Reviewed by Ashley on
The first ~7% was literally like an info dump of the back story.
7-55% was like... nothing. A bunch of travelling and running around that wasn't all that interesting.
The book up until this point (~55% or so) was like the first half of season 1 episode 1 of Spartacus. You know... how Spartacus is captured, put on a ship, and winds up in a strange place as a slave. Just that tiny bit was a huuuuuuge part of the book (in other words, a whole lot of not-very-much).
Then it got some interesting bits. (show spoiler)[I like what they did with Fallon's sister.]
There's an insta-love romance that's so underdeveloped that I wonder why it's even there at all.
I think I did kind of like the ending.
There are a lot of similarities between The Valiant and the Spartacus TV show. I'm not saying that as a copy cat thing, because, duh, they're both based on the same historical thing. I'm saying it more as an, "if you like Spartacus, maybe you'll like this" kind of thing. There are a lot of similarities between how they became gladiators (kinda), the brotherhood/sisterhood aspect, the hazing that went on at the ludus, the friendship, the deception, the weird ass Roman parties, etc. In The Valiant there's just a lot less sex and a lot less going on in general. :P
Ultimately I am kind of disappointed though. I loooove Spartacus so, so much and I think I was hoping to love The Valiant equally. Maybe I just built it up too much in my head... But there wasn't as much badass fighting as I wanted, the romance was really weak, and I was pretty disinterested for a huge chunk of the book.
Reading updates
- 17 February, 2017: Started reading
- 20 February, 2017: Finished reading
- 20 February, 2017: Reviewed