, that has two distinct parts. There's Fitz ability to telepathically bond with animals, that's seen as a base and disgraceful style of magic, misunderstood by people that haven't used it, and there's the more respectable Skill, which allows users to communicate over long distances, siphon from others, use telekinesis etc. Both of these feel completely unique from the other, while also feeling connected in some way.

There's a third, much more mysterious magic system in place, that of Forging, where morals are stripped from people, turning them bloodthirsty and selfish. This is used by the raiders from across the sea to threaten the stability of the kingdom, and is terrifying to read about

I'm extremely excited to continue reading the series, and Hobb's got a lifelong fan in me because of this book. This was a very easy 5 stars for me to hand out.

I have really mixed feelings on this book. I should really enjoy it, since the previous book in the series was one of my favourite reads of last year, introducing one of the most unique and interesting Sci-fi worlds I've ever read, having a main character completely different to any I've seen in the space, and just overall being really well written.

So going into Ancillary Sword, I had really high hopes, and I don't want to say that they were dashed, since that seems a tad extreme, but they certainly weren't met. This book is the definition of middle book syndrome. Almost nothing interesting actually happens throughout the novel, which is a crying shame, because, just like Ancillary Justice, the world is realized brilliantly, with every new detail we get about the culture, the history and the technology elevating the Radch Empire even further than it reached in the first book.

The major issues were, at least in my opinion, almost everything else.

The plot picks up a week after the last books ending, with Breq now being registered as a cousin of Anaander Mianaai, and being raised to the rank of Fleet Captain, and given her own ship to command. She chooses her lieutenants, one of whom is Seivarden from the previous book, the other Ekalu, a previous lieutenant of the ship.

She's sent to Athoek to safeguard it from the other Anaander, but also to guard her old captain's sister, who is stationed onboard the orbital station above Athoek.

The majority of the book takes place on this station, and makes sure that you understand the culture of the peoples that live aboard it through and through. The scope of the story is one of the biggest strengths. Too much epic Sci-fi makes a point to constantly system hop and explore as many planets as possible, even if it's to the detriment of the story. Leckie very clearly feels the same, since the next book in the series, is also set on the same station.

Leckie's prose is just as good as in the prior book, with her weaving every new environment in front of you effortlessly. It's nothing revolutionary, but it's really good.

Well, so far I've been very positive on the book, so it's time to explain where it went down to three stars. As I said, the worldbuilding is absolutely fantastic. It's just a shame that very few of the characters feel as well fleshed out. Physical descriptions are sparse, rarely going more than one or two sentences, the monogender making it difficult to even pin down the basic profile of a character. I say this despite the fact that I really like the monogender as a concept, I just wish Leckie had given more description for the characters.

The only characters I can say I genuinely like are Breq, who has a really strong voice as a PoV, and is just really fucking cool to boot, and Tisarwat, the young Lieutenant who had a personality transplant with a 3000 year old Emperor. Seivarden was a good character in the previous book, but she's missing for the majority of the story, only really having one major moment towards the end of the book.

The other main issue with the book, is that barely anything happens. There are 3 events of note.
Without specific spoilers, they were the shooting, the bomb, and the standoff. And that was it. The rest was quiet conversations and setup for the last book. I understand that writing a second book in a trilogy is a nightmarish balancing act, but oh my god, I was just interminably bored for the majority of the story.

These two issues compounded to make me really confused when I finished the book. I could point to things I really enjoyed, but I also found myself just sort of disinterested in continuing. I fully intend to see the series through, since the Anaander storyline is fascinating to me, and I really like being in Breqs head. If you enjoyed Ancillary Justice, I'd recommend going into this with tempered expectations. This isn't going to leave you with the same fulfilled feeling that Justice did, but you'll probably have a pretty good time with it.

Jade Legacy is the final book in the Greenbone Saga by Fonda Lee. The previous two books have been absolutely stellar, with Jade War blowing the original out of the water, shocking everybody by not only dodging middle book syndrome, but surpassing the original book. So Jade Legacy had a lot to live up to, the pressure mounting with every day that passed. And I'm pleased to say that, not only did Fonda stick the landing, she once again surpassed the previous book.

Jade Legacy delivers on the promises of the series in ways that are both expected, and come out of left field. No character's conclusion feels wrong for them, each of them making it to a point that makes perfect sense, even when if it wasn't necessarily what I expected for them.

A big part of that in my opinion is the books really interesting structure. The previous books took place over the course of a year or two, whereas this one takes place over 20, with 4 major timeskips in it. I knew about this going, and was really dubious, since I haven't seen a lot of stories pull that off particularly well, but I can't see any other way for the story to have been told.

Due to this structure, this book is DENSE. Almost every chapter has some hard hitting moment, where a major event unfolds, or a character has everything come tumbling down around them. This should, by all rights, feel like there's just too much going on, but for some reason, I never felt like it was.

I think it has something to do with how the book is structured, since the time jumps, both big and small allow you to have a degree of separation from these events, whereas when you don't get the time jumps, such as with the bombs early on, the scenes feel much more intense, forcing you to deal with the event as it happens, instead of getting a play by play of the events after the fact.

Lee also continues to show her ability to deal with difficult issues with tact and grace in this book, and it's so good. She deals with disability, being a failure, turning into your parents, being scared of not living up to what came before and having your idyllic view of your parents shattered.

I was particularly impressed by how she handled Wen's recovery from her disability that she received at the end of Jade War. Wen was a character who I definitely enjoyed in previous entries, but Legacy elevated her to a whole new level for me, placing her firmly in my top 5 characters.

The world of the book has expanded massively, to the point where we now see every major country that's been mentioned in the past, and the effects of Jade on them all. Shotar in particular was one that I wasn't expecting to show up in the book, but I'm glad it did, since it definitely had the most interesting vibe out of all of them, especially considering the history that it shares with the main characters.

Lee still handles death in an expert way, rarely having it be this Hollywood-esque thing, where last words get exchanged, and one liners are shot out at the speed of light. Instead, death is a generally very quick and dirty affair, that has to be brushed past in the moment because of the dire stakes of the moment. None of them really hit the same as Lan's in the first book, but that's likely because of just how different his death was to traditional fantasy death.

Seeing how the culture of Janloon evolves was another highlight of the book. The Green Bone culture has just gotten more and more enticing as the series goes, being this neat amalgamation of Samurai honour codes, and Yakuza street rules. Watching that chafe against an ever expanding world is such a fascinating time, especially when you see how foreign Green Bones treat their culture, and doubly so when you see how foreigners use Jade as a tool, instead of a status symbol

Fonda's prose is as usual, pretty good, but nothing all that special. She doesn't really have any stylistic hallmarks, she just writes an engaging world that's rich with descriptions, and has tight dialogue. It's not quite as basic as early Sanderson, but it's certainly no Rothfuss either. It fits in a nice little spot where it just does the job really well.

Where her writing shines is in the distinctiveness of each PoVs voice. If Lee didn't tell you who's head you were in, you would likely still be able to work out, since each character has subtle differences to them that allow you to get a real feel for them, and even allows you to see inside their head when they aren't the PoV character, because you just know how they're going to react to the things that are going on around them.

All in all, I cannot recommend this book enough if you have any positive feelings towards the rest of the series. It sticks the landing in spectacular fashion, in a manner few veteran writers can manage, let alone a debut author. This was an absolute tome of a novel, that was such a page turner, I read it faster than most novellas. I'll be purchasing every Fonda Lee novel day one in the future.

Mistborn Era 2 has been a mixed bag in many ways. While I've thoroughly enjoyed it, it's always felt a tiny bit out of place in the grand scheme of the Cosmere. That's likely due to the fact that, much like the Secret Projects releasing this year, these books were born out of Brandon accidentally writing a trilogy.
Alloy of Law was originally meant to be a novella, and the Bands of Mourning was written to get over writer's block for Shadows of Self.
The books themselves have been thoroughly enjoyable, giving a nice break to the at the time consistently high stakes stories that Brandon had been writing, but again, they felt like they lacked direction. Pair this with 7 years of delays, and The Lost Metal was a book to be cautiously optimistic about. Brandon had never let us down, but he'd also seemingly never had this much trouble writing a book.

So, as I wrapped up my time with The Lost Metal, and said goodbye to Era 2, I couldn't have been happier with how it turned out. Perhaps a few months from now, my love for it will soften, and I'll look back on it a bit more harshly, but as of now, this sits very high up in my rankings for the Cosmere novels that we've gotten.

Issues that I had with Era 2 have been resolved, both in Sanderson's technical skill, and the characters within the pages.

Sanderson's prose is lightyears better than in previous Era 2 entries, showing just how much he's improved as an author. He still has his easy to follow prose, but will throw in some genuinely beautiful lines here and there.

But where he really shines, is the characters. Each one feels more defined than they ever had, as previously they had relatively simple characterizations, (with the exception of Wayne, who in my opinion, always had the most depth out of the whole cast) and never really sold me on their motivations as much as other characters in the Cosmere.

However, in this one, every character feels well thought out, each action they take deliberately written to further their character. There's two in particular that really grabbed my as I read.

The first is Wayne. Wayne continues to be an absolute gem, consistently making me laugh, and then following it up with an absolute gut punch. His self hatred is palpable, and at points, genuinely distressing to read. Sanderson thankfully solved his creepiness towards Ranette in a way that doesn't excuse, but explains it, and allows the character to genuinely grow from it.

The second is Steris. Prior to this, Steris was my favourite Sanderson character, not because of her amazing arc, or epic moments, but just because she was so pleasant to read. I was able to see myself in her self doubt in prior books, and her being accepted by her close knit circle was some of my favourite character work that Sanderson had done. However, in this book, it's taken to a whole new level. She's learned to accept herself, but doesn't think she has the ability to thrive in society, and when she's thrust into the spotlight, she doesn't really know how to handle it. Watching her grow in this book was one of my favourite parts of the book.

The early pacing is definitely something that I can see being a turn off to some readers, since Sanderson doesn't take any time setting the scene, and just puts the pedal to the metal from the word go, and doesn't stop until the book ends. This was definitely jarring when I was reading it, but I ultimately think it was the right call for the book, since I don't think it needed the usual Sanderson setup.

The absolute best part of the book, was the Cosmere links. Prior to the release of the book, Sanderson said that the gloves were coming off with Lost Metal, and by god, was that man not lying.

This is the book that is most densely backed with Cosmere crossovers, and it's glorious. We get more revelations about the nature of the Cosmere, and the events taking place in it than we do in half the Cosmere stories combined, and I can't get enough of it.

We got conclusions to stories that I never though we'd see any more of, including The Emperor's Soul, and even get hints towards worlds we're yet to see.

I don't think a Cosmere book has ever left me with more new questions about the future of the series, and I'm here for it. If this is how the gloves coming off starts off, I can't wait to see the state of the Cosmere 5 years from now.

This was a fantastic way to end Era 2, dripping with exciting setup for Era 3, while still feeling like a complete story that fits perfectly within the Cosmere. The potential for the future of Mistborn is massive, and I'm here for it.

All in all, this book is one of my favourites from Sanderson, and I can't wait to see how Era 3 shapes up when we get it, since I feel like it's going to be his best series yet.

The Pariah by Anthony Ryan is the first in his bibliography that I've read, and I have to say, what a first impression it was. The TL:DR of this review is that it absolutely blew me away despite a rocky start, and I would heartily recommend it to anyone who is fond of Grim Dark, because to date, this is one of the best I've read yet.

It follows Alwyn Scribe, a figure of note in the kingdom of Albermaine, who is telling us the tale of how he became this figure of note. Throughout the book, great deeds and stories of him and his companions are hinted at, but we don't see any of the major ones in this book.

This book serves primarily as setup for the future installments in the trilogy (albeit a very good setup), essentially acting as the trilogy's prologue. This is a method of storytelling some author's try, but rarely manage to make work in any meaningful way, as this style of first entry can end up being rather boring, lacking any meaningful form of conclusion to character arcs.

Ryan managed to setup and deliver on multiple satisfying story arcs throughout the book, while still dangling enough threads in front of me to entice me back for the entire trilogy. At this point, I've gone ahead and ordered my copy of the Martyr, and pre-ordered my copy of the Traitor for when it releases.

The world that Ryan built consistently had me wanting to know more, and getting frustrated at Alwyn's lack of knowledge on the world around him, because it always felt like there was some bit of information just outside of his knowledgebase, which added so much to my experience with the book.

And if the world was good, the characters were masterful. Every single character felt realized to their full potential, none of them boiled down to good and bad, they just were, and it was fantastic. Characters would be coloured as either good or bad based on Alwyn's world view, yes, but by the time the story was done, they were usually much more complicated than it would initially seem. There is one exception to this, however it would be spoilers for me to get into it.

There are 3 characters I want to highlight, as I think they're deserving of extremely high praise.

The first is Wilhum. Without going too deep into spoilers, Wilhum's character arc, and delving into his reasoning behind joining the pretender was excellently done, and when his devotion to his god was explained, it made me bawl my eyes out, the only event to do so in this novel.

The second has to be Evadine. Evadine feels like a character that has been heavily inspired by multiple historical figures, such as Joan of Arc, Martin Luther (the protestant, not the King), and, oddly enough, Jesus. Usually, a character being this heavily inspired by Jesus would make me not all that fond of them, but again, Ryan just has this very clean way of sequestering his characters within the pages in a believable way that doesn't feel inauthentic to the story he tells.

Lastly is by far and away my favourite character, and that's Alwyn. Alwyn is one of the most enjoyable protagonists that I've seen in a while. I adore how he was written as this man who was so complicated, not even he could parse the maze of his own goals. This led to an ungodly well thought out character arc, that will subtly sneak up on you, and again, is just utterly believable.

His worldview is never changed drastically, instead he just finds the ability to understand how he truly views the world, instead of simply latching onto the beliefs of others that don't clash with his own enough to cause issue with him. This lets him, and by extension the reader, begin to see the world from perspectives that were locked off to him either through ignorance, or just through fooling himself.

Watching Alwyn grow in faith was absolutely fascinating to watch, as was his deep loyalty to the people he aligned himself with. If he continues to grow like this in future installments, he might end up as one of my favourite protagonists in modern fantasy.

The prose in this book is also something worth praising. It's generally quite easy to read, and won't challenge you with it's wording, but it does have a tendency to just come out of left field with an absolute banger of a quote. This is evidenced by Ryan opening the book with one.

“Before killing a man, I always found it calming to regard the trees.”

What a way to start a book. It's not going to go down as one of the great openers of fantasy, but that line just sticks with me as such a solid tone setter.

All this glowing praise is to say, I think you should read this book. It truly is a phenomenal time. There are some caveats, and outright cons in that, and I'm going to expand on them as I go on, but I just wanted to make it clear that I love this book. But it has some problems that are going to end up rubbing people the wrong way.

So, I'll start off with a light one. There's no blurb on the back of the UK Mass Market Paperback. This might not sound like much of an issue, but in my opinion it's a big deal. You should still read this book, but my god, does it seem like Orbit didn't want you to. Instead, they just have a quote from the book, and then multiple recommendations from other authors. But all you have to go off of is a quote, that, to be honest, can very easily mislead people into thinking this is a book about an Assassin.

This isn't an issue that solely exists for this book, Shadow of the Gods is another book that Orbit have decided doesn't deserve a blurb. However, that book has the benefit of releasing with one of the most striking covers in the last ten years. The Pariah has very generic art on the cover. It's a hooded man with a sword. It's very well made and was obviously painstakingly designed to get the tone of the book across, but it doesn't do as good a job of conveying the series as the next two books in the trilogy's covers do. This cover also doubles down on the issue that the quote at the back creates. Again, this is a very small gripe, and I've spent more time than it's worth on it, but it really made it difficult to want to continue at first, especially when combined with the next issue.

The plot takes a very long time to get traction. For me, it took about 100 pages before I got into the story for the story, since up to that point, the quality of Alwyn's voice was the thing that kept me going. The blurb that Goodreads has, or even a shortened version, would have had me in the gate from the word go. It's important to note however, I have seen some reviews of this say that they didn't get into the book until almost halfway through. The events in the blurb don't take place until after the midpoint of the book.

This can lead to the story not really feeling like it has much thrust in it for a good portion of it, which is a massive problem, that again, is only really saved by Alwyn's voice. I'm generally a character reader, as opposed to a plot reader, so this wasn't the worlds biggest turnoff for me, but I can 100% see people wanting to drop the book as they get halfway through the book and still don't even see a goal in sight.

However, all that being said, this book is stellar, and if you can get past these issues, I cannot recommend it enough.

I rate the book a 4.5/5, the only reason it's not a 5 is because of the difficulty I had in maintaining interest with the opening. Other than that, I find very little within the text to actually hold up as an issue.