Reviews

Malice by John Gwynne

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josiahpeterson17's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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? Yes

4.5

The primary reason this isn't a 5 star read is because of the rough beginning. There's an overload of characters and POVs introduced and it just felt a little overwhelming and chaotic.

Otherwise, this was an absolutely phenomenal book. And it's a debut novel? Ridiculous. I think Gwynne's writing is slightly more polished in his Bloodsworn books, but his work here is still nothing short of excellent. The world of the Banished Lands that has been crafted is epic in scope, mysterious, mystical, and has an astounding amount of depth with various kingdoms, wildlife, and history.

The characters are tremendous too. It took me a minute to warm up to Corban as he's thirteen at the start of the book, but by the end he's aged a few more years and he's clearly incredibly mature and well beyond his years. He's on his way to being an all-time favorite protagonist. And I loved the deliberate choice to view the descent of Nathair through the eyes of Veradis. I'm very intrigued by their dynamic going forward. And there are several other very likeable characters with standout moments and plenty of depth.

And the action. My goodness John Gwynne is definitely the king of writing action sequences. I feel like I can picture every single movement; he writes them so vividly and immerses you right within the moment.

I'm so excited to continue the series. I'm so excited to keep reading the rest of Gwynne's works. The Faithful and The Fallen will undoubtedly become a top 5 favorite series for me.

Content Warnings

_mayoush_'s review against another edition

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dark 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

4.5

zebrakat's review against another edition

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adventurous

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

I have a lot of mixed feelings about this book.
The beginning is rough. There is a huge cast of characters and many different POVs. It would have been extremely helpful if the book put the location of the POV under their names at chapter starts. Also would have helped if there was a cast of characters at the beginning of the book.
This book does action very well. And although I didn’t grow attached to any of the characters, none of the POVs felt like a slog to me.
John Gwynne’s writing style is very direct and simple sentences. The chapters are relatively short which hurts when you are trying to get established with the characters at the start but helps keep the pacing of the book fast.