[Adapted from initial review on Goodreads.]
3 stars
This book was a fun read with great worldbuilding and nice characters, and some interesting moral/ethical quandaries (which, however, failed to really acknowledge the way that these quandaries existing at all was a result of the way the society was built up, putting all the moral weight on the actions of individuals).
However, two things about it: one, it did that thing where the reader and the character have all the same information, and yet the character completely fails to notice something which I, as a reader, found extremely obvious. This was built up like a murder mystery, but because the murderer's identity was clear from pretty early on - though not to the assassin-turned-detective - it turned into a murder dramatic irony. This is an effect I generally do not like. I'll make exceptions if it's deliberate for characterisation reasons, and in this case I could see that being …
This book was a fun read with great worldbuilding and nice characters, and some interesting moral/ethical quandaries (which, however, failed to really acknowledge the way that these quandaries existing at all was a result of the way the society was built up, putting all the moral weight on the actions of individuals).
However, two things about it: one, it did that thing where the reader and the character have all the same information, and yet the character completely fails to notice something which I, as a reader, found extremely obvious. This was built up like a murder mystery, but because the murderer's identity was clear from pretty early on - though not to the assassin-turned-detective - it turned into a murder dramatic irony. This is an effect I generally do not like. I'll make exceptions if it's deliberate for characterisation reasons, and in this case I could see that being so if Amastan refused to acknowledge/consider the murderer as an option rather than just failing to, but honestly that is not how it read.
Two, I found the romance kind of heavy-handed, but that's probably entirely on my end.
Selling points: gay romance, allo-ace protagonist, nifty worldbuilding, ethical quandaries, murder mystery but fantasy and gay.
Warnings: not very mysterious as mysteries go; casual depiction of slavery as part of worldbuilding; fails to acknowledge societal impact on ethics.
