Critiques
Woah. So let’s just say at first I liked it but I thought it felt like it was slow, even though the character itself jumped from age 8-18 throughout it the novel. So there was character development and it was a coming of age type of story. It took a darker twist towards the end, but I liked that. I think that’s what made me jump this up half a star rating.
I can see how this wouldn’t be for everyone, but overall a solid read, nothing to crazy and fancy. So if you like assassins/guilds then by all means give it a shot! It’s only 389 pages what’s the worst that could happen? Lol
Will eventually pick up book two but not immediately!
I have found a new urban fantasy/science fiction author that can grab the reader and pull them into their world as I was entranced from the first chapter all the way to the end. Also I really stepped out of my comfort zone with this book as normally I don't read space books, but after a recommendation from a friend I decided to try it out and I can tell you this, I was not disappointed!
A little back story for you readers.
The main character of the story, Nolan Garrett is crippled and in a wheelchair. He use to be a highly decorated Silverguard sniper until in the line of duty he was put out of commission with a spinal injury losing the use of his legs.
Nolan is down on his luck and he is addicted to pain killers to the point that he lives only to have the next fix to ease the pain along with numbing his mind as he has sunk low into a depressed state of mind.
When Nolan gets himself into some trouble in a back alleyway with some bad guys he just wishes his life was over as he just feels like he cannot go on, but all is not lost as coming to his rescue is Tanis Janssen who use to be a former Silverguard team member. Tanis helps him to the point of taking him back to her place with fixing his wounds and getting him cleaned up.
After a much needed discussion on his life and what he has had to endure for a long time, Tanis offers Nolan a way out of this life that he has made for himself by offering him something that will change his life around and make him feel like he belongs in this world. When she lets him know what she has proposed, Nolan is dumbstruck as he cannot believe what she has just told him.
What did Tanis tell Nolan? What is the life changing offer? What does Nolan have to accomplish to get his life back on track? No spoilers here as you will just have to read the book to find out the details of Nolan's offer!
This book was exciting, fast paced and action packed to the hilt!
From the first chapter you just are drawn to Nolan Garrett and his circumstances where you feel his pain along with feeling his depression of his life being over.
The author, Andy Peloquin just draws the reader into this world of intrigue and mystery that surrounds the character, Nolan Garrett. Loved the character, Tanis Janssen as she just has a take control type of attitude and will fight for her friend, Nolan Garrett to the end. She will do whatever it takes to get him back on a track and get his life turned around. This book receives five "glowing" stars from me! I will be looking forward to the next installment in the series along with checking out other books by Andy Peloquin.
Small Backstory:
The Hunter (Assassin) wants to clean up his city of Voramis by taking out the trash so to speak as thugs called the Bloody Hand are trying to tarnish the city by ruling it anyway they can even if it means killing people that get in their way.
The Hunter learns more than he wants to know about the Bloody Hand and he finds out eventually that what is actually ruling the Bloody Hand is far more evil than he realized but stopping it will take everything he has including body and soul!
That is about all I can hand out without giving away spoilers so if just that tiny bit of info sounds intriguing then you need to go read this book!
Thoughts:
This book was freaking awesome! It is quite lengthy but it packs a major wallop within as the pages light up with sword/dagger fights, evil villains, and tons of action! Besides all the action, there are tons of emotions within this book as well - lots of characters that interact with our main character the Hunter which you will become attached to as you move through the book.
There is also suspense, nail-biting tension, breathtaking hitch moments and heart string pulls throughout the book. The visual writing style of the author will literally pull you into his world and you will see and feel everything that happens within the storyline.
There was a little bit of world building in the beginning but there was action right away too - the book never slowed down - in fact the more I read of it the faster the pace seems to become.
After the 50% mark the pace became even faster and I would find myself staying up all hours of the night reading as more things were revealed within the story.
The author, [a:Andy Peloquin|8038662|Andy Peloquin|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1396314778p2/8038662.jpg] is the real deal and I am looking forward to reading the rest of the series which there are quite a few books to read now and more to come in the future so I am here for the long haul and absolutely cannot wait to continue on this journey into the world of the Hunter! Giving this book five "Sword/Dagger Action" stars!
Highly Recommend!
The battles are written perfectly and there are tons of awesome weapons, gore and spectacular deaths! I freaking loved it! Fantastic dark fantasy, will definitely be continuing this series and looking into everything else from Andy because this guy is legit!
We continue to follow the Hunter on his arduous journey to uncover more of his lost heritage. Having suffered great losses, the Hunter takes more risks, trusting that human-kind will see the good in him.
Andy Peloquin is the master of tension building. He creates intelligent, striking characters, with the ability to see the light through the darkness. A terrific read, with themes of betrayal and justice ground into its heart.
Will the fabled Hunter prevail against the hidden forces lying in wait? Give The Lament of the Fallen a read, and find out.
The Hunter is as much a mystery to himself, as he is to others. He knows next to nothing about his past and internalises a strong sense of isolation. With a great sense of sarcasm, the Hunter brings the tale to life and lightens an otherwise dark and twisted plot. There were many surprises and unique twists that I didn't see coming. All in all, I found Einan to be an incredible world of gory Fantasy, where death and suffering are rife.
A true tale of sacrifice, devotion and above all, fear. With so many enemies, will the Hunter survive?
Why not give Blade of the Destroyer a read and find out for yourself. :) 5 stars!
The hunter is painted as a cold killer in the beginning but as the story goes on, we see that he does care about the homeless people under his 'protection.' It's not easy to write from the PoV of a killer so this makes him a more sympathetic character. I think it was well written and the world the author has created was well described. I enjoyed the book and would recommend it.
The author does a brilliant job creating a magnificent other realm. I love the details of the different religious sects, the different scents of the city, and the general world building. It is brilliantly done as seen through the eyes of the Hunter.
The author, as many fantasy authors do, uses a wide range of less common words. I love this, but there were quite a few times where his word choice, though technically correct, left me scratching my head.
For example, he uses gore a lot, and often in relation to slit throats. Technically, it isn't wrong, but generally gore is associated with more than just blood. Chunks of flesh, entrails, guts, more than just blood, hence the saying blood and gore. Sometimes it is associated with clotting and drying blood, but it isn't typically associated with fresh blood.
Another time, he uses swarthy to describe a dark-skinned prostitute. Technically swarthy means dark skinned, but it is typically used to describe people who have had their skin darkened by the sun like pirates, soldiers, archaeologists. Skin that is darkened by the sun has a very different texture than skin that is just naturally dark. I would have gone with something more like dusky, ebony, or sable as they are all softer words associated with women of beauty.
The book could've used a bit more polishing, as there were several grammatical errors, but the story is so enticing that for all but the biggest grammarians, it is passable.
Despite these gripes, which slowed down my reading process, I really loved the characters. I adored Farida, was intrigued by Celicia, entranced by the Beggar Priest, and torn by the Hunter, a villain or at least a man without a conscience at the beginning, but as we learn, he is a killer with his own personal moral code. As a fan of characters like Riddick and Shadoe Van Ives of The Enemy Within, I am eager to read the sequel, Lament of the Fallen, and follow The Hunter on his quest to discover himself.
HUGE WARNING: There is graphic violence, sexual assault (Not graphic, but graphic enough.) and some really horrible stuff in this book. I would not recommend for young teens, but that being said I cannot WAIT for my boys to be old enough to read this.
Andy is brilliant in his portrayal of the struggles of being a woman in a man's world. He takes real-world struggles and extrapolates them beautifully to address many of the real world issues of today. All this while weaving an entertaining tale of fiction. Dark, haunting, beautiful, intense, and a mad rush of emotions. Andy drags you through the depths of despair, and leads you to soar with Ilana as she finds where she fits in the man's world of the Thieves Night Guild.
Also, for those who remember my review of Blade of the Destroyer, The Thieves of the Night Guild series takes place in the same world of Praamis and Voramis, and there is a sick part of me that would like to see the havoc that The Hunter and Ilana could create if they were to pair up. A fan girl can dream, right?
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HeidiAngell | 2 autres critiques | Jul 29, 2017 |
HeidiAngell | 2 autres critiques | Jul 29, 2017 | 
This book is much more than about the cruelty and greed of power. It’s about children surviving abusive lives, left with nothing, and beaten out of them anything they previously were. They became one of the hundreds of children taught to be thieves using whatever potential they have. They belong to the Night Guild. From this dark beginning the human spirit re-emerges. We are privy to its growth and its hope.
Ilanna is a complex, damaged girl, who has made the best of her circumstances. Even with her ability to destroy people in her path to succeed in her thievery, I like her character. She is not all hard, her heart isn’t completely dead. There is something alluring about the person she is and who she is becoming.
Her fifteen years enslaved in the Night Guild have not all been entirely bad. She has met kind, caring, intelligent people who have suffered much as she has. However, she values above all her freedom, and so has wrangled her price for freedom from Master Gold –one million imperials. A huge amount to obtain, but Ilanna is anything but resourceful, particularly in a tight spot.
She has revenge on her mind. Her few Guild friends have been made examples of by the governing powers. She comes up with a plan, one accepted by the Masters of all the Houses and the Gold Master himself. She is planning on taking down their kingpin and gain her freedom. She stages the biggest heist the Guild has ever tried.
Ilanna is brazen, bold, and determined with every fiber of her being to pull herself from the death trap she is now in. Her quick mind and persistence to not give up, saves her time after time. The overall arc of the story is superb. I begin on edge, the reins would slacken and then the author was back tightening the rope, adding more pitfalls and escapes until I was a mess. My gut coiled. My heart pumped. It’s a thriller, readers.
Ilanna is so good at what she does, she is admired by those of her House, the Hawks. They are the unfortunates who were trained to thieve by moving from rooftop to rooftop, fly with hanging invisible rope where needed. Ilanna is very clever. Cleverer than most. She’s been pirating away small amounts of her thievery through the years she’s been in service/slavery. If caught, it would be her death. This is a girl with grit!
She wants to have a life. Her son, product of a rape, is the only person she loves and she doesn’t want him to have the ending she has—to be in servitude to the Guild. She trusts Ria, a woman she took away from a life battering experience. She relies on her to care for Kodyn, but in so doing has helped Ria heal from her trauma. There is a budding friendship between the two, a special bond by those who have suffered greatly.
Kodyn had given her something to fight for, but Ria gave her something to hope for.
The story highlights the power of greed, the lure of gold, whether you hold a legitimate respected position within the government or provide some service to protect the hoard you now possess. Who will hold the best hand and win this game of thrones?
Just when you think the plot is straight forward, you once again are confronted with more challenges, more decisions. It is glorious!
When evil exists, is one evil less so than the other? Ratcheting up the alternatives only creates more drama and tension. Will one part of the city ruled by Bloody Hand get their way with the Guild? Does the means justify the ends? How many people must one climb over to reach one’s goal?
Hope and a new life touches Ilanna. We almost have our happily ever after. This story ends on a cliffhanger of such huge proportions, I must continue the sequel!
I was provided an advanced review copy by the publisher in exchange for an honest and fair review.
I have mixed feelings about this book. It's certainly not what I was expecting as the end of Atlantis wasn't the main focus of the book, but it's a pretty good story just as a mystery novel. So I'm not sure I'd recommend it to anyone just based on the fact that they love stories about Atlantis, but if you think you would enjoy a mystery/thriller set in a city similar in many ways to ancient Rome then you might enjoy this story. In some ways it reminds me a bit of Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Fall of Atlantis because in that book the destruction of Atlantis wasn't the main focus(in fact it didn't even happen until a sequel was written much later), but it was more of a mystery/romance novel.
Although I did enjoy the story as a whole there were certain things that really rubbed me the wrong way. Just based on the story alone I might have rated this book four stars but it lost a star due to everything I will describe in the following paragraphs. The author made a really weird choice and did a flash forward scene in the prologue. There were also a few other flash forward scenes throughout the book. I'm really not a fan of flash forward scenes at all in TV and movies, but this was the first time I had encountered it in a novel so I tried to keep an open mind about it. By the end of the book I decided that while it was somewhat less confusing to me in a written piece than in a movie or a TV show, I still didn't like it very much and it made me feel like I was reading two different stories. Perhaps it would have been less confusing if the first flash forward scene was done later in the book instead of right at the beginning because there was just too much going on along with too many characters being introduced all at once. I think on the whole I would have preferred it if the author had just combined all the flash forward scenes into a chapter or two and inserted them in where they actually took place in the book.
Another thing I didn't like all that much is that the perspective changed many times in the book. Most of the book was done in first person from the point of view of the Chancellor, but the flash forward scenes were done in third person. It had to be done this way though because the Chancellor was not present in the flash forward scenes. So first person could not have been done unless it was switched to the point of view of another person and in my opinion switching first person between different people is worse than switching between first and third person. I would have preferred it though if the author had just done the entire book in third person. While I do respect the author's creative choice to switch perspectives(even though I don't like it), there are certain areas where it definitely could have been done better. The first chapter starts off with the first person perspective of a gladiator in the midst of a battle who then dies, at which point the perspective changes to that of the Chancellor. This is very confusing and unnecessary. It would have been better to just start off with the Chancellor's perspective and show his view of the fight. Then in the second chapter it switches back to third person for a flash back and it was a bit ambiguous when that flash back ended and it seemed to switch back to first person mid-paragraph.
This is a minor complaint, but something that still bugs me. At the end of the second chapter there is a brief mention of the Chancellor making love to a woman. It doesn't say who she was, but I would assume based on context that she was his wife or girlfriend. What I found very odd was that she was never mentioned again in the entire book even as the Chancellor was lusting after other women. I'm not really sure why that woman was put in the book at all and I sense it might have been something the author forgot to take out.
In general the book could have done with a lot more editing. The entire book is riddled with typos and awkward grammar and in some places there are even words missing. It's not enough to make the book unreadable, but it is annoying and can detract from the enjoyment of the book somewhat. As much as I did enjoy the story, I'm very glad I grabbed this book when it was on sale for free. I think I would have felt cheated considering all the typos and mistakes if I had actually paid for it. As much as I hate to say it, I would not recommend purchasing this book unless a large number of typos don't bother you, it goes on sale for free, or the author puts out a second revised edition. I think this book has a lot of potential and I really hope the author edits and republishes it.
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Additional note: the treatment of women in this book is ten times worse than the "damsel in distress" that comes to mind when you read that phrase. Just disgusting. See highlights.