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Chris Kessel

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  • 1
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A lot of philosophy and introspection

Overall
4 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
3 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 01-20-21

Very average. This book and the one before it contain a lot of pontificating and self reflection. makes for a full story. The parts that weren't that way we're good.

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Interesting world, but slow.

Overall
4 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
3 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 10-17-19

I enjoyed the unusual fantasy setting, but the story was really slow. 80% of the way through I'd be hard pressed to list more than one or two important points that happened in the story.

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long gory desciptions of torture and death

Overall
2 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
2 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 09-15-19

Epic fantansy, strong characters, should be right up my alley, but the author must have a fetish for gory death and dismemberment. Long drawn out descriptions of blood and entrails...so many descriptions of people's entrails. And it's a bit slow. After 1/3rd of the book and probably the 10th round of explicit descriptions of people getting hacked apart, I gave up.

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Slow and depressing

Overall
2 out of 5 stars
Performance
4 out of 5 stars
Story
2 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 03-16-19

Disclaimer, I made it 50% of the way through the book. I struggle to understand the huge rating on this book. The protagonist is a very young man, but he has the beaten down behavior of an old man. Given the life he was born into, some of that is understandable, but it's hard to reconcile the story with his age.

And the story is just an endless series of depressing events. Oppression, death, situations where he's constantly forced to do evil things. Very few of the characters are anyone you can root for, there's nothing to cheer for. It's a long litany of the worst of humanity's behaviors: enslavement, narcissism, vengeance, selfishness.

The reader, Tim Gerald Reynolds is fantastic as always, he's why I made it as far into the book as I did, but even he couldn't salvage it for me.

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Incredibly disappointing end to the series

Overall
2 out of 5 stars
Performance
3 out of 5 stars
Story
1 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 09-09-18

Great first 3.75 books and then the ending was astoundingly disappointing and really puts a pall on the entire series.

Spoilers: Three books of building up to this great climatic battle between the protagonist forces and the enemy and....the author has a god snap his fingers and it's all done. What a monumental let down. It truly ranks as one of the worst endings I've ever read. My mind just boggles that this was the end goal.

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Reads like a teen's fantasy of a noble quest

Overall
2 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
2 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 03-02-18

Shapechanger Woman: Oh, Trell, you're so handsome, I could use you as my bedtime plaything.
Trell is all demur and doesn't follow through
(Trell adventures off elsewhere)
Magic Sister A: Oh Trell, you're so noble and kind, I want to have sex with you!
Trell: My lady, I'm far too noble for that.
Magic Sister A: Ok then, I promise I won't try to seduce you.
Magic Sister B: Oh Trell, you're so noble, my sister promised, but I didn't, I must have sex with you!
Trell: My lady, I'm just too noble, now please stop trying to seduce me.
Magic Sister A: I know I promised, but you're so noble, I just must give myself to you as a gift.
Trell: Well, ok, if you must.

The other main character isn't much better, but with avenging a wrong rather than fending off stunningly beautiful women (and they're all stunningly beautiful).

I really wish I could have liked this book. The mythology is interesting, the cultures varied, there's much to like there. But I had a hard time reading after spraining my eyes rolling them so hard at the laughable teenager's fantasy of being so noble the beauties of the world must give themselves to him.

I made it halfway through the book, maybe it salvages itself later.

The only true upside of this book was finding the reader Nick Podehl. He's absolutely incredible!

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Great story, narrator struggles with male voices

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
3 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 03-07-17

The story is excellent, switching between multiple views. Each character is interesting and well fleshed out over time. There are very few pure shallow archetypes.

My only real complaint is the narrator. While her (Mil's) voice is nice on general narration and fine for female characters, with male voices she chooses a very nasal, whiny voice rather than pitching down. I often had a hard time distinguishing who was speaking and it gave me a mental image of everyone as small pinched faced looking people.

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