Pretty forgettable **Spoilers**

Maybe I will return to listen to a few hours of this series every now and then but ultimately I find this series totally unfulfilling and I’m writing this review with 18 hours to go. The Protagonists are largely forgettable and the split perspective of this series does nothing to help that. I found myself wanting to skip the chapters of some characters because they were so pointless and were explaining information the audience already knows. I really wish that Florence had died in the first book somehow, I despise her.

I find both Arianna and Cvareh boring, their relationship is unconvincing and so are their motivations. Even though they don’t get together until the second book, I still feel like that was far too quick for them, I couldn’t convince myself that Arianna actually liked her partner. I’m still convinced that she must be using him (though that doesn’t make sense narratively). I don’t understand what they are trying to achieve and I feel like that should be the most important thing for the writer to make clear.

Where I am at, Arianna is in Nova to ascertain the character of Cvareh’s sister, obtain some unknown ingredient, and get revenge on some unknown dragon (pretty obvious who)? And she’s going shopping with Cvareh? And she needs Dragon hands so she can Illusion herself? And why does Cvareh need an army of Perfect Chimera to take over Nova? When it’s cannonical that his sister could just take over by duelling the King? The reasons why she doesn’t don’t seem to be explained? The questions are never ending, but I don’t feel any urgency to keep reading to have it explained.

The worlds of Loom and Nova are both kind of interesting but I found the inner mechanisms of the worlds unbelievable. Loom has a society that was built on the apparent mass-breeding of “the best” of their society all on one specific island and it makes me wonder about possibilities of in-breeding, how it would be possible to quantify the best breeding stock, STIs etc. while Nova as equally opposite and perplexing ideas of absolute family loyalty to the point where a character over hears a *minor* insult and attacks the person speaking during a covert mission. Bizarre world building that needed more care to be convincing. I did quite like the magical-steampunk setting though.

Super disappointed because I do like other books by Kova, I guess they can’t all be winners though!

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