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A review by fletcher
Warrior of the Wind by Suyi Davies Okungbowa
2.5
I’m so depressed. I was not expecting the sequel of one of my favorite books to put me in a month-long reading slump.
The characters I loved from the first book had incredibly frustrating arcs and lost most of the aspects I adored about them. So many new PoVs were introduced for a ~425-page book that it was impossible to keep track of everything, and with so much of the book being set on the road, I couldn’t connect to the cities or people everyone was fighting for—or even get a grasp of the power those cities and people might give them. I also just couldn’t get in the heads of several of the new characters and some non-PoV characters felt just so blank too. I had a hard time caring about anything. It really feels like this suffered from middle book syndrome.
Some other misc things that irked me: extremely uncomfortable themes around childbirth and pregnancy, a few moments that made me feel kind of gross around female sexuality written by a male author especially with Nem and Esheme (but I’m not sure if me coming from such a different cultural background is causing that), and just so. much. waffling. So many characters lacking motivation and spending pages in internal monologue made this a true slog for me.
Some things I did like: the worldbuilding is still stellar, Nem’s political machinations continued to be my favorite part of the story, the Ninki Nanka was so fucking cool, and when there was action it was gripping. The glossary and plot summary included in the book were also necessary and very useful.
I’m hoping that all this setup will make the last book easier to get through.
The characters I loved from the first book had incredibly frustrating arcs and lost most of the aspects I adored about them. So many new PoVs were introduced for a ~425-page book that it was impossible to keep track of everything, and with so much of the book being set on the road, I couldn’t connect to the cities or people everyone was fighting for—or even get a grasp of the power those cities and people might give them. I also just couldn’t get in the heads of several of the new characters and some non-PoV characters felt just so blank too. I had a hard time caring about anything. It really feels like this suffered from middle book syndrome.
Some other misc things that irked me: extremely uncomfortable themes around childbirth and pregnancy, a few moments that made me feel kind of gross around female sexuality written by a male author especially with Nem and Esheme (but I’m not sure if me coming from such a different cultural background is causing that), and just so. much. waffling. So many characters lacking motivation and spending pages in internal monologue made this a true slog for me.
Some things I did like: the worldbuilding is still stellar, Nem’s political machinations continued to be my favorite part of the story, the Ninki Nanka was so fucking cool, and when there was action it was gripping. The glossary and plot summary included in the book were also necessary and very useful.
I’m hoping that all this setup will make the last book easier to get through.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Pregnancy
Minor: Vomit