Reviews with content warning for Fire/Fire injury - Le Roi écorché

It is difficult to understand what keeps driving Jorg Ancrath while death and tragedy follows and so much stands in his way.
The narrative, like in the previous book, goes back and forth four years, this time jumping from the last months of his fourteens, showing him lose his memories after some atrocity and defining moment that he is made or pushed to forget and trap in a box, he also loses a great friend, but sees the world, finds his feelings, gains family and new friends and also a chance, to the day in his late eighteens that he is getting married while reacting to be attacked by the Prince of Arrow, the lauded and prophesied future emperor.
This change in the narrative is sometimes difficult to follow but it does make for a very tense, surprise filled and interesting read.
Still, the question remains for me, what drives him to face and conquer the dreams that Sageous puts in his head? Is another manipulating him instead? On the first book part was revenge part was his brain being played with, but what about now, what drives him to kill everyone and bleed the world so he can become emperor? Not love, not being a good emperor, I don’t think, not even wining the Hundred Years’ War and unifying the kingdoms. Not even power I bet. He seems only mad, broken, lost, and terrifying.
I liked this second book better than the first, the writing has improved and the added details to the plot and character arc were pretty awesome even the brutal ones, but I’m still not wholly convinced with the plot and the drive of the main character, although I like the mystery and glimpses of the past of the Broken Empire and the builders - the ancient people of before, and like the idea of the new awaken and broken veils that give magic and bring forth new inhuman foes, and also like Jorg’s interactions with the others even the gruesome ones, and how he plans his conquering majestic plans, I still can’t rate it higher because I still can’t understand why though, why he does all that? Why not just let it be?
Maybe I’ll get to know the answer on the last one.

Content Warnings

cygny's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

4.5

"Somewhere along the line Makin turned from my rescuer, sent out by Father to recover me, into a follower, and ever since he decided to follow my lead the man had been teaching me. Not with books and charts like Tutor Lundist but in that sneaky, indirect way the Nuban had, the kind of way that gets under your skin and turns you slowly by example."

I'll start by saying I read this for the most part as audiobook. I had the physical copy from the library but I listened to the most of it, apart from the last 150 pages or so. I'm not sure if it was purely due to the audio or that I would have thought some of the following things if I had just read it.

I was confused several times in the first few hundred pages. We had several time shifts (each chapter did say when we were, but sometimes I really wondered where I was exactly in the story) and added to that the diary, which was from another POV. A lot of things happened quickly, small events following one after the other and I wondered what was the use, why they were mentioned. Most of them made sense in the end, but there were so many that I probably can't even remember it all.

But this being said, I really loved it a lot and do plan on buying the books and reading them again. You can definitely see a change in Jorg. He claims it is due to a certain event but I don't agree with that. I felt he had grown on himself, the fact that he was now responsible for so many, the fact that he had good men who were giving the right example, must have done at least something to him. Don't get me wrong, he is still an evil man who does evil things, but he also does good things. And I felt he didn't just do it for himself or his goals.

I loved the relationship he had with certain characters. I loved some of the new introduced characters and was really sad when some old ones died. I kept waiting for more of them to die but at least some were spared.

Still love the idea of the Builders and to find out extra little fragments about them. Really hope it all will be explained. Also love the name Builders, instead of Old ones or something.

I'm still confused about the magic wielders and what their final goal is. I still wonder about how much of what Jorg has done, really were his ideas and how many were whispered to him. I knew very early on about a certain ghost who was following him but the final discovery really made me so sad for Jorg and made me wonder how many motives were not his own. I hope to find out all about it in the final book.

And then I have all these HBTs (Half Baked Theories). I will forget about them since I can't annotate in audio or library books and that's why I need to reread and add all the stickies.

Content Warnings

m3gan0's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

More...