I went into this book thinking I was going to hate-read it. My mentality was that I couldn’t say I disliked this series unless I forced myself to finish it. I’m happy to be proven wrong.
So I wasn’t a huge fan of the first book but I thought the mystery was interesting, the vacuum cleaner was honestly badass, but most of all, the setting had promise. Magical and modern-day technology coexisting was new to me. Usually it’s like Victorian era level technology at most. Plus the existence of Hel was intriguing. So I gave the next book a shot…
…and absolutely hated it. I don’t find Bryce and the crew relatable in the slightest but it didn’t matter too much to me until they started just making really stupid, arrogant decisions. Which made them go from unrelatable to flat out unlikable. The tie in at the end to one of Maas’s other worlds (which I wasn’t able to even get halfway through the first book of) just made me roll my eyes.
In fact, if not for the Hind reveal, I probably would have been sorely tempted to give up on the series. And really the Hind is the highlight of book 3 too. Even with her cliche sob story background. Followed by the fire sprite queen. Women I can admire for their inner (and outer) strength.
So the book started off underwhelmingly. It dragged out the everyone-one-is-hurting-in-some-way for too long. Of course it was the Hind who broke them out of that phase of the story.
Also Bryce being so thorny and needing to sass everyone got old real fast (or rather I was probably already sick of it after 2 books).
But after Bryce returned to Midgard the series started living up to it’s technomagic setting. Seriously, Rigelus may be an asshole but goddamn was his water parasite plan utter genius. And tackling that problem with a vaccine was awesome. The interworld colonisation aspect was also interesting. I liked how the Underking was from the same world as the shifter fae and snuck in when they first came to Midgard.
Some other things I liked:
- How unpredictable Ithan’s situation with Siggy unfolded. It always felt like the cliche was gonna happen but then it wouldn’t
- Hesperia/Ithan and Bryce/Ketos female-male friendships
- Despite the focus on the whole ‘mates’ thing, it seemed like Ketos and Sarathia could go down the path of mutual respect and learning to love each other
- The kings of Hel were entertaining
- Jesiba’s backstory was pretty cool
- The pegasus stuff was a good way to end
One thing I found hard to believe though, was that Danika knew and planned for the world jumping stuff. But I guess if not there wouldn’t be much of a story. Also wasn’t there an ongoing war on some other continent? Whatever happened to that?
So while I enjoyed the final book, I probably will steer clear of SJM and similar authors. I am now aware of the romantasy genre and I think it’s just not really my cup of tea.
Categories: Book Reviews
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