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queens_flame's review against another edition
4.0
Special thanks to St. Martin's for providing me with a free ARC copy in exchange for review. This in no way affects my opinions on this novel.
And of course, this novel does need some trigger warnings, and point out it is an adult novel, not young adult that I typically write about. There should be trigger/content warnings for some transphobic language: it is from the villains, but there are instances of characters mis-gendering a trans man both purposefully and accidentally. (Accidentally being there is an alternate POV of a character who fights him and uses she/her pronouns because they assume he is a woman). There was also threat of sexual assault towards this trans character. Now I of course have no place to judge whether or not this content is problematic or not, but I wanted to at least provide warning for any trans readers who come across the novel. Plus, I adore Kyrkenall and Orotok, her companions.
It took me much longer than it had with book one to get into this novel, and I felt it was because again the author over-indulged a bit with descriptions and too much storytelling. There were many point of views that took a few pages for anything to happen or for me to actually be interested in the POV, or some I just did not like at all and ended up skimming. However with the Elenai POV, I was hooked from the beginning of chapter to the end. Her POV was the one that had the most adventure and the most information that ended up pulling together at the end of the novel.
There were many more characters, and different points of view in this book which made the story so much more thrilling, especially with the world expanding as our characters travel all over. I particularly liked Vannek's POV, who is the trans character mentioned before. While he was technically what we consider the "bad guy" or rather, who our heroine's are fighting throughout the novel, I actually found myself rooting for him. I am excited to see where his story goes in the following novel and I kind of hope he joins our heroes and makes peace with them.
I had stated in my review of the first book that I thought Rylin was rather static, but his character really shined through in this novel, and I kind of fell in love with him a bit. He's up there as one of my favorite male characters of the series, but I think Kyrkenall takes the crown. Especially his dynamic with Elenai - I sort of hold out hope for their relationship to bloom, but I have a feeling Rylin might place some interest too. There is not a whole lot of romance in this series, so definitely do not expect that, but the little hints of it were enough for me.
The plot moved extremely slowly in this novel, and I blame it on what I like to call "middle book syndrome". This was the second book in a trilogy, and this is the book where the author has to connect what happened first, and also set up for the final story, so there was just SO much extra information that I feel a good chunk of this novel could have been cut down to save us the time. Nevertheless, once all the little plot points started to come together in the last two-hundred pages or so, the slowness began to pay off. When it picked up, I found myself unable to put the book down because the story and characters were becoming so rich, and exciting. It all played out like an episode of TV in my head, where earlier comments impacted later events and watching it all come together, and all the main characters of the book meet each other again in the battle at the end felt so rewarding.
I honestly was prepared to not really like this book but the ending completely blew me away and I am going to be anticipating the hell out of the final book in the series. It does have it's issues with pacing, and problems with some characters not really having too much personality/emotion, but the world building and storytelling really makes up for it.
And of course, this novel does need some trigger warnings, and point out it is an adult novel, not young adult that I typically write about. There should be trigger/content warnings for some transphobic language: it is from the villains, but there are instances of characters mis-gendering a trans man both purposefully and accidentally. (Accidentally being there is an alternate POV of a character who fights him and uses she/her pronouns because they assume he is a woman). There was also threat of sexual assault towards this trans character. Now I of course have no place to judge whether or not this content is problematic or not, but I wanted to at least provide warning for any trans readers who come across the novel. Plus, I adore Kyrkenall and Orotok, her companions.
It took me much longer than it had with book one to get into this novel, and I felt it was because again the author over-indulged a bit with descriptions and too much storytelling. There were many point of views that took a few pages for anything to happen or for me to actually be interested in the POV, or some I just did not like at all and ended up skimming. However with the Elenai POV, I was hooked from the beginning of chapter to the end. Her POV was the one that had the most adventure and the most information that ended up pulling together at the end of the novel.
There were many more characters, and different points of view in this book which made the story so much more thrilling, especially with the world expanding as our characters travel all over. I particularly liked Vannek's POV, who is the trans character mentioned before. While he was technically what we consider the "bad guy" or rather, who our heroine's are fighting throughout the novel, I actually found myself rooting for him. I am excited to see where his story goes in the following novel and I kind of hope he joins our heroes and makes peace with them.
I had stated in my review of the first book that I thought Rylin was rather static, but his character really shined through in this novel, and I kind of fell in love with him a bit. He's up there as one of my favorite male characters of the series, but I think Kyrkenall takes the crown. Especially his dynamic with Elenai - I sort of hold out hope for their relationship to bloom, but I have a feeling Rylin might place some interest too. There is not a whole lot of romance in this series, so definitely do not expect that, but the little hints of it were enough for me.
The plot moved extremely slowly in this novel, and I blame it on what I like to call "middle book syndrome". This was the second book in a trilogy, and this is the book where the author has to connect what happened first, and also set up for the final story, so there was just SO much extra information that I feel a good chunk of this novel could have been cut down to save us the time. Nevertheless, once all the little plot points started to come together in the last two-hundred pages or so, the slowness began to pay off. When it picked up, I found myself unable to put the book down because the story and characters were becoming so rich, and exciting. It all played out like an episode of TV in my head, where earlier comments impacted later events and watching it all come together, and all the main characters of the book meet each other again in the battle at the end felt so rewarding.
I honestly was prepared to not really like this book but the ending completely blew me away and I am going to be anticipating the hell out of the final book in the series. It does have it's issues with pacing, and problems with some characters not really having too much personality/emotion, but the world building and storytelling really makes up for it.
annieb123's review against another edition
5.0
Originally published on my blog: Nonstop Reader.
Upon the Flight of the Queen is the second book in the high fantasy Ring-Sworn trilogy by Howard Andrew Jones. Released 19th Nov 2019 by Macmillan on their St. Martin's imprint, it's 432 pages and available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats.
I love high fantasy epic quest doorstop books like this. The world building is superlative and the characters and plotting are engaging. Reading this book was actually so immersive for me that I lost track of passing time several times. It's taken me a while to actually review this installment because I picked it up without having read the previous book and couldn't keep track of what was going on and had to go back and pick up book one before getting through this one. The good news is that the author is darned gifted at plotting, tension, dialogue, characterization and the other technical details of immersive storytelling. The downside is that this book probably won't work well as a standalone.
Full of action, grand themes, honor, fighting, dragons, more fighting, magic, fighting, battles, impossible odds, and a bit of mystery, it's a ripping yarn in true high octane high fantasy. I really enjoyed this one (just don't try to read it as a standalone).
Five stars.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
Upon the Flight of the Queen is the second book in the high fantasy Ring-Sworn trilogy by Howard Andrew Jones. Released 19th Nov 2019 by Macmillan on their St. Martin's imprint, it's 432 pages and available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats.
I love high fantasy epic quest doorstop books like this. The world building is superlative and the characters and plotting are engaging. Reading this book was actually so immersive for me that I lost track of passing time several times. It's taken me a while to actually review this installment because I picked it up without having read the previous book and couldn't keep track of what was going on and had to go back and pick up book one before getting through this one. The good news is that the author is darned gifted at plotting, tension, dialogue, characterization and the other technical details of immersive storytelling. The downside is that this book probably won't work well as a standalone.
Full of action, grand themes, honor, fighting, dragons, more fighting, magic, fighting, battles, impossible odds, and a bit of mystery, it's a ripping yarn in true high octane high fantasy. I really enjoyed this one (just don't try to read it as a standalone).
Five stars.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
alwroteabook's review against another edition
5.0
Boom! Bring on book three - https://www.alwroteabook.com/2019/12/10/upon-the-flight-of-the-queen-by-howard-andrew-jones/
mferrante83's review against another edition
5.0
More fantastic heroic fantasy from Jones. I love the touch of weirdness to the world Jones has created. Answers about the nefarious plans of the titular queen and the history of the world itself are in small though satisfying parcels. The steady world-building is again buoyed by fantastic action set-pieces.
diesmali's review against another edition
adventurous
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? No
4.0
dinapetko's review
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
emily_michelle's review
adventurous
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
thebookbroom's review against another edition
3.0
This is the second book in the series. It continues where it left off and utilizes the multiple POV well. An overall fun story that I want to continue but the world building is a little incomplete (the gods, kobalin and Naor are a little underdeveloped).
leeleet's review
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0