This book was a story written in sort of the same way as the Game of Thrones series, with a cleaner and friendlier feel and written with more female-centric roles. Despite the length of this book it moves quickly through the story, with plenty of palace intrigue, underdogs coming out on top, and adventurous journeys.
I liked the story, and the characters were written well although a little simple. The bad guys are a pretty one-dimensional, given to twirling their mustaches and monologuing at the heroes to explain the backstory. Sometimes it felt a little campy but overall it moved along fast enough that it didn’t bother me too much.
There are a lot of cultures introduced in this book, but they are helpfully modeled after similar cultures back here in reality, so that makes it easier. I liked the scope of the book – but it did make me feel like things were rushed when I wanted to know more about the wide world the writer has created.
One thing that stuck out for me was the author’s habit of giving a paragraph to the wardrobe of the characters when they show up at some event, and a paragraph to the food when they are eating somewhere. The paragraph was always about the same length and it felt like they finished the book and then went back and added it in to fill out the content a little. It just didn’t feel natural to me.
There was a lot of potential here, but in the end I found it a good story that could have been handled better. Still, for a simple adventure it was worth the reading time.
Next I am reading The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes.
