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btwnprintedpgs's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-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
4.0
I really wanted to DNF this story about 35% in - the beginning was exciting and dark and full of action, and then we hit this absolute lull of information dumping and vague travel through the forest. Then we get to a school and suddenly we're bombarded by names and people and things that are all new to me. It was a lot, especially since I'm a Canadianized CBC who knows nothing about these legends and gods. It was hard to digest everything, even though I really wanted to.
That being said, I'm glad I stuck it out - there's a lull for about 15% of the story, but it picks up again and then it's non-stop go-go-go from there. Then the gods, the mystery, and everything start to fall into place. I feel like if we had more showing instead of telling from the start I would've adjusted better, but as they go through all these things and discover everything that's going on, all that lore starts to make more sense and is explained better. These things also helped to unravel who these characters are - Zen, who's desperate to be good and protect the people he loves, even if he has to make bad deals for that to happen; Lan, who's headstrong and hates rules, trying to find a way to save the world without losing herself in the process; along with the masters and disciples of the school.
I loved the lyrical writing - it's very flowery and aligns with the style of storytelling I'm used to from these stories. Though, at times, it was a bit odd *queue the Star Wars reference, or Bible reference, whichever is to your taste* but I loved that it contributed to a lot of the world building and painted us a picture of the characters so well in that moment.
One thing I did feel was that this mimicked her original trilogy a bit - girl with untapped power meets a man who can help her somehow, an escape from an army, and a group coming together to train and change the regime - and I couldn't help seeing the parallels as I read. I think Amelie's writing has improved a lot since her debut, but I couldn't help hear an echo of it as I read Song.
All in all, I enjoyed this story and I'm very curious about what book 2 holds for us now that the world and lore has been well established!
TW: death of a parent, sexual assault, violence, death, blood, injury detail, war, torture, suicide, grief; mentions loss of family in war, imprisonment, mutilation
That being said, I'm glad I stuck it out - there's a lull for about 15% of the story, but it picks up again and then it's non-stop go-go-go from there. Then the gods, the mystery, and everything start to fall into place. I feel like if we had more showing instead of telling from the start I would've adjusted better, but as they go through all these things and discover everything that's going on, all that lore starts to make more sense and is explained better. These things also helped to unravel who these characters are - Zen, who's desperate to be good and protect the people he loves, even if he has to make bad deals for that to happen; Lan, who's headstrong and hates rules, trying to find a way to save the world without losing herself in the process; along with the masters and disciples of the school.
I loved the lyrical writing - it's very flowery and aligns with the style of storytelling I'm used to from these stories. Though, at times, it was a bit odd *queue the Star Wars reference, or Bible reference, whichever is to your taste* but I loved that it contributed to a lot of the world building and painted us a picture of the characters so well in that moment.
One thing I did feel was that this mimicked her original trilogy a bit - girl with untapped power meets a man who can help her somehow, an escape from an army, and a group coming together to train and change the regime - and I couldn't help seeing the parallels as I read. I think Amelie's writing has improved a lot since her debut, but I couldn't help hear an echo of it as I read Song.
All in all, I enjoyed this story and I'm very curious about what book 2 holds for us now that the world and lore has been well established!
TW: death of a parent, sexual assault, violence, death, blood, injury detail, war, torture, suicide, grief; mentions loss of family in war, imprisonment, mutilation
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Suicide, Violence, Blood, and Grief
Moderate: Sexual assault, Death of parent, and War
cirrusfloccus's review against another edition
dark
hopeful
inspiring
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism and Colonisation
Moderate: Rape and Death of parent
joygarcialim's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
I think the book has potential. That’s the disappointing part.
The characters fell very flat, the author spent most of the book info dumping that she didn’t pay much attention to the characters’ development. The romance didn’t even seem like a romance, it was more like how a kid might take two dolls and make them kiss but the backstory isn’t much except for the kid wanting to do it. The lack of emotions, chemistry or affections for the characters falling in love was very jarring.
Overall, it was very dry to read and at points I couldn’t distinguish when the author was being metaphorical or actually describing events in the plot. I’ll say that’s not necessarily the author’s fault, but there were definitely metaphors and descriptions that were just awful.
Overall, it was very dry to read and at points I couldn’t distinguish when the author was being metaphorical or actually describing events in the plot. I’ll say that’s not necessarily the author’s fault, but there were definitely metaphors and descriptions that were just awful.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Hate crime, Racism, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail
naa_'s review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
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
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Racism, and Colonisation
Moderate: Grief and Death of parent
Minor: Genocide, Rape, Sexual assault, and Torture
madamenovelist's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Misogyny, Sexism, Xenophobia, Sexual harassment, and Classism
Minor: Alcohol
bea_reads_books's review
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Okay I have a lot of thoughts, mostly positive but let’s start with the negative.
This book has a lot of things that I’m realizing are common with “romantasy”, which I am learning is not my thing, so take my opinions with a grain of salt. If you love fantasy romance, these things probably won’t bother you.
First, structurally this book felt rushed. There were typos and weird run-on sentences (not a ton, but definitely enough that I noticed). There were times where the wrong word was used (i.e. “Dredges” when the author meant “Dregs”).
Second - and this is something I really disliked about the From Blood and Ash series - there is a lot of infodumping that is often, for some reason, repeated? Like we get a lot of the same information two or three times over, which made the book longer than I felt like it needed to be.
Third, it was kind of insta-love-y. I mean, the book takes place over a long enough period of time that it isn’t necessarily insta-love, but I personally felt like there were odd leaps between romantic moments, so it felt like we really rushed through the main characters bonding, which made the stronger emotions seem a little unfounded.
Fourth, and this is a very specific to myself complaint, I didn’t like Lan’s characterization very much. I’m getting really tired of every female main character being essentially a cardboard cutout of each other. She’s snarky and sassy, but has to be taught everything, but is also somehow a prodigy at everything she does, all while seeing herself as able to handle a lot, yet she’s constantly crying over something. (This isn’t to say that strength = emotionless, it’s just that her character feels set up to be more withdrawn and to keep her emotions inside, but then she’s falling over a lounge chair like a Disney Princess to sob uncontrollably.)
Lastly, I disliked the fact that Lan has no positive female relationships. Her mother is dead before the book starts; her supposed best friend is murdered like two seconds after we meet her (and Lan almost never thinks about her afterwards); her boss is a horrible person; and the only two female characters she meets for the rest of the book have instantaneous conflict with her that never gets resolved. I'm tired of reading about women and girls who only ever get along with men. Jenifer L Armentrout does this as well: Poppy and Seraphina both have exactly one positive female relationship who they are supposedly close with, but we don't see these women for practically their entire series. Every other female character is a villain or competition for her love interest, or else hates her for no apparent reason.
ON TO THE POSITIVES
I’ve been comparing this book to From Blood and Ash because they’re share a genre and I had some overlapping complaints, but all of the positives of this book are where we differ from that comparison. For instance, this book had a much more present and coherent plot, one that didn’t make me feel lost and confused every two chapters. I felt like the story was actually going somewhere. It also had a really cool magic system, which I did not feel like we got in FBaA.
Additionally, this book has actual themes about things that matter, and I thought they were handled in a much better and more responsible way. There is a recurring theme in Jenifer L Armentrout’s books of the “big bad” being a sexual predator. It happens because the love interest is just as murder-y and selfish as the bad guy, so she needed a way to differentiate so that we the readers would know why it’s okay for Sexy Lover Boy to be a heartless killer and not Evil Nasty Guy. It felt so lazy and frankly, just rancid overall, especially when it continued happening over and over again in each book of hers that I read.
On the flip side, in Song of Silver, Flame Like Night, we do see threats of sexual violence, but in the context of colonizers and invaders wielding their power over their victims, who have no leverage to say no. We also see villains who are actually just bad (greed, violence, lust for power, etc) without needing to make them rapists to show who we’re supposed to root for.
I thought the overarching points of this book were very important and relevant, especially in the context of current world events. The fact that horrific atrocities have been committed upon your people does not give you the right to turn around and do it to another people. Just because your people have hurt each other does not mean that violence against you is justified or “not that bad”.
The last thing I’ll say is that I really loved the setting and magic. It was so vibrant and I felt like I could really see and hear the places and events I was reading about. I know I’ve mentioned it at least twice now, but seriously this magic system might be one of the coolest and most unique I’ve read about recently (probably tied for first place with the magic system in Faebound).
Overall, it’s a good book, but this genre just isn’t my style. I plan to read the sequel because I’m very curious about where the story goes from here, but I don’t think I’ll be picking up more of this author’s books after that.
This book has a lot of things that I’m realizing are common with “romantasy”, which I am learning is not my thing, so take my opinions with a grain of salt. If you love fantasy romance, these things probably won’t bother you.
First, structurally this book felt rushed. There were typos and weird run-on sentences (not a ton, but definitely enough that I noticed). There were times where the wrong word was used (i.e. “Dredges” when the author meant “Dregs”).
Second - and this is something I really disliked about the From Blood and Ash series - there is a lot of infodumping that is often, for some reason, repeated? Like we get a lot of the same information two or three times over, which made the book longer than I felt like it needed to be.
Third, it was kind of insta-love-y. I mean, the book takes place over a long enough period of time that it isn’t necessarily insta-love, but I personally felt like there were odd leaps between romantic moments, so it felt like we really rushed through the main characters bonding, which made the stronger emotions seem a little unfounded.
Fourth, and this is a very specific to myself complaint, I didn’t like Lan’s characterization very much. I’m getting really tired of every female main character being essentially a cardboard cutout of each other. She’s snarky and sassy, but has to be taught everything, but is also somehow a prodigy at everything she does, all while seeing herself as able to handle a lot, yet she’s constantly crying over something. (This isn’t to say that strength = emotionless, it’s just that her character feels set up to be more withdrawn and to keep her emotions inside, but then she’s falling over a lounge chair like a Disney Princess to sob uncontrollably.)
Lastly, I disliked the fact that Lan has no positive female relationships. Her mother is dead before the book starts; her supposed best friend is murdered like two seconds after we meet her (and Lan almost never thinks about her afterwards); her boss is a horrible person; and the only two female characters she meets for the rest of the book have instantaneous conflict with her that never gets resolved. I'm tired of reading about women and girls who only ever get along with men. Jenifer L Armentrout does this as well: Poppy and Seraphina both have exactly one positive female relationship who they are supposedly close with, but we don't see these women for practically their entire series. Every other female character is a villain or competition for her love interest, or else hates her for no apparent reason.
ON TO THE POSITIVES
I’ve been comparing this book to From Blood and Ash because they’re share a genre and I had some overlapping complaints, but all of the positives of this book are where we differ from that comparison. For instance, this book had a much more present and coherent plot, one that didn’t make me feel lost and confused every two chapters. I felt like the story was actually going somewhere. It also had a really cool magic system, which I did not feel like we got in FBaA.
Additionally, this book has actual themes about things that matter, and I thought they were handled in a much better and more responsible way. There is a recurring theme in Jenifer L Armentrout’s books of the “big bad” being a sexual predator. It happens because the love interest is just as murder-y and selfish as the bad guy, so she needed a way to differentiate so that we the readers would know why it’s okay for Sexy Lover Boy to be a heartless killer and not Evil Nasty Guy. It felt so lazy and frankly, just rancid overall, especially when it continued happening over and over again in each book of hers that I read.
On the flip side, in Song of Silver, Flame Like Night, we do see threats of sexual violence, but in the context of colonizers and invaders wielding their power over their victims, who have no leverage to say no. We also see villains who are actually just bad (greed, violence, lust for power, etc) without needing to make them rapists to show who we’re supposed to root for.
I thought the overarching points of this book were very important and relevant, especially in the context of current world events. The fact that horrific atrocities have been committed upon your people does not give you the right to turn around and do it to another people. Just because your people have hurt each other does not mean that violence against you is justified or “not that bad”.
The last thing I’ll say is that I really loved the setting and magic. It was so vibrant and I felt like I could really see and hear the places and events I was reading about. I know I’ve mentioned it at least twice now, but seriously this magic system might be one of the coolest and most unique I’ve read about recently (probably tied for first place with the magic system in Faebound).
Overall, it’s a good book, but this genre just isn’t my style. I plan to read the sequel because I’m very curious about where the story goes from here, but I don’t think I’ll be picking up more of this author’s books after that.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Genocide, Racism, Sexual violence, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Death of parent, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
sophiesmallhands's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Torture, Violence, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Racial slurs, Blood, Death of parent, and Murder
Minor: Sexual violence, Kidnapping, and War
agirlsnightbookbash's review
adventurous
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Murder, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail
manaledi's review
adventurous
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
I quite liked this, but it didn't have the full immersive draw you in and you never want to leave feeling of some high fantasy. It's a very clear reimagining of Chinese history/geography/mythology and that made it easier to track aspects of the story without necessarily having strong world building. I liked our two main characters and their dynamics.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Colonisation
Moderate: Death, Genocide, Homophobia, Racism, Torture, Xenophobia, Grief, Death of parent, Cultural appropriation, War, and Injury/Injury detail
kaneebli's review against another edition
emotional
sad
medium-paced
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Xenophobia, Death of parent, Colonisation, and War
Moderate: Rape, Torture, and Sexual harassment