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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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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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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fantastic performance, too many plot twists

The story itself changes direction so many times from where I think it would go, that it almost gave me a whiplash.
I once read "This book is like the description of The Lies of Locke Lamora in space."
I felt inclined to agree.
However, I think that would be slightly false.
This story, is among many things, a legacy.
The structure of The Holy Roman Empire, the fear of the Spanish Inquisition, The brilliance of Firefly, The description of Locke Lamora, and the writing suited a Old English thesis.

In short; one hell of a book.
Can someone give the narrator a glass of water?

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A solid start

I stumbled across this book while looking for some new space opera and this certainly ticks the boxes.
The story is engaging, with plenty of emotion, plots and intrigue.
The narrator does a superb job reminiscing about Hadrian's life, does a good job with the various voices and emotions throughout the story.
If your looking for fast paced all out action, then this won't be for you, but if you love world and character building taken to a very detailed level then this will be perfect.

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Well written prose but lacking any real 'meat'.

The book borrows heavily from other notable space fantasy staples, most notably Dune - but with the narrative style of The Name of the Wind. While still listenable, I found this to match up to neither. Well written prose, but the plotting is too slow and the overly descriptive narrative, combined with John Lees particular style, made this a frustrating listen, especially towards the end. Too much talk and not enough action, combined with a first person narrative from an MC who is simply not that endearing.

I came away with 'Anthony Ryan' vibes, and not in a good way. That said, there was enough here to try the second book and hope things improve.

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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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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