Would work better as a stand alone book
This was a very compelling fast paced read, with characters that actually behave according to logic, despite their age. Imagine that.
The only negative point of this story, its the world-building that is actually extremely vague to say the least.
I was left with no idea of the time period in which the story takes place: Yes, I know it is a fantasy tale in which certain people possess magic. But besides that...
There's three factions _lets call them that _ in this world. We have the Empire who are the bad guys although I am not sure why, the Renegai, which are the people with magical abilities, and the Assassin's which *surprise, surprise* act according to their name.
Nothing far fetching and difficult to follow as you can see.
As expected in the supposed epic fantasy tales _ this one more fantasy, than actually epic _ there's conspiracy's and treachery's in the characters lives.
There will be a obstacle that the main character will have to overcome...or not:
"She was seventeen years old, and she felt as ancient as the rocks surrounding her.
And there was nowhere to go except forward, deeper into those rocks, where her death lay waiting."
And there was nowhere to go except forward, deeper into those rocks, where her death lay waiting."
But when it comes to the setting and the atmosphere of the story....it was just meh.
Caves. Caves. Caves. Bleak caves.
There's food...so chimneys maybe? And who cooks?
The worst killers of them all? Not the worst because those end up dead, but you see what I mean.
______
A cave full of young assassins who are always training...training equals sweat=stink= lots of water..so how does that work out?
Just basic things like this, that I wish would have been described so that the world would have felt more coherent.
We have someone who lived seventeen years out in the open air, and suddenly faces a lifetime _ however short it may turn out to be _ in confinement.
It must have felt as if she was being buried alive. And although the subject is occasionally mentioned, I didn't felt as if it was properly developed.
I'll give you an example...here's how I look like after a day with no Sun:
Now imagine being stuck for weeks bellow the surface....
The romance..
Truth be told that I wouldn't have had the slightest problem if it had taken a little longer _lol _ to appear.
But, even as it is, it was not heavily handed, and most importantly the characters remained true to their actual self.
His laugh hurt more than his grip, which was growing tighter and tighter. “Until you came along, and changed everything? Is that what you believe?”
So, did I liked it?
Yes, despite its world-building "issues", I ended up liking it because I liked the characters.
Now of to read the second volume of this duology , Death Marked, because I have an Arc ;)
Hopefully it will compensate the world-building deficiencies of the first book.
Having read 15 % of Death Marked, I can say that things aren't looking good.
I really wish author Leah Cypess would change her writing MO: Nightspell was severely lacking as a sequel to Mistwood (her other series), and the same thing seems to be happening with this one.
10
