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A review by readingthestars
The Binding Tempest by Steven Rudy
3.0
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I am aware that there is a newer edition of this book out now that has gone through a little more editing. However, since I got my copy through NetGalley, this review will focus on that version.
As soon as you start reading, you know you're in for an epic fantasy story. I did like all the maps provided, and they were helpful because a lot of this book is spent on worldbuilding. And the world is interesting - it just contains a LOT of small details. This leads to some info dumping, and a lot of telling and not showing. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing! Sometimes you need to tell and not show, but doing it over and over again makes me lose my focus a bit. Even with all the descriptions, this wasn't super hard to read as a fantasy, but it did have a lot of names and such to keep track of.
The beginning was especially a little difficult to get through. I skimmed a few of the larger paragraphs and could still understand what was happening. Once the plot started going, I was more invested. What made this a slower read for me was the large amount of typos/awkward sentences. Besides dialogue not having a lot of descriptions outside the quotation marks, commas were awkwardly placed, sentences stopped abruptly and didn't flow with each other, and there were question marks at the end of sentences that weren't even questions. There were also sentences that SHOULD be just one sentence but were instead awkwardly split into two. In short, the book needed a bit more editing, which I hope the most recent edition achieved. I imagine it would take a while to sift through this book, simply because it's so long.
I liked how one of the main characters, Ellaria, is in her 50s. We don't get to see older protagonists that often, especially in a fantasy. I did find her POV to be the least interesting to me for half the book, and I especially liked Kovan.
The plot itself was interesting, and as someone who likes adult fantasy, it had its merits. The journey there was what slowed me down, and I felt some of it lag towards the middle. If you like detailed fantasy, this book will be for you.
I am aware that there is a newer edition of this book out now that has gone through a little more editing. However, since I got my copy through NetGalley, this review will focus on that version.
As soon as you start reading, you know you're in for an epic fantasy story. I did like all the maps provided, and they were helpful because a lot of this book is spent on worldbuilding. And the world is interesting - it just contains a LOT of small details. This leads to some info dumping, and a lot of telling and not showing. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing! Sometimes you need to tell and not show, but doing it over and over again makes me lose my focus a bit. Even with all the descriptions, this wasn't super hard to read as a fantasy, but it did have a lot of names and such to keep track of.
The beginning was especially a little difficult to get through. I skimmed a few of the larger paragraphs and could still understand what was happening. Once the plot started going, I was more invested. What made this a slower read for me was the large amount of typos/awkward sentences. Besides dialogue not having a lot of descriptions outside the quotation marks, commas were awkwardly placed, sentences stopped abruptly and didn't flow with each other, and there were question marks at the end of sentences that weren't even questions. There were also sentences that SHOULD be just one sentence but were instead awkwardly split into two. In short, the book needed a bit more editing, which I hope the most recent edition achieved. I imagine it would take a while to sift through this book, simply because it's so long.
I liked how one of the main characters, Ellaria, is in her 50s. We don't get to see older protagonists that often, especially in a fantasy. I did find her POV to be the least interesting to me for half the book, and I especially liked Kovan.
The plot itself was interesting, and as someone who likes adult fantasy, it had its merits. The journey there was what slowed me down, and I felt some of it lag towards the middle. If you like detailed fantasy, this book will be for you.