Started: 02/06/21
Finished: 05/06/21
Spoilers: No
A reasonable fantasy book, but I wish it was a little stronger.
Characters
I didn't form a strong connection to Girton, or any of the characters, for that matters. I think this is why I had a hard time really getting into the story. If I can’t connect to the characters, then I struggle to invest in the story. I’m a character-driven reader, and even though there was plenty of interesting stuff revealed about the characters, I guess I just didn’t find it that interesting when it was finally revealed. I don’t think enough hints were dropped. Girton’s true identity is revealed as a massive plot twist, but because his identity is never perceived as a mystery in the first place, the big reveal fell flat for me. It just sort of comes out of nowhere and I don't feel like I was given enough reason to care about Girton's true identity.
And the near-constant reminder that Girton has a club-foot got pretty annoying. Like every chapter, sometimes more than once, we're reminded that Girton has club-foot. Like I get that it's a big part of who he is, but surely it's not the sum of his existence. It's not a condition I've ever seen in a book before so it's not something I'm likely to forget after a few pages.
Plot
Less of an assassin vs assassin story and more of a detective novel. If you go into it expecting the latter, I think you'll have a good time with it.
Girton, our pov assassin, spends more time interviewing people trying to gather enough information to find a secret assassin, than he does actually assassinating people. Got to admit, I was expecting a tad more assassinations.
Though not quite what I thought it was going to be, still an enjoyable story. It's a pretty solid fantasy book, if not a little tame. Perhaps I've been reading too much grimdark, but this book didn't particularly excite me. I was interested enough in what was happening but it wasn't a thrilling read for me. A little bit too staid for my taste.
On a side note, I don't like when people do bad things to animals and get away with it. Thankfully things were put to rights and I was left satisfied. It saved the book for me.
Setting
Some interesting foundations were laid in terms of world-building that I imagine will be built upon in the next books. I wish they were explored a bit more in this book as I think the world was one of the more interesting aspects. The prejudice against sorcerers and the subsequent wars because of them was something I would have liked to learn more about.
Also, Festival was a cool idea. I enjoyed the idea of basically a travelling party-town, but again, it just felt a tad lacking. My visuals of Festival feel very fleeting and I think so much more could've been done with it to really bring it to life. But on the whole, the world-building was an interesting start. I just would’ve liked a whole lot more. Y’know, it’s like a jigsaw puzzle. The edges have all been laid out, but the main picture hasn’t been put together yet. I can grasp the general shape of this world, but I can’t yet see what it looks like on the whole.
Writing Style
Something I noticed very early on was the lack of contraction in the dialogue and basically the entire narrative. Everything is ‘did not’ and ‘I am’ or ‘I have’ rather than just didn’t, I’m or I’ve. I understand this is obviously just how people talk in this world, but in dialogue, it feels so unnatural and grating. There’s something almost robotic to a character saying ‘I do not know,’ instead of ‘I don’t know.’
I don’t quite know how to describe it exactly, but this book feels almost like entry-level fantasy. It’s quite basic, completely undemanding in terms of plot, world-building, and characterisation. Easy to digest and absorb. It doesn’t require a PHD to figure out everything going on. Basically, what I’m saying is, if someone has never read fantasy before and wants to get into it, I’d probably suggest this book. If Tolkien, for instance, was considered hard-fantasy, this book is most definitely soft-fantasy. It would be a perfect starting point for fantasy newbies, but I think fantasy veterans might expect a little more meat on the bone.
Final Impression
I already own the other two books, so the decision to continue is more easily made. I think I’m interested enough to try the next one but I’m not dying to see what happens next. I worry that if I don’t jump into the next one sooner rather than later then I’ll lose interest entirely, but I honestly didn’t find it a strong enough book to binge the entire series. I will likely continue in the future though.
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