Reviews

Tower Lord by Anthony Ryan

naomielaine'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? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

cpandrews1197's review against another edition

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3.0

Struggled with the shift in format

hannah25_00's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark 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? Yes

3.75

smiley_kylie's review against another edition

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3.0

As much as I enjoyed Blood Song, Tower Lord had me far less captivated.

It isn't a bad book - it is well written, has an interesting plot, and follows cool characters. My struggle is with the switch from a single POV (Vaelin) in the first book to multiple POVs in this book. Normally, that would be fine with me if it enhanced the story or added to the main character's plot. This instead feels more like flipping between four independent stories that happen to be set in the same world/time. There were a series of battles to conclude this book, but it feels very much like its main purpose is to set up for the next book (that's what I'm hoping anyways!).

I will say, Lyrna was a character I was hoping to see more of after reading Blood Song, so I am happy she is one of the POVs in Tower Lord. I enjoyed her character arc the most.

tomwright's review against another edition

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4.0

It took me a lot longer to get through Tower Lord than Blood Song. I liked the first better, but still enjoyed this book.

joleness's review against another edition

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4.0

4.5 stars.
An epic second installment with lots of action, death and adventure!
I loved that there were multiple storylines. And finally some strong and badass female characters. I really missed that in the first book.

The multiple storylines were a bit confusing at first and it did take me a while to really get into the book. But what an ending! The story went in a very compelling direction and the writing made you feel you were right there.

Can't wait to read the final book!

truthaurdare's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad 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? Yes

5.0

anouk_luypaert's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional 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

ssner01's review against another edition

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4.0

I loved the fact that it was written in different point of views but the amount of names this series has makes me confused from time to time.

novoaust's review against another edition

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DNF @ 43% 

I went into this book knowing that the series does start to fall apart here for a good amount of readers, but I was optimistic, as I loved Blood Song. Sadly, I now join the group of people who will not be finishing the series.

The biggest change from Blood Song to Tower Lord is that we went from a story focusing on a single character (Vaelin) to one that adds three more perspectives. This is usually something I love. I much prefer multi POV third person fantasies to ones that simply follow a single character. The problem is, the story was just boring. I didn't connect with any of the storylines, and felt nothing for Vaelin, which sucked, seeing that I came to love him in Blood Song. 

Lyrna was really the only POV that I found some enjoyment in, which was surprising, because I didn't like her in the first book. Still, all four of the main chapter perspectives just lacked direction to me. Things were happening, but I didn't know why, and I didn't know where the story was heading. 

I read from other reviewers that the latter half of this one is just a bunch of battles, and that it too bored a lot of readers. Because the third book is considered the worst of the trilogy by far, I decided to give up here, expecting the third book to disappoint me ever more. 

Petrik Leo states that this book may not be bad on its own, but it fell really flat as a sequel, and I couldn't agree more. I truly think a reader could read Blood Song as a standalone and similarily, a reader who hasn't read Blood Song could pick this one up and go, and likely only be slightly more confused than I was.