Reviews

The Prophecy Con by Patrick Weekes

elfduchess's review against another edition

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5.0

Reread in July 2021

I...really enjoy this series. Honestly, I wish I could find more books like these: fun books that don't shy away from things. (Also that have a healthy dose of diversity.)

Anyway, like the second book more than the first because everyone seems fleshed out better and like they are in less of a comedy fantasy book and more in a fantasy book where comedy things happen (like, all the time).

Other than that, I just can't figure out why it's taken me so long to reread this series because it is fun!

(Side note: I dithered about adding my m/m tag to this book, but there is a couple scenes between a pov male character and another male character wherein they are going to find a room to rent (and there's enough blushing and innuendo that you know what the room is for) - this is, really, neither more or less attention given to any other pairing in the book - except for Loch's romance, I don't think any of the others have been seen kissing. (Except the manipulator in the first book. I think there was a kiss there.) Anyway, I think you can tell how uncertain I am if I should have this tag here, but it does meet all my requirements and...I had half forgotten about this until I started rereading the series. So, for now, it stays.)

jk_understory's review against another edition

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5.0

Witty, smart, queer-friendly, woman-powered, rollicking adventure! Even better and more fun than the first.

robotnik's review against another edition

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adventurous lighthearted fast-paced

2.0

I don't know, man. I enjoyed The Palace Job a lot, even if it felt less like a well-planned and designed novel and more like the novelization of a group of friends' hilarious yet fun D&D campaign. Not perfect or particularly amazingly done, but an entertaining good time. I didn't feel the same way about The Prophecy Coin. All the flaws from the previous book are still prevalent here without improvement, but I feel that the charm that hid them wasn't really present here.

The first issue I feel is the plot just didn't fly like the first one. The Palace Job was a fairly generic heist with your stereotypical group of fantasy heroes who fall on the wrong side of the law. They needed to steal something and give it back to who they feel is the proper owners. And it worked. The plot to this book is "oops, we need to get the thing back". That's it. Oh, and an overly long and boring game of fictional fantasy poker that partially serves as the book's climax. And they carry it only for about 500 pages, which is at least 100 pages more than it needed.

The strange world building is still prevalent, which may be a personal issue because I'm too used to the more seriously taken worlds in fantasy, but something about it really bugged me and that's the dialogue. It stood out in the previous book but without the entertainment factor letting me ignore it, it really stood out in this book. A lot of the dialogue is very modernized, particularly in Tern and Hessler's flirting. Every time Tern called Hessler 'baby', I was thrown out of the story and she does it pretty much every scene they're in. It just didn't work. It would be less jarring if it wasn't mixed in with several attempts at witty one-liners that felt less like proper dialogue and more like attempts to just be funny.

It felt like it was 75% action scenes. Action scenes are fun until they take up a huge amount of your book and take too long and eventually drag you out of the story. Going from fight to fight works well in a video game, which is what Weekes' primarily writes. It doesn't really work in a novel the same way. 

The Palace Job had a problem with a bit of jumping perspective a lot, but The Prophecy Con took that up to eleven. There is far too many points of view. Like an unnecessarily amount. Loch's gang alone has around eight of them, not including Pyvic who's essentially one of them now, and that's not even half. We get all of them, all the villains, a bunch of side characters and the occasional one-off. Patrick Weekes is not George RR Martin. He cannot write this many POVs and make it work. 

The shining beacon of this series remains the members of Loch's gang who carry the book from being a total failure. Funnily enough, I find Loch the least appealing of the lot. Everyone's more interesting than her. Kail's strangely my favourite. If these guys weren't entertaining together, this book would be an one star sort of book. 

As it stands, I was just interested enough in it to keep reading until the end. The ending promises a third book with a more interesting premise than this one. If it wasn't for that, then I might have called it quits after this one. 

burnet's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful lighthearted fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

local_hat's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

5.0

jog2020's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

ammonoids's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Better than the first book, using the cast well and giving each character a time to shine. The villain was interesting and I really liked the use of elves here. The ending felt a bit lackluster and unearned, though.

thunkr's review against another edition

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5.0

The main story was good, but it was the characters that I LOVED. After reading the first book of the series I thought it was just going to be another build up to a heist job. But coming into this second story I didn't need to learn these characters but, instead, got to know them even better. Each character different and imperfect and radiant. Can't wait to get into the third book.

seshoptaw's review against another edition

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3.0

3*

It some ways, the second installment of the Rogues of the Republic series did not disappoint. The action was constant and surprising and of course, our beloved heist gang is back together.  Weekes continues to <b>nail</b> the humor with his mom jokes (I just <i>love</i> Kail) that somehow make me laugh each and every time <i>yet again</i>, somehow perfectly balancing humor with gravity.  Weekes gets it.  

In addition, that twist towards the end was a surprise for me that I didn't see coming.  It was an interesting betrayal that I really hated (but at the same time, was completely perfect in it's own way - although that probably sounds confusing and contradictory) and the author did a really good job with it.  

However, for me, part of the spark and fun that was in the first book, was somewhat lacking in this book.  I got bored even in the middle of action-packed scenes and it dragged on for me a lot more than the first book.  I'm not sure if the action was just so constant and overwhelming (especially since the team is split up throughout most of the novel and we, as readers, had to keep up with the different actions scenes taking place) or if it was sometimes the repetitive feeling you get from some of the scenes, but I just couldn't get in to this book as much as I wanted to.   But the fact that the team members were so rarely together during this book was something I didn't like at all.  Lock and Pyvic barely exchanged 3 words during the entire novel and had been so much fun to see the team interacting as a <i>team</i> in the first book (and all of the personal exchanges that provided), which you just don't get hardly at all in book 2.  At least 1 person seems to be somewhere else at all times and that makes me sad.  

As I mentioned in my review of The Palace Job, I loved how Loch and her team were able to outsmart and outmaneuver their enemies, adapting their plans (that have more often than not) gone wrong.  It's not that this <i>never</i> happens in The Prophesy Con, it just becomes a lot more rare.  Plans are made, plans fail, and the team is the one that loses this time - and how all of them make it out alive, I'm still not sure.  

From the very beginning, this second heist seems a bit confusing as well.   I was confused about how and why Loch got blamed for EVERYTHING that the villain did in the last novel.  Both the Republic and the Empire want her head - and may I remind everyone that Loch is a just a former <i>scout</i> that has the comparatively low ranking of a mere <i>Captain</i>.  Loch shouldn't have been the end-all, be-all for whether these 2 countries got into a war or not and honestly, I have no idea why exactly this is.  

I also hated the Knights in this novel.  The leader especially just seemed crazed from the very beginning and this increases as Loch and her team continue to evade death and capture.  Although they added some actions sequences, I'm not convinced they were a needed addition and I think they just contributed to drawing out the novel and making it longer than it needed to be.  

Because I had such trouble finishing this book, I'm not sure I'm going to continue the series - despite the missed "your mom" jokes, which I'm sure will be as epic as ever.  Never say never, but I don't really have any plans to get book 3 in the near future.

funkeylock's review against another edition

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adventurous funny inspiring lighthearted 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