A review by cousinrachel
The Falcon Throne by Karen Miller
4.0
This resembles A Game of Thrones from the Song of Ice and Fire series in several ways - the medieval setting, grand political conflict, even using George R. R. Martin's phrase "in his cups" to mean drunkenness, unless Martin got that from somewhere else. But it draws characters quite well, not making most of them "good" or "bad," but a combination. Characters evolve over the long span of time, taking a while to show their fundamental nature or motivations; it's often nail-biting to see what choices they will make. Some of them are incredibly stupid and make me want to choke them, but given that real people make incredibly stupid decisions, I don't hold it against the book. I appreciate that the author doesn't make all of them sympathetic or wise, and in fact sometimes made me pity people who also did despicable things, even sympathize with them for doing it. This book is extremely bleak in that well-intentioned people become poisoned by the violence, selfishness, and hierarchical political and social system around them, eventually doing the actions they initially would have condemned. It does have its share of true villainy, though. I want to continue reading the series just to watch a certain person get it. ;)
This author doesn't fool around with long descriptions, unlike Martin or Tolkien. I appreciate world-building, but I want to get to the action, too. This was a major way it didn't lose my interest. At the same time, there are confusing time-jumps, where one chapter suddenly takes place six years after the next and it's difficult to keep up with characters' ages. I might be reading along and it's almost as if Miller mentions offhand, "Oh by the way, six years have passed now, OK back to the action." There isn't much of a natural sense of time passing.
Also unlike Martin, Miller relieves a bit of the darkness with some levity, which I get the sense isn't found in many fantasy series. I hope in the next one she keeps up the humor - wading through so much doom and death gets a bit taxing after a while.
Overall, I quite liked it, although the downhill slide it took in terms of people's moral integrity and any hope for the future was a downer. On the other hand, it was fascinating to read, and it's realistic that life in that setting was grim. Hope Miller brings a bit more encouraging turns of events in the next book to make the payoff worth it.
(By the way, the book description on the site is incorrect: The bastard character's name is Roric, not Ederic.)
This author doesn't fool around with long descriptions, unlike Martin or Tolkien. I appreciate world-building, but I want to get to the action, too. This was a major way it didn't lose my interest. At the same time, there are confusing time-jumps, where one chapter suddenly takes place six years after the next and it's difficult to keep up with characters' ages. I might be reading along and it's almost as if Miller mentions offhand, "Oh by the way, six years have passed now, OK back to the action." There isn't much of a natural sense of time passing.
Also unlike Martin, Miller relieves a bit of the darkness with some levity, which I get the sense isn't found in many fantasy series. I hope in the next one she keeps up the humor - wading through so much doom and death gets a bit taxing after a while.
Overall, I quite liked it, although the downhill slide it took in terms of people's moral integrity and any hope for the future was a downer. On the other hand, it was fascinating to read, and it's realistic that life in that setting was grim. Hope Miller brings a bit more encouraging turns of events in the next book to make the payoff worth it.
(By the way, the book description on the site is incorrect: The bastard character's name is Roric, not Ederic.)