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hiking_reader's review against another edition
4.0
The Kings of Paradise hit my radar for just about two years now. It intrigued me from the start but I just hadn't found a chance to work it into any of my monthly TBR lists. Once again this year the stars have aligned. Not only did a receive a physical copy of this book as a gift, but then I also found out that our buddy read group had a mini-buddy read going with book three soon. So I went ahead and dove into book one along with another buddy who was rereading via audiobook to prepare for our book three read.
I was in no way disappointed with Kings of Paradise. I opted to listen to the audiobook for most of this one but did end up doing some emersion reading about half way through just to have a better connection. I don't know if anyone reading this gets in the same trouble but sometimes I find myself mentally distracted and not following along as closely as I should be. This happens more with audiobooks than visual reads for me. That's why I decided to combine the two about half way through to really sink into this read better and focus.
The pacing of book one was solid. As with many first books in a series there is typically considerable time introducing our world and characters to build that foundation of things to come. But I never had any feelings of things dragging out. Another thing I like to mention with pacing is the vocabulary and names. This was another of those that flowed well for me. I didn't really run into many issues where I didn't understand what was being said or stumbled with any names.
The world building was another strong aspect to Kings of Paradise. We are introduced to several difference regions and cultures throughout this story. Richard Nell has done a great job in giving us plenty of details so far but allowing for quite the world to be expanded as we move forward.
Finally, I think my favorite part of book one has to be the character development. We have some really great characters with their own experiences and growth through the first book. They are very different from each other which I always finds stories like this interesting as these characters paths begin to cross. So far this has been one of the most shining points of book one and the series in general now that I'm actually about half way through book two while I put this review together.
All in all, I feel this read is well worth the time for any reading fans of epic fantasy. These books are a bit on the thicker side but they seem to still progress very quickly and smoothly in my opinion. So if you tend to read shorter books and the size of these might be putting you off, please give them a shot!
I was in no way disappointed with Kings of Paradise. I opted to listen to the audiobook for most of this one but did end up doing some emersion reading about half way through just to have a better connection. I don't know if anyone reading this gets in the same trouble but sometimes I find myself mentally distracted and not following along as closely as I should be. This happens more with audiobooks than visual reads for me. That's why I decided to combine the two about half way through to really sink into this read better and focus.
The pacing of book one was solid. As with many first books in a series there is typically considerable time introducing our world and characters to build that foundation of things to come. But I never had any feelings of things dragging out. Another thing I like to mention with pacing is the vocabulary and names. This was another of those that flowed well for me. I didn't really run into many issues where I didn't understand what was being said or stumbled with any names.
The world building was another strong aspect to Kings of Paradise. We are introduced to several difference regions and cultures throughout this story. Richard Nell has done a great job in giving us plenty of details so far but allowing for quite the world to be expanded as we move forward.
Finally, I think my favorite part of book one has to be the character development. We have some really great characters with their own experiences and growth through the first book. They are very different from each other which I always finds stories like this interesting as these characters paths begin to cross. So far this has been one of the most shining points of book one and the series in general now that I'm actually about half way through book two while I put this review together.
All in all, I feel this read is well worth the time for any reading fans of epic fantasy. These books are a bit on the thicker side but they seem to still progress very quickly and smoothly in my opinion. So if you tend to read shorter books and the size of these might be putting you off, please give them a shot!
noranne's review
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
2.75
This book was definitely well-written. The story is interesting and at times could keep me turning pages to see where it went. And I could see people really loving this book. But did I enjoy this book? No, not at all. I struggled to finish it, I had to put it aside for a couple weeks around the halfway point before I decided if I could stomach it or not. This book has three main POV characters. Two of them are fucking terrible. I don't mean like grimdark/morally gray, I mean like absolutely fucking disgustingly terrible. We meet one character right away partaking in cannibalism. The other has such gems as being sexually aroused by fucking her lover while he is covered in the blood of children. This book is gruesome. The third main character is a more standard fantasy protagonist, and his story had no relation to the others. It was set on what seemed like a different world and/or far in the future, and I found it very frustrating to be bouncing back and forth between these wholly unrelated sections with no hint of how they would relate and such a jarring shift in tone. In the end, the connection is explained, but I felt it was delayed too long and instead of feeling like pieces falling into place it was like, oh okay, finally, why didn't you just say so?
And it was long. SO long. Parts of it really just dragged and dragged and got repetitive. I felt like this was either a way-too-long prologue for a series or should have been several books on its own. As it is, it intersperses weird amounts of time compression and then slow, detailed events. There were several editing/grammar errors as well, which isn't a big deal but does always throw me out of the story.
As far as I can tell, the character who we spend the most time with in this book, an absolute sicko, appears to be the main antagonist of the series? And while I appreciate fleshing out the villain, this was too much. Too much time in his head, too much graphic detail, too much gore and filth. I don't consider myself a prude, I've read plenty of stories with tragic events and evil characters and so on, but this was too much.
I will not be continuing with this series.
And it was long. SO long. Parts of it really just dragged and dragged and got repetitive. I felt like this was either a way-too-long prologue for a series or should have been several books on its own. As it is, it intersperses weird amounts of time compression and then slow, detailed events. There were several editing/grammar errors as well, which isn't a big deal but does always throw me out of the story.
As far as I can tell, the character who we spend the most time with in this book, an absolute sicko, appears to be the main antagonist of the series? And while I appreciate fleshing out the villain, this was too much. Too much time in his head, too much graphic detail, too much gore and filth. I don't consider myself a prude, I've read plenty of stories with tragic events and evil characters and so on, but this was too much.
I will not be continuing with this series.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Colonisation, War, and Classism
szeththeassassin's review against another edition
3.0
There were parts I really like and parts that hit me the wrong way. It is a good story with a lot of extra stuff that I felt really did not need to be in the novel. Definitely a dare of a way to tell a story.
fantasylover's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
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
4.25
fantpmas's review against another edition
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.75
slavicreader's review against another edition
Putting this down for now. Not sure if it was the narrator or me, but I couldn't get into it. Found myself not caring about the second? POV and was zoning out for much of it.
gunjit's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
cossty's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
This whole book feels like a setup for the sequel. I'm not complaining, it is great introduction for the characters and world.
sade's review against another edition
1.0
I've found that there's a large part of the fantasy reading community that see 'grimdark' and automatically mark the book as impressive. I'm not sure if it's the violence
kellygooch's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
4.25