Slow burner with some promise

I got this book after a recommendation for the series. I was told the first book was slow and that the rest of the series gets much better. And the first book is very slow to get going, it almost feels like a huge prologue. The first half of the book is quite boring in all honesty, at times I thought about giving up. The second half although still hard going started for get more interesting as the stakes rose. It does give me hope for the rest of the series though because it shows a lot of promise. The author has a very flowery prose that is reminiscent of name of the wind. The universe in which is set is very interesting. And the main character is good intentioned but very flawed. So it has left me wanting to try the next book despite some of the flaws it has.

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Decent

Decent enough story line apart from the fact it feels like only a set up for the rest of the story

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Scents if The Name of the Wind but not enough peaks

Beautiful, epic language. Of all the books I’ve read or listened to to date, this and Shantaram are the ones that made me wish I could write as beautifully.
The story implies greatness off the get go and that really pulls the reader in. The world seems large and interesting.
The main problems to me are that for readers who are enticed by greatness - we should get some tastes of it. In every encounter the protagonist is just normal and full of flaws and no genius. Also, the ‘poet’s exposition’ is nice in general, but when there’s a big fight scene for example - the fight scene bleeds out the adrenaline because it feels broken up into multiple episodes because of the tangents I’d thought and narrative.
I’m definitely going on to book two and hope the author just gets better at these points - if so this could really be something great.
As I said before I’ll say again - absolutely stunning and beautiful writing.

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Intriguing but nothing new

The whole read felt like a set up that never happened. I enjoyed it all the same.

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amazing

This book has jumped to the top of my most favourite series and I have only read book 1

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fantastic space opera/fantasy

If you've read Red Rising of are a fan of space opera with that fantasy edge, this is the one for you. I loved it.

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2 people found this helpful

different

futuristic fantasy in syfi worlds galaxies and planet.
firstly i love john lee as a narrators which is what drew me to this book to start with.
i love mr roucchios sense of humour. without giving and spoilers away .if you know your ancient civilizations you will get the play on names from messopatainia to the normands but also other tv references to names like the vulcans (but totally unrelated)theres even a luke of the stars or something that reminded me of starwars.
this is a fabulous book .

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Beautiful character building. Epic Sci-Fi Fantasy!

Slow burner but some epic moments! Can't wait for the next books! I read Dune earlier this year... really enjoyed it however I'm more excited to continue this series.

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The name of the space!!

Really good, read it in days! So keep that in mind for what I am about to say now.

2 things:

1. John Lee - he is clearly a professional but my god does he make everyone (even the love interest) sound like a villain!

2. Name of the dune - i love rothfuss so much so that a book that is part of an unfinished trilogy is one of my favourites. But I just wish there wasnt as many parallels. I.e boy has to grow up on streets, has a distant love interest, is great at everything. Has a rich patron lol. Also I much preferred this book to dune, the houses and emperor in space etc. and I wasn’t too bothered about that but saying “fear is a poison” over and over again where it could equally be “fear is the mind killer” seemed a little much.

However!!!

The author wrote this when he was 22! Honestly in the way my son talks I have the say “mad respect”. I finished it in less than a week, and it was incredibly entertaining !

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this was amazingly good book

Yes get this book and listen to it.
a great performance an amazing story and this is just the beginning. I'm glad I started this year with this book.

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