yikeslou's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
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
5.0
Samantha Shannon has done it again with a book I'll never be able to stop thinking about ever!!! I have too many screaming thoughts for a coherent review. But this was without question a 5 ⭐ epic with everything I've ever wanted in a fantasy novel: war, tragedy, comedy, found family, lesbian milf warriors, trans scientists, ace aro princesses with mommy issues, religious fervor, the SLOWEST BURN I'VE EVER READ... more to come as I wake sweating in the night thinking about the Roots of Chaos. I can never thank Shannon enough for making this into a series.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Death, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Pandemic/Epidemic
Minor: Pregnancy, Blood, Animal death, Child death, and Death of parent
eas2's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
reflective
tense
slow-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
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Kidnapping and Violence
Minor: Blood
bergha1998's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.25
I liked most of the plot lines in this one. It’s helpful that all except one are POVs of women. It’s just a long book, in a way that makes it feel like a long book. I think a more thorough editing could have made this book much more enjoyable.
Multi-POV, LGBTQIA+, Romance Subplots, 1 🔥
“I bid you mind my heart. I leave half of it in your keeping.”
“Your pain is not my pain, but I know its shape. I am sorry for it.“
“‘Because you would not believe until you saw.’ ‘Is that so terrible?’”
“He saw danger in difference… Some people need to call others evil, so they can seem pure and righteous in comparison, or to purge contempt they hold in secret for themselves.“
Multi-POV, LGBTQIA+, Romance Subplots, 1 🔥
“I bid you mind my heart. I leave half of it in your keeping.”
“Your pain is not my pain, but I know its shape. I am sorry for it.“
“‘Because you would not believe until you saw.’ ‘Is that so terrible?’”
“He saw danger in difference… Some people need to call others evil, so they can seem pure and righteous in comparison, or to purge contempt they hold in secret for themselves.“
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol, Death, Grief, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, War, Death of parent, Infidelity, Torture, Violence, Animal death, and Blood
good_names_dont_exist's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
slow-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? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Violence, and War
Moderate: Animal death, Sexual content, and Pregnancy
Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Suicide
georgialee01's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
hopeful
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood and Pregnancy
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Death, Pandemic/Epidemic, Kidnapping, and Grief
Minor: Cannibalism and Suicide
kristinrdub's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
slow-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
5.0
A masterpiece of fantasy. Truly feels as if I’ve uncovered a tomb with the history of a long-forgotten world. Slow to start but once you have a grasp of the many characters the story unfolds quickly and marvelously.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Animal death and Blood
Minor: Child death
bookswithbethx's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, War, Murder, Blood, Violence, Terminal illness, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Child death
Moderate: Abortion, Death of parent, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, Abandonment, and Adult/minor relationship
queerreaderchaos's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
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
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: War, Sexual content, Pregnancy, Blood, and Death
Moderate: Xenophobia, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, and Suicide
Minor: Torture
annamorgan27's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Death, Pregnancy, Pandemic/Epidemic, Fire/Fire injury, Child death, Blood, Animal death, War, Gore, Cursing, Grief, and Violence
Moderate: Sexual content
katzekaiserin's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
reflective
sad
slow-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
4.0
This book is, despite being a similar length and structure as the current ther only installent in its series, and having similar amounts of queer representation, very different. For one thing, the story isn't about heroism as much as it is about survival and politics, which kind of breaks the mold for this type of epic fantasy: the aim of the book is merely to endure, which is the best way to write a prequel surrounding events already heavily mythologized in the following book.
I thought Day was by far more interesting than Priory, the book with which it is most naturally compared. While Priory plays with the themes on display, it doesn't have time to fully explore them the way Day can; Priory is, after all, more of a classic fantasy adventure, with too much going on to really even explore what is happening in its characters heads at all. This book, by contrast, is much more suited to the format, which is also it's greatest failing, as I will later explain.
Starting with the four characters, I think two are clearly the stand-outs. Glorian and Tunuva's stories are by far the most interesting and complex. They feel properly adult in a way Wulf and Dumai feel much more YA; I just feel that the YA-ish elements were not nearly as well-executed in a way that is impossible to explain without spoilers.
There are also three romance subplots in the book, all of them queer; again, I feel that the only one which was established before the book even starts is the best, possibly better than anything in Priory. I love queer romance as is no doubt obvious but in neither of the other ones I felt anything close to that level of chemistry (though admittedly the final chapter of the epilogue was perfect).
Contrasted with Priory, however, This book didn't have quite the same pull on my psyche as I was reading it, which is important to me. For reference, I finished the former in 9 days and the latter in 20, despite only a 30-page difference. I was just never excited to get back to it, even though I never felt bored during my sessions.
A final piece is a minor note on the worldbuilding: many have noted that Shannon's world is incredibly rich and believable while still being utterly fascinating; it is, in other words, precisely to my tastes. At the beginning of this book, I was delighted to see how different it was 500 years in the past, and being able to trace the lines in my imagination of what happened in the intervening five centuries (and, consequently, the previous five). However, while the Grief of Ages is certainly a very transformative event, I do feel that too many of the changes were fully explained by the end of the book. This lends the time between the installments a sense of stagnation, and I would have really preferred things stayed open to interpretation, particularly with regard to Seiiki.
I don't believe I can rate it any better or worse than Priory, as I think their respective deficits and triumphs roughly balance out. Ultimately, I think they're both pretty great.
I thought Day was by far more interesting than Priory, the book with which it is most naturally compared. While Priory plays with the themes on display, it doesn't have time to fully explore them the way Day can; Priory is, after all, more of a classic fantasy adventure, with too much going on to really even explore what is happening in its characters heads at all. This book, by contrast, is much more suited to the format, which is also it's greatest failing, as I will later explain.
Starting with the four characters, I think two are clearly the stand-outs. Glorian and Tunuva's stories are by far the most interesting and complex. They feel properly adult in a way Wulf and Dumai feel much more YA; I just feel that the YA-ish elements were not nearly as well-executed in a way that is impossible to explain without spoilers.
There are also three romance subplots in the book, all of them queer; again, I feel that the only one which was established before the book even starts is the best, possibly better than anything in Priory. I love queer romance as is no doubt obvious but in neither of the other ones I felt anything close to that level of chemistry (though admittedly the final chapter of the epilogue was perfect).
Contrasted with Priory, however, This book didn't have quite the same pull on my psyche as I was reading it, which is important to me. For reference, I finished the former in 9 days and the latter in 20, despite only a 30-page difference. I was just never excited to get back to it, even though I never felt bored during my sessions.
A final piece is a minor note on the worldbuilding: many have noted that Shannon's world is incredibly rich and believable while still being utterly fascinating; it is, in other words, precisely to my tastes. At the beginning of this book, I was delighted to see how different it was 500 years in the past, and being able to trace the lines in my imagination of what happened in the intervening five centuries (and, consequently, the previous five). However, while the Grief of Ages is certainly a very transformative event, I do feel that too many of the changes were fully explained by the end of the book. This lends the time between the installments a sense of stagnation, and I would have really preferred things stayed open to interpretation, particularly with regard to Seiiki.
I don't believe I can rate it any better or worse than Priory, as I think their respective deficits and triumphs roughly balance out. Ultimately, I think they're both pretty great.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Violence and Blood