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A review by theshaggyshepherd
The Return of the Knights by Gregory Kontaxis
3.0
Return of the Knights started with a bit of action to get your blood flowing before pulling back to a slower pace, which is the way I like to start my books. It felt very much like an introductory novel overall, which isn’t too surprising considering this series is planned to have 5 main books.
This feels like a very ambitious book that some people have compared to ASOIAF, which I personally have not read. Based on what I’ve heard about it though, I can see where the comparison originates. There is a ton of political intrigue and very interesting lore and world-building. You can really tell that the author has put a lot of thought into this, and it’s the part I’m most curious about in future installments for this series.
Sadly though, there are multiple things that I struggled with as well. It was difficult at times to follow the political machinations because there were so many names to keep track of but not enough history with these people yet for them to solidly stick in my memory. While some things felt overly complicated, others felt too simplified in order to fit into the complicated narrative that was needed to move this story along. I do have to say though that this improved some in the second half so I am optimistic moving forward, especially now that we’re a bit more familiar with the characters and setting in general.
Much of the dialogue felt clunky and, for me, the language in it didn’t always fit the world. While I do generally like political intrigue, it occasionally felt a bit too convoluted just for confusion’s sake and that sometimes took the steam out of some of the reveals that otherwise would’ve really surprised me.
In that same vein, the characters didn’t feel quite as fleshed out as I would’ve liked. They felt somewhat one-dimensional for much of the story, which made the ending a little bit anti-climactic because the actions felt more out of character rather than like an unexpected twist that I might’ve appreciated more otherwise. The women especially often felt more like accessories to move the plot along rather than their own characters with motives and feelings.
I do have to say though that for much of the book, I forgot that this was a translation. There were a couple of words that felt out of place but overall, this was a really smooth reading experience in that regard. I’ve read a different translated series before that ended up not working for me and I suspect it was due to the translation as the original received a lot of praise. I did not feel the same here so kudos to the translator on that.
This turned out to be a much longer review than I originally anticipated but the book definitely left me with a lot of feelings. The author set a high bar for himself and managed to meet some aspects better than others. Nonetheless, I do think that he is someone to keep an eye on because this ambitious debut lays the groundwork for a series with a lot of potential.
This feels like a very ambitious book that some people have compared to ASOIAF, which I personally have not read. Based on what I’ve heard about it though, I can see where the comparison originates. There is a ton of political intrigue and very interesting lore and world-building. You can really tell that the author has put a lot of thought into this, and it’s the part I’m most curious about in future installments for this series.
Sadly though, there are multiple things that I struggled with as well. It was difficult at times to follow the political machinations because there were so many names to keep track of but not enough history with these people yet for them to solidly stick in my memory. While some things felt overly complicated, others felt too simplified in order to fit into the complicated narrative that was needed to move this story along. I do have to say though that this improved some in the second half so I am optimistic moving forward, especially now that we’re a bit more familiar with the characters and setting in general.
Much of the dialogue felt clunky and, for me, the language in it didn’t always fit the world. While I do generally like political intrigue, it occasionally felt a bit too convoluted just for confusion’s sake and that sometimes took the steam out of some of the reveals that otherwise would’ve really surprised me.
In that same vein, the characters didn’t feel quite as fleshed out as I would’ve liked. They felt somewhat one-dimensional for much of the story, which made the ending a little bit anti-climactic because the actions felt more out of character rather than like an unexpected twist that I might’ve appreciated more otherwise. The women especially often felt more like accessories to move the plot along rather than their own characters with motives and feelings.
I do have to say though that for much of the book, I forgot that this was a translation. There were a couple of words that felt out of place but overall, this was a really smooth reading experience in that regard. I’ve read a different translated series before that ended up not working for me and I suspect it was due to the translation as the original received a lot of praise. I did not feel the same here so kudos to the translator on that.
This turned out to be a much longer review than I originally anticipated but the book definitely left me with a lot of feelings. The author set a high bar for himself and managed to meet some aspects better than others. Nonetheless, I do think that he is someone to keep an eye on because this ambitious debut lays the groundwork for a series with a lot of potential.