A review by midrel
Kings and Assassins by Lane Robins
3.0
Starting a few months after the end of Maledicte and focusing on Janus, the book offers a quick travail about the latter's adventures on the wake of Aris' sudden murder.
Overall, I feel like this book was much better writing. The pacing, which was the main drag of the earlier story, here improves dramatically, almost always succeeding at keeping things at an eventful, page-turning pace.
Other things take a sullen dip for the worse, unfortunately. First, there's some silly inconsistencies I could not help but remark.
Then of course we have Dimitri surviving being set on fire by Ivor just long enough to sign a confession before dying. That reeked of Deux-Ex-Machina and pretty much killed much of the remaining drama regarding the prince ascendant.
The Kingmaker's presence in the story also felt as useless as Aris' was in the first book. Much ado leading to absolutely nothing.
Counter-balancing these, I really loved Psyke as a character. I found her very intriguing. I also loved delving more deeply into Janus' head. He made for a very interesting main character. Makes me sad the author decided to close the curtains so abruptly instead of granting us some kind of epilogue with all the surviving players. I really would have liked to see Janus finding happiness with his wife.
So, yeah, overall, I really think if you liked Maledicte you will love this entry as well. Its not quite as good as the first, overall, this must be admitted, but more consistently good thorough the pages, if that makes sense.
Overall, I feel like this book was much better writing. The pacing, which was the main drag of the earlier story, here improves dramatically, almost always succeeding at keeping things at an eventful, page-turning pace.
Other things take a sullen dip for the worse, unfortunately. First, there's some silly inconsistencies I could not help but remark.
Spoiler
Like, Savne is sent by the Duchess to waylay Janus, but conveniently doesnt give him the poison she obviously possesses. Psyke assumes she doesnt know it works, but it still feels pretty silly and stupid and forces both characters to come across as simply dumb, which fits the fit but not so much the second.Then of course we have Dimitri surviving being set on fire by Ivor just long enough to sign a confession before dying. That reeked of Deux-Ex-Machina and pretty much killed much of the remaining drama regarding the prince ascendant.
The Kingmaker's presence in the story also felt as useless as Aris' was in the first book. Much ado leading to absolutely nothing.
Counter-balancing these, I really loved Psyke as a character. I found her very intriguing. I also loved delving more deeply into Janus' head. He made for a very interesting main character. Makes me sad the author decided to close the curtains so abruptly instead of granting us some kind of epilogue with all the surviving players. I really would have liked to see Janus finding happiness with his wife.
So, yeah, overall, I really think if you liked Maledicte you will love this entry as well. Its not quite as good as the first, overall, this must be admitted, but more consistently good thorough the pages, if that makes sense.