I picked up this book because the writer also wrote the Murderbot Diaries, a great series of short novellas that were extremely enjoyable to read.
Unfortunately this one landed in a weird way for me – and I think there are a variety of reasons why I couldn’t really enjoy the book.
There is rich world building here – lots of history of different races, and hundreds of years pass while these races interact, evolve, and go to war. This is usually a good thing for me, but the way these are introduced makes it seem like you should already know everything about them. The characters have a shared history that they allude to throughout the book but only towards the end do we get to find out about the details.
Because of all the details here there are large chunks of the book that are simply exposition – explaining this and that and it just grew tiresome. “Show, don’t tell” would serve the author better here.
There are a lot of likable characters, and some unique ideas about magic, demons, witches, etc. The way these ideas are presented made me feel like I had missed a book in the series – but this book is apparently the first.
Despite a great start (waking up locked in a prison with no memory how they got there) the ending fell oddly flat. There was no big moment of payoff or resolution. I’m sure there’ll be more books in the series, and this one is focused on putting pieces in place for greater things, but if I don’t care about the story now I won’t be reading later books.
So a bit disappointed with this one – despite the writer’s talent I think I’d categorize this one as a misfire.
Next I am reading Real Tigers by Mick Herron.
