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3.79 AVERAGE
3.79 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
dark
emotional
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This is something truly new.
The setting, world building and characters are truly great.
The setting, kinda ASoIF (aka GoT) with a LOT of middle eastern mythologies and influence is amazing. It truly surprised me, most of all, coz it's done by someone that lives there. So it's not a "romancing view" of the middle eastern.
The world building, with a lot of gods, cities, cultures it's truly fascinating. I kinda dislike the faith in the "archangel", because it's a veiled reference to the Islamic faith (but unlike Rushdie's, the author decided to not by expelled from his country). Overall, it's very interesting and truly innovative. Lots of Lovecraft influence.
And the characters... I enjoyed them. Even Micah with his zealotry.
Overall great book
Would give it 4,5 but oh well, let's give it a 5
The setting, world building and characters are truly great.
The setting, kinda ASoIF (aka GoT) with a LOT of middle eastern mythologies and influence is amazing. It truly surprised me, most of all, coz it's done by someone that lives there. So it's not a "romancing view" of the middle eastern.
The world building, with a lot of gods, cities, cultures it's truly fascinating. I kinda dislike the faith in the "archangel", because it's a veiled reference to the Islamic faith (but unlike Rushdie's, the author decided to not by expelled from his country). Overall, it's very interesting and truly innovative. Lots of Lovecraft influence.
And the characters... I enjoyed them. Even Micah with his zealotry.
Overall great book
Would give it 4,5 but oh well, let's give it a 5
I wanted to like this book so badly..so badly. The cover is SO cool — and it promised so much.
- The main complaint is the verbiage and sentence writing style. He. writes. sentences. like. this. It is extremely choppy
- Some of the wording was just dumb — “I turned left. I turned right. I turned around.” You couldn’t have just…said you looked around ??
- Not to be such a stickler but cutting off the horses’ ears DOES NOT STOP THEM FROM HEARING — that is the pinna. Unless you are sealing up the canal completely then why cut the pinna off? You think taking away the senses from a naturally flighty animal would just..stop them from reacting to external stimuli?
- The women in this book existed only to be sexualized and gazed upon. I’m not sure why writing women is so hard for men authors, but it seems like an impossible feat
4.5 Stars.
When I first picked this up, the pacing felt too fast for me and like I didn't have time to get to know characters before we were moving on to the next scene, but by the end, I was absolutely glued to the pages and couldn't put it down. I attribute my initial feeling to the fact that I had just come off of reading slower paced fantasy (such as The Veiled Throne), but I liken the change I felt to listening to an audiobook at 2x speed. At first it feels garbled, but once you adjust, you can't imagine another speed.
The character work and world building are done in very piecemeal fashion-Akhtar definitely makes you wait for the information- but it's 100% worth it when all of those points add up. I loved the characters in this story; all of them were multi-faceted gray characters that you could loathe on one page and then sympathize with on another (I would die for Kinn and Sadie). I also adored how much the Gods in this book are directly on the pages, and book two promises to show us even more of that which I am over the moon about.
By far the strongest aspects of this book are the themes it deals with and the political machinations. Themes of faith, sacrifice, mortality, and mercy are wonderfully explored through the masterful webs of political alliances/betrayals and the power structures of religion. I love when religion is viewed from a broader lens of cultural development and that was done wonderfully here. However, at the heart of all of these lofty schemes and meddling gods, the core of this book lies in the soul of the individual humans that inhabit the page.
Be aware going into this that it’s a very brutal world, and Akhtar is not afraid to make his characters hurt. But honestly I think that’s one of the best things about this book. You truly never know what’s going to happen.
Overall this is a wonderful world that I hope we get to spend a bit more time exploring in Book 2…which I will be reading ASAP.
When I first picked this up, the pacing felt too fast for me and like I didn't have time to get to know characters before we were moving on to the next scene, but by the end, I was absolutely glued to the pages and couldn't put it down. I attribute my initial feeling to the fact that I had just come off of reading slower paced fantasy (such as The Veiled Throne), but I liken the change I felt to listening to an audiobook at 2x speed. At first it feels garbled, but once you adjust, you can't imagine another speed.
The character work and world building are done in very piecemeal fashion-Akhtar definitely makes you wait for the information- but it's 100% worth it when all of those points add up. I loved the characters in this story; all of them were multi-faceted gray characters that you could loathe on one page and then sympathize with on another (I would die for Kinn and Sadie). I also adored how much the Gods in this book are directly on the pages, and book two promises to show us even more of that which I am over the moon about.
By far the strongest aspects of this book are the themes it deals with and the political machinations. Themes of faith, sacrifice, mortality, and mercy are wonderfully explored through the masterful webs of political alliances/betrayals and the power structures of religion. I love when religion is viewed from a broader lens of cultural development and that was done wonderfully here. However, at the heart of all of these lofty schemes and meddling gods, the core of this book lies in the soul of the individual humans that inhabit the page.
Be aware going into this that it’s a very brutal world, and Akhtar is not afraid to make his characters hurt. But honestly I think that’s one of the best things about this book. You truly never know what’s going to happen.
Overall this is a wonderful world that I hope we get to spend a bit more time exploring in Book 2…which I will be reading ASAP.
DNF @ 34%
I find the world and concepts interesting, but I'm not connecting at all with any of the characters nor the writing style.
I find the world and concepts interesting, but I'm not connecting at all with any of the characters nor the writing style.
I didn't care for the alternating povs (as far as I read.) Fanatic, unquestioning righteousness, insulting views of women, vengeance, and fervor to slaughter 'heretics' ... that's a no from me.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes