Review: Complex and rich world building, held back by a lack of emotion and connection to the characters
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 03 21, 2014
The author built a deep, complex, and totally plausible world. He has relevant backstory that literally goes millions of years back. The action sequences are ferocious and written with a vividness that makes you feel you're almost watching a blockbuster movie. But I didn't have trouble taking long pauses between reading--it wasn't hard to put the book down at all.The plot points hold surprises, but in the end they didn't shock or move me emotionally. That's because despite the intense setting and specifics, I had a hard time caring about the people. The prologue connected me to the little girl. But then we rarely see her thoughts and feelings in a meaningful way. Only about 2/3 of the way through the book did we truly spend any real time with her inner experience. The book jumps between characters so quickly that it's hard to know who to root for. And while there are pages and pages for each action sequence, there are usually only paragraphs on their thoughts or feelings.The ending leaves enough open that the second book could be even better. He certainly has a rich enough world to play in. I'm hoping this is just a setup story and a more personal story in this epic setting can emerge.