Reviews with content warning for Animal death - Divotvůrce

TL;DR: A fun story that in comparison to my expectations had less actual con game, and more we live in a society (but in a good way). Characters good, gonna see how this continues.

I thoroughly enjoyed this first part of the series, and I will certainly read book 2.

It's not exactly what I expected: I thought I was getting a story about a smart con-artist, which this story has some of, but at its heart, this is a true underdog story. Not just because the main character is an underdog, but it centrally thematizes the power structure that put him in this position - and what he's going to do with it.
Kellen gets nothing. Not even the power of friendship. All he has are some tricks and innovation. And he has to work with that, as he unravels the secrets of his world. This is the concept that the story never betrays, and that's why I liked it so much.

The story is a quick and entertaining read with a surprising depth (and darkness) to its setting. I liked the characters, Kellen is a cool guy and Ferius Parfax is the most fun mentor character I've seen in a long time. It has a cool card motive (a trope I'm weak for) that it uses in a smart way in one scene in particular. I'm gonna hold off on final judgement until I've read more of the series, but so far, I think I might have stumbled over a real undiscovered gem.

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pyanfarrrr's review against another edition

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Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Overall, this was okay. The plot moved fast and was entertaining while I was listening to it. Kellen himself had good characterization. His family and peers were frustrating but believable. I was disappointed with the antagonists; I felt they were pretty one-dimensional.

There was a fatphobic remark at the beginning, but I don't remember it being repeated. I chalked it down to Kellen being an insensitive fifteen-year-old.

I listened to the audiobook, and found the Farius and Reikis (sp?) voices hard to cope with. I was always trying to mentally dub over their dialog. I might have enjoyed those characters more on the page. If I check out the sequels some day, I'll read the text version.

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bluejayreads's review against another edition

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adventurous

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

This review is hard to write because is the kind of book I call a Perfectly Enjoyable Reading Experience. It was entertaining, I very much enjoyed it while reading, but it’s not particularly memorable and I don’t feel much of a need to continue the series.

Which is a bit amusing, because this book was trying to have big things to say. This society is stratified into an upper class of people who can do magic and an underclass of people who can’t. The “exile” Kellen is facing is not being thrown out of the city and whatnot, it’s being relegated to second-class citizen and having no options but menial labor or being a servant, probably to his definitely-magical sister. Considering some events that I can’t mention because spoilers, there was definitely an anti-classism message here. It just didn’t come up until almost the very end and thus got overshadowed by Kellen’s magic struggles.

I am still not sure what the setting was supposed to be. The title of the book, which made me think of a play on “gunslinger,” and Ferius Parfax’s entire character had a very strong Wild West vibe. But the rest of the setting seemed to be Generic Magical City with that roughly-1800s-but-magic-instead-of-tech thing that I think of as generic fantasy. There were interesting details, but I was very confused about what the big picture was supposed to look like.

And you know, after all that criticism, I’m going to come back and say that I really enjoyed the read. Kellen had definite character growth, putting together all the puzzle pieces of information he discovered was fun, and I loved his efforts to succeed with brains and wit since magic didn’t seem to be coming to his rescue. If you’re at all trope-savvy you’ll see the reason for his magic issues coming from a long way off, but I was pleasantly surprised to be surprised by some of the details.

The ending wrapped up well enough, and I’m not enamored with this story enough to keep going. There was some wasted potential, especially in regards to magic-less people being a societal underclass, but for as much as I love absurdly powerful characters I also love characters with no power who succeed by cunning and trickery, and so I thoroughly enjoyed Kellen. Though it’s not particularly memorable after I finished it and it’s definitely not making any top books lists for me, it was a perfectly enjoyable read

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pinksystem's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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mmefish's review against another edition

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I’ve been trying to read it for 4 days now but it’s just not going well. I feel like the book is kinda predictable maybe? Was also warned about graphic animal cruelty which I cannot stand.

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