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mlkao94697's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Death and Miscarriage
Moderate: Incest
chimichannika's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
2.75
Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Gun violence, Incest, Miscarriage, Xenophobia, Vomit, Cultural appropriation, and Pandemic/Epidemic
Minor: Infidelity and Excrement
seastheday's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
I think it was a cool concept. I definitely enjoyed that it was normalized in the society for queens to rule, the line of succession was only based on eldest & not gender, race wasn’t an issue it was merely regional (it wouldn’t be so regional if the plague didn’t exist), & there were sapphic storylines.
All in all, I liked this book. It was interesting. Near the 650pg mark, I did wish it was over. I didn’t find myself WANTING to pick it up. I wanted to READ and that’s a huge difference for me. I didn’t give up because I felt like it had to be worth it in the end. I don’t think it was. The entire book mounted to this huge end battle and it wasn’t amazing or unbelievable. It was predictable and nothing shocking occurred.
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Miscarriage, Trafficking, Grief, Pregnancy, and Classism
Moderate: Kidnapping, Lesbophobia, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Incest and Death of parent
nutsacktragedy's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.75
It's strange to have Niclays as one of the main characters because of how pointless he is. He's so disconnected from everything else that it's difficult to justify why he is even given screentime. He would work well as a side character.
Tané is also disappointing. Actually, everything in the East is, except for the dragons (and they didn't get much screentime!). She is pretty unlikeable too because of the shit she did towards Niclays. Her POV got lazy somewhere halfway into the book especially when
The other two is fine. Ead is especially the most interesting because of her background. What's frustrating is the wait between POVs until I get to the Ead chapters.
My biggest problem is the final confrontation. I can't believe that
The dragons are cool, though. I also like how religious differences as one of the major conflicts is handled. Inys being a queendom gets plus points from me because I don't see that often. And the fact that the typical -isms in medieval fantasy settings just don't exist? It's awesome. Points for having queer people as well, as always.
Graphic: Miscarriage, Violence, and Murder
Moderate: Xenophobia, Religious bigotry, and Pregnancy
Minor: Incest
nineinchnails's review against another edition
- 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
4.75
Graphic: Death, Violence, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Alcoholism, Homophobia, Infertility, Miscarriage, Sexual content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Pregnancy, War, and Classism
Minor: Incest, Death of parent, and Abandonment
Pseudo incestmary_stormageddon's review against another edition
- 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
5.0
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Death, Gun violence, Miscarriage, Violence, Blood, Grief, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, and War
Minor: Incest
bucketsjen's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.25
It was thankfully clear of the casual misogyny, sexism, and sexual assault that tends to plague a lot of high fantasy these days (looking at you, ASOIAF/GOT).
Queer people exist and them being queer is not part of the scandal or drama. Men and women both exist as guards and combatants and it's not a big deal - you'll just be reading and there is a guard at the door and the novel uses she/her pronouns. There is a religion that is virtue/purity-focused and a clear riff off Christianity. There is not racism based on appearance (in fact, people with different skin colors are described in the country that has the aforementioned religion) - although there IS nationalism.
There is romance and some light spice in the book, but it's not the focus or the driver of events.
Moderate: Death, Miscarriage, and Violence
Minor: Incest
one instance ofkappafrog's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
There is a wide variety of characters here of different shades of moral greyness. At first I really didn't like Sabran, but she grew on me over time; and as the book went on, I felt more mixed about Ead. Tané grew on me some as the story went on too. All of the characters in the book, including the many queer and female characters, were complex and multi-layered. Loth, Margret and Chassar were the most consistently likable, while Roos was the hardest to like but still sympathetic at times. Even the disgusting Kalyba was not a one-dimensional villain. The Priory was not what I expected, and I loved the evocation of different landscapes and cultures with clear inspirations from our world. The book's length felt merited since there were a lot of different political, magical, and character aspects to explore. I felt like my investment in the story and its characters really paid off. Shannon is not afraid to kill her characters, so there were real stakes at every point in the book. The finale was epic and also gave us enough time to spend with each character in the aftermath of the climax.
All in all, this was a great re-introduction to epic fantasy for me. I'd definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys high fantasy.
Graphic: Death, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Violence, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Deportation
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Gore, Gun violence, Incest, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Medical content, Alcohol, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic
Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, and Child death
vsamarda's review against another edition
3.0
The villains insist on doing a monologue once they are exposed, telling every detail of their evil plan, even when staying quiet would be better for them in every possible way.
Fantastical beings and entities are present, and then they get very annoying motivations that only serve to bring down their mystique (see ||kalyba||).
I also don't understand the decision to make exposition work in the way it does in this book. Characters will be talking, and then someone will ask if they've ever heard the tale of x, and proceed to explain it in detail. It would be fine if this was how it was done once or twice, but most of the exposition is done in this manner.
The multiple povs are interesting, however at a certain point one specific character starts becoming the main character and it remains that way until the end of the book.
Also, even tho the book is 800+ pages long, nothing feels explored in a way that would make me care about these characters, or the religion, or anything in this world. Most characters end up getting, at most, 2 scenes together (mostly due to the pov character problem), and when something inevitably happens I just do not care.
The book is also marketed as an "exploration of religion", which is laughable, because it ends up falling into the trap of one religion being the true religion, while all others get critiqued in some way. I find it somewhat weak how the only flaw that the priory had was a bad apple situation while all other religions get broken down over and over again
Graphic: Incest
lonelylooper's review against another edition
- 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
4.5
Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Death, Gore, Infertility, Miscarriage, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Child death, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Xenophobia, Dementia, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic
Minor: Incest, Infidelity, Suicide, and Death of parent