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brynalexa's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Blood, Grief, Abandonment, and Alcohol
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Violence, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Rape
laurajeangrace's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Animal death, Death, Murder, and War
Moderate: Confinement, Domestic abuse, Vomit, and Alcohol
Minor: Miscarriage and Pregnancy
talonsontypewriters's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Confinement, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, War, and Classism
Minor: Alcoholism, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicide, Excrement, Kidnapping, and Fire/Fire injury
Corporal punishment/whipping. Poisoning and aftermath. Near drowning.maeverose's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
3.25
Characters
‘The gender of the Fool has been disputed. When directly questioned on this matter by a younger and more forward person than I am now, the Fool replied that it was no one's business but his own.’ — You tell ‘em. (I say, as I’ve decided that he’s transmasc non binary..)
A Note
I was gonna include a whole rant about the never corrected ableism but decided I was being over dramatic so I’ll spare you. I just find it annoying that people only ever seem to care about ‘time period accuracy’ (being as this is clearly based on medieval times) when it allows them to treat their marginalized characters poorly. I know this was written 30 years ago but still. It irked me.
Graphic: Animal death, Death, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Suicide attempt, and Murder
Moderate: Ableism, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Confinement, Eating disorder, Misogyny, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Homophobia, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Racism, Rape, Slavery, and Pregnancy
Graphic: poisoning, telepathic mind rape, mental loss of self (becoming zombie-like), drowning, in one scene a dog is in a lot of pain and distress due to a bone stuck in its throat. Fitz removes it and the dog is fine, but the scene is very graphic. Moderate: self hatred, suicide baiting, eugenics_juriireads_'s review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Moderate: Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Gaslighting, and Abandonment
Minor: Ableism, Animal death, and Miscarriage
booksthatburn's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- 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
The worldbuilding is layered, with things explained as Fitz is told them, supplemented by insights from his older self. This leads to a gradually filled-in impression of a complex setting where details are conveyed as they are necessary, and even more is implied through the narrative. This style lends clarity. He discusses both how he felt at the time, as a child and then a teenager, and what he thinks about those events now that he’s an adult. This becomes especially important during sections such as his time under Galen, as the dissonance intensifies between events as they happened and how he was being conditioned to perceive them. There are several moments where something he does as he’s telling the story is juxtaposed with some assertion made by his younger self, showing how something must have changed in the meantime (presumably to be covered somewhere in the trilogy).
One of my favorite things is his complex relationship with Burrich. How they are to and with each other changes throughout the story. Even when it's changing for the worse, it makes sense, and it's nice to see Fitz's growing understanding of Burrich as a person with his own internal world separate from Fitz. How Fitz views Burrich is often a great proxy for how Fitz is growing and changing, flavored by the dissonance between how Fitz is and how Burrich wants him to be.
There’s a lot of care in the narration, partly due to the balance between Fitz’s memories and his older self’s reactions to and commentaries on the memories, and partly due to what I can best describe as a lack of voyeuristic interest. One of the background plots involves raiders pillaging the coast, and, other than a few scenes where Fitz has to directly fight someone as a result of the raids, there are few descriptions of the kind of violence which accompanies such raids. Said violence is canonically happening, and Fitz frequently discusses the effects he’s observing on the people and the Kingdom which stem from the raids, but in a way that makes sense for his character. This is just one example of how the narration gives the impression of the complexity (and sometimes violence) of Fitz’s world, but does not unnaturally bend his character to direct the story towards it, nor does it shy away when appropriate.
A great start to the series, I'm ready to read the next one.
Graphic: Bullying, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, and Medical content
Moderate: Ableism, Alcoholism, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Excrement, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, and Alcohol
Minor: Miscarriage and Rape
emmeline's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Blood, and Murder
Moderate: Cursing
Minor: Infertility and Miscarriage