llamareads
Written on May 25, 2020
After reading a sample chapter, I was interested in finding out more about Medius, the Empty, and what Bry was going to do to secure his throne. While the book does have that, unfortunately, it has a lot of elements I didn’t care for.
That’s the heart of my main criticism of the book - there’s just too much going on. I liked Bry, Shad and Stori, but wasn’t as interested in Lawr, Ali and the rest. There’s a lot of characters and subplots, with a lot of jumping back and forth for no discernible reason, and it definitely affected the pacing. I found myself skimming until a character I was interested in came back on page. The plot itself - averting a war, complete with assassins and traitors - was fine, though, again, I found some bits, like Lawr being able to hack the technologically advanced Lucians’ tech, unrealistic. For whatever reason, despite being hotshot mercenaries in their twenties, Bry and Shad talked like a bunch of teenagers and it made them come off as younger and more inexperienced than they were supposed to be. I thought the concept of sphaeres and the Empty was interesting, and while it’s a bit confusing at first as you’re just thrown right in with no context, I thought it was explained well enough as the book went on.
Overall, it’s very much a first book in a series, and while it had some interesting and unique aspects, it tried to do too much in one book. I’d give it 2.5 stars, rounded up to 3.
I received a copy of this book from BookSirens. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
That’s the heart of my main criticism of the book - there’s just too much going on. I liked Bry, Shad and Stori, but wasn’t as interested in Lawr, Ali and the rest. There’s a lot of characters and subplots, with a lot of jumping back and forth for no discernible reason, and it definitely affected the pacing. I found myself skimming until a character I was interested in came back on page. The plot itself - averting a war, complete with assassins and traitors - was fine, though, again, I found some bits, like Lawr being able to hack the technologically advanced Lucians’ tech, unrealistic. For whatever reason, despite being hotshot mercenaries in their twenties, Bry and Shad talked like a bunch of teenagers and it made them come off as younger and more inexperienced than they were supposed to be. I thought the concept of sphaeres and the Empty was interesting, and while it’s a bit confusing at first as you’re just thrown right in with no context, I thought it was explained well enough as the book went on.
Overall, it’s very much a first book in a series, and while it had some interesting and unique aspects, it tried to do too much in one book. I’d give it 2.5 stars, rounded up to 3.
I received a copy of this book from BookSirens. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.