jaironside's review
3.0
This will appeal to fans of traditional fantasy who like a shift in perspective or a bit of a twist on the genre, I think. To be honest, and please bear in mind the extreme subjectivity of this review (after all reading is a subjective activity) overall this just wasn't really for me. I can see it's a well written book, I appreciate and laud the new ideas and the handling of familiar tropes in a candid not too weary way. But it was just missing something and just to be supremely unhelpful, I can't say what because I don't know. At the end I was left a feeling of ambivalence. Actually I would like to see more of the author's work to see whether it was just me with this one book. I suspect it was.
I did find it rather slow going to start with. The first third of the book does not have very much going on, it is concerned mainly with world building and setting up. I found the 'bridging conflict' to be insufficient to compensate. However you can't argue that this painstaking world building doesn't pay off in spades later on.
I would have preferred a closer bond with the characters - we never really get emotionally close to them and as a consequence, I cared what happened less than I might have done.
Most unusually, the main POV turns out not to be the average Andy who unknowingly has a Talent (which we frustratingly never discover) but the watcher, Morgan, who seems to be just the wide angle shot POV at the very beginning. This is an unusual choice, especially in a fantasy novel. Rather like the use of the MC in The Great Gatsby to view Gatsby. I'm really not sure whether it worked or not - hence the ambivalence!
I did love Kitsune (great name - Japanese fairy fox ;) ) and it would seem from other reviews that she was a general hit. I liked the world building although the names of places pulled me up short at times as being a tad facile. I generally liked the characters but didn't feel a particular allegiance to any of them. I'm afraid I just didn't buy Typhan as a villain at all - bit moustache twirling for my taste. The ideas and themes were very good - I hope they are explored in a further book.
Overall a solid three stars for a generally good fantasy novel - just not really one for me in this instance.
I did find it rather slow going to start with. The first third of the book does not have very much going on, it is concerned mainly with world building and setting up. I found the 'bridging conflict' to be insufficient to compensate. However you can't argue that this painstaking world building doesn't pay off in spades later on.
I would have preferred a closer bond with the characters - we never really get emotionally close to them and as a consequence, I cared what happened less than I might have done.
Most unusually, the main POV turns out not to be the average Andy who unknowingly has a Talent (which we frustratingly never discover) but the watcher, Morgan, who seems to be just the wide angle shot POV at the very beginning. This is an unusual choice, especially in a fantasy novel. Rather like the use of the MC in The Great Gatsby to view Gatsby. I'm really not sure whether it worked or not - hence the ambivalence!
I did love Kitsune (great name - Japanese fairy fox ;) ) and it would seem from other reviews that she was a general hit. I liked the world building although the names of places pulled me up short at times as being a tad facile. I generally liked the characters but didn't feel a particular allegiance to any of them. I'm afraid I just didn't buy Typhan as a villain at all - bit moustache twirling for my taste. The ideas and themes were very good - I hope they are explored in a further book.
Overall a solid three stars for a generally good fantasy novel - just not really one for me in this instance.
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