Juraj

Wanna know why all the shootings in schools are happening? Read this book. Its always been quite obvious. Especially when you mix in all the pills kids are taking nowadays which make them potentially more unstable instead of the opposite.

Imagine you write a novel that wins basically every major sci-fi award in English speaking world. (Not that awards actually matter.) Partly because you write great orwellian novel from the future with original spin of AI being the main character in human skin fighting an all knowing other AI that is simultaneously at war with itself. Partly, I fear, because you inject your woke ideology into it but it's not overhanded and it's enjoyable even for someone like me so activists prop it up while normies don't mind.

Now imagine you throw that original worldbuilding out the window and write a sequel confined into one space station and tea plantation on the planet. Promise of epic space opera? Nowhere to be found. Promise of over the top woke social talking points? Everywhere.

There's more characters in here so the inability to differentiate gender, to imagine what the characters look like is almost impossible at this point. Author uses only feminine pronouns so reader has no idea who is male or female. Additionally, it was established in the first book that AI with IQ probably somewhere above 300 can't tell a difference between men and women... On top of that literally everybody, even characters on ships who are from various parts of the galaxy are all “dark skinned or darker skinned”. Tea plantation is a metaphor for cotton plantations and workers are slaves in all but name.

But even despite all of that I'd be okay with the book if it moved plot forward or if characterization of anybody, ANYBODY was better. But this is a filler, a spin-off. Maybe it should've been the first act of Justice's sequel instead of whole book. It doesn't even much feel like a setup for sequel until the last 20 pages.

There's no characterization of Breq's crew. They are all human but since previous captain liked them to act like ancillaries (ship's AI in human bodies) they act like them. They're robots without a hint of character except for Kalr Five's love of porcelain, lol. And near the end they say they like living like this. Has the author ever talked to a soldier? To another human being for that matter? Is she in love with Star Trek's Borgs?
I guess that's how author masks her biggest weakness because character's from space station and plantation are also just as flat.

I fear the conclusion in Mercy won't conclude anything if it's going to be in any way similar to this book. If I ever even bother to waste more time on this series.

Half way through I had to go lie in my bed and stare at nothing. It gave me existential crisis and depression. Masterpiece.

This book is to A Game of Thrones what Eye of the World is to Lord of the Rings

Book is visibly inspired by AGOT. It's also allegedly inspired by Cornwell's books but I haven't read those so I'm not going to call Gwynne out on that part. Otherwise it's a promising introduction into a fantasy world. Heavy on fantasy tropes just like WoT. I suppose that comes with the territory, though.

Since I mostly read grimdark and schlock action fantasy, Eye of the World is the best point of reference here. The book is certainly better. Characters feel more alive, especially Corban, his friends and family. It's what kept me going, really, because the rest of POVs I couldn't care less about.

The predictability was astounding. I wasn't correct in all my assumptions as to how the story will go on but I was mostly right. Guessed who's the villain, who's the chosen one immediately. Guessed the one in the dreams is not who he pretends to be. I knew how would Rafe's story go on. Who killed the king. When Ban got the wolven I knew what would happen with the animal. I think I know how will Veradis's character arc continue in later books.

Half way through I started struggling as it was all characterization and exposition, very little plot movement or action, no unseen twists. That changes after 400 pages and especially the last 100 were great. Some setups finally started paying off. But it's not enough to salvage the book for me. Goodreads says I read it for 3 weeks. Feels more like 2 months. I don't understand how so many people overhype and give it 5 stars, calling it amazing. It's not. It's a solid start to a series, though.

Just like in AGOT there's a ton of characters (a list would really help, I was lost for quite a while trying to remember who's who), though the world seems smaller. I don't know what the king's are ruling over because it seemed like it's one town and a few villages here and there. The scale is not there. What is the total human population of Banished Lands? 80 000? Book is trying to set up this epic world but it really feels like everyone is living on a larger island. Maybe sequels will explain this better.

As I mentioned, last 100 pages are different. We finally see some action, there's some loss, twists that I didn't expect. This book would've been 3/5* just like Eye of the World. Last parts, Corban's arc and the solid, even though predictable, writing elevates it just so barely to 4/5*. I have zero desire to re-read this book ever again but I do want to continue with the series as literally everyone is saying it only gets better from here. I think Gwynne absolutely nailed Corban's story here, his family relationships, deep courage, his humbleness, like that he trains with the best fighters in the kingdom but doesn't realize how good he got because of that compared to others. His story is full of little touches like that. He's what kept me going when I got to the middle. He's probably my favorite "chosen one" already.

I think I converted to Bokononism. It's the most honest fake/real religion ever. It admits it's all lies and jokes but gives mostly good advice.