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A review by willrefuge
La compagnia della spada. Gli spietati by Luke Scull
4.0
I'm honestly not sure what to make of this book.
It was much more difficult to get into than its predecessor. Even when I was a couple hundred pages in, I was thinking about switching to something more interesting. But I didn't.
The characters have done some growing up from the Grim Company, and their storylines have changed accordingly. The Hero, Cole, is actually a much better read. It was his chapters I found myself looking forward to the most. The Addict seems to have changed little from the first book, though her circumstances grow more dire. The Sword of the North-namesake of the book-now has a pair of POV chapters; one a series of flashbacks, the other set in the present. Though entertaining, these grow darker as the story progresses and it is only through the introduction of some new companions that the arc remained hopeful enough to read. The Halfmage has grown in this book, as well. Well, not GROWN, but he's a bit more, well, more SOMETHING. His chapters weren't lively enough to thrill, nor lowly enough to depress. They simply were. The Sorceress began where her plot left off in the last, and continued to the inevitable point everyone could see coming.
There is but one new POV, to replace Barandas. The Iron Man is a bit more depressing a read than Kayne, though for a different reason. He's an entirely hateable character, but his chapters aren't as bad as many others.
All in all, well, I suppose I would recommend this.
I really only managed to get into the story at around the 300-page-mark, and by then there wasn't a whole lot of meat left to it. But it WAS entertaining. And it did progress the plot. And we are working towards a very real conclusion. And I did read this in a little over a week.
So.
Maybe I'm being too hard on it. Maybe I have faith for the next one. Maybe it's hard to write a novel, especially a sequel. Just look at the second Ravens' Shadow book.
I dunno, somewhere between 3.5-4 stars.
It was much more difficult to get into than its predecessor. Even when I was a couple hundred pages in, I was thinking about switching to something more interesting. But I didn't.
The characters have done some growing up from the Grim Company, and their storylines have changed accordingly. The Hero, Cole, is actually a much better read. It was his chapters I found myself looking forward to the most. The Addict seems to have changed little from the first book, though her circumstances grow more dire. The Sword of the North-namesake of the book-now has a pair of POV chapters; one a series of flashbacks, the other set in the present. Though entertaining, these grow darker as the story progresses and it is only through the introduction of some new companions that the arc remained hopeful enough to read. The Halfmage has grown in this book, as well. Well, not GROWN, but he's a bit more, well, more SOMETHING. His chapters weren't lively enough to thrill, nor lowly enough to depress. They simply were. The Sorceress began where her plot left off in the last, and continued to the inevitable point everyone could see coming.
There is but one new POV, to replace Barandas. The Iron Man is a bit more depressing a read than Kayne, though for a different reason. He's an entirely hateable character, but his chapters aren't as bad as many others.
All in all, well, I suppose I would recommend this.
I really only managed to get into the story at around the 300-page-mark, and by then there wasn't a whole lot of meat left to it. But it WAS entertaining. And it did progress the plot. And we are working towards a very real conclusion. And I did read this in a little over a week.
So.
Maybe I'm being too hard on it. Maybe I have faith for the next one. Maybe it's hard to write a novel, especially a sequel. Just look at the second Ravens' Shadow book.
I dunno, somewhere between 3.5-4 stars.