Daile

A very cool world full of unlikable and unrealistic characters

Revisado: 10-18-23

Three stars because he creates a world so vivid and alive that you almost forget we don’t actually have a city on the moon. For that, it’s a fun read.

But beyond that.. the characters are flat and the interactions between them are anywhere from uninteresting to cringeworthy. The dialog is clunky. Anytime Weir writes about sex (mercifully little in his other books) it comes across like teenage boy wrote it. So his decision to write from the perspective of a young woman was… yikes. It’s like the literary equivalent of the icky vibe you get from those male fantasy video game avatars.

For so many reasons the protagonist is insufferable, but there’s enough of a vague thread of depth and self-knowledge (at least toward the end) to feel invested enough to keep reading.

Overall it’s a decent story told by a fundamentally unlikable character set in a beautifully crafted, fascinating world.

The narration is good but the accents are painful to listen to.

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Bummed

Revisado: 12-16-21

This book made me further appreciate her previous 8 books and various other stories because this doesn’t come even close. The continuity errors are frustrating as always and there’s far too much looking back to previous books; but more than anything, it feels overall like a shallow imitation of DG’s writing and story-telling. I just finished and I’m left feeling very disappointed.

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Disappointing narration

Revisado: 02-04-19

The story wasn’t quite as good as the previous 3 Sharpe novels, but I was mostly put off by Tull’s narration. His reading makes Sharpe sound insolent, too old, and frankly creepy. It absolutely takes away from the overall effect of the story.

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One Dimensional

Revisado: 01-08-19

Wilde clearly has a passion for history and the extent of his research is apparent. While that aspect is crucial for most fans of historical fiction, it doesn’t make up for a lack of depth in the story.

The scope of the story was far too large and the description of so many events came at the expense of theme and character development. There are glimpses of the dimensional story Wilde intended to tell, but the attempts at subtlety and foreshadowing in the beginning only made it difficult to follow because they hinted at a depth that just wasn’t there. The classic “show don’t tell” element of character development is lacking and it gives the whole story an incongruous, one dimensional feel. As a result, the character shift twist revealed toward the end is more irritating than shocking because the basis for it was too thinly developed.

I also have to mention that the battle scenes seem somehow both over-simplified and greatly exaggerated. Admittedly, I did just finish Cornwell’s Saxon Chronicles so the bar in my mind for comparison was pretty high.

Although flat, the story is entertaining overall. Its an interesting peek into the time period and some of the key players outside of William the Conquerer.

One last note: the insistent use of the poetic term “whale-road” gets annoying.

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Over-dramatized

Revisado: 11-17-18

The content is well researched and fascinating on its own, so I couldn’t help but be annoyed by the excessive dramatization. Let the subject matter speak for itself. But aside from the chafing dramatic tone, I really enjoyed it and learned a lot.

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