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silly_little_clown's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
The beginning of this book was SO ROUGH. I had a really hard time reading once Alec and Seregil were captured and made into slaves. All the torture and human experiments were just a really tough read. Sometimes I skim through paragraphs because it just got too detailed in describing the horrors. I would suggest people look up the content warnings 100% before starting this because I usually could stomach most violence and gore, but this still took me by surprise. It honestly felt like reading a whump fic.
I’m glad I made it through though. Everything else barring the suffering was good. Very curious as to how thechild situation will pan out, now that it’s revealed that it could literally revive the dead and cause mass destruction. It would definitely create more political tension and intrigue for sure. But I wish this book had more thievery and espionage.
I’m glad I made it through though. Everything else barring the suffering was good. Very curious as to how the
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Rape
the_real_al_cal's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-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
4.5
Wow. Okay, so before I started this book, I spoiled myself on some of it by reading the other reviews, and I have to say, I completely agree with the assessments that this book is basically a bunch of different literary tropes in a trenchcoat. But at the same time... I kind of loved it. I thought I would hate it, but where book three in the series took me a month to finish, this one took me three days. I could not put it down.
Don't get me wrong, the tropes are definitely overdone at this point but Flewelling has a way of breathing new life into them through the tactile nature of her world's magic systems. To be honest, sometimes it still put me off and I was originally going to rate this a 3.5 or 4, but the last few pages really brought the entire story together so neatly that I actually gasped at the surprise revelation at the end:Finding out from Magyana that Sebrahn is dragon-like! What does it mean?!
What struck me right away is how much Flewelling's writing style changed between book 3's release in 1999 and book 4's release in 2008. Neither style is bad, and I enjoy both a lot, but it was very noticeable! I would say the earlier three had more of a classically-rosy style similar to Robin Hobb or George R.R. Martin. Book 4's style felt very fluid and was easier for me to read (because my attention span is garbage these days), but perhaps more along the lines of the quick action/short descriptions that a lot of popular authors follow these days. Again, neither is bad, and I inhaled this book all the same.
At the end of the day, I enjoy these stories because I enjoy the characters. They have all come such a long way from book 1, thanks to Flewelling's masterful character development. Where I enjoyed the characters before, now I feel invested in what they will do next.
Don't get me wrong, the tropes are definitely overdone at this point but Flewelling has a way of breathing new life into them through the tactile nature of her world's magic systems. To be honest, sometimes it still put me off and I was originally going to rate this a 3.5 or 4, but the last few pages really brought the entire story together so neatly that I actually gasped at the surprise revelation at the end:
What struck me right away is how much Flewelling's writing style changed between book 3's release in 1999 and book 4's release in 2008. Neither style is bad, and I enjoy both a lot, but it was very noticeable! I would say the earlier three had more of a classically-rosy style similar to Robin Hobb or George R.R. Martin. Book 4's style felt very fluid and was easier for me to read (because my attention span is garbage these days), but perhaps more along the lines of the quick action/short descriptions that a lot of popular authors follow these days. Again, neither is bad, and I inhaled this book all the same.
At the end of the day, I enjoy these stories because I enjoy the characters. They have all come such a long way from book 1, thanks to Flewelling's masterful character development. Where I enjoyed the characters before, now I feel invested in what they will do next.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Murder, and Sexual harassment
Moderate: Death, Toxic relationship, Grief, Gaslighting, and Toxic friendship
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Xenophobia, Excrement, and Vomit
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