sleepyplushie's review against another edition
2.0
Rating: 2.5/5
I was lucky to to have just finished Blood Song recently, and to my utter delight, its sequel, Tower Lord, was due for release not long after. I was excited! There would be no year long wait to see what happens to Vaelin as he journeys back home after 5 long years of absence. The book description only served to heighten my appetite as it sounded like Vaelin would have to face more hardships, tough decisions and grave responsibilities ahead.
It's unfortunate that after all the excitement, I couldn't but feel a bit cheated with Tower Lord. I feel deceived because the title and the inner jacket synopsis is very misleading. By reading the book description, you'd expect the book to be centered on Vaelin's exploits as the titular "Tower Lord". There isn't an inkling that the so called "Tower Lord" would in fact only be featured in a mere 25% of the book! There are also no indications that the story would turn Vaelin's story as the Tower Lord into more of a sideshow, while dividing the rest of its attention to 3 other character's stories. Nope, there's absolutely no mention of any of the other POV characters in the blurb at all. So to say I was caught off guard is putting it mildly.
Still, after the initial confusion, I continued on, hoping the different POVs would somehow converge and tie in with Vaelin's. I had hoped each story would be an individual thread that would eventually come together, with Vaelin's acting as the center, and weave a brilliant tapestry. Sadly, the flames of hope never became anything but a pitiful smoulder. Rather than using the other POVs to compliment Vaelin's story, or to do some inter-character development along side him, the POVs for the most part were separate and didn't have much to do with each other.
I have nothing against books with multiple POVs, but when the first book is written entirely in one person's point of view, a sudden change in format like this must be dealt deftly, since most people can get really attached to the main voice. Perhaps my opinions would have been different if I didn't just finish reading Blood Song and had time to distant myself from Vaelin's voice, but as it stands, I'm still very much attached to him. I wanted to see more of Vaelin, and not have him only occupy a quarter of the book. That and often doing some pretty mundane things as well. Needless to say, I felt these new POVs took away too much focus from his story. All of Vaelin's efforts and heroism from the last book felt trivialized and pushed aside for these characters I cared less about.
Also, a huge draw of Blood Song for me was the camaraderie between Vaelin and his Sixth Order brothers, but unfortunately that was barely to be found here. Caenis, for instance, was someone I was very interested to see a POV from, but he was not given one and had a relatively minor role. Not to mention, his cold attitude towards Vaelin felt abrupt. Frentis is my second favourite character from Blood Song and I was ecstatic he got his own POV. However, after a few chapters from him, I started to find myself skimming through his story, hoping he would
While I appreciate Ryan's attempt to diversify his narrative by adding more female characters, and writing in two strong female POVs, they did not evoke enough empathy for me to care about them in a significant way. Princess Lyrna is one of my least favourite character from Blood Song, and her POV did nothing to change those feelings. Her story did not inspire much sympathy or interest from me. I actually like Reva, but as a new character, she had a lot ground to cover in order to catch up to characters I've already spend a lot of time with and developed affections to. Moreover, while her story does diverge later, she interacts a lot with Vaelin, which in all honesty, her POV could probably be taken out and be told from his point of view. As it is, I felt it eroded too much into his POV.
I wished Anthony Ryan kept the same POV format as Blood Song, or at least utilized the multiple POV format from the very beginning, rather than introducing it now. Due to it's singular POV focus, Blood Song was able to cover a large amount of plot over a long expanse of time, making the book feel packed and rich. On the other hand, while Tower Lord's splitting of the story into 4 POVs that runs parallel within a much shorter timeline allows readers to see the world with a wider scope, it also makes its plot feel much thinner. It also doesn't help that Tower Lord sometimes feels like an overly long 600 page set up for the next book, especially when seen in the light of its non-conclusion ending. Blood Song, while promises more to come, at least had a satisfying end. Now, I have to probably wait years before any satisfying conclusion would be met.
The new change in format is definitely going to split the opinions of the fans of the first book. Looking at the current reviews on Amazon.com will confirm this. People who want to see the story take a broader, epic scope and through different perspectives are going to love the new change. However, people who fell in love with Vaelin and expected the story to continue to focus on his journey is going to be sorely disappointed. I unfortunately fall in the second category.
I was lucky to to have just finished Blood Song recently, and to my utter delight, its sequel, Tower Lord, was due for release not long after. I was excited! There would be no year long wait to see what happens to Vaelin as he journeys back home after 5 long years of absence. The book description only served to heighten my appetite as it sounded like Vaelin would have to face more hardships, tough decisions and grave responsibilities ahead.
It's unfortunate that after all the excitement, I couldn't but feel a bit cheated with Tower Lord. I feel deceived because the title and the inner jacket synopsis is very misleading. By reading the book description, you'd expect the book to be centered on Vaelin's exploits as the titular "Tower Lord". There isn't an inkling that the so called "Tower Lord" would in fact only be featured in a mere 25% of the book! There are also no indications that the story would turn Vaelin's story as the Tower Lord into more of a sideshow, while dividing the rest of its attention to 3 other character's stories. Nope, there's absolutely no mention of any of the other POV characters in the blurb at all. So to say I was caught off guard is putting it mildly.
Still, after the initial confusion, I continued on, hoping the different POVs would somehow converge and tie in with Vaelin's. I had hoped each story would be an individual thread that would eventually come together, with Vaelin's acting as the center, and weave a brilliant tapestry. Sadly, the flames of hope never became anything but a pitiful smoulder. Rather than using the other POVs to compliment Vaelin's story, or to do some inter-character development along side him, the POVs for the most part were separate and didn't have much to do with each other.
I have nothing against books with multiple POVs, but when the first book is written entirely in one person's point of view, a sudden change in format like this must be dealt deftly, since most people can get really attached to the main voice. Perhaps my opinions would have been different if I didn't just finish reading Blood Song and had time to distant myself from Vaelin's voice, but as it stands, I'm still very much attached to him. I wanted to see more of Vaelin, and not have him only occupy a quarter of the book. That and often doing some pretty mundane things as well. Needless to say, I felt these new POVs took away too much focus from his story. All of Vaelin's efforts and heroism from the last book felt trivialized and pushed aside for these characters I cared less about.
Also, a huge draw of Blood Song for me was the camaraderie between Vaelin and his Sixth Order brothers, but unfortunately that was barely to be found here. Caenis, for instance, was someone I was very interested to see a POV from, but he was not given one and had a relatively minor role. Not to mention, his cold attitude towards Vaelin felt abrupt. Frentis is my second favourite character from Blood Song and I was ecstatic he got his own POV. However, after a few chapters from him, I started to find myself skimming through his story, hoping he would
Spoiler
triumph over his ordeal already and meet up with Vaelin so they can kick some major butts together. That never happened. To my frustration, their journeys never intersected at all.While I appreciate Ryan's attempt to diversify his narrative by adding more female characters, and writing in two strong female POVs, they did not evoke enough empathy for me to care about them in a significant way. Princess Lyrna is one of my least favourite character from Blood Song, and her POV did nothing to change those feelings. Her story did not inspire much sympathy or interest from me. I actually like Reva, but as a new character, she had a lot ground to cover in order to catch up to characters I've already spend a lot of time with and developed affections to. Moreover, while her story does diverge later, she interacts a lot with Vaelin, which in all honesty, her POV could probably be taken out and be told from his point of view. As it is, I felt it eroded too much into his POV.
I wished Anthony Ryan kept the same POV format as Blood Song, or at least utilized the multiple POV format from the very beginning, rather than introducing it now. Due to it's singular POV focus, Blood Song was able to cover a large amount of plot over a long expanse of time, making the book feel packed and rich. On the other hand, while Tower Lord's splitting of the story into 4 POVs that runs parallel within a much shorter timeline allows readers to see the world with a wider scope, it also makes its plot feel much thinner. It also doesn't help that Tower Lord sometimes feels like an overly long 600 page set up for the next book, especially when seen in the light of its non-conclusion ending. Blood Song, while promises more to come, at least had a satisfying end. Now, I have to probably wait years before any satisfying conclusion would be met.
The new change in format is definitely going to split the opinions of the fans of the first book. Looking at the current reviews on Amazon.com will confirm this. People who want to see the story take a broader, epic scope and through different perspectives are going to love the new change. However, people who fell in love with Vaelin and expected the story to continue to focus on his journey is going to be sorely disappointed. I unfortunately fall in the second category.
naomielaine's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- 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
4.25
hannah25_00's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
tense
medium-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? Yes
3.75
smiley_kylie's review against another edition
3.0
As much as I enjoyed Blood Song, Tower Lord had me far less captivated.
It isn't a bad book - it is well written, has an interesting plot, and follows cool characters. My struggle is with the switch from a single POV (Vaelin) in the first book to multiple POVs in this book. Normally, that would be fine with me if it enhanced the story or added to the main character's plot. This instead feels more like flipping between four independent stories that happen to be set in the same world/time. There were a series of battles to conclude this book, but it feels very much like its main purpose is to set up for the next book (that's what I'm hoping anyways!).
I will say, Lyrna was a character I was hoping to see more of after reading Blood Song, so I am happy she is one of the POVs in Tower Lord. I enjoyed her character arc the most.
It isn't a bad book - it is well written, has an interesting plot, and follows cool characters. My struggle is with the switch from a single POV (Vaelin) in the first book to multiple POVs in this book. Normally, that would be fine with me if it enhanced the story or added to the main character's plot. This instead feels more like flipping between four independent stories that happen to be set in the same world/time. There were a series of battles to conclude this book, but it feels very much like its main purpose is to set up for the next book (that's what I'm hoping anyways!).
I will say, Lyrna was a character I was hoping to see more of after reading Blood Song, so I am happy she is one of the POVs in Tower Lord. I enjoyed her character arc the most.
tomwright's review against another edition
4.0
It took me a lot longer to get through Tower Lord than Blood Song. I liked the first better, but still enjoyed this book.
joleness's review against another edition
4.0
4.5 stars.
An epic second installment with lots of action, death and adventure!
I loved that there were multiple storylines. And finally some strong and badass female characters. I really missed that in the first book.
The multiple storylines were a bit confusing at first and it did take me a while to really get into the book. But what an ending! The story went in a very compelling direction and the writing made you feel you were right there.
Can't wait to read the final book!
An epic second installment with lots of action, death and adventure!
I loved that there were multiple storylines. And finally some strong and badass female characters. I really missed that in the first book.
The multiple storylines were a bit confusing at first and it did take me a while to really get into the book. But what an ending! The story went in a very compelling direction and the writing made you feel you were right there.
Can't wait to read the final book!
truthaurdare's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
slow-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? Yes
5.0
anouk_luypaert's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
medium-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
ssner01's review against another edition
4.0
I loved the fact that it was written in different point of views but the amount of names this series has makes me confused from time to time.