Reviews

Engines of Chaos by R.S. Ford

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rhbubbles's review

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adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.75

zoeelizabethk's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

I"m not going to lie. I struggled with Engines of Empire. It felt a bit like Ford was trying to put too much into the book and I wished we would slow down a bit to spend more time with the characters. So I'm delighted to say that Engines of Chaos felt like a huge step up. The first half was much more character focused and I was so much more invested in the Hawkspurs and especially Ansell. Despite taking more time to focus on characters the plot kept going and kept me intrigued. The back half of the book felt more plot heavy, but I was so much more invested now that I liked the characters. The the reveals at the end - I'm super curious about what's going on with the magic and how R.S. Ford will wrap this up!

I mostly listened to the audiobook, and really liked our narrators and they told the story well!

Thanks to Orbit and Netgalley for an advance eARC and an audioARC in exchange for an honest review.

iread2dream's review against another edition

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4.0

Thank you to Hachette Audio and NetGalley for this eARC. My opinions are my own.

I'm not even going to lie -- I had no idea this was the second book in a series when I requested it on NetGalley. This book sounded really interesting, like it was right up my alley - the stuff I like to read. Before I started this audiobook I thankfully found out there was a first book. Of course, I had to read book 1 (Engines of Empire) before even thinking of starting this book. But oh em gee, Engines of Empire is so freaking long. I thought I'd never finish and never get to Engines of Chaos! And Engines of Chaos is a very long book as well.

In Engines of Chaos (if you haven't read Engines of Empire, go read it NOW), we continue following Tyreta, Rosomon, Conall, and some new characters as they fight to stay alive in the beginnings of the war between the Guilds and the Draconate Ministry. We see how far Sanctan Egelrath is willing to go to wrest complete control of Torwyn, and see Rosomon Hawkspur doing all she can to fight against him. The alliances, betrayals, death, and gory descriptions had me on the edge of my seat.

If you thought book 1 was gory, just wait until you get hold of this book. I actually screamed during one particularly gory scene. The descriptions are something else. I can picture it. I don't even need Benioff and Co to make a big money production to "bring this book to life." I can almost FEEL things happening. The scenes with the eye! Beautifully done. Gross but great writing.

Engines of Empire (book 1) had this incredibly annoying quality of Character Is About To Die But Doesn't. The first few times gave me a good adrenaline rush but towards the end of the book, I was *expecting* The Save. Too predictable. Engines of Chaos carries on that annoying quality to a lesser extent, but does bring another annoying quality to the forefront: the Things Are Looking Great But Then Bad Thing Happens And We Even Got Hints That Bad Thing Was Going To Happen, and it's also predictable. This can also be known as This Person Is Too Trusting And It Came Back To Bite Them In The Ass And We Got Hints About It.

The audiobook narrators are absolutely marvelous! What’s the equivalent of stunning but for audio? The emotions they inject into the narration really help bring the whole book and especially the characters to life. I enjoy books with multiple points of view, and really liked that each character got their own chapter. And their own narrator! Except for that one chapter that had multiple points of view within it, but even that was beautifully done, and the way Ford moved from one character to the next was very smooth.

I appreciate that this is a series and there's a long game being played here, but I did feel that we got a lot of plot story (is that what it's called) on the Hawkspur kids but nothing in the way of hints (or maybe I didn't pick up on them) with how each of their stories are ultimately related -- because I know they are, damn it. They have to be! Some of the journeys felt too drawn out, and the book was a tid bit heavy on the world building.

I can't wait to see how everything is wrapped up in the next book.

I definitely recommend the series (Age of Uprising) and ESPECIALLY recommend the audiobooks. They are so greatly done, it's a disservice not to listen to them.

obitus's review

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adventurous mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

jswain0411's review against another edition

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4.0

Thank you to NetGalley and Orbit for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

4.25 stars

Engines of Chaos is a great installment in the Age of Rising series by R.S. Ford. Though I enjoyed this slightly less than the first book, the world continues to be very unique and I am quite attached to the characters. I very much look forward to the next installment in the series.