A Crown for Cold Silver

However, despite how interesting the characters are and how absorbing the plot can be, this novel does have a few problems ??? chief of which is the world-building. While I have no problem with authors borrowing from real world cultures to use as the inspiration for countries and cultures of their fantasy worlds, there is a difference between a real world culture inspiring a nation in a fantasy novel, and wholesale lifting of said culture and plopping it into a fantasy world under a different name. The latter, unfortunately, is what appears to be the case with this novel (and, therefore, the rest of the books in the series). To be sure, this makes building the world easier on the author, who can then concentrate on other details such as characterisation and plot, but it is still rather disappointing to pick up a fantasy novel expecting to be transported to another world, and finding, instead, that the world of the novel and the real world are not much different at all.

Full review here: https://wp.me/p21txV-FH