Malice

i really wanted to like this after all the amazing stuff i've heard about gwynne, but i think that the hype was too much. i kept expecting amazing writing from this author, and this was my second from him (the first was shadow of the gods, which was described as a masterpiece, and i thought was ok).

i'm not really a fan of pushing in so many characters - i would rather the existing characters were fleshed out well. there were some characters who i really hated seeing the perspective of - kastell was my least favorite. i thought he was so boring and forgot who he was a lot of the time. and then he joins a band of warriors for a while and this is supposed to be a big deal for him but is barely even talked about.

rafe and jael were such annoyingly evil characters as well. they seemed so flat and didn't seem to have a reason for being so bad. i just wish that there was more to the characters who were given so much “screen time”. gwynne also loves to write battle scenes and i just find them really boring.

i preferred malice to shadow of the gods, but i'm really not sure if i'm going to continue on with this series or author. i am really curious about what happens next, even though it feels kind of obvious
Spoiler
(Corban is totally the actual hero isn't he, and Nathair is just being tricked). he seems like a really friendly dude but his books are chonkers, so they're quite the commitment.

sigh, think i'll take a break from gwynne. maybe i'll enjoy him after some time away.