cmbohn's review against another edition
4.0
Themes: privilege, duty, war, politics, magic, zombies!
Strictly speaking, a fantasy. There's magic involved and zombies too. But it's more military fantasy, if that's a phrase, than anything else. Sumto is a wealthy aristocrat who has one career path - military service, the politics. He might be able to work around the politics, but the military service is a must. Trouble is, he's also a drunken hedonist who would like nothing better than to continue his chosen path of drinking, sleeping late, reading a book or two, and then drinking again. But his time is up - he's got to go to war.
This book, the first of three, is about how Sumto changes from a barfly to a military strategist. It's a great story too, with strong secondary characters and well developed setting. In fact, while wanted to see what happened to Sumto, it was the assassin/spy Sapphire that haunted my thoughts for days afterward.
I got this one as a free download from Amazon and downloaded the next one as soon as I finished the first. Not everyone's cup of tea, but I really loved it. 5 stars.
Strictly speaking, a fantasy. There's magic involved and zombies too. But it's more military fantasy, if that's a phrase, than anything else. Sumto is a wealthy aristocrat who has one career path - military service, the politics. He might be able to work around the politics, but the military service is a must. Trouble is, he's also a drunken hedonist who would like nothing better than to continue his chosen path of drinking, sleeping late, reading a book or two, and then drinking again. But his time is up - he's got to go to war.
This book, the first of three, is about how Sumto changes from a barfly to a military strategist. It's a great story too, with strong secondary characters and well developed setting. In fact, while wanted to see what happened to Sumto, it was the assassin/spy Sapphire that haunted my thoughts for days afterward.
I got this one as a free download from Amazon and downloaded the next one as soon as I finished the first. Not everyone's cup of tea, but I really loved it. 5 stars.
jasonoffer's review against another edition
4.0
Thought the book was great, with the main character being amusing, interesting and fun to read about.
I love characters with a ridiculous amount of flaws who does not escape from these flaws too easily. The world is quite interesting, but this book is all about the main protagonist and not a lot else. If you don;t like him, you are not going to enjoy this book.
I love characters with a ridiculous amount of flaws who does not escape from these flaws too easily. The world is quite interesting, but this book is all about the main protagonist and not a lot else. If you don;t like him, you are not going to enjoy this book.
brewergnome's review against another edition
3.0
Decent. Gets a little politically introspective, though it manages to be interesting even there (at least if you're a geek like me) especially in that the main character has (fairly obvious) difficulties seeing the flaws in his own system.
The writing is decent, but not fantastic. Some of the time courses for bodily changes and learned skills are a little unbelievable and early in the book the main character seems a little magical girlish. But later that's contrasted with deep flaws in other areas so it balances out fairly well.
All in all, not bad. And I got it on sale, so totally worth it. May well pick up the next one to see how Sumto does.
The writing is decent, but not fantastic. Some of the time courses for bodily changes and learned skills are a little unbelievable and early in the book the main character seems a little magical girlish. But later that's contrasted with deep flaws in other areas so it balances out fairly well.
All in all, not bad. And I got it on sale, so totally worth it. May well pick up the next one to see how Sumto does.
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