Stars: 2 out of 5
I was excited about this book when I read the blurb. It also has raving 5-star reviews on Goodreads, so I was really looking forward to a great new epic fantasy series when I picked up this book…
That excitement turned into confusion within the first few chapters. It really felt like I was reading the second, or maybe third book in a series, not the first one. Characters kept mentioning events that happened or things they did, and I was like, What am I missing? I even went on Goodreads to check that there wasn’t a prequel or something I missed. Nope, this is book 1.
And I could have pushed through the confusion and still liked the story. There are plenty of wonderful books that literally drop you in mid-action and let you figure out the world and what the heck is happening as the book progresses. Unfortunately, this book isn’t one of them.
The problem here is that nothing that happens for the first 70% of the book matters where the story is concerned. The characters meander from point to point and keep making seemingly random detours. It almost feels like the author had a plethora of great ideas and didn’t want to sacrifice any for the sake of the plot, so he plopped them all in. What’s the harm, right? Especially since none of it matters, once you get to the plot twist in the end. Well, it made for a bloated and boring narrative.
The characters could have been the saving grace of this book, but I hated all of them, apart from maybe Samily. I especially grew to despise Aranok. He is supposed to be one of the most powerful magic users in the kingdom, and the King’s Envoy (with or without memory modification). Yet he behaves like a spoiled 5-year-old with poor impulse control. He is a grown man, for Pete’s sake! Why does he throw temper tantrums every time something goes wrong or someone dares to go against his orders? He treats everyone else around him with such smug superiority, I wanted to slap the shit out of him most of the time.
And all the female characters just fawn all over him and excuse/justify/downplay his horrible behavior. Because he is so “special”. Excuse me? I haven’t seen his “specialness” in this book, not even once. I’ve seen him make stupid decisions and put himself and his companions in mortal danger time and time again. And it fell on others to pull his butt out of the fire every time.
I also found it extremely irritating that he kept questioning Samily’s faith. That was rude and boorish, as well as painted him in a very negative light. We get it, you are an atheist. That doesn’t mean you have to disrespect someone else’s faith or try to make them miserable because of it.
I also don’t particularly like when the author fridges characters just for shock value, like he did with Vasin and Glorbad (spelling?). Also, what the heck is it with these unpronounceable names? And Minygogg, really? Maxigogg was already taken?
I also don’t think that the plot twist ending justified the meandering plot and boring sidequests. If anything, it made me mad that I wasted so many hours reading a story that didn’t particularly matter because it was all a lie. That I had to endure countless pages of Aranok being an ass just to learn that, hey, even with his memories restored, he is just as big on ass. Needless to say, I have no desire to follow his adventures into the next book. I think this series and I will be parting ways on book 1.
PS: I received an advanced copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.