The False Prince (Ascendance Trilogy, #1)

by Jennifer A. Nielsen

[ladygrey]

ETA: I enjoyed it much better the second time around. I was able to read it as it’s own book and it’s pretty fun as a reread.

And while there are similarities, I’ve always felt that the Thief series is emotionally rather distant. This is not. It’s accessible and interesting and, date i say it, fun.

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I liked this book but almost from the beginning it felt a lot like The Thief. It's more lighthearted than that. And there's something fun about it - probably because of Sage and how he refuses to take anything seriously. But...

It's just like The Thief! Sage is so much like Gen and it has that clear sense that he knows more and is capable of more than he's letting on. And then the reveal isn't surprising at all because its the only conclusion. . And then it's interesting because I was curious to see how it'd all play out and it felt like there was too few pages left for it to end well. But it managed to wrap everything up nicely enough.
And I did like Sage and his cleverness and his strength and compassion and his blasé attitude about nearly everything.

There's a depth the Queen's Thief series has that this is lacking. But I think there's also virtue in a lighter read that isn't quite so serious. Also, this was an incredibly fast read, which was nice.

I mostly liked this book, even if very little of it was surprising. I'm kind of curious about the next book and kind of cautious...