Fridge

The book never goes anywhere, it's laborious, boring. The idea for some of the character/monster design is cool though, probably the only good thing in the entire book. I've heard of the author “purple prose” but apparently it's just how they call using rare words for zero reason. I don't mind rare or old words, they can be quite useful if you mean something precise that a more modern word doesn't exactly mean, or if you want to paint a certain picture, give a certain vibe. But here the author doesn't do that. Given the amount of time spent describing things it's impressive how non-visual the book is, there is no aesthetic of any kind, it's just words words words stringed together.
I will have forgotten all of it within the week, namaste !

Terrible book, feels like it's written by someone who never saw another human being. Never get into the heart of things, no emotion. The world (reason why I bought this book) is boring and utterly uninteresting. The action isn't grounded, it feels like watching a marvel movie.
However, it's easy to read and I had a pretty good time actually reading the book.

The first one was carried by its really cool concepts but this one doesn't have that so it's way less interesting. I think it also suffers from being the second book in a trilogy, with too much content for two books but not enough for three you often end up with that sort of shallow second book. Not terrible to read though.

I liked that it instantly get to the heart of things. No boring “world building”, no building up cliché characters over hundreds of pages. Everyone is succinctly introduced and you don't need more.
I like Soulcatcher, he is some evil wizard but that doesn't stop him from helping push a cart stuck in the mud or making small talk. After all why not ?
As for the story well it's not that bad, not the best though, really straightforward, I don't have anything special to say about it.
I was writing about the book not having world building and not taking too much time introducing the characters but you could see that first book as being just that but more dynamically. I don't know though I haven't read the sequels yet.

Really cool idea and the exploration of its implications is nicely done in most of the book.
Howerver, the last part feels too simple, grounded and has less anti-memetic shenanigans compared to the start.