Status Updates From Burn the Sea

I hate that I'm almost done and why do I feel like there's going to be a cliffhanger? The author is writing a second book so the probability of this one ending in a cliffhanger are VERY high

A work of art. I don't want to finish this book

I can‘t really get into this yet. My brain just doesn‘t latch onto the writing and it makes reading slow

THEVAN???????!!!
I have to wait how long for book 2?

At 86% another "discovery" that was obvious from the 10% mark, before the previous "big discovery" (72%) even had hints on the page.

Sigh.

At 72%, Abbakka finally "discovers" a plot that was obvious since the 20% mark. This is why I say this novel doesn't work as a political fantasy: the villains are only winning because everyone else is operating with negative IQ. The villain brags too much, shows his hand constantly, is the most cartoonishly evil advisor since Disney's Jafar, but I'm meant to believe he's some political mastermind. (He is not.)

All the "twists" are so far very easy to see coming, I can tell many, many chapters (sometimes 10+) before the protag works it out--or gets told by someone else. Political novels need to have more subtlety than this, and the ability to hide things from the reader. When machinations are this blatant, there is no enjoyment in watching it unfold. There is no mystery or surprise.