Malice

This book is to A Game of Thrones what Eye of the World is to Lord of the Rings

Book is visibly inspired by AGOT. It's also allegedly inspired by Cornwell's books but I haven't read those so I'm not going to call Gwynne out on that part. Otherwise it's a promising introduction into a fantasy world. Heavy on fantasy tropes just like WoT. I suppose that comes with the territory, though.

Since I mostly read grimdark and schlock action fantasy, Eye of the World is the best point of reference here. The book is certainly better. Characters feel more alive, especially Corban, his friends and family. It's what kept me going, really, because the rest of POVs I couldn't care less about.

The predictability was astounding. I wasn't correct in all my assumptions as to how the story will go on but I was mostly right. Guessed who's the villain, who's the chosen one immediately. Guessed the one in the dreams is not who he pretends to be. I knew how would Rafe's story go on. Who killed the king. When Ban got the wolven I knew what would happen with the animal. I think I know how will Veradis's character arc continue in later books.

Half way through I started struggling as it was all characterization and exposition, very little plot movement or action, no unseen twists. That changes after 400 pages and especially the last 100 were great. Some setups finally started paying off. But it's not enough to salvage the book for me. Goodreads says I read it for 3 weeks. Feels more like 2 months. I don't understand how so many people overhype and give it 5 stars, calling it amazing. It's not. It's a solid start to a series, though.

Just like in AGOT there's a ton of characters (a list would really help, I was lost for quite a while trying to remember who's who), though the world seems smaller. I don't know what the king's are ruling over because it seemed like it's one town and a few villages here and there. The scale is not there. What is the total human population of Banished Lands? 80 000? Book is trying to set up this epic world but it really feels like everyone is living on a larger island. Maybe sequels will explain this better.

As I mentioned, last 100 pages are different. We finally see some action, there's some loss, twists that I didn't expect. This book would've been 3/5* just like Eye of the World. Last parts, Corban's arc and the solid, even though predictable, writing elevates it just so barely to 4/5*. I have zero desire to re-read this book ever again but I do want to continue with the series as literally everyone is saying it only gets better from here. I think Gwynne absolutely nailed Corban's story here, his family relationships, deep courage, his humbleness, like that he trains with the best fighters in the kingdom but doesn't realize how good he got because of that compared to others. His story is full of little touches like that. He's what kept me going when I got to the middle. He's probably my favorite "chosen one" already.