416 pages
English language
Published May 7, 2013 by Square Fish.
Orphaned by the Border Wars, Alina Starkov is taken from obscurity and her only friend, Mal, to become the protegé of the mysterious Darkling, who trains her to join the magical elite in the belief that she is the Sun Summoner, who can destroy the monsters of the Fold.
light reading, beautiful worldbuilding and some interesting characters. Looking forward to the next book of the series
A very enjoyable book. Sometimes a bit difficult to get through as the first person limited POV can leave supporting characters feeling a bit hollow.
Very easy to read, a little childish at times, but enjoyable nonetheless
If you've seen the Netflix show, this is far better. Beautiful world-building, engaging characters, familiar tropes with original twists.
Annoying to read. Whiny, over anxious, emotional main character who is still somehow the desire of every male character… dumb
Post-renaissance eastern Europe is a nice change of pace from medieval western Europe for the basis of a fantasy setting. Add in villains with believable motivations, and a protagonist that isn't too terrible, and you get a novel that exceeded my (admittedly rather low) expectations.
It does have some flaws, but if the promotional text intrigues you, then I would say it's worth giving a try.
Some discussion of specific good and bad points I had follows in the spoilers:
Overall the pacing is good, but sometimes it goes so fast that the author doesn't properly set up a key moment. For example, the protagonist's choice to spare the hart comes out of the blue, and comes across as an incredibly stupid decision. Her later thinking back to the events that led her to that (ultimately correct) decision explains it, but it needed to be established before the decision was …
Post-renaissance eastern Europe is a nice change of pace from medieval western Europe for the basis of a fantasy setting. Add in villains with believable motivations, and a protagonist that isn't too terrible, and you get a novel that exceeded my (admittedly rather low) expectations.
It does have some flaws, but if the promotional text intrigues you, then I would say it's worth giving a try.
Some discussion of specific good and bad points I had follows in the spoilers:
Overall the pacing is good, but sometimes it goes so fast that the author doesn't properly set up a key moment. For example, the protagonist's choice to spare the hart comes out of the blue, and comes across as an incredibly stupid decision. Her later thinking back to the events that led her to that (ultimately correct) decision explains it, but it needed to be established before the decision was made, not after.
Most choices the protagonist makes seem reasonable for a person of her age (presumably 18 to 20) and experience to make. Her attraction to the Darkling seems, at first, to be an exception, but the setup of his general attractiveness, followed by the reveal that he's a master manipulator that has been pulling her strings, redeems what would otherwise have been a problematic depiction of a very problematic relationship.
The one real issue with the protagonist that remains is the way she comes to break the Darkling's bonds. Being forced to participate in the murder of hundreds of people, including women and children, doesn't cause her to realize her true power. It's only when her best friend/boyfriend is threatened that she cares enough to realize what she needs to do. That really lowers the apparent level of her empathy, and made her a much less sympathetic character in my eyes.
I liked that the protagonist has a background before being revealed as the 'chosen one.' I think it could have been a little stronger than it was. For example, it would have been nice if she was a fully competent soldier, instead of just an apprentice mapmaker, but it was still nice when her previous skills and experiences were brought up as relevant to her new situation.
I liked that the master manipulator villain wasn't able to predict everything, and ultimately failed in his goal. The story had a pretty good level of highs and lows with the result that the protagonist definitely felt challenged to overcome incredible difficulties, but without a generally depressing feel of everything being doom and gloom.
More like 3.5. The narrator was good-I really appreciated that she tried to make each voice unique to the character she was reading, though I didn't particularly care for some of her voices.
