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4.02 AVERAGE
4.02 AVERAGE
Despite the shift of focus from solely following Vaelin's pov I still highly enjoyed this book. However this was because I went into reading the book aware of this shift in focus. That being said I think it added to the depth of the world building and making for a more complex plot. All in all it was gritty tale full of action that reached a crescendo towards the end of the book. Highly recommend.
This was a typical middle of a trilogy book in that it was all about travelling. I don't really know why Tower Lord was picked by the title because although he had the title he spent all of a few days actually AT the place he was the Lord of. Everyone was going somewhere, then they were going somewhere else, then they met other people and changed course again, then they all came together and then finally they planned how to move on again. Although the 4 points of view gave it a bit more variety and allowed for more depth of character and to see what was going on in different areas I felt like 4 was too many and I was missing out on hearing what was happening meanwhile elsewhere during each chapter. There are a lot of coincidences, 'oh look who we ran into in the middle of this huge country, what a surprise'. I also couldn't keep track of the characters once again, there are still too many similar names, but that made it somewhat easier when people died because I wasn't all that attached to them. I will attempt to read the third one and hope that it moves a bit faster. There really isn't any reason for this book to be over 500 pages, it needed a bit of editing to remove some of the unnecessary description and to focus in more on the action so it moved along faster. The third book has 774 pages so I'm thinking it will probably have lots of sections that I can skim like this one did.
adventurous
dark
slow-paced
This was what Game of Thrones should have been. Lots of characters, interesting stories and a constant feeling like you are missing puzzle pieces to fit this all together.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Solid sequel to Blood Song. If you enjoy fantasy, you really need to read this series. Though you will have to read the first book, or this one will leave you lost.
adventurous
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Weaker book than the "Blood song". While I still liked the story, there were many issues that weren't there in the 1st book.
Certain characters appear and then die with nigh zero impact on the plot.
The motivations of others are dubious at best. Especially some priests&co are being assholes just because author decided so. Great Evil Beings from Beyond main characters are supposed to fight against are presented as weary, empty creatures with no point to their existence. They are being assholes because they have nothing better to do. But ofc, there's an even Bigger Evil... Reason for him being an asshole is a question for the next book.
Pacing. Walking is described in great detail. Much walking throughout the book. Forest walking. Plains walking. Wasteland walking. Sea... sailing. Alone-in group-with an army. While still interesting, with curious remarks, it occupies an inadequate number of pages.
Character development. Reva... from zero to hero, in a couple of months no less. Frentis is just boring. Little progress in describing Dark powers, their origin, purpose etc. Clear-cut bad guys... well, worse guys and better guys. Reactive nature of protagonists actions.
Well, the good news is that the book's still manages to capture your attention till the very end. Author's inexperience shows itself, but the hope is still present. From what I've seen, ending's promising to be epic. Let's wait.
Certain characters appear and then die with nigh zero impact on the plot.
The motivations of others are dubious at best. Especially some priests&co are being assholes just because author decided so. Great Evil Beings from Beyond main characters are supposed to fight against are presented as weary, empty creatures with no point to their existence. They are being assholes because they have nothing better to do. But ofc, there's an even Bigger Evil... Reason for him being an asshole is a question for the next book.
Pacing. Walking is described in great detail. Much walking throughout the book. Forest walking. Plains walking. Wasteland walking. Sea... sailing. Alone-in group-with an army. While still interesting, with curious remarks, it occupies an inadequate number of pages.
Character development. Reva... from zero to hero, in a couple of months no less. Frentis is just boring. Little progress in describing Dark powers, their origin, purpose etc. Clear-cut bad guys... well, worse guys and better guys. Reactive nature of protagonists actions.
Well, the good news is that the book's still manages to capture your attention till the very end. Author's inexperience shows itself, but the hope is still present. From what I've seen, ending's promising to be epic. Let's wait.
I enjoyed every minute of this story! It was exciting and complex and fun. I hate when things end on a cliffhanger but I’m so keen to read the next one.
Anthony Ryan is not a helpful writer. If you don't remember every single character and detail from the first book, you will have a hard time making sense of Tower Lord. It took me almost a third of the book before I had a decent grasp of who was who and what was what (thank god for Google, though even that didn't fully help). Tower Lord introduces three new POV-characters (the first book was all about awesome Vaelin, now he's in less than 25% of the story!) and a whole new continent. I'm fine with expanding the scope of the story, but it was just too hard to follow new introductions left and right when I couldn't even remember things introduced in the first book. Anthony Ryan really needs to be a bit more helpful in the future.
It doesn't help that the first act is pretty lackluster. The end delivers with epic warfare but all together Tower Lord is a dissapointing sequel. Hopefully the next one gets the series back on track!
3.5/5
It doesn't help that the first act is pretty lackluster. The end delivers with epic warfare but all together Tower Lord is a dissapointing sequel. Hopefully the next one gets the series back on track!
3.5/5