Reviews with content warning for War - Malice

I came into this book expecting, well, better... I heard about it from people whose opinion on books I value due to other recommendations and books I like that they like, but I'm left disappointed. It's starts slow, kind of interesting but nothing much happenes. And it starts with what I'd call beginner's mistakes with writing. I'm not saying the writing isn't good, because I did enjoy the book and it was easier to read than some other high fantasy books I've read before. Nevertheless, I spent the first 100 pages commenting on the writing, things that lacked excitement, or tension, or just unecessary uses of the words "then" and "suddenly" which most of the time had me read again.

I decided to try not to focus on that (but as a writer it's hard), and I did actually enjoy the book. It picked up the things I commented on in the beginning and they didn't appear by the second half of the book. I am thankful for that because if it did, I'm not sure I would've made it through.

With that said, the story itself is intriguing and, despite only giving this 3 starts, I will pick up the next book mainly because I want to know what happens to the characters I like and if my countless predictions are correct. As with any intriguing book, it's always nice to know when you've noticed the foreshadowing.

Now, I gave minus one start, maybe some more, due to the annoyance of the writing at the start. But the rest of the minus goes to the dislike of characters, generally. I absolutely adore Corban, and Cywen and most of the people that are part of those POVs. I liked Veradis and Kastell the first few times I read their chapters, btu eventually, I came to be completely indifferent towards them. Even if what their chapters were about, I wanted to skip them, and that is a major downside to a book. I want to be engaged all the way through, I want to want to read every POV, but frankly, only Corban's really made me keep reading. He's also the main reason I'm reading on, because I like him and I want to know what happenes to him next.

I don't actually know if this books is worth picking up. It's definitely intriguing in it's own way, and reminds of Game of Thrones with the intrigues and games played, but it also has some originialty. I do wish, that for once, I could pick up a high fantasy written by a man that isn't also misogynistic (because that is a choice they all make and it's annoying), that said the female characters were well written and I am thankful for that.

I don't know what more to say. Kinda annoyed I didn't like this considering all the five stars, but you can't like everything.

Content Warnings