....And Then The Fandoms Came

Okay, so, this was really good. It's highly world-built, as I've said in my other post(s). The world is expansive, and seems almost constructed to the last detail. There is a huge amount of world-building here. For people who are fans of High Fantasy/Low Fantasy, I would definitely suggest this. This seems like this could be your cuppa. 

Me, personally, I did like it. It did take me a minute to get into it because I had to get used to not being in the Contemporary world and being in the book's world, if that makes sense. This is one of types of novels to where it doesn't beat the reader over the head with its explanations of aspects of this world. And this essentially means that you can get a word or some type of event, and not get explanation in the book text of what that is. You'll have to consult the glossary in order to do that (which is at the end of the book). I think this kind of slowed my reading a little because I was consulting the glossary a lot because I sometimes had no idea what was going on or how serious a situation the characters were in. So, some of that "Oh, crap; they're in trouble" was delayed a few times because I either had to keep reading to get better context or consult the glossary. This I would say is what hurt this book the most for me, but this is probably more on me than the author. (This is my first High/Low Fantasy book). So, I tried not to hold this against it that much. 

The other thing was that in some places the was writing was really sharp, well placed, and easy to understand. In others, not so much. There were a few times I had to read over sentences again to get a full understanding of what just happened, and sometimes, the writing kind of lulled and relaxed a little bit. However, I think the relaxation/lulling was necessary to point a distinction between excitement and the bigger stuff of the novel, if that makes sense. This even relates to the beginning of the book, which takes some time to get going and moving itself.

One aspect I did like, and this was also done in Stacia Kane's Downside Ghosts series, which I like, was the fact that there were pieces of text from either Law or a Wise saying(it was marked Wisdom) giving more snippets about how stuff was. I liked this aspect, and it, along with the interludes, really helped establish the world-building and all of that. That and the created languages were nice I though. 

As I said earlier, the writing was strong in a lot of places, and I found myself reading through it quickly in those places because it was so interesting. I did think the characters were also different and diverse. Both in the sense of personality and look. I'm not going to say that characters can't get confused with each other, but for me, that rarely happened. Actions kind of reflected mostly throughout while also at the same time having that character grow and mature and/or see differently from what they did at the very beginning of the book. Their change in personality didn't feel abrupt, and it wasn't like they just woke up one day and changed. They kind of all matured and grew off one another throughout the book. Which I liked. 

I do wish I got a little more detail in some parts near/at the end, because there were a few things I was confused about. However, that, again, could've been more on me than the actual book. 

All in all, I thought this was good, and I liked it. It was well-written, and very detailed. For the most part, the writing was clear and crisp and nice.