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Ross (3282 KP) rated House of Sacrifice in Books

Aug 14, 2019

House of Sacrifice

Anna Smith Spark | 2019 | Science Fiction/Fantasy

7.0

(1 Ratings)

Book Rating

Style over substance in a long grind of a conclusion

* I received an advance copy of this book from the publishers and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review *
Anna Smith Spark broke onto the scene with The Court of Broken Knives (which always annoyed me because the place in the book is named the Court of the Broken Knife), a truly dark and gritty fantasy tale mixing magic, ambition, political intrigue and good old fashion hacking limbs off with blunted swords. Her narrative tone made her debut stand out, being much more lyrical and poetic than the rest of the genre. While this took time to get used to, it added to the immersion of the story and made the reader feel like they were experiencing the conflict themselves. The lyrical prose added to the underlying story. This continued into the second book, where Marith's journey to taking over/destroying the world continued, as did the turmoil in the heart of the empire.
Here, however, the story seems to have been put on the back-burner in favour of more literary prose. A whole lot of not a lot happens. While a large chunk of this is in favour of some character development, it is laboured and a real slog. I hated the first quarter of the book, and while I could see that what little was happening would be important in telling Marith's story, it really did take forever and was so utterly rammed home that I found it frustrating. So much so that I had to put the book aside so that my mood didn't ruin my family holiday.
The book serves as something of a conclusion to the trilogy with a lot of wrongs righted and paths ended. However, so much of it is simply gratuitous war for the sake of war (which I get as part of Marith's character but I grasped that after the first couple of unnecessary towns were razed).
However, with less of import happening, the reader starts to focus on the world-building, and I certainly started to realise how little of the "magic" in the world was explained or even described. So many instances of "shadowbeasts" just appearing and I cannot remember them being introduced in any detail at all. I really couldn't remember what was so special about Marith after all.
And the ending was so much of a damp squib I just had to laugh. After everything Marith had been through, for that to be the ending was ludicrous. While I appreciated the circularity of it, I didn't like it.
A disappointing case of style over substance in this dragged out ending to a series that could easily have squeezed into two book.

Kudos

Night Reader Reviews (683 KP) rated Will Shaksper's Secret in Books

Feb 4, 2020

The concept of Will Shakespear not actually being the famous playwright that everyone knows him to be is interesting. (0 more)

. Sadly to say thought the title and description on the back promise an interesting read yet the book fails to deliver. (0 more)

Honest Review for Free Copy of Book

As there is nothing to prove otherwise I have to label Will Shaksper’s Secret by John Hole as a work of fiction through the way it is written would almost suggest otherwise. Without a works-cited or a bibliography or anything saying it is even loosely based in fact I can not give this book any other category.

In 1584 John Heminges is dismissed from his job largely due to sleeping with his boss’s wife. During his interactions with her, she robs him, leaving him penniless and alone. It is because of this that he ends up on the outside of a playhouse and saves Henry Condell thus connecting him to the theater. Within the preforming group he meats Christopher Marlowe and Will Shaksper.

As it happens Christopher Marlowe gets into quite a bit of trouble for preaching atheism in a time when the church is struggling to begin with. This results in the threat of execution hanging over him. To protect him from this fate, other performers create a plan to make it appear that Christopher Marlowe is dead, allowing him to disappear. After he has been gone for some time Will Shaksper stars producing some wonder plays of amazing quality but they always come following a visit from a messenger.

The concept of Will Shakespear not actually being the famous playwright that everyone knows him to be is interesting. Also, the circumstances that allowed to trade of writing from Christopher Marlowe to Will Shaksper was strange in a way that makes one question if things could actually have worked out that way. Sadly to say thought the title and description on the back promise an interesting read yet the book fails to deliver. The book itself ended up being very dry and the “blustering, boiserous journey” ended up dragging and slow.

Adults who enjoy Shakspere both in language and historically would be the type of person ideally interested in this book. They dry style and language used best suits this book for those who are true fand of literary classics. Others may attempt to read it but might find the language a bit difficult. I rate this book 1 out of 4. The back of this book promises a much more interesting story than what it actually is. Besides being dry the plot is largely lost among the language. I understand what was being attempted and give the author credit for it, but I believe it largely missed the mark.

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