Started: 09/05/21
Finished: 21/05/21
Spoilers: No
So good! So good! So bloody good!
Characters
I do you love you for more than the beauty of your cock, remember, Orhan.
Oh, I’m so glad we got to see more of Orhan and Darath. These two have been through so much together, but I love how despite everything thrown at them, nothing ever comes between them. A world in which Orhan and Darath aren’t a team is not a world worth living in.
What I love so much about the characterisation in this book, is how no one is likeable, but everyone is loveable. Let’s take Marith for instance. Marith is a pretty irredeemable character, with all the shit that he’s done. I don’t much like him as a person, and I definitely don’t trust him as far as I could throw him, but I love him. So. Much. Marith is wonderfully complex, and I never know what he’s going to do next.
Tobias, even. Not the most likeable character by a long shot. And yet, I care for him. I don’t want any harm to come to him. I don’t want any harm to come to any of them because even though I don’t really like any of them, I equally love all of them.
Plot
Book two picks up the story exactly where book one put it down. And, man, if I thought book one had awesome, intense battle scenes. This book is bloody fantastic. I love a good battle, and this book delivered, and delivered, and delivered. And didn’t stop delivering until I was practically crying for it to stop.
Just kidding. I love the violence.
I have no idea how this story is going to continue in book three, let alone how the entire thing is going to end. Marith is so powerful. Too powerful, even. He’s reckless, and a warmonger, and quite insane. And though I love him, I also know that he surely needs to die……right? I don’t want him to die, of course, but he’s too dangerous and too powerful to be allowed to live. He won’t stop conquering. He’s addicted to killing, and killing, and killing. But also I don’t want him to die.
Ahhh! I’m so conflicted. That’s a credit to how well this is written. For me to love a character I don’t even like and want him to succeed, but also realise the only way the world can live peacefully is for him to die. Man, this is so superbly written.
Setting
I used the map a lot more in this one, what with Marith invading half the known world. Well, not quite, but soon I expect. I don’t know where Marith is heading next, but I have a feeling he’ll turn his gaze south towards Sorlost before long. In which case, oh god! Please don’t kill Orhan and Darath! I love them!
This whole world feels so realised, but also never stops surprising me. The god creatures with human faces are so weird and freaky, and frightening that it almost disturbs me trying to conjure up images of them. I’ve never had an issue visualising this world. The atmospheric woodlands, and sweeping northern landscapes, the dusty, decaying city of Sorlost. I can see it all, and I actually fear for this world with Marith in it.
Writing Style
But can we talk about how remarkably this series is written? I think most books follow the basic three-act structure, and within that structure are certain plot beats that need to be hit at certain points in order to keep the pacing smooth and the narrative flowing. Normally I can pinpoint certain shifts from one plot beat into another, and so also have an understanding of where the story may go next and what might happen. (This is a good thing. Set plot beats are what makes so many books compulsively readable.)
However, in this entire series so far, I haven’t noticed a single traditional plot beat pass me by. This isn’t traditional storytelling at all. And because, to me at least, it doesn’t feel like it’s following any preordained narrative structure, I haven’t absolutely no idea where this story is going next.
And I’ve never been so excited to find out. I still have one more book left, and I literally have no clue what’s going to happen. It’s that wonderful?
Final Impression
Well, I already started book three. So you know what I’m going to be reading next.
I haven’t binged an entire series like this in a long time, and I think this was exactly what I needed to remind me just how much I love reading. God, the series is so fantastic!
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