Malice

This book has promise, but it was given a bit of an unfair disadvantage due to having read and loved the Bloodsworn Saga first. It makes the flaws of Malice stand out more, but regardless, I noticed them, and they affected my read.

The first con I have is that this book simply introduces too many characters. I'm a little shocked an editor didn't force him to cut a couple. And this is coming from someone whose favorite series is ASOIAF, a series with a metric ton of characters. I cannot say every ASOIAF character is important; but Martin makes most side and minor characters memorable, or matter in some way. And Martin also has a way of distinguishing which characters the reader should focus on, and which are there more to flesh out the world. I don't think Malice achieved this, you are just bombarded with names and then bombarded with who those names are related to and then bombarded with their deaths. There's a point in this book where a character dies and I didn't realize they were the son of another character until that character mentioned it.

Speaking of, for the amount of constant death in this book, nobody really ever cares that these people are dying, so why should the reader? A POV character loses his best friend and barely thinks about it ever again. Another loses a family member and it is mentioned for one sentence. I get that we need plot momentum but it takes me out of the story when death doesn't really matter to the people I'm reading about.

Also the dialogue here was pretty wooden and average. I can't think of any dialogue that felt really good. Gwynne is great at dialogue in Bloodsworn, though, so I'll attribute this to growing pains. I also wasn't impressed with the giants in this book, who should be much scarier/more menacing than they are.

The thing that really exhausted me about this book was the murderous bully trope, though. These bullies are just relentless, all the time, no nuance, they just wake up in the morning, eat some Bully-Os for breakfast, put on their Bullying jacket, and go out for some bullying. It was absurd. I finally docked this book down to 3 stars when both of the bully plotlines are resolved in the exact same way, with the exact same dumb character motivation, exactly one chapter apart. It was terrible. The book deserved better.

Finally, for negatives (and I have positives! But negatives come first), the female characters in this book are not great. Now, Orca and Elvar in Bloodsworn are two extremely well written characters, not to mention all the other supporting female characters in that series. I know Gwynne gets better. I'm willing to let this develop organically. But in Malice, we have one female POV, Cywen, who is basically used as a camera to listen to the men talk or listen to the men fight or, occasionally, be infatuated with someone. She does look to be going somewhere, though, so TBD. But beyond Cywen, all the female characters are just there to serve the plot. There is one particularly egregious thing, and that is what made me really consider this as a negative overall, but it's a spoiler. I don't think this largely affected my enjoyment of the book, until that one thing, but it's something to be aware of.


But, I still liked Malice! I know after all that, it may not seem like it, but that's because I expected more from Gwynne. When not reading this book, I was thinking about reading it. I think Gwynne did a fantastic job setting up the political conflicts and the various rivalries developing. I got a real sense of this world; the worldbuilding was not a key focus but I think he did a great job seeding it in throughout the book in a way that was immersive. I also thought most of the POV characters, besides Kastell, got good development and I ended up being invested in all of them, especially Corbin. Some of the side characters I really liked, like Gar, Halion, Brina, and Maquin, among others.

As always, Gwynne is great at battle scenes. I thought some of them were a little too easy for our characters, but the important ones were riveting.

I also thought the creatures were used to a good degree, with an expectation that we will get more of them later on. Wyrms, giants, giant lizards, and giant wolves were all introduced to various levels and I'm intrigued about them. I also think the central conflict, which revolves around a prophecy, is pretty interesting, because our characters spend time trying to figure out who each prophecy is referring to and how that affects them.

Overall, this was a good read. By the end, some of my negatives had grated on me a bit too long for Malice to get a higher rating, but I enjoyed my time with it. I'm excited to continue my journey in the Banished Lands, however! Truth and courage!