A review by aspiringwriter77
The Tyranny of Faith by Richard Swan

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

Shoutout to the 2 to Ramble podcast for their excellent rating system. 

Full Review: 

Overall Enjoyment: 3.5 Stars (Good)

Emotional Impact: 3/5 
This book really hit at the end, with many emotional ups and downs so close together that they almost were simultaneous emotions.
For example, after both Bressinger and Vonvalt go down, there are these two very intense emotional grieving scenes, only for both of them to “wake up” whoch only makes Beessinger’s true death hit harder.
However, there were definitely parts in this book that just didn’t hit for me personally, so I give it 3 stars for emotional impact.

Thought Provoking: 2.5/5 
There was a big theme about the fallibility of the letter of the law and those who enforce it when it comes in conflict with personal ideas of justice. This theme just didn’t hit me as hard as I thought it would. However, this theme isn’t the main focus of the book, so really, it doesn’t detract much from the enjoyment of the book.

Characters: 3.75/5 
The characters in this book are really good.
Vonvalt especially had this really interesting arc where you see him slowly become less and less focused on the letter of the law, and more focused on justice as he feels like it and stopping Claver, going so dar as to kill someone for a crime he never would have killed someone for in the first book. Helena’s character also takes a big step in this book, and the conflict and relationship between her and Vonvalt was really interesting.
 

Plot: 2.75/5: 
I was disappointed by the first 50-60 percent of the plot of this book.
What I was expecting when I opened the book was Vonvalt and Helena, in Sova, dealing with all the various conflicts and conspiracies waiting for then in Sova. What I really wanted was a political intrigue novel, where Vonvalt returns to begin breaking down the political situation between the Mlyanars and the Emperor. And after the first part of the book, where Vonvalt becomes the Master of the Magistratum, and purge the Order of all spies, I was really excited. And then, the book gets sidetracked by a goose chase. And a pretty wild one at that. I believe that besides for setting up the ending, the whole t for Prince Kamil situation was utterly pointless and frankly very boring. 
However, the ending really pulled the plot through, and the twists at the end saved this book and made me want to read the next book.

Worldbuilding: 3.5/5

Overall, I didn’t think much of the worldbuilding in the overworld, although I do think that Sova and Keraq were interesting to read about. The afterlife, however, was the star of the show. All the places described in the afterlife were all really unique in their own way, and perfectly amplified the story’s overall dark tone.


Prose: 3/5:
 I think the prose was okay, with the action and emotional scenes being written very well. However there were a bunch of difficult words that kind of slowed the reading down quite a bit, especially near the end where the plot was supposed to be going faster.

Conclusion: This was a good book. It was definitely a step down from the first book, but it held up enough to intrigue me in reading the third book, but I am probably going to wait on continuing the series for now. A solid 3.5 rating for a good book.
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