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dragonish's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
I truly enjoyed this read. I received it as an arc and in exchange this is my honest review:
This book took me by surprise and I loved it. In this world all conflict is solved by single warrior combat-even between nations. We follow a disgraced champion of these fights and a young boy with mysterious origins and an unusual strength in combat. Our older, disgraced champion is disillusioned with the shape and hierarchy of his world, but our young fighter might just be able to upset the status quo. The world building of this novel is delectable, I was entrenched from the first chapter. The combat is well written and the author is obviously knowledgeable on martial arts. There’s a level of brutality shown that is equaled by elegance, I must give the author praise for this balance. I would’ve liked to see more character development and growth from our young champion, in many ways he felt like he had a fully formed view of his own ethics that was rarely challenged by his environment. I also wanted to see more of the other castes of people and understand how they lived and operated—I think this will show up and be explored in the next books. This book reminded me of Enders game, red rising, and the hunger games, as well as shows like the mandolorian where there’s a strong adoptive father and a young talented ward against the world. I recommend this book.
This book took me by surprise and I loved it. In this world all conflict is solved by single warrior combat-even between nations. We follow a disgraced champion of these fights and a young boy with mysterious origins and an unusual strength in combat. Our older, disgraced champion is disillusioned with the shape and hierarchy of his world, but our young fighter might just be able to upset the status quo. The world building of this novel is delectable, I was entrenched from the first chapter. The combat is well written and the author is obviously knowledgeable on martial arts. There’s a level of brutality shown that is equaled by elegance, I must give the author praise for this balance. I would’ve liked to see more character development and growth from our young champion, in many ways he felt like he had a fully formed view of his own ethics that was rarely challenged by his environment. I also wanted to see more of the other castes of people and understand how they lived and operated—I think this will show up and be explored in the next books. This book reminded me of Enders game, red rising, and the hunger games, as well as shows like the mandolorian where there’s a strong adoptive father and a young talented ward against the world. I recommend this book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Violence, and Child abuse
mj_james_writes's review against another edition
I tried. This book is extremely male centric with women only being mentioned as a taunt (ie your mother isn’t here) or in terms of sex (brothels or raising their skirts to the famous fighter). That was enough for me to DNF, but the world building was slow and inconsistent and I felt no connection to the characters.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexism and Child abuse
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