Sam Harrison

I think the shortness of these novellas and the similarity with the previous one is kind of rubbing the shine off of them. I still really like Murderbot themselves, and the adventure was fine this time around.

But while it's well written it is very samey to the previous novella. I'm hoping to see something new from Murderbot next time around.

This book is very, very long. You'll read 100 pages about Fitz walking up a road. But if it hits you right, you'll love it.

Hobb's character work is beyond good. She is able to elicit tension, grief, jealousy and every other emotion under the sun with her writing. She also manages the first ever strong climax in this series, ending on a real high note.

I really struggled with either a 4 or 5 star rating here. While this is definitely a fantastic book I would recommend to anyone with the patience for it, I do feel it meandered a tiny bit more than Royal Assassin and that brought it down to 4 stars for me.

A very promising and fast-paced fantasy debut. The blistering pace may be off-putting for some, and I did wish in a few scenes to linger a little to allow the events to resonate a little more.

There's so much potential in this world and this author. Really excited to see what Ezra writes next, I will be there day one!

This book was a hair away from being a 3/5 for me. My big feeling on this book as I read it was “so this whole book is just gonna be here?”

The book was definitely good, and I enjoyed reading it the whole time and would recommend to most people who like the genre.

Extremely mild spoilers

I went in expecting something more epic and galaxy-spanning, where most of this takes place in 4 locations on 2 planets. It felt less like Dune or Star Wars or other epic space operas and more like Name of the Wind, or much more personal stories. For example the stakes were always personal, never wider and more epic.

This isn't a bad thing, and the book is definitely good, but I was just expecting it. Probably because the word epic is in reviews on the front and back cover.

Fantastic fantasy political thriller with a side of detective story and a liberal splash of Eldritch horror.