Toby
Bit slow to get going but writing more than carries you through. Beautifully realised world and very pleased I persisted.
Loved the premise and strong opening. The well plotted escape in the opening chapters was slickly done.
Beyond that, once we hit the second location, I slowly lost interest. Momentum seems to falter and while there are a few great set pieces through the middle section and some touching moments it never quite sticks the landing.
The ending is a bit anticlimactic too and all the female characters are underdeveloped.
Weakest of the three but still very enjoyable, another great entry by Sanderson - overall 4.5 stars.
Couple of gripes -
1. Certain subplots felt skewed from the previous book but I'm holding out hope that things will make an interesting turn. Specifically - Adolin's story. His murder of Sadeas goes virtually unexplored and without any repercussions in this entry - deliberately so, I'm hoping. Because of this, and the fact Adolin is otherwise a bit too shiny, I hold out hopes of him turning evil and becoming an interesting, conflicted villain which I think the larger story is lacking. Dalinar starting out a tyrant and turning good would be a great opposition to this if you ask me. Also, I've never bought Shallan and Adolin as a couple. Their scenes together in this I find unconvincing and a bit sickly in places. Some of the best scenes in the previous book, the ones that really shone for me and actually had me grinning and even occasionally laughing were those between Kaladin and Shallan sniping and teasing one another. Similarly, the most touching, heart wrenching scenes involved their interactions too. That depth of connection seems to have been dismissed, sidelined and skewed here, I suspect mainly as a stall, but we'll see. Shallan I continue to find an interesting character. Love the splitting of her personality, though this does present a bit of a problem given the length of these texts. The Shallan we like who is struggling to find herself, escapes within these other characters. The problem is these extra voices dilute Shallan's and we gradually lose sight of her. Other minor issues - There is a lot of competing lore; histories, magic systems and gods to contend with which can bog down the story in places. Finally I find it utterly bizarre that the first thing one Knight doesn't say to another is "So what cool stuff can you do?" Wouldn't Dallinar (the general) be highly motivated to figure out what everyone's abilities were? Appreciate this is being deliberately held back, it just seems strange nobody raises this with more urgency.
Finally Kaladin (everyone's favourite) was great to read as ever and I always looked forward to his chapters. After the highs he reached at the end of book 2, however, it seems natural (albeit perhaps a tiny bit disappointing) that he would need a bit of a cool down here. Overall I like the path he is taking, I just feel he needs more personal connections. For much of the book he feels a bit sidelined and, well, lonely.
Gripes aside, Sanderson is one of the best and this is definitely worth the read.
This was an odd one. Really enjoyed the setup and opening couple of chapters but things took a turn for me soon after.
I won't hit upon the issues discussed in most other reviews. My main problem was the book seemed oddly pitched. I'm more than happy to read a children's / YA book, but this seemed to contain elements of both as well as quite stark and oddly placed violence.
While it reads very much like a YA book, our young hero kills pretty casually and remorselessly which in the context of a ‘magical school' with a pokemon twist type novel doesn't really sit right.
Take an obvious comparison in a book like Harry Potter which is pitched younger but still reads well to a much older audience. This, I would say, is the exact opposite. It is pitched older but reads much younger.
The world is interesting and I love the magic system etc, but stilted dialogue, boilerplate characters / villains and a frankly very irritating ‘all-nobles-are-evil-slime' class system left me disappointed. I never felt sympathy or connected to any of the characters after those initial chapters.
Nice opening and pace but side characters fall very flat by the end. Enjoyed the arrogant protagonist initially but felt he needed stronger people to bounce off for it to work. I won't continue with the series.
Really disappointed by the end of book one.
Held my interest to finish the first in the series but found myself shrugging by the end.
Very misleading title and cover art too!
Perhaps things pick up in the second book but I can't see myself continuing with the series based on the strength of the first.
Simply put not enough happens!
I found the initial premise interesting but I suspect this was originally one book stretched out into two and it certainly shows in the pacing and cliffhanger ending.
In a nutshell:
- Characters and writing I generally liked.
- magic was boring, mundane and boiler plate. I don't mind it not being technical, rule based and complex but it's an especially vague affair here.
- lead character doesn't really do anything. For an innocent mage - - he does zero magic. He even spends the climax of this book doing admin which you might not expect given the cloaked figure on the cover looking all mystical.
You can absolutely imagine the marketing meeting that went on prior to publication:
“So the hero doesn't kill anyone, fight anyone or cast even a single spell?”
“oh god no, the magic is mainly admin and plumbing based. It's not really the point of the story.”
“mmhmm mhmm, I see. Let's call it the Innocent Mage and throw a wizard-ninja on the cover.”