violetpeanut
Written on Jan 14, 2013
- ISBN10 0803736819
- ISBN13 9780803736818
- Publish Date 10 January 2013 (first published 1 January 2013)
- Publish Status Remaindered
- Out of Print 27 October 2016
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Dial Books
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 408
- Language English
Reviews
Ashley
Written on Dec 25, 2012
The Cadet of Tildor was a big disappointment for me. I wanted a kickass girl power book with a steamy hot romance that defied the world and Graceling-esque epicness. But I got none of that. And at the end of the day, Renee didn't even kick much ass. She was a girl trying to kick ass, but she never really succeeded (at least not to the standard I was hoping for).
I think one of my main problems with this book is that the characters lacked depth and none of them were that likable. Yes, Renee was trying to hold her own amongst the guys and was training to fight, but she was constantly making stupid decisions. She was on probation for the combat part of her Academy training, so she poured everything into that training and completely neglected her other studies, which resulted in her deciding to cheat, getting in trouble, and then she complained about her very deserved punishment.
Then there's Savoy. Honestly, Savoy was just an annoying, arrogant jerk. At first I thought he was supposed to be the strong, silent love interest that slowly develops over time, but then nothing happened with that either. Not even an inkling of a romance. And for me, a book without romance is just boring.
I feel like I envisioned a more epic conflict than what we get in The Cadet of Tildor. Ultimately the book comes down to Renee wanting to rescue her teacher at the Academy—Savoy—from captivity and slavery. And since I didn't care for Savoy and he was nothing but a jerk to Renee, I didn't get Renee's unyielding loyalty to him. Ultimately, I just felt nothing while reading this book. I had no reaction to it; I was just indifferent. The dire situations didn't affect me at all, the ending meant nothing to me.. nada.
Some of the plot elements were mildly interesting. There was a big gladiator aspect towards the end that held my interest for a while, but it wasn't quite enough to save my enjoyment of the book. I just couldn't get invested and couldn't bring myself to really care or feel for the characters or plot developments. In particular, I had zero interesting in the politics side of the story. I tended to just tune all that out.
I think at the end of the day, I just didn't click with this book. The Cadet of Tildor wasn't a horrible book, it just didn't resonate with me. If you happen to click with it, you'll probably enjoy it quite a bit. I just wasn't one of those people.
Briana @ Pages Unbound
Written on Nov 24, 2012
Review:The Cadet of Tildor has a nearly perfect fantasy set-up. Renee de Winter is a student at the prestigious royal Academy where she is training to be a Servant of the Crown. As the only girl left in the program, she must work hard to prove she is as invaluable as asset to the king as the boys. In short, it has a lot in common with Tamora Pierce’s wildly successful Song of the Lioness quartet (including more minor details such as mages, an unloving father, etc.) Lidell, however, strives to make her world a little darker than Pierce’s by introducing a flourishing black market for drugs and illegal gladiatorial games. The Cadet of Tildor is both fantastic and gritty.
Unfortunately, the quality of Lidell’s writing does not match the quality of her plot, and the problems range from basic sentence structure to the construction of the novel as a whole. I do not wish to complain too much about the sentences and passages that were bizarrely worded and at times contradictory because I did read an ARC; I hope most of these issues will be fixed in the final version. But still, I was very surprised to see running towards a noise called a “retreat” and to read Savoy telling Renee that she had no skill but could probably beat up most of the other bodyguards in the room. What? These things happened a lot, even for an ARC.
On the novel level, I simply found it difficult to care about the characters or the events. In many cases, the reader is left to take Lidell’s word that certain things are so—that Savoy is basically the most amazing fighter to have ever lived, for instance—because they are not clearly shown through the characters’ actions. Savoy is good, of course, but the fact that he is the best is conveyed mostly through other characters’ words.
As to their words, the dialogue in this book is rather stilted. Lidell is going for formal=medieval, I think, and cuts out a lot of contractions. Getting past how strange everyone sounds was one of the first problems I faced, and something I never fully achieved.
My ultimate impression towards The Cadet of Tildor was just a strong feeling of being underwhelmed. I love fantasy. I loved the premise Lidell offers. Yet nothing here clicked for me. At page 12, I noted that I was ready to throw the book aside, and I continued reading mainly because I had no other book with me at the time. The writing is awkward, the characters are not either interesting or likeable, and Tamora Pierce already wrote this type of book, but better. Disappointing.