Tyler Thomas

The interesting twist at the end doesn't make up for how dark and sex laden this book is. Definitely not the kind of book I typically read and probably won't ever again. This book also reminds me of those horror movies with teenage protagonists where everyone just makes dumb decisions the whole time. Only, the characters in this book aren't teenagers.

This book gets an extra star just because of the twist at the end. I thought it was going to be Jeremey that had some sinister past or plot and Verity was just a victim, but I was only half right. They were both victims in a sense.

As with most first novels in epic fantasy, this book was pretty slow at until the last 20% or so. Still, I knew this going in and I'm excited to continue this series exploring the world and the characters. Many of the characters didn't stand out to me except for the main ones so I'm much more interested in Simon's part of the story than the political intrigue bits between the nations of Osten Ard. Simon is a boy of 15 and he acts like it throughout the story. I loved watching him experiencing this journey and adventure that was thrust upon him which heavily mirrors the quest that Frodo must embark on and also Rand from the Wheel of Time which came after this book was published.

Great novel and setup for this world and story. It looses some stars because it was a bit too slow and the ending was good but not earth shattering.

Jack's first books had to be a classic! What a fantastic story!

This was my introduction to Lord Dunsany's writing which probably wasn't the best place to start. Many of these stories were quite odd and ended abruptly with seemingly no satisfying conclusion. There were only 3 that I enjoyed out of the 14 or 15 total stories. I'll be continuing to read Lord Dunsay's works since I'm pretty sure they can only go up from here.

The book overall was pretty disappointing though the end and set up for the next arc in the series is quite well done. Many of the characters are set up to deal with new and unique struggles which should make for a great launch in book 6. The main problem with this book for me was the pacing and just a feeling of bloat like the book could have been under 1000 pages and not lost any of the emotional impact. The constant jumping between POV characters in each chapter got pretty annoying so I didn’t feel like some important character moments hit as hard.

Another thing I was not a big fan, as I am a Christian, is the inclusion/glorification of a gay relationship with one of the main characters. I'm fine with those things being present in books as a mention to describe a character but when it becomes a prominent part of the narrative where that scene is a climatic part of the book, then I start to wonder if this is a book I should continue reading. I am willing to give Brandon some leeway here as the vast majority of this books are not like this, but it will make me start to consider not reading his works if this trend continues.

I’m still looking forward to book 6 but there need to be some changes from book 5 for sure.