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tamaraneans's review against another edition
1.0
The Horns of Ruin could have been a fantastic tale of revenge and theological theory in a steampunk world--instead it's a paltry, careless foray into a partial steampunk, magic tinged world that mostly leaves the reader with the question, "Who decided Eva Forge was qualified to be a savior at all?"
I think what I'm most disappointed with in this book is the careless feeling of it--Eva Forge feels like a concoction of a all-powerful female brute and teenage attempts at bad-assery. She doesn't feel realistic or sympathetic or even worth empathy--its as if she's been distilled from a teenagers desperate need for a female warrior without bothering to discover what could lie beneath her shiny, overblown armor. Her hatred, initially justifiable, becomes a hallmark of her character (what little there is). One of the most often used and most often bungled character histories is to have them hate something to the extent of it blindly dictating their actions. While this can be a perfectly relevant character trait, it should never be the only one and it should never be the pervading motive for a character for over half a book. Eva hates the disciples of the God who killed her God, that's fine, but blindly hating them when there is so clearly something else afoot is just poor quality.
Even her back story is uninteresting and unworthy of direct sympathy; what friends she has are never mentioned by name and never appear to show us something more than what Eva appears. She is haughty, arrogant and unwilling to accept help without complaining or lamenting or acting as if she doesn't need it at all while she has it. There's nothing about her to make her more than a teenager in action. As a consequence she lacks the necessary depth to make the reader care for her predicament, her trials and even her eventual triumph. Her fellow characters are similarly challenged and ill-fitted to bring out any further characterization. I, as a reader, simply do not care what happens to her.
What this book does have is pretty writing and an interesting world built about it. Tim Akers is nothing if not good at writing scenic portraits and describing battle sequences with relative dexterity. What he lacks, however, is the necessary depth in his dialog and character interaction to make this novel truly enjoyable. Conversation, when it occurs, feels very much like it was placed only to hurry the story to its next dramatic battle sequence, rather than interwoven with each other. It is as if it is some sort of grand tale wherein only the battle aspects are important and the rest shoved in for page numbers. But dialog is incredibly important in establishing characters and the tone of the story and this is where the book truly suffers. Eva is a battle-maiden and only a battle-maiden; what you see is what you get, and what you get isn't worth the time.
I highly suggest looking elsewhere for your steampunk fix. In The Horns of Ruin, Tim Akers disappoints.
I think what I'm most disappointed with in this book is the careless feeling of it--Eva Forge feels like a concoction of a all-powerful female brute and teenage attempts at bad-assery. She doesn't feel realistic or sympathetic or even worth empathy--its as if she's been distilled from a teenagers desperate need for a female warrior without bothering to discover what could lie beneath her shiny, overblown armor. Her hatred, initially justifiable, becomes a hallmark of her character (what little there is). One of the most often used and most often bungled character histories is to have them hate something to the extent of it blindly dictating their actions. While this can be a perfectly relevant character trait, it should never be the only one and it should never be the pervading motive for a character for over half a book. Eva hates the disciples of the God who killed her God, that's fine, but blindly hating them when there is so clearly something else afoot is just poor quality.
Even her back story is uninteresting and unworthy of direct sympathy; what friends she has are never mentioned by name and never appear to show us something more than what Eva appears. She is haughty, arrogant and unwilling to accept help without complaining or lamenting or acting as if she doesn't need it at all while she has it. There's nothing about her to make her more than a teenager in action. As a consequence she lacks the necessary depth to make the reader care for her predicament, her trials and even her eventual triumph. Her fellow characters are similarly challenged and ill-fitted to bring out any further characterization. I, as a reader, simply do not care what happens to her.
What this book does have is pretty writing and an interesting world built about it. Tim Akers is nothing if not good at writing scenic portraits and describing battle sequences with relative dexterity. What he lacks, however, is the necessary depth in his dialog and character interaction to make this novel truly enjoyable. Conversation, when it occurs, feels very much like it was placed only to hurry the story to its next dramatic battle sequence, rather than interwoven with each other. It is as if it is some sort of grand tale wherein only the battle aspects are important and the rest shoved in for page numbers. But dialog is incredibly important in establishing characters and the tone of the story and this is where the book truly suffers. Eva is a battle-maiden and only a battle-maiden; what you see is what you get, and what you get isn't worth the time.
I highly suggest looking elsewhere for your steampunk fix. In The Horns of Ruin, Tim Akers disappoints.
shane_tiernan's review against another edition
4.0
More like 3.5 stars. This started out awesome, got less awesome and then went back to awesome. I really liked the magic and the setup of the world. The plot was pretty thick but not incomprehensible. Really the biggest problem I had was with the characters. None of them really stuck out. The main character was an aggressive, short-tempered warrior but she never really grew on me.
I also thought that the 1st person POV was wrong for this type of story. I usually expect more introspection from a 1st person story but this was a lot of action which usually fits better with 3rd person POV.
I would definitely read more from this author.
I also thought that the 1st person POV was wrong for this type of story. I usually expect more introspection from a 1st person story but this was a lot of action which usually fits better with 3rd person POV.
I would definitely read more from this author.
mad_matx's review against another edition
5.0
Oh my god. If you can get past the first chapter - which serves mainly to establish that the main character is a dick, but also sets the stage with some important background stuff, so you probably don't want to skip it - and if you have been hungering for a book chock-full of mythic godhood and heroism and set in a fantasy system that is complete and intellectual and visceral and has characters you can feel and enjoy and slip into their skin (and are more than just dicks), then THIS IS THE BOOK YOU HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR.
abigcoffeedragon's review against another edition
1.0
I did not like this story - I wanted to - and I stuck with it, but it bored me to tears - i kept putting it down - doing something else - and then picking it up again - this is not something I want to try to finish though - one quarter of the book read, and I am bored - I wish that this was a more interesting read - the reviews made it sound great, and I am sure that there is a story in there somewhere, but it seems sporadic and all action without purpose - I must pass on the rest of Tim Akers books for now.
adularia25's review against another edition
3.0
Quite frankly, this wasn't an amazing book – that is to say, it was highly predictable and didn't have the best writing, but it is packed with action. So if you want a quick read with say, lots and lots and lots of random violence, this is the book for you. The main female character doesn't stop kicking ass. Mind you, she is a member of a religious order for the local god of war, so fighting is what she does. She punches first, asks questions later the entire book, which can get tiresome when you just want something explained. To be fair, all the fighting is entirely in her character, but again, it does get tiresome. The book is brainlessly-fun doses of high action, and I have to admit I love the background world the book is set in, and the mythology of the gods. But those facets weren't enough to save this from mediocrity.
rye_toast's review against another edition
3.0
This was likable, but I didn't enjoy it quite as much as Akers' Burn Cycle books. I love his imagery in this tale, especially how the main character boosts her abilities by inciting myths related to her god. Akers has a wonderful talent for storytelling. The only part that I didn't like about this tale was that the main character was a little to "cut and dry" for me. It made her difficult to like, but that could have been part of the author's objective.
pelicaaan's review against another edition
3.0
This got good. It took a WHILE, but the last third was quite excellent.
chaosrayne's review against another edition
4.0
I really really enjoyed this book. I loved the world building and the invoking system. I'd love to see more development outside of the main setting, but maybe there's a sequel in the works. I found the fighting style and the writing style of the fights to be particularly captivating. I would read more from this author.
growintogardens's review against another edition
3.0
This was actually pretty difficult to get through, but I found it pretty interesting overall. The writing during the action scenes was a bit jumbled, so those were not my favorite parts. I kind of liked Cassandra and Eva, but other than that, the other characters weren't really interesting. I wanted to like this so much more than I actually did, but I'd still like to see what the author comes up with in the future.
tregina's review against another edition
3.0
I almost gave up on this book partway through, which I only mention because I am very glad that I didn't. The back half the book comes on strong and delivers on just about everything I hoped that I would find. However, the first half just felt like a slog for me, so much so that it took me months to read this when at my best I read at a pace of about a book a day. The protagonist was just not my cuppa, recklessly brutish, but the worldbuilding, oh the worldbuilding, that is the star. It was those bright spots that kept me from putting it down forever, and got me into the bits that I loved.