Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsAmazing World Needs Rewrite, for Mature Readers
Reviewed in the United States on September 26, 2021
This book is written mostly first-person, to the detriment of the story. The story and much action is dialogue-driven, but the dialogue, especially with the king feels out of place, young, and overused. Everyone talks too much, making the book too long and I would routinely skip pages as the characters rehashed the same thing in their tiresome back and forth.
After the first book, I figured this simplistic writing was intentional - to capture the imagination of third graders. But after reading the second book with more mature themes on rape and sex, this series should be for an older audience.
The concept is great, the world building is interesting, the magic is something (why don’t any of them play instruments, too?), the characters even have some potential. A rewrite of these books, changing from first person to third, giving more perspective like he did from Remi’s view in the last chapter, tightening the scenes, and making the king more kingly rather than a poor schoolmaster, would move this series from mediocre to great.
Unfortunately, I feel like we are reading the second draft of what could have been the next Wheel of Time or Harry Potter series.
