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seforana's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, War, and Injury/Injury detail
nziam's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Sexual harassment, and War
Moderate: Animal death, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Vomit
celestialjeu's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Violence, and Murder
Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Sexual harassment
bannedfrombookclub's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
reflective
tense
medium-paced
4.0
This was well done and an interesting fantasy for a few reasons. It's part police procedural, part political intrigue, part gore fest.
It's a book where the narrator is not the protagonist, though Hellena might grow into that role in the later books. The story is about Vonvalt, a kind of romano-germanic Judge Dredd with some low-magic whose authority and morality are tested by those who would remake the empire in their image.
Another interesting aspect is that this is a battle to maintain law and civilization that's under threat from religious fundamentalists, rather than the usual over throw of an evil emperor shtick. So it's very much in conversation with modern events in the West.
It's also a female narrator written by a man, and I'll give this an 7/8 out of 10 on that front. Don't know if I should add or remove points for the reverse fridging of her love interest, a romantic connection that felt flat and forced in any case.
It's a book where the narrator is not the protagonist, though Hellena might grow into that role in the later books. The story is about Vonvalt, a kind of romano-germanic Judge Dredd with some low-magic whose authority and morality are tested by those who would remake the empire in their image.
Another interesting aspect is that this is a battle to maintain law and civilization that's under threat from religious fundamentalists, rather than the usual over throw of an evil emperor shtick. So it's very much in conversation with modern events in the West.
It's also a female narrator written by a man, and I'll give this an 7/8 out of 10 on that front. Don't know if I should add or remove points for the reverse fridging of her love interest, a romantic connection that felt flat and forced in any case.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Religious bigotry, Murder, and War
Moderate: Sexual harassment
Minor: Sexual assault
fran's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Murder, and War
Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual harassment
Minor: Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Sexism, Blood, Excrement, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, and Death of parent
wishbea's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Starts out as a murder mystery, which quickly becomes an empire ending threat. Justice Konrad is a very mysterious character and as the story is told from the POV of his apprentice/clerk Helena as an older woman we get to see his character shift and what seems to be the start of a moral decline from an outside POV. Helena herself is very dull and a victim of insta-love unfortunately, she has no idea what she wants in life, her streetrat orphan background is barely relevant to her character, and for some reason older Helena stands by her insta-love as her "first true love". Sir Radomir develops into a wonderfully charismatic character by the end of the book and the climax makes for a compelling start to this trilogy. I will be reading the sequel and hoping for better characterisation for Helena.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Violence, and Murder
Moderate: Animal death, Confinement, Death, Grief, Death of parent, Cultural appropriation, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment
Minor: Alcoholism, Child death, Rape, Sexual content, Torture, and Fire/Fire injury
mikarala's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Finally, a fantasy trilogy where the first book actually has its own contained plot! Not only that, but the tension rises throughout the novel and leaves us with a really good sequel hook! That probably shouldn't be refreshing, but so often I find this is something multi-series works struggle with. There's so much to like with this novel.
First of all, I really enjoyed the world-building. This is a relatively low-fantasy world, and up until the climax I probably wouldn't have called it quite grimdark, as the world was a little too...orderly. Honestly, it really strongly reminded me of the world in the middle school/YA series The Rangers Apprentice, which is not super glamorous, but also doesn't reach the bleak levels of some more notable crapsack worlds, such as ASOIAF or First Law. However, things did get fairly gory near the end, so it's probably somewhere between neutral to fairly dark. But anyways, not the point.
I found this novel did very good job of developing the world without overwhelming the reader with exposition. There's maybe a page near the start that was a little heavy-handed in that regard, but overall I think the author managed to slowly build up the world naturally through the narrative. The narrative, of course, is centered on a Justice of the Sovan Empire, who travels from town to town dispenses justice. While magic isn't common in this universe, Justices hold a very high place in society and some use and knowledge of magic is a part of their training. As a result of this, Sir Konrad Vonvalt, our protagonist/deuteragonist, has the ability to compel people to reveal the truth and also some limited necromancy skills. This magical knowledge is a zealously guarded secret, and I really enjoyed how this became an important aspect of the plot.
I really enjoyed Vonvalt's character journey throughout this book. I picked up this book because the description gave me very strong "Ned Stark in King's Landing investigating Jon Arryn's death" vibes. However, while I do think your opinion on that story may be a good indicator for if you'll enjoy this novel, it's not really too similar. First of all, this novel takes place in a town a fair distance from the empire's capital, and as a result, the political intrigue is fairly limited. Although some political machinations still definitely form an important aspect of this story, it doesn't quite permeate the whole setting and atmosphere the way it does in Game of Thrones. In other words, I definitely wouldn't describe this as a political thriller.
Vonvalt is also not Ned Stark, lol. I really like him as a character, and he shares some traits, such as his belief in the law and justice, as well as his lack of political instinct. But the differences also become more clear over the course of the novel, culminating with some blunt foreshadowingthat reveals Vonvalt is headed down a dark path. Vonvalt's belief and trust in the strength of governmental institutions is challenged to the point where he basically turns to vengeance and vigilantism, which I thought was an absolutely fantastic character arc. In the comparison with Ned Stark, it's quite clear by the end of this book that Vonvalt is more blood-thirsty and probably a fair bit more arrogant. In any case, though, I thought his characterization was really well done and one of the most compelling parts of this novel.
However, I can't say I feel the same about Helena, his clerk and our actual narrator. I don't think I dislike Helena, necessarily, but something about her narrative voice was frustrating to me, and I think I would identify it as my biggest/only dislike with this story. Basically, this story is told from the POV of an elderly Helena relating the adventures she lived as a 19-20yo following Vonvalt around on his journeys. This resulted in some moments where she interjects with commentary about how she realized so-and-so "in hindsight" and some heavy foreshadowing--and by this, I mean she more or less reveals some major developments, while omitting how they happen. It takes the tone of an old person assuming you have some fundamental knowledge of the historical events occuring at the time of the story and their subsequent outcomes. Personally, this really took me out of the story and was something I didn't enjoy. I felt like it really detracted from the immediacy of the action and lessened the overall tension when things were happening in the natural course of the narrative and the older Helena sort of stepped back to offer some perspective and interpretation of her actions at the time. Honestly, something about it almost seemed genre dissonant, like this narrative technique belonged more in a historical fiction or lit fic book, idk. In any case, I did find it to be a distraction that lessened my enjoyment of the story.
That being said, I still think this is a really good book and a very strong first entry for a trilogy.
First of all, I really enjoyed the world-building. This is a relatively low-fantasy world, and up until the climax I probably wouldn't have called it quite grimdark, as the world was a little too...orderly. Honestly, it really strongly reminded me of the world in the middle school/YA series The Rangers Apprentice, which is not super glamorous, but also doesn't reach the bleak levels of some more notable crapsack worlds, such as ASOIAF or First Law. However, things did get fairly gory near the end, so it's probably somewhere between neutral to fairly dark. But anyways, not the point.
I found this novel did very good job of developing the world without overwhelming the reader with exposition. There's maybe a page near the start that was a little heavy-handed in that regard, but overall I think the author managed to slowly build up the world naturally through the narrative. The narrative, of course, is centered on a Justice of the Sovan Empire, who travels from town to town dispenses justice. While magic isn't common in this universe, Justices hold a very high place in society and some use and knowledge of magic is a part of their training. As a result of this, Sir Konrad Vonvalt, our protagonist/deuteragonist, has the ability to compel people to reveal the truth and also some limited necromancy skills. This magical knowledge is a zealously guarded secret, and I really enjoyed how this became an important aspect of the plot.
I really enjoyed Vonvalt's character journey throughout this book. I picked up this book because the description gave me very strong "Ned Stark in King's Landing investigating Jon Arryn's death" vibes. However, while I do think your opinion on that story may be a good indicator for if you'll enjoy this novel, it's not really too similar. First of all, this novel takes place in a town a fair distance from the empire's capital, and as a result, the political intrigue is fairly limited. Although some political machinations still definitely form an important aspect of this story, it doesn't quite permeate the whole setting and atmosphere the way it does in Game of Thrones. In other words, I definitely wouldn't describe this as a political thriller.
Vonvalt is also not Ned Stark, lol. I really like him as a character, and he shares some traits, such as his belief in the law and justice, as well as his lack of political instinct. But the differences also become more clear over the course of the novel, culminating with some blunt foreshadowing
However, I can't say I feel the same about Helena, his clerk and our actual narrator. I don't think I dislike Helena, necessarily, but something about her narrative voice was frustrating to me, and I think I would identify it as my biggest/only dislike with this story. Basically, this story is told from the POV of an elderly Helena relating the adventures she lived as a 19-20yo following Vonvalt around on his journeys. This resulted in some moments where she interjects with commentary about how she realized so-and-so "in hindsight" and some heavy foreshadowing--and by this, I mean she more or less reveals some major developments, while omitting how they happen. It takes the tone of an old person assuming you have some fundamental knowledge of the historical events occuring at the time of the story and their subsequent outcomes. Personally, this really took me out of the story and was something I didn't enjoy. I felt like it really detracted from the immediacy of the action and lessened the overall tension when things were happening in the natural course of the narrative and the older Helena sort of stepped back to offer some perspective and interpretation of her actions at the time. Honestly, something about it almost seemed genre dissonant, like this narrative technique belonged more in a historical fiction or lit fic book, idk. In any case, I did find it to be a distraction that lessened my enjoyment of the story.
That being said, I still think this is a really good book and a very strong first entry for a trilogy.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, Rape, Violence, and Sexual harassment
No actual rape, but threat of rape discussed and fairly immediate at points in novel.prynne31's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
It was well-written. Just not sure I'm the target audience.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal death, Child death, Confinement, Torture, Excrement, Vomit, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, and Classism
Necromancy