Jai Sedai

4.50/5.00 Followed Veradis' order without hesitation. And it is clear that he would have killed his own countrymen without hesitation. Another fool too loyal to think for himself. He shook his head. Where does Nathair find them? TRUTH AND COURAGE!!
Ruin, the ultimate answer to the question of why do people love this series so much. Why is there so much hype for The Faithful and The Fallen. Ruin is a blockbuster. This book is made for high budget TV. The character moments, the duel, the battles, the plot twists, all add up to one phenomenally addictive read. John Gwynne lands all the punches, makes me cry, scream and roar at the events. I feel so deeply guilty for not giving this book a 5.00/5.00. The problem is really the thematic simplicity and the dialogue still being barely average.

Despite this point, I was prepared to throw a 5.00/5.00 out of just plot, characters and emotional impact, but the thematic twist at the very end of the book did not land too well for me. I agree that this is completely unexpected twist, happens so out of nowhere and is shocking. Makes for great storytelling. But I am not convinced that the author can pull this trope off. Remember that this trope is handled to perfection by giants in the genre like Frank Herbert, and so this twist feels a bit too forced and undeserved. A simple good vs evil theme is enough for this story. The next book, Wrath will tell me if this trope is well handled by this series.

I am finally on the Papa Gwynne Train!

Emotional Impact -> Spectacular book, enough said already. That moment when Corban duels and kills Sumur, and he performs a running mount and Jael's men cheer for him! . What a scene, what a spectacular scene TRUTH AND COURAGE!!

Prose -> The endless POV cycling has been resolved in this book, where POVs shift when needed based on the story progression. This is a massive problem I had with the second book that has been resolved in this book. And why do so many arrows save so many main POV characters at the last moment. It's almost funny because it happens like 7 times lol. The action scenes are written so so well! But the dialogue can be so much better. I think John Gwynne with better dialogue and slightly better worldbuilding makes George RR Martin. But this book is not Martin, and that is very obvious.

Characters -> Veradis is shaping up to be one of my favorite characters in this series. The villains in this story are truly terrifying, the darkness in this story is rage-inducing and shocking. Nathair-Veradis friendship, Gar-Tukul parental love, Camlin's Braith problem and the Corban-Brina-Craf relationships are so satisfying to read

Plot -> Ruin has some of the best plots in fantasy action genre. the ASOIF level plotting and character arcs is finally paying off. The final twist, the multiple battles all feel well deserved and natural.

Worldbuilding -> While I have been less than enthusiastic about this world, I am starting to enjoy the familiarity and consistency of this world. That moment when Jael's men cheer Corban's running mount is a wonderful cultural moment for this series which I believe has been missing in this story for a while. Moments like this make epic fantasy. We need more.

3.50/5.00 If there is any justice in this world, Owain and Rhin will kill each other. She snorted to herself, knowing the only justice she would get would be the one she made. With a sharp knife.

Valor, the second book in The Faithful and the Fallen series, is promise fulfilled. This book delivers of the promises made in the premise of this series. Valor is action packed, filled with unexpected twists and turns, great characters and plot. The world of banished lands also feels more real this time around, while still being quite limited in the grand design. Valor is not without its flaws, especially what is sub-standard dialogue in my opinion and an annoying writing choice, but overall this is a good book.

Emotional Impact -> I had a lot more fun in this book (slightly better than book 1). There are several action packed moments, even some slice of life moments that feel very consistent with this world. The twists and turns are great, and so is the plot. For me, the biggest weakness of this story is again, the writing. Worldbuilding is the next weakest.

Prose -> The consistently irritating POV shifting is just F**KING ANNOYING. I am quite sure that each character POV in this book was written separately, but simply spread out in the book as it cycles through POVs in each chapter. This is totally unnecessary. I hate when authors do this, and John Gwynne is not stopping. Brandon Sanderson did this in TWoK, Peirce Brown did this in Iron Gold, and they both stopped it right away in the next books. Shifting POV every chapter does not make a great epic fantasy book. Bunch multiple POV chapters together, finish a section of the story and then move on to the next POV. We don't need every chapter to be cliffhanger. Learn from Robert Jordan, the granddaddy of epic fantasy who never did this unnecessary POV cycling.

ANOTHER problem I have is the sub-standard dialogue. This book is definitely an improvement from Malice, but we still don't get any good and memorable dialogue. Action scenes are very well written though.

Characters -> Great characters, just great. All characters are consistent with the worldbuilding and with the plot.

Plot -> Great plot overall, but I did not enjoy the Maquin plotline (super predictable and boring). Fidele's plot is good. Cywen-Veradis was honestly fun. Uthas plot was okay. Corban was great that one dream scene with Asroth was finally some good stuff Seriously, how stupid is Veradis ? How long is he going to take to realize what's going on ? I also think there are too many conflicts where the main characters escape without any harm and the most conveniently killable characters get killed.

World Building -> A step up from book 1. The author does a wonderful job of character consistency with the world and history. But I was still hoping to get some cultural development for the giants, which did not happen much. The Vin Thalun was good, but the surrounding plot was boring.

4.50/5.00She was Una Meing for a moment, and he was Caz Pratihari, and the world was a heady, powerful, romantic place.

A suprisingly beautfiul and touching story of love doomed to fail. The fire of youthful emotions mixed with the wonder of Martian worldbuilding, Gods of Risk is one of the best short stories I have read. The story is so precise in developing martian culture and environment. It allows a main character to ruminate in this story, and be inspired to do better things. This is a powerful story. I liked this short story better than book 2!!

4.50/5.00

He wonders if that's what makes the promised land holy: that you can see it but you can't quite reach it. The grass is always greener on the other side of personal extinction.

4.50/5.00

The Butcher's Masquerade is a wonderful addition to the series of Dungeon Crawler Carl. To my surprise this book had a sander-lanche style ending, which was nothing short of amazing. This book takes a slightly darker tone than the previous DCC books, finally bringing the horrifying reality of the dungeon world to its pages. Our characters are put in extremely stressful situations, making them lose hope, taking them to the point of breaking.

The book contains many heartbreaking moments, spends time developing the world beyond the dungeon. Introduces complexity with the supposed villains of this story, and somehow manages to be funnier than the books before. The lawyer character is my favorite character in this book even though he appeared only for a very short time.

Matt cinnamon set the standard for the personification of a cat. Donut manages to be ridiculous, incredibly consistent, and wonderfully hilarious at the same time. This is my most favorite DCC book so far, this series just keeps getting better and better.

Kill kill kill!