Reviews

Honestly, this book deserves 5/5 stars, but I can't bring myself to do it. The scenes of Hugh abusing Liath over and over and over again leave me traumatized along with her. He put a whole castle to sleep in order to rape her! And then steals her book, takes all the praise and responsibility for saving people from the fire Liath set in order to escape his clutches (and she then ran in to rescue all the magically asleep people), and goes on to help the princess birth their child. It's despicable. It's beyond despicable, since even if Hugh is a terrible person somehow no one else sees it. He can do the worst deeds known to man: physical, emotional, sexual abuse, theft, murder, and no one bats an eye. Not only do they not bat an eye, they often praise him for his valor and other such virtues one can really not ascribe to him.

In my eyes this is the absolute worst line of the entire book:

"... to the efforts of my faithful clerics who rescued my treasury and much of the business of the court, and mostly to Father Hugh. He stayed to the end until all who could be brought out of the fire were saved. He risked his own life with no thought for himself." - King Henry

Liath should have called that fire down on Hugh himself and damn the consequences. I tire of his bullying. I don't think I can continue this series if he is not somehow punished or has some kind of backlash via the author / story.

I'll probably write a more coherent review when I'm not all tangled up by his horrible Hughness.

storytimed's review against another edition

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4.0

Quite good. Hasn't hit maximum bloat yet.

Best parts: Eagle adventures, Alain settling into Counthood (so good, especially him keeping his compassion and learning the responsibility of rule), Theophanu's first little subplot, FIFTH SON, MY FAVE, PRECIOUS DARLING DEAR. The battle of Gent is... okay? Nothing very much happens in this installment, tbh. I did like all the adult humans in Gent working to get the kids out.

masn's review against another edition

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2.0

As opposed to the first book, there's about 75 pages in here that are interesting. There are plot lines that I'm really interested in and would like to see continue, but is it worth having to slog through 600 pages of religious dogma? Hmmmm..... no. I gave up on the series after this.

book_reading_billy44's review

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3.0

Interesting enough, but gets bogged down quite heavily meaning the plot Labours quite a bit. This meant by the three quarter mark I’d lost interest in what was going on.

I’m going to bail out of the series at this point as there’s another 5 books in the series, and I’m not invested enough to continue on with the journey.

snazel's review against another edition

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4.0

I do not know why I find this series about bloody war, sorcerers, dragon-vikings, and the fae so soothing, but I do. Maybe because it is stuffed right to the brim with classic medieval references and texts that are just slightly, delightfully different? Heleniad instead of the Odyssey, church council deciding against jesus's divinity instead of for, women being considered natural scholars? This is like a fantastic pan of brownies for me and I never want it to end.

Also I guess the fact that I trust that the author is going to get the characters through this is pretty important. If you get a POV, I know you're gonna survive, even if you have to live through horrible stuff. I think. I kinda mostly trust.

radioactve_piano's review against another edition

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3.0

Oh, what can I say I learned aside from the fact that I apparently like to check out with mindless fantasy novels. Better than the first (or am I just used to the writing style now?), with a few more integral characters to follow.

vaderbird's review

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4.0

5 star - Perfect
4 star - i would recommend
3 star - good
2 star - struggled to complete
1 star - could not finish

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