Josh

Second attempt to read this. Can't get past the first couple chapters but can't quite figure out why

If this were the first book in a series I would've given up on it super early. I only kept reading cause book one was so good. It stuck the landing but tthere were some very rough parts

Pros:

- Good mix of classic fantasy tropes with enough new and interesting to make it feel fresh

- Strong understandable character motivations

- I always have an easier time finding criticisms than praise for books so I'm adding this to the pros section so that if people only look at the length of both sections it will more align with my feelings on the book since most of the cons are nitpicky

-Just to make the pros section longer again, I liked one of the main characters enough that my next D&D character is based fully on them

-It's a good book that I enjoyed almost the whole time I was reading

Cons:

- Not a book for people who like well developed or complex villains

- I had a hard time with keeping track of characters as many had several names used as well as a title

- Wasn't split into normal chapters and since I read this in many different sittings there weren't really good stopping points

- Ending felt rushed after such a long build-up. The same thing happened in the other book I've read from this author

Personal pet peeve:

- There were a decent amount of characters with a strong accent that was written out as such. I'm not sure if this bothers other people but it is never something I enjoy. This book was not the worst offender for this but still something that affected my enjoyment every time it showed up

I've heard some call this a standalone. I disagree, read The Space Between Worlds before reading this. It feels more like the second in a duology