Kam
So this was quite promising at the start, but then as I progressed through it I realized that it just wasn’t living up to the expectations I had for it, which is unfortunate.
Let’s start with the worldbuilding. The best thing I can say about it is that it’s at least COHESIVE: everything hangs together as it should, and nothing feels too out of place. Then again, since the author lifted their worldbuilding wholesale from ancient Greek mythology, geography, and history and just tweaked a few things so the source wasn’t TOO obvious (even though it is), then of course everything would hang together correctly because the author didn’t stray very far from the source. Unfortunately this also means that there’s nothing genuinely new or even interesting in the world; if one has read enough Greek myth and has a passing familiarity with ancient Greek history, then one should have no problem grasping this world and its complications.
What’s sad about this is that the author could have mined that source for some VERY interesting plot and storytelling. Instead, the book’s narrative scope is incredibly NARROW - this, despite this book being marketed as “epic fantasy”. Ancient Greek myth is, of course, a very rich vein that one can mine for inspiration and which has provided more than adequately for generations of storytellers and writers, but ancient Greek history is just as rich, rife as it is with wars, and petty kings, and rebellions. The history of the Peloponnesian War alone is sufficiently large in scale that one can read even Thucydides’ heavily-biased account and still get the sense of a grand narrative. This book, however, doesn’t even get there - ASPIRES to it, maybe, but as the novel goes on it becomes clear that it fails to scale the grand heights of its ambition and falls quite flat at the bottom, settling instead for being passably mediocre.
It also does not help that the characters just aren’t all that interesting either - though, given the worldbuilding, I suppose it comes as no surprise that they are lacklustre. There are sparks there, to be sure, moments when I can see a character becoming something far more nuanced and complex than they initially appear, they never progress beyond that. They’re not BADLY written, but they are just not very interesting.
The plot suffers from the same issue of just not being that interesting, mostly because it does not feel big enough or grandiose enough to be sufficiently “epic” in scope. In fact, the plot as it currently stands in this novel feels like the bare bones of what could be a much grander story. The pieces are all there, the problem is that it never quite reaches that level of scale. As a result, the seemingly apocalyptic stakes that drive the plot forward don’t feel quite so urgent. One gets the sense that the apocalypse can wait a little longer, that the characters will get to solving it (or starting it, as the case may be), when they are good and ready and not before then.
The writing is, I think, the main reason why everything above fails the way it does. While it’s not egregiously bad, it does not have the depth, complexity, and nuance I expect of adult fantasy fiction marketing itself as “epic”. It is good enough for young adult - VERY good for young adult, in fact - but it just doesn’t quite meet the necessary level and quality of craft I’d expect from an adult epic fantasy novel.
Overall, this is a read that functions: the worldbuilding hangs together; the characters exist; the plot goes; and the writing works. But apart from that, there is nothing else interesting about this book: nothing that sparkles off the page or what one might call gripping or even interesting. It is a story, and it is told. That is all.
Originally posted at kamreadsandrecs.tumblr.com.
So this was quite promising at the start, but then as I progressed through it I realized that it just wasn’t living up to the expectations I had for it, which is unfortunate.
Let’s start with the worldbuilding. The best thing I can say about it is that it’s at least COHESIVE: everything hangs together as it should, and nothing feels too out of place. Then again, since the author lifted their worldbuilding wholesale from ancient Greek mythology, geography, and history and just tweaked a few things so the source wasn’t TOO obvious (even though it is), then of course everything would hang together correctly because the author didn’t stray very far from the source. Unfortunately this also means that there’s nothing genuinely new or even interesting in the world; if one has read enough Greek myth and has a passing familiarity with ancient Greek history, then one should have no problem grasping this world and its complications.
What’s sad about this is that the author could have mined that source for some VERY interesting plot and storytelling. Instead, the book’s narrative scope is incredibly NARROW - this, despite this book being marketed as “epic fantasy”. Ancient Greek myth is, of course, a very rich vein that one can mine for inspiration and which has provided more than adequately for generations of storytellers and writers, but ancient Greek history is just as rich, rife as it is with wars, and petty kings, and rebellions. The history of the Peloponnesian War alone is sufficiently large in scale that one can read even Thucydides’ heavily-biased account and still get the sense of a grand narrative. This book, however, doesn’t even get there - ASPIRES to it, maybe, but as the novel goes on it becomes clear that it fails to scale the grand heights of its ambition and falls quite flat at the bottom, settling instead for being passably mediocre.
It also does not help that the characters just aren’t all that interesting either - though, given the worldbuilding, I suppose it comes as no surprise that they are lacklustre. There are sparks there, to be sure, moments when I can see a character becoming something far more nuanced and complex than they initially appear, they never progress beyond that. They’re not BADLY written, but they are just not very interesting.
The plot suffers from the same issue of just not being that interesting, mostly because it does not feel big enough or grandiose enough to be sufficiently “epic” in scope. In fact, the plot as it currently stands in this novel feels like the bare bones of what could be a much grander story. The pieces are all there, the problem is that it never quite reaches that level of scale. As a result, the seemingly apocalyptic stakes that drive the plot forward don’t feel quite so urgent. One gets the sense that the apocalypse can wait a little longer, that the characters will get to solving it (or starting it, as the case may be), when they are good and ready and not before then.
The writing is, I think, the main reason why everything above fails the way it does. While it’s not egregiously bad, it does not have the depth, complexity, and nuance I expect of adult fantasy fiction marketing itself as “epic”. It is good enough for young adult - VERY good for young adult, in fact - but it just doesn’t quite meet the necessary level and quality of craft I’d expect from an adult epic fantasy novel.
Overall, this is a read that functions: the worldbuilding hangs together; the characters exist; the plot goes; and the writing works. But apart from that, there is nothing else interesting about this book: nothing that sparkles off the page or what one might call gripping or even interesting. It is a story, and it is told. That is all.
Originally posted at kamreadsandrecs.tumblr.com.