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igemona's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
laurntiu's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
tense
fast-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
4.25
squbber22's review against another edition
3.0
I would give this book one less star but I did not finish it. I’ll give it the benefit of the doubt since a lot of others seemed to have enjoyed it.
I made it about two thirds of the way through this book before I decided I wasn’t able to finish it. It started off really good. I liked the world building, it has an interesting magic system which is something I like a lot in a fantasy book.
After I got about halfway through the book I realized that I didn’t care about the characters at all. There was some characterization at the start but very little after that, and all the action left little space to learn about the characters. This in turn made it difficult to care about the action. The action is well written but there aren’t any significant breaks from it after it starts; it became tedious after a while.
The world building was intriguing at the start but after a while of not getting more it started to feel a little bit bare bones. Just a generic roman-ish empire in a mostly generic fantasy world. The other races are talked about a little bit but there isn’t nearly enough content about them to make them feel like fully realized cultures in their own right.
I made it about two thirds of the way through this book before I decided I wasn’t able to finish it. It started off really good. I liked the world building, it has an interesting magic system which is something I like a lot in a fantasy book.
After I got about halfway through the book I realized that I didn’t care about the characters at all. There was some characterization at the start but very little after that, and all the action left little space to learn about the characters. This in turn made it difficult to care about the action. The action is well written but there aren’t any significant breaks from it after it starts; it became tedious after a while.
The world building was intriguing at the start but after a while of not getting more it started to feel a little bit bare bones. Just a generic roman-ish empire in a mostly generic fantasy world. The other races are talked about a little bit but there isn’t nearly enough content about them to make them feel like fully realized cultures in their own right.
jimber101's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
tense
fast-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? It's complicated
5.0
marvin_wowbagger's review against another edition
5.0
4.5 Stars. Although FOC doesn't break any new ground, Butcher's talent at crafting both good characters and excellent pacing made this book a fun read.
ml3barr's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
relaxing
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Not a bad start to a series. I couldn't help but think that the creatures that give the humans their powers are slaves, but according to Brandon Sanderson, they're based off Pokemon, so they really are slaves. Also gave me an idea for my own fantasy books though (not the slaves bit). There was already a betrayal that didn't hit that hard because we have no context, so maybe it'll hurt more later. Didn't get more context so it was otherwise a solid start to a fantasy series
thejestess's review against another edition
3.0
I think if I had found this in high school I would have enjoyed it a lot more/it would have a higher rating. Some parts of it were very neat! Some parts of it made me make faces. On the whole I appreciated the variety of characters and relationships we got, but I think I would've been well-served by a cheat sheet of who was who at first, especially for the similar sounding names!