andyb245's reviews
42 reviews

Dante by Guy Haley

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adventurous dark tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson

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adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

While enjoyable in it's own right I feel like we've seen these characters go through self doubt enough times by this point in the story. I would like it if the characters started maturing out of these characteristics finally.

The middle of this book DRAGS. Sanderson could probably have cut some 300 pages and the story wouldn't have suffered for it. There are simply too many POVs now. I find myself caring about maybe 1/3 of them and the others only take page count from actually interesting characters. I find it practically indefenssible that chracters like Kaladin are left behind for so much of this book so we can explore others who won't ever interact with the world or each other.

And the last part of this book was a rough patch for me. Swapping POVs every paragraph for several chapters didn't effectively set up the action, it fragmented it and made it hard to get invested in anything that was actually taking place.

Knights of Dark Renown by David Gemmell

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Did not finish book. Stopped at 30%.

Overall written too simply for my tastes. But worse than that, every female character is introduced to be sexually exploited or assaulted. I understand that these sorts of stories often employ this trope, but in Knights of Dark Renown it is excessive. Aside from maybe Lady Dianu every female character so far as been assaulted and I can't stomach it anymore, it began to feel like fetishization.

Slewfoot: A Tale of Bewitchery by Brom

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced