Arsinoe of Egypt and Macedon: A Royal Life
Book
The life of Arsinoe II (c. 316-c.270 BCE), daughter of Ptolemy Soter, the founder of the Ptolemaic...
The Speaker's Wife
Book
The Rev Tom Ross's quiet and semi-alcoholic life as chaplain to the Speaker of the House of Commons...
Revisionary (Magic ex Libris: Book Four)
7.5
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Book
When Isaac Vainio helped to revealed magic to the world, he dreamed of a utopian future, a new...
Crusader Kings
Tabletop Game
You are a Crusader King, striving for wealth, political power, religious influence, and military...
BoardGames 2018Games
The Fate of Rural Hell: Asceticism and Desire in Buddhist Thailand
Book
In 1975, when political scientist Benedict Anderson reached Wat Phai Rong Wua, a massive temple...
Phil Leader (619 KP) rated Heroes or Theives (Steps of Power #2) in Books
Nov 14, 2019
Once again the story doesn't follow the usual fantasy template. Where in the first book Saebellus was depicted as the main enemy and villain of the piece here shades of grey are cast on his character and his actions. Jikun himself is struggling to come to terms with his situation and is seemingly willing to risk everything to have some sort of revenge. Selemar is playing a risky political game, trying to invoke unrest whilst also acting as the head of the corrupt council.
Sherwood performs a tricky balancing act well, with so many stories to move forward that are only tangentially connected but each is handled effectively and told with an eye to both detail and character that keeps the reader involved in each of the plot threads.
As with the previous book there is a fair amount of political intrigue, although most is away from the claustrophobic council but is just as deadly for whoever is going to be on the losing side. The characters are constantly developing and the new characters introduced are perfectly judged and naturally intertwine with the story as it moves forward.
With this second work continuing in the excellent style of the first this series is a must read for any lover of fantasy.
Content rating: Some sexual references and language and some violence
Alexander I: The Tsar Who Defeated Napoleon
Marie-Pierre Rey and Susan Emanuel
Book
Alexander I was a ruler with high aspirations for the people of Russia. Cosseted as a young grand...
Steph (468 KP) rated Poison Study (Study, #1) in Books
Jul 9, 2018
My only complaint was the ending/resolution. I thought the Commander was unnecessarily uncompromising and ungrateful. Surely since Yelena had just saved his life and his country? Empire? he would bend a little. Especially since they had just formed that bond. What use is Yelena to him in the south? I think his excuse about the rules is bullshit too. Who of the generals would even know that he had saved her life and such?
Also I was a little I satisfied with how relaxed Yelena and Valek are about parting. Maybe it's their confidence that they will see each other again and find a way to make it work, but I just didn't really feel the depth of their emotions like I had in the rest of the book. It was a little fast.
The Silent Songbird
7.3
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Book
From New York Times bestselling author comes The Silent Songbird! Evangeline is gifted with a...
The story itself seemed multi-layered and quite complex to begin with, and I have to admit to struggling with the amount of names I needed to remember (this is typical of me though, to be honest!), but once I had them all straight in my head after a couple of staves, I was able to enjoy it much more.
The story tied together really nicely towards the end - the seemingly different stories coming together and resolving - but it was left on a bit of a cliffhanger. And do you know? I think I would probably read another book set in this world of the UK Parliament. I liked the characters, and particularly the unlikeable characters intrigued me (I’m nothing if not predictable!). It’ll be interesting to see where another book takes us!
Many thanks to The Pigeonhole for serialising this, I really enjoyed it.