Pentapod reviewed The Prophecy Con by Patrick Weekes
Review of 'The Prophecy Con' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
At last, my cat allowed me to finish reading this book... and there was much rejoicing!
This is the second book of the Rogues of the Republic trilogy, and you should definitely read the first book before this one or you'll be very confused by all the different characters and their various relationships. While I enjoyed the first book, I enjoyed this one more; I think it's because the characters are developing more depth as the series continues, and also because it seemed as if more things went wrong for them in this book. The first book felt kind of too easy for Our Heroes; they always seemed to be a step ahead, and always with a trick up their sleeves and a glib retort ready. This time they seemed to get tripped up a few more times and the way they handled things helped develop their personalities further and …
At last, my cat allowed me to finish reading this book... and there was much rejoicing!
This is the second book of the Rogues of the Republic trilogy, and you should definitely read the first book before this one or you'll be very confused by all the different characters and their various relationships. While I enjoyed the first book, I enjoyed this one more; I think it's because the characters are developing more depth as the series continues, and also because it seemed as if more things went wrong for them in this book. The first book felt kind of too easy for Our Heroes; they always seemed to be a step ahead, and always with a trick up their sleeves and a glib retort ready. This time they seemed to get tripped up a few more times and the way they handled things helped develop their personalities further and in interesting ways. Besides, let's face it, who likes totally perfect people anyway? OK, maybe that's just my bias, but it's probably the same reason Loch is my least favorite character (she's just so darn infallible) while Hessler and Tern are by far my favorites as they struggle and succeed in pulling their own weight despite a near complete lack of being magical creatures/god-blessed/possessed of mythical sapient weaponry/literal heroes of prophecy/inhumanly fast and strong/etc. Am I a terrible person for hoping more things go horribly wrong for Our Heroes in book three? I just enjoy seeing them deal with adversity and yet manage extricate themselves nonetheless!
The book is written and paced more like an action movie than a classical fantasy book, and a lot of the action seems very visual; this would be a fantastic experience on the big screen if any Hollywood studio ever purchases the rights. Despite the fast-paced action though there's a lot of cool worldbuilding if you pay attention to the background details. Yes, it's a fantasy world with elves and dwarves and dragons and unicorns etc, but not your usual Tolkien variants. The elves and dwarves have an interesting origin back story (I particularly liked the rule-stickler dwarves), and the unicorn and dragon we meet are definitely quite unique. The magic system is also interesting; human stuff seems to be mainly crystal-based, elves have different methods, and although the details are never laid out in plain exposition you pick up bits of information here and there that slowly build up a picture in a way that doesn't feel as if you're being force-fed walls of explanatory prose.
Anyway, if you enjoy fantasy and fast-paced action and heists, this is probably a series you'll enjoy a lot, so pick it up! Book three is already on my bedside table and I'm looking forward to seeing what happens next, cat permitting.
