by Benjanun Sriduangkaew
rating: ☆☆
published: 5th December 2017
spoilers? hints
Goodreads
Galley provided by publisher
I am angry at this book. Angry because that's not an ending. Angry because there's throwing you straight into a world, but then there's lazy worldbuilding. Angry because of the lazy characterisation and lazy relationship development. But mostly angry because I put up with all that in the hopes that I'd get a satisfying ending and I didn't.
(But Charlotte, you say. Life often doesn't have satisfying endings. Yeah, but this ain't life, is it. This is fiction, and I would like my satisfying ending.)
But, ranting aside, this book did nothing special for me. Sure, it had potential, but ultimately, it was just a bit too short to live up to it. Short and underdeveloped.
The two main characters are primarily archetypes: the perfect warrior, and the loyal general. They aren't ever seen as much more than that, and it's boring. Because these are the people I'm supposed to be rooting for (though how I can root for Lussadh, the loyal general of a colonising invader, when she is so completely loyal she believes the invader to be right in every aspect, I don't know - but that's a whole other kettle of fish). And I just didn't connect, because they didn't seem to be anything beyond those archetypes.
Then there's the fact that there's never any intensity to any of the scenes. Not the fight scenes, and not the sex scenes. You know, the two types of scene in particular where you might want there to be something on the line? And also, you're telling me that Nuawa, the perfect warrior, meets no one close to her match in a tournament of 400 people? That she passes through it perfectly, almost without even having to break a sweat? Heck, even having one battle put in where she doesn't win it easily would be enough to raise the intensity. As it is, we breeze through these fight scenes (I'm not kidding, they take 2 pages, maximum), without any conflict. What would have happened to Nuawa's plan to assassinate the queen if she had failed at any point to become part of her army? What if she'd ever been in a position where that would have threatened to have happened? Who knows, because she's never put there. And it's frustrating because there's so much more that could have been done, but no. She's the Perfect Warrior, and thus will not be defeated.
The lack of intensity in the sex scenes also arises from their shortness, but also from the fact that the characters don't seem to have any personality of their own (archetypes, remember?), and it's just boring. Give me more. Actually develop the relationship. It's not even instalove here, it's just shoving two people together when they have no chemistry and being like "now kiss". Does not work.
And, finally, the ending. Don't even get me talking about that ending. It's like this isn't actually a standalone book. Like maybe the author planned another. Well, you're not getting me with that hook. I'm out.
