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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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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A superb first installment

A unique take on a space epic brought to life by an amazing narrator who captures the spirit of the book perfectly

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3 people found this helpful

Too Quiet!

Whenever I played this audiobook in the car or just on loudspeaker while cracking on with jobs around the house, it was too quiet even when cranked up to max. As you can imagine, not being able to hear an audiobook really impacted on the experience and I frequently found myself only getting pieces of the story. I would then have to go back to re-listen. There were parts of this story where I was really engaged and interested in what was going on, and other times when I was a bit bored. It's hard for me to say how much of this was due to not being able to hear it properly and where there may have been simply slow parts of the story.

That being said, it was pretty enjoyable, I'd give it a 7/10.

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1 person found this helpful

slow burner

I very nearly returned this book in the first 30 minutes of starting , I'm glad I didn't.
The idea of sword bearing fuedal societies with star travel is so 1979 !
This said the characters and plot draw the reader in and although I think the universe Ruocchio has created is pathetically unimaginative his ability to tell a story with twists and turns is commendable so I surprisingly find myself looking forward to the following book's in the series.

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