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A review by foolishrogue
King of Immortal Tithe by Ben Alderson
2.0
I won't lie, I was lured into this series by the pretty cover art. This book is badly in need of editing. There are many grammar and punctuation errors dotted through the book. Not to mention there are many areas of the book that desperately need fleshing out or adjusting. This reads like a first draft. No proof reading was done. The same goes for the first book in the series - and I have a feeling the next one will be much the same.
The dialogue in the first book was pretty poor. However, I feel that Alderson has improved in that regard somewhat in this book.
Interesting retelling of Hades and Persephone, but poorly executed. The concept of the vampire curse from the previous book taking over the world being the setup for the story was a very interesting idea, I liked the premise. Hera being Hades' grandmother is.... weird, but again an interesting twist. I was willing to let that go.
The setup for Faenir stealing Arlo away to the fae realm was poorly executed - Faenir unrepentantly killing Tom and his family, and Arlo barely reacting to it and then forgetting about it, felt very unrealistic. Even though Arlo did not care for Tom I feel that there should have been a bit more there.
In the pomegranate scene, Faenir touches a fruit causing it to rot, but then the discussion turns to him eating. How is Faenir able to eat if everything he touches dies? It reminded me of the philosophical question - at what point is a strawberry actually dead? No answers here I'm afraid and the cognitive dissonance of this scene stuck in my mind.
The romantic buildup was pretty bad - The jump from Arlo hating Faenir to liking him was too sudden. Realistically speaking, hearing of Faenir's tragic childhood would garner sympathy and understanding, but would NOT translate to instant love like it did here. It would have been nice to see a build up Faenir being kind/opening up more and Arlo noticing the subtle changes in behaviour. I felt there was no emotional connection there.
And it all fell apart at the ending. Saw it coming a mile away, and it was still a yikes all around.
The dialogue in the first book was pretty poor. However, I feel that Alderson has improved in that regard somewhat in this book.
Interesting retelling of Hades and Persephone, but poorly executed. The concept of the vampire curse from the previous book taking over the world being the setup for the story was a very interesting idea, I liked the premise. Hera being Hades' grandmother is.... weird, but again an interesting twist. I was willing to let that go.
The setup for Faenir stealing Arlo away to the fae realm was poorly executed - Faenir unrepentantly killing Tom and his family, and Arlo barely reacting to it and then forgetting about it, felt very unrealistic. Even though Arlo did not care for Tom I feel that there should have been a bit more there.
In the pomegranate scene, Faenir touches a fruit causing it to rot, but then the discussion turns to him eating. How is Faenir able to eat if everything he touches dies? It reminded me of the philosophical question - at what point is a strawberry actually dead? No answers here I'm afraid and the cognitive dissonance of this scene stuck in my mind.
The romantic buildup was pretty bad - The jump from Arlo hating Faenir to liking him was too sudden. Realistically speaking, hearing of Faenir's tragic childhood would garner sympathy and understanding, but would NOT translate to instant love like it did here. It would have been nice to see a build up Faenir being kind/opening up more and Arlo noticing the subtle changes in behaviour. I felt there was no emotional connection there.
And it all fell apart at the ending. Saw it coming a mile away, and it was still a yikes all around.