Daniel Vanzin
Same as the first. Good writing, not mut happening. The author has mastered the art of writing about nothing, with a twist of supernatural stuff.
For the people wishing for romance and sex, for the love Yog-Sothoth, NO! There is enough of books like this already. Not every relationship between a man and a woman needs to end up in bed.
Some of the plot advancements
- figure out what the drugs like "Gone over Wolf" are being manufactured from- take down the Controller and free up the Cassandra Sangue
Same as previous ones.
I appreciate the author's ability to avoid falling into common cliches. There isn't always a looming doom awaiting to happen. The protagonists aren't always in peril. The antagonists don't have a fool proof master plan to take over the world.
The characters are just people, and beings learning how to be people. It is light on psychological depth, but there is enough character development to create some empathy and word development to create attachment.
The series theme reads like “humankind vs nature”. And nature always wins. I love the consistency the author maintains, avoiding the trapping of sensationalist plots.
I wish there were more logical debates, but at least the few that happened seemed sound and valid to me.
Plot advancements
- the liberated Cassandra Sangue were taken care fo by the Intuits and the Others- the HFL grand scheme was discovered and it seems the movement is about to loose some steam- the Courtyard started housing a pack of humans- the Others nearly decided for extermination of humankind for their breach of trust
There is 2 things Anne Rice can't do right: a sad ending and an evil villain. That's fine, not every story told needs to have these. When I read her work, the prose, world building, and mostly her characters more than make up for it.
Rhoshamandes and Arjun have both been described as wonderful and terrible beings. The point of view changes depending on which character is telling the story. This duality adds up to the quality of her work. Still it is clear she does not want to make a world where her vampires don't all love one another. That's part of the joy that is to read/listen her novels.
In this, the last book of the chronicles, she once again introduces more ancient vampires, and they all love Lestat, and he loves them. And everything is merry in the new court of vampires. There is trouble brewing, there are a few plot threads being woven. Lestat has finally evolved into his final form, that of a Prince. He seems to understand now the consequences of his actions or inaction, the cost of his pride now that everyone looks up to him.
This could have been the worst fate for our protagonist, had not him live up to the challenge. Once he wanted to break all the rules, antagonize all institutions, defy all notions of morality. He just wanted to see the world burn, and that nearly happened, but now he is in charge of making it a better place, at least for his own kind.
The future of the tribe of vampires is secured. The world of the undead thrives. Long live the Camarilla!
Even more torture and more luck.
Fun(?) fact: I started reading this book first by accident. After many references to previous events, I finally stopped and went back to the first one before finishing this one.
The torture is not bad, it just felt like an aside to the book. Like, lets stop our main story for a moment while I describe all the ways the protagonist will suffer. And after the torture, instead of a long and hard recovery with many consequences, he just shrugs it off and goes on to save the world.
This book is of same quality as the previous one. We get to see our 4th Greatcoat, and the heroes are hard pressed to step down from their high horses and be pragmatic every now and then in order to get things done. That includes an association with a dubiously moral ally. The protagonist is is still a self righteous ass, but still a likeable one.
We get to learn more about the fate of some of the disbanded Greatcoats, and the King's last tasks for them. We also get to see the consequences of some of the actions taken in the previous book. There is also some magic!
There were still more luck then I would have liked, but the author does try to make things convincing. I did hate how Falcio was able to overcome impossible odds more then one time, with nothing more then his “sheer will”.
A good book, despite the torture porn and the luck based plot.
The book has clearly a three musketeers vibe going on, although it is much grittier. The king is dead, the Greatcoats are dispersed. Three friends, Falcio, Kest, & Brasti, appear to be the last remaining members of that order. They roam about the world trying to uphold the King's Law, even though there is a king no more. They are honor bound to defend the weak against those who place themselves above the law.
A Greatcoat is like an elite sword fighter. Specialized in duels, they are unmatched in a fair fight. They are not fools, and have no qualms in running from danger when they think they cannot win a fight. Their coats acts as a very flexible armor, and also carries hidden compartments with some surprises with them.
They must know all the laws in order to act as Magistrates and resolve disputes where they go. They are trained bards, because in order for the people to remember their edicts, it is easier to remember a song then a proclamation, especially when most of the population is illiterate. Writing it down is not enough.
All hope is lost, everyone is against them.
The Dukes are the sole rulers now, and even though they agree there must be a king, he is meant to be their puppet, and to not make any ruling that goes against their will. They want to rule their counties as they see fit, and all of them are brutal, corrupt and cruel, some more then others.
There are knights in the world, proficient and honored fighters, heavily armored and charged to maintain order in the name of their Dukes. However, their definition of honor does not mean what they think it means. They torture, bully, raid and rape. They prey on the weak just like any other thug would, but under the protection of the law and their false sense of virtue.
The peasants have grown accustomed to living under oppression, and they see Falcio and his friends as out of touch with reality and over privileged, pretentious self righteous pricks. They hate them. And still Falcio believes they are worth fighting for.
The caravan masters, are the ones who control all commerce between the counties. They have greatly suffered with the loss of the king, because now no Duke wants to spend their resources to maintain the roads and protect the caravans against bandits. Still they hate the Greatcoats, and want nothing to do with them.
The Dashini is an ancient order of assassins that, hired by the Dukes, have destroyed the Greatcoats one hundred years ago. It took a long while but the Greatcoats have risen again. But now once again the Dashini were called to kill the remaining ones.
Regarding the plot, before the king died, he called each one of his Greatcoats and gave them one special and secret task, to be performed after his demise. No one knows what that order was except the Greatcoat himself, unless the King told them otherwise.
Falcio and his friends are trying to fulfill their King's last wish. Their are also trying to revive the Greatcoats, negotiating with the caravan masters to become the protectors of the roads,. It is a start at least, an improvement over their current status as pariahs.
There are rumors of existing other Greatcoats, and that they have turned to banditry. There are plots directed and ending their existence. Princesses needing protection to travel on the road. Murders, betrayals, Saints and a war at hand.
There is a scene with long and heavy depictions of torture, that I felt was much unnecessary. And I say this as someone who “liked” the torture scenes in The Outlander.
One major issue I had was that no mater how hurt or how stacked the odds were against the protagonists, they always found a way to beat it. Sometimes it involved using a somewhat clever plan, but much of the times it was sheer luck. Throw yourself in the face of danger, and hope everything turns out okay. Poisoned, outnumbered, up against better fighters. It doesn't matter. The hero always succeeds.
But that wasn't enough to offset all the fun the book offered. This is a worthy successor of The Three Musketeers.
The protagonist dies, she kills herself. Then she is taken to a limbo-like place where you can live your life again, starting from any point way want, and making different decisions.
There are infinite possibilities, the book makes it very clear the ~6(?) ones it will focus on.
I could comment on the merits of the idea, the wisdom of the author in reflecting the paths she choose and the consequences. I already know how this will play out, because it is a standard kind of plot. The protagonist will make every possible decision and in the end she will realize that no matter what she does, her her original life was the better one.
But regardless of that, this is just a very boring book. It's like a “Groundhog Day” time loop, except the base “day” for the loop is a boring story, and every other variation is boring as well.
Of course by boring I mean there isn't anything I like. No brainiac moves, no fantasy, no cool science fiction. Its just a woman, talking about her life. Her love affairs, her family, her work.
Read 3:28 / 8:50 28%
Another entry on par with the previous ones. Rice goes out of this world, literally, to go even further back on the Vampire mythos, revealing a host of new information regarding their origin.
Rhoshamandes is again the villain of the story, and Rice still does a bad job at painting him as such. But all the other characters are they usual self.
The vampire council is establishing the rules to govern its kind when a new threat present to their existence. A new type of supernatural entity appears, and it is unclear what their goals are. A few encounters with them and vampires have turned into bloodshed, but that might just have been a mistake.
Another good entry in the series, in some parts even better then the previous ones. The author keeps the protagonist faithful to his personality, there are no cheap tricks just to get a kick out of the readers.
The immersive narrative is concise, only mentioning what is needed. It manages to stay fresh and interesting, even though it's the fourth book and a lot of the characters were already presented. The new Norse antagonists are interesting characters, the Saxon's Ealdormans are petty, stupid and power hungry. Yet they are Christians, and Uthred is not. This is the perfect environment for our hero to shine.
This book has the feel of a Mercy Thompson novel, and it gets many things right. The things it get right are not exceptional, but they are entertaining nonetheless, since the PNR genre is sorely lacking in good writing.
The heroine is a typical badass vampire hunter, stronger and faster then vampires even. She is not entirely human, and even among her kind, which there seems to be none, she is special. She has the spirit of a mystical being residing inside her, which makes her extraordinarily good at her job.
The narrative has a sobering feel. The author develops each character just enough to make them feel a little more then pieces of writing in a paper. The protagonist is intelligent, for instance, the scenes where she managed to keep some of her weapons even after close inspection. Also, she immediately looked for hidden cameras when she arrived at her employer given residency.
Jane goes right into business, first scoping the local area, then trying to establish contacts who could her her in her investigation.
BUT, all of this falls flat by the incredibly overly descriptive writing. Jane's introspective narration even when she shapeshifts, takes pages and pages away from a good plot or character development. It adds nothing to the book. Empathy can be established with a few words.
This felt more like the author was in a writing challenge, trying to hone in her scene description skills. And they aren't very good either.
Add to that very quickly her love interest was introduced in the plot, and he is the typical alpha male, good looking, scoundrel, no woman has ever rejected, cowboy style bad boy.
At leats up until I read, nothing was indicating that this is just a cheap excuse for smutty romance.
read 2:06 / 14:00 15%
“If you love hard sci-fi and mathematics or quantum physics, then you'll probably love this book”
“Diaspora is the story of Yatima — a polis being created from random mutations of the Konishi polis base mind seed”
If this description excites you, go for it. This book made up of only technical made up “mumbo jumbo”. No literary value.
Read 1:05 / 10:00 10%
I went int this with VERY low expectations, and still was severely underwhelmed. This is a standard low effort fantasy, with nothing of “Diablo” to it. Not even the lore.
Three companions find a tomb, a cursed armor gets a hold of one of them, he starts murdering people. A necromancer is on his track, trying to stop him, and so is an evil general, who wants the armor for himself.
There is a demon guiding the general's sorceress who is trying to find the armor, and both of them have some hidden agenda.
People giving this 4 and 5 stars are crazy, CRAAAZYYY I say.
read 3:58 / 11:53 33%
It stands above a sea of mediocre titles, but not by much. The writing is good, the protagonist sympathizable enough, most of the story is interesting, the plot is mostly well exposed.
Just to get this out of the way, I'll start with a thankfully very minor part of the story: the romance scenes.
Shara picked off his final piece. The students around them erupted in a cheer, but she barely heard them. Another of his mind games. “Before you ask, I'll play you again anytime.”
“Well, honestly,” he said cheerfully, “I'd much prefer a fuck.”
When Shara joined him and sat in his lap, as she often did, she felt a soft lump pressing into her lower back.
a homosexual. Still, he claims to love her, and to desire her in the carnal way, because love transcends gender. I don't know if the author meant to be woke, but he did not painted Voh as bisexual by any means. So that whole exchange felt unnecessarily awkward
developed super powers, and went on a god killing spree
Seipur's head of intelligence, Shara's aunt Vinia, decided to kill her agent, the one whose murder Shara is investigating, because he discovered something preposterous! Her bloodline was tainted by divine blood in her, many hundreds years ago. It was diluted by so many generations that it didn't manifest as anything at all. And if that somehow got public, the Continentals, who were ruled under Seipur's thumb, would revolt and... what? Overthrow them? They already hate them as much as it is possible. It was painted as both a national crisis and a personal one for aunt Vinia. I could barely accept the latter, but not at all the first one
Slow pacing.
A skillful thief is imprisoned in a high tech jail controlled by an AI which idea of rehabilitation involves killing its prisoners over and over again, until they are fit to go back to society.
It seems that it is their mind that is upload to a virtual prison, but they feel the same. The AI supposedly can read their thoughts, because after all, they're just uploads in “the matrix”.
The prison is inescapable, yet, someone manages to rescue him in order to secure his services. His rescuer takes him to her ship, a spaceship controlled by a sentient AI.
read 02:05 / 10:54 18%
I expected a bad story, I got a bad story. No more, no less. In that sense, it was OK. No deal breakers, just a barely readable D&D story, set in the world of Ravenloft.
The characters are one dimensional, the prose is “flat”, the plot is linear and predictable. The protagonist is a frustratingly “good guy” that lives with a monster and does nothing about it.
the subplots and side characters and cardboard depictions of what you would expect them to be. There is a cleric and a werewolf that I remember.
The book narrates the encounters of the Black Company against the Leper. If you don't know what this means, reading the book will not help you either.
It is a a gritty fantasy medieval military tale, but if focus too much on the day to day life of a company of soldiers with some resemblance to a Roman Legion. It shows potential, mentioning necromancers, the Taken, the Lady... but its just a bunch of name dropping without any significance to the story.
read 2:51 / 10:54 26%
WHAT
Many small flaws overall and completely came undone in the end, but what it got right puts this book above the others of the genre.
TLDR
+ characterizations
+ world building
+ “school training” trope done right
- rushed Adare plot
ANALYSIS
The book has 2 stories to tell, 2 POV, 2 brothers, 2 protagonists, heirs to the Unhewn Throne. It should have 3, their sister Adare, but her story was so curtailed that it barely counts.
A good portion of the book revolves around the “wizard/military school” trope, which I hate, but the author manage to kept me enthralled. It was not overdone, using pages to describe how one would handle his sword, or all the steps to tying her shoes. Nor was it about the teachers, the classes, etc. This was just the background for the story as seen from the eyes of Kaiden and Valyn.
I liked the grim tone of the world. The harsh training of the protagonists, the gods, the mythical immortal Csestriim, defeated foes who just might be lurking around, the mysterious creature killing animals around the monastery, the sister left alone in the big city, unable to wield power because she is a woman. All contributed to a feeling o dread, leaving me rooting for all 3 of the siblings.
Many characters are given a proper personality. Kaden's stern teacher, his best friend, Valyn's love interest. The author himself said he wished he had more space/time to flesh out some other secondary characters. I believe that would be nice, but the book is thin in plot as it is.
Now for the bad parts. I was fascinated by the amount of useless tasks Kaiden, the eldest son, first in line for the succession, was put through. Here is a boy that will become the ruler to this huge empire, and yet he started his 10 year training by the age of 8, and said training revolved around the most Karate Kid shit you can think of.
Move a bunch of rocks up the hill, now move then back. Do this for a few days. Stay for a few hours in the frizzing water, and stop bitching about it. Stay completely immobile for a whole week. NEVER question your elders (what a GREAT lesson) or else you will be beaten senseless.
A few things were going through my mind. This will make him stronger, more resistent to the elements, get more physical stamina. WISER! But nope, none of this were truth. By the end of the book, he was still a worthless pice of Unhewnian crap.
He did got this cool party trick, which was hilariously bad. He got the incredible power of not giving a shit. Your brother is dying. Don't care. Your father is dead, his enemies are trying to kill you. Tough luck. And how did he use that power? The BBG had a weakness to this power. He was an **emo mage**, deriving his powers from his opponents emotions. Now it was shown that such mages could gather this energy as mana, as store it for latter use. But no, not this time. When met with Kaiden, in spite of having his belly full of sweet, sweet evilness derived feelings, he just took an arrow to the knee, I mean, shoulder, and fell of a cliff. And has that killed him? Noooooo, of course not. What's the purpose of having a BBG if you can't keep reusing him, over and over again? Expect to see him a future adventure near you. Also bad was the fact that Valyn knew the BBG had this power, and all he had to to to stop him was to control his emotions, something he was trained to do. But no, it was too hard. The guy kept insulting him, so yeah.
Now to Valyn's part of the story. There are two factions of badasses in the world. The Aedolians, the most badasses of all, the personal guard of the emperor, and the Kettral, a SEAL like elite team of soldiers. The Aedolians kick the shit out of the Kettral, which in turn kick the shit out of everyone else. Except when they don't. See, even though it was plainly established that no other faction can beat them, there are plenty of factions that can beat them. A whole ship filled with Aedolian soldiers got wiped out without leaving a single trace of a fight. In other words, they got the shit kicked/outsmarted out of them. Then there is the Skullsworn, assassins that love the God of Death and therefore (really?) can kill just about anybody, anywhere.
So, the emperor is dead, there seems to be a plot to kill his sons as well. And what does the “Empire” do? The Kettral, the Aedolians and everyone else who may care? Absolutely nothing. The only one who cares about the life of the emperor, and his life in turn, is Valyn. Yet, there are a few good attempts on his life and what does he do? Nothing! See, the Kettral might be a bunch of badasses, but Valyn seems to be on the bottom of their Chad food chain. But that is not how the author paints him, he is supposed to be this super hero kind of character, it just so happen that he needs to get outsmarted every step of the way in order to convey how difficult his life is to the reader.
Still I liked his progression. His life in the “fighter school” was interesting. Perhaps I thought it was so bad that curiosity won me over and I desperately wanted to see where this were going. And theeeeen he is wrongly accused of murder by the very people that are supposed to outwit their foes, then he is confined in his quarters, magically gain the respect of his squad which then immediately forfeit their lives in order to go out on a hunch to hunt down the most powerful squad of Kettral there is. They being the exact opposite, a bunch of rag tags that individually are worst then any other, and collectively can't work together to save their lives.
And when they find the enemy, Valyn once again prove his uselessness by surrendering his arms, because this guy he knew 10 years ago said so. And guess what, This guy was also and evil SOB. So, all this training he went through? Worthless. Oh, in another hilariously bad twist, the one thing that made him apart was getting the special eye darkening egg won during the special Kettral training program final test, was used solely to counter another of the BBG. They went into a dark cave, and his new super power was to see in the dark. So, his whole live revolved around getting this super special power, which enabled him to kill this one enemy in a very special set of circumstances.
So, clearly, this is not a book about super heroes. It is a book about clueless underdogs, that can through their sheer will, after going trough a lot of physical and emotional pain, somewhat prevail against an army of enemies, each one of them THE most elite and deadly soldier in the Empire.
There are many good reviews here that touched on these points as well:
Jessica
Alexa
Whaaatttt?? Another vampire/werewolf book that does not suck?
I have read quite a few PNR books in search for the next Mercy Thompson without any luck. While this is not as good, it's very close. The world is refreshingly different from ALL the other basic vampire stories. In this one, the inmates are running the asylum. That is, the war between humankind and “the others” has ended, the others have won.
But it's not a post-apocalyptic world where people are harvested for their blood and meat. The supernatural folk has decided to live in harmony with the normal people, and they live in an uncomfortable peace.
Meg Corbyn is an ordinary woman. Not only she is not special in any kind, but she is actually quite docile, naive and fragile, a woman with the brain of a girl. While this might sound like a boring protagonist, and it kind of is, the world around her is not.
There isn't much special about the setting, other then the roles are reversed. The humans may outnumber the others, but they are the most powerful ones. Most people tremble in fear by the mere sight of one of them, and yet, it's not quite as it sound, or at least, it is not played out like most books.
Instead, it is like a minority group had all the power. Something akin of the Amish having super powers, and even though they don't care about us or our world, they can roam about it as they please. They have their life, their ways. We just happen to be here, trying to destroy them, but having failed so many times that we're beaten into submission.
The writing is also very good. The author establishes empathy with the protagonist, as dull as she may be. She is charismatic, intriguing and resourceful. The supporting characters even though a bit stereotyped, like the roaring alpha male, are decent enough to be appreciated as well.
The author takes a big risk incorporating precognition into the plot, and it is surprisingly not awful. I hate that sort of gimmick as I find it the most useless “super power” there is. Usually the ones who can see the future cannot change it, and so what's the point?
The discover of the powers of “the others” was nicely weaved into the story. Meg progression as a character is smooth, and so is her relationship with the supporting cast.
Overall, the most exceptional thing about this book is that I don't hate it. There is no overused cliche and roll eyes moments. The plot is not very ambitious, and as such there is no let down when things resolve itself out. It was an enjoyable reading.
The writing is not bad, the stories sort of have an intellectual element to them. The author has a good understanding of story structure, philosophy and human psychology I guess.
But nonetheless, these are just short stories, and by the time it takes to make them interesting, when that happens at all, they are over.
Read 4:33 / 10:23 44%
The first 3 hours of the book were pretty much the same. I kept expecting for a plot, it didn't happen.
This is a very tame history. A teenager boy who is the last in line to the throne becomes the king as his father and his ~3 brothers die in an accident.
Everybody hates him because he is half goblin in an elven court. His father had married his mother for political reasons, and never expected her to get pregnant.
The book narrates in details the process of him becoming a king, in the same way I'd describe in many hours the process of tying my shoes.
read 3:05 / 16:25 19%
Boring. It follows Outlander in style, but I only liked that one because the author is exceptionally talented.
The author clearly inserted herself as the protagonist. “A book writer having problems coming up with her next story, moves in to an old scottish (?) village in order to find inspiration, and suddenly she starts talking to the characters in her book”.
This is too cringey for me.