Spellslinger

Well... yeah. This was a thing. Not nearly as great as Greatcoats, but it's a thing, I guess. Kellen is part of a desert-dwelling civilisation of magical people. You basically have to pass exams as a teenager, kind of as a coming of age ritual, unlocking the different kinds of magic one can use. The results decide if you will become a proper citizen or a slave. Kellen is fucked big, big time, as he can't really do magic. So what does he do? Wing the shit out of it, of course, just trick everyone and make it sound like he totally does magic (reminds me of a few of my exams, lol). Gets caught, of course. So to survive without ending up being a slave, he needs the help of this mysterious woman who just showed up, without any magic, equipped with... cards. I have no idea what happened, but as likeable and warm everyone was in Greatcoats, this one just had thing happening after thing and thing, with douche-y characters fucking things up for each other. Not even the ones who were supposed to be good people were in any way likeable. This is coming from someone who enjoys reading about Littlefinger in ASOIAF. That tells a lot. I can enjoy things about evil people. Really. Sand Dan Glokta in Abercrombie's [b:The Blade Itself 944073 The Blade Itself (The First Law #1) Joe Abercrombie https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1284167912s/944073.jpg 929009] (which I have recently finished, need to get back on that series) was fun to read, even though the dude is a torturer, with a wretched, ruined life. But these people, oh god, they were colossal cunts, the whole lot of them. One thing that added a lot to the characters in Greatcoats was the humour, which did not exist in this world. Everyone is such a stuck up moron, they don't know how jokes work or I don't know. I really missed that, Sebastien De Castell CAN make me laugh until I cry. Don't hide that, man. It's a treasure. An interesting thing though; I'm in the middle of [b:The Codex Alera 26065518 The Codex Alera (6 Books) Jim Butcher https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1439088402s/26065518.jpg 46000711] by Jim Butcher, another series with a young man lacking magic in a world where it is needed for power and status. At this point I prefer Tavi, though. So yeah. The first half of the book gave me flashbacks of [b:Assassin's Apprentice 77197 Assassin's Apprentice (Farseer Trilogy, #1) Robin Hobb https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1464570795s/77197.jpg 171715], which is NOT a good thing. That book to me was one chain of passionless melancholy and bad things happening to a dull character. Here it wasn't so bad that it made me legitimately depressed (yes, Robin Hobb made me so, it was baaad), but it wasn't good. The second part picks up. The action gets better, a new talking animal character with a sassy attitude and a foul mouth made things much more fun. I see the potential there. It can become something interesting, something fun to read. The length probably didn't allow that, but the author is fast as hell, so if everything goes right we'll read more of it THIS YEAR. Which connects to another thing. The scope of this is small. Just one desert town that seemingly doesn't have much contact without anyone else, they are very isolated, even when it comes to their own nation. There are things out there, they get mentioned, but without us seeing anything further than just the empty territory outside the town limits. The story ends with Kellen leaving, so it's obviously going to have much more travelling now, which I don't mind, it will give things more action and something I enjoy, exploration. Right now I'm not too invested. It wasn't a horrible book, but I know the author can do much, much better, so basically we'll have to wait and see if that happens here or we'll get stuck with one more series that doesn't live up to its potential. (Looking at you, [b:Shadow and Bone 10194157 Shadow and Bone (The Grisha, #1) Leigh Bardugo https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1339533695s/10194157.jpg 15093325]) Have a nice day and change the whole entirety of society, one exam cheating at a time!