Reviews

This book was a roller coaster. Honestly, I still don't know what to think of it.

There was too many POVs, but without it the book would've been bland. It was evocative yet brilliant all at once. And yet boring. I didn't know what to think.

I don't think the writing style is my cuppa. And the pace was just super slow. And I'm not in a slow pace kinda mood.

whimsicallymeghan's review

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3.0

Two people have been sent ashore to assassinate and change the balance of power in the world by two of the most dangerous men in the world. One of those people is a young woman who was abducted by pirates as a child and sold into slavery far from home. She’s now trying to set her own destiny, but revenge plays heavily on her mind. Meanwhile, the other person, a man, has demons of his own he lives with as they try and complete the mission. First of all, this novel had gorgeous writing and the reader could see that Kay is a very talented writer and that his world building is expansive, but this novel just didn’t do it for this reader. They had a hard time connecting to the characters or the plot; every time they would get close to connecting, especially to the characters, they would soon lose that. Even with the plot, as soon as they would start to get immersed into the world, it wouldn’t be for long – it was like a perspective would shift, because they did that quite frequently, and the reader just wouldn’t care anymore about what was happening to another character because they just got used to the one they were reading about. The fantasy elements were good and the being at sea was interesting to read about, even the love and loss that could be glimpsed in this was good, but it was really the writing that carried the reader to the end of this. After reading other people’s reviews, this reader found out that, you can read his novels as a standalone, but his books are set in this same universe and are connected to one another, which makes the reader wonder if they had read at least one of the previous books, they would have appreciated this one more. The reader wanted to like and enjoy this, but they just couldn’t. The writing was really beautiful, so this does leave hope about reading more from Kay. But overall, this wasn’t for this reader.

ielerol's review

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4.0

I've reached a point where I don't actually read anything about Kay's books before starting them, I just assume I'll enjoy whatever I'm going to get. So I didn't expect at first that this would be so much of a direct follow-up to A Brightness Long Ago. But it is, focusing mostly on a pair of new characters, but many of the important characters from Brightness show up too, and it was very nice to see more of them. It expanded a bit more on the major transformations that Antonino and the High Patriarch both went through earlier, and while I still find Antonino's journey a lot more believable than the High Patriarch, I did appreciate the callbacks and following through on the consequences. Reflecting on consequences is the dominant theme of this book, which is in all respects very similar in tone, pacing, ideas, to Brightness. Maybe even a little slower. Almost all the pivotal scenes here are emotional, the more action-y parts get told in a deliberately distancing, flashback sort of way.

I do think this book involves more killing people. Still not much in the way of big battles, but a lot of kinda casual killing. Which is the kind of thing that can really put me off a book (or at least a character), and yet, somehow the way Kay writes about war and murder really works for me. He takes it seriously in a way that I think a discouraging number of genre authors sort of don't. Like, I don't want to read about violence just because it makes a plot "exciting." Kay doesn't do that in the least, in fact he deliberately undermines the plot tension of all the violent scenes in this book. I love it when I don't have to go hunting for plot spoilers for a book myself because the author keeps doing it first. No, people die in this book because Kay has something to say about their deaths. And I like what he has to say.

altlovesbooks's review

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4.0

"You always want a hidden staircase, he'd told his brother once. The world was too unpredictable not to have one."

A random quote chosen for this one, but one that made me smile a bit reading. Everyone should have a hidden staircase.

I liked this one, but I didn't love this one in the way I've loved other GGK books I've read. I've read the other two in the series (A Brightness Long Ago and Children of Earth and Sky for anyone counting) and liked-but-not-loved those as well. The prose and themes are certainly there to enjoy that I know and love from his other books, but I thought the story being told was a little slow (even for GGK standards) and only drew me in at certain points.

We follow two characters throughout this book for the most part: Nadia bint Dhiyan a female assassin working through some personal trauma after being liberated from being an owned slave for rather unsavory people, and Rafel ben Natan a mostly-merchant, sometimes-pirate who helped rescue Nadia from her slavery and now employs her on his ship. There's also a whole host of side characters, some more important/repeated than others, that I won't get into because of how complex things can get quickly. Suffice it to say there's many points of view of this story, but the story itself revolves around Nadia and Rafel and what comes out of an assassination they perform right at the beginning of the book.

There's a ton of GGK-specific terminology in play here. While the story (and all of GGK's works really) is framed around a specific period of world history, there's always a slight magical bend to things that make them his own. It's not a direct 1:1 translation between Mediterranean history and the book, but there's enough similarities there for anyone familiar with the period to make connections. That said, though, I wouldn't recommend this as someone's first GGK book, I don't think, because of how little the book explains in terms of setting/worldbuilding. There's a large infodump period in the beginning, but you'd almost had to have read the other two books in the series to really get the most of it. There's also only the barest hint of magical realism in this book, so if you're looking for that dream-like GGK quality where things feel just on the edge of historical fiction and fantasy, you'll be a bit disappointed here.

All that said, I really did enjoy the book, and I liked the leadup to the ending. This is still a very good book for anyone invested in the A Brightness Long Ago / Children of Earth and Sky series, as many characters are either referenced or make a direct appearance. It's a GGK book through-and-through, and definitely give it a read if you're into his writing.

katlovestea's review

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reflective slow-paced

Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

2.0

the_mad_bird_diaries's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

lulu628's review against another edition

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adventurous reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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