jdashcastillo's review against another edition
4.0
“She tried hard to be a villain. But when faced by
real darkness—the thing under the mound—her weakness started to show.”
“It is only slightly less difficult for us to extinguish
the light within us than it is for us to conquer the darkness.”
I’m too tired to do a full review so I’ll say a couple of things. It took me a couple of chapters to get back into the flow of this world but the build up to the actual climax was nice and the last 15 or so chapters were very good. I do think Cook’s work with making fantasy more personal is his forte and being able to humanize and get into everyone’s heads is what I most enjoy reading from this series. His writing also never feels tedious, which is always welcome. This had a satisfactory conclusion for me to the first omnibus of The Black Company so I’ll look to come back to this series soon.
“Silent and I stared at one another. I suspect my face was as
tormented as his. Then he nodded through his tears. There was peace between us.”
real darkness—the thing under the mound—her weakness started to show.”
“It is only slightly less difficult for us to extinguish
the light within us than it is for us to conquer the darkness.”
I’m too tired to do a full review so I’ll say a couple of things. It took me a couple of chapters to get back into the flow of this world but the build up to the actual climax was nice and the last 15 or so chapters were very good. I do think Cook’s work with making fantasy more personal is his forte and being able to humanize and get into everyone’s heads is what I most enjoy reading from this series. His writing also never feels tedious, which is always welcome. This had a satisfactory conclusion for me to the first omnibus of The Black Company so I’ll look to come back to this series soon.
“Silent and I stared at one another. I suspect my face was as
tormented as his. Then he nodded through his tears. There was peace between us.”
willfjennings's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
sad
tense
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
4.25
okenwillow's review against another edition
5.0
Encore plus captivant que le précédent volume, ce 3ème tome gagne en intensité. L’histoire de complique, les personnages ont de plus en plus de nuances et réservent bien des surprises. Je suis emballée !
masong63's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
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
4.75
praetorian333's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
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
5.0
atomicwizard's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
broutt's review against another edition
5.0
Loved it. What a great ending to this part of the story. Part of me is looking at the rest of it thinking how it can possibly continue to be good for 7 more books but I'm just going to enjoy the ride. Croaker is one of my favorite protagonists in a long time. The side characters continue to grow on me and The Lady quickly became one of my favorites in the series.
One of my favorite things about this series so far is how personal it feels. I can't really explain why except the time skips and the history of the company making everything feel more real. It also helps that (so far at least) the main character isn't "the chosen one" or suddenly capable of insane magic. In a series with a lot of overpowered and unexplained magic, it really grounds the story having a narrator who's just a normal dude.
My main issues with the series so far are how confusing the narrative can be at times, and the convenient resolutions to certain events. At times there will be a certain action or decision that needs to be made that could have a lot of complications and instead of explaining how it gets done the author will just cover it with a sentence that essentially says "they did it" and move on. I also have issues with the endings of all 3 of these being pretty anti-climactic up to this point but that also kind of fits with the tone.
Overall I am enjoying this series a lot and I'm glad I finally got around to it. I hope the quality can remain through all 10 books.
One of my favorite things about this series so far is how personal it feels. I can't really explain why except the time skips and the history of the company making everything feel more real. It also helps that (so far at least) the main character isn't "the chosen one" or suddenly capable of insane magic. In a series with a lot of overpowered and unexplained magic, it really grounds the story having a narrator who's just a normal dude.
My main issues with the series so far are how confusing the narrative can be at times, and the convenient resolutions to certain events. At times there will be a certain action or decision that needs to be made that could have a lot of complications and instead of explaining how it gets done the author will just cover it with a sentence that essentially says "they did it" and move on. I also have issues with the endings of all 3 of these being pretty anti-climactic up to this point but that also kind of fits with the tone.
Overall I am enjoying this series a lot and I'm glad I finally got around to it. I hope the quality can remain through all 10 books.