Lord of Emperors

Too. good.

So touching, so straight forward, no nonsense way of delivering the story. I have always felt a pull towards these tragic stories, with dramatic faiths and grimm or bitter-sweet endings. Might be the read of the year for me.

3.0 out of 5 stars

Coming off the great Sailing to Sarantium, I was let down by part two of this duology. This book expands on several story threads and introduces new characters that I struggled to invest in. I would have been perfectly satisfied with a book solely focused on Crispin and the construction of his grand mosaic. Kay pushes the story well beyond the reaches of Crispin's plight and, in doing so, created a story that feels uneven, unwieldy, and mostly uninteresting to me. It is still beautifully written and ambitious, so I certainly do not regret finishing it, but it falls towards the bottom of what I've read from GGK so far.

See this review and others at The Speculative Shelf.