Jen Williams (1)

3.25
The world building in this is hardcore. It’s intricate and there’s multiple POVs. And because of that, the pacing is incredibly slow. And yet. At the 280 page mark, when I kinda wanted to DNF as it was feeling like a 3 star, I couldn’t because my curiosity wanted to see how everything was going to play out.
Cillian was my fave character - the romance could have been written better though (I like this authors winnowing flame series way more).
Overall it was ok, but I am not invested enough to continue the series.… (more)

Very interesting world. I liked the story telling, where you don't find out everything immediately, but you get to know it through the characters investigations. I liked the characters as well, although there was some seriously questionable behavior at times. In particular, the cavalier attitude of Noon towards taking Tor's energy, and even Vintage's attitude, who is actually one of the most moral characters in this book, didn't sit well with me. That was a violation.
I'm usually not a fan of following different characters, but it worked well enough for me in this book. It wasn't too "cliffhangery", and I was interested enough in all the story lines.

Still, somehow this didn't fully pull me in, it felt a little like work at times. I think I didn't fully connect with the characters. Especially Tor seems a little distant to me. Vintage is clearly the best of the bunch, but even with her, the reader is not really looking through her eyes, it feels more like you're an outside looking from the side.

Despite liking it, I'm not sure I will read the next book. With the situation changed by the end of book 1, I fear the overall sense of discovery will change.… (more)

An eARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

An alternate European setting with a strong feel of 2000AD and Warhammer FRP. The book covered 3 storylines: that of the eponymous eponymous Talonsister, a child raised by griffins in the equivalent of Scotland, a former Imperial supersoldier sent to one of the last independent areas (the equivalent to Wales and England), and an Imperial assassin and his protegee escorting an alchemist to investigate a forbidden ruin.

The 3 storylines are linked; the Empire's conquests are powered by titan bones: griffins and the great bear in the England equivalent are the last remaining titans, and the Empire is running out of titanbone to create their supersoldiers.

I quite liked the story, although I thought perhaps the 3 linked stories in one book might have been a bit too much. The ending seemed a bit abrupt too - I presume the story will be continued.

OK - I'll probably read any sequel when it comes out.… (more)

I just don't have the patience for this anymore.
Character after character, storyline after storyline, none of them establish any kind of goal. Nothing is happening at all. All these POVs explain the current situation of these characters. Some of them begin some sort of quest for various reasons but they all end before anything of relevance happens whatsoever. The author doesn't give me a reason to care about any of it.
It's all disguised exposition but it is even worse than an outright info dump. If the story anchors me to a character or presents me with an intriguing premise and then drops an info dump on me I can at least decide if I have the patience to wade through it and get to the meat of the story. I know what parts are just there to teach me relevant information about this world and which are the actual story.
Here I don't know who or what is relevant. I don't even know what the story is about. The book, as it is written, could feasibly just keep going like this for the next 480 pages, switching to a different random POV every 10-20 pages of yet another insignificant nobody somewhere in this vast world.
I have now spent 1.5 hours with this book and there wasn't a single piece of anything interesting in here.
History in middle school was more interesting than this, and my teacher didn't care for history or teaching.
I am obviously too impatient here but this just feels like I am being strung along without ever getting to the actual story.

The blurb says "and the adventurers are quickly drawn into a tangled conspiracy of magic and war."
I have no clue which of these characters are even relevant and which are just narrative devices. I have counted 7 POVs within the first 1,5 hours.
The world is vast and interesting, sure, but there is no story happening.
I think 10% of the book doesn't count as "quickly" and that is assuming the actual story begins right after I stopped reading which I doubt.… (more)