Janis > Recent Status Updates

There's an awful lot of chest touching and pressing against things. Does no one care about personal space in this world?

I'm also completely baffled by the magic system and this world's lore. Either it's too cerebral or just not very coherent.

Not sure if it's me or the book, but I'm struggling. There's a lot of political positioning and cultural world building that I'm trying to parse, but it's slowing me down. I haven't been hooked yet.

Contradictory. They shouldn’t shun the Solitude character just because other Solitudes killed someone. And yet that's exactly what they do to the Keepers! I almost can't with this premise. It's like it doesn't even take itself seriously.

So the entire city relies on the ability of a special kind of person to power their infrastructure and without that one person, they'd all be kinda screwed. And that person is "the only one". Because other people with that same ability are hunted down and executed. Because one time, one of them was a psychopath. How does that premise make any kind of sense???

Struggling with this one. It's strangly dull, despite the life or death stakes, and I'm consistently irritated by the level of non-security in this supposedly maximum security prison. 😑

Is this annoyingly Fourth Wing with direwolves? Yes. Does it suffer from the same problems as Fourth Wing? Yes. Do I like this better than Fourth Wing so far? Yes.

Oh, I do love me some deus ex machina. 🙄

Needed a content warning for that thematic tone shift.

Mostly, I'm confused about what's actually going on here. In some parts, it's indicated that the trials are fueled by the champions' nightmares. But in Lore's case, they're being pulled into twisted versions of stories she's read. But then Sloth will act like the trial is already designed to use stories. But then he'll comment something that suggests the book he's after is what's causing all of this.

Not that I've ever expected a tightly managed plot from these Princes of Sin books, but so far this one feels extremely loosey-goosey in the setup and full of strange conveniences.

At first, I thought I was just misunderstanding things, but now I'm certain that this book skipped an editing stage. Too many moments of inconsistency or things that a knowledgeable editor would have noticed.

I hate when authors use assault as an action scene. It's cheap and far too easy for them to then sweep under the rug, like it never happened.

I also hate memories as dreams. Dreams don't quite work like that.

So far, this book is doing a bang-up job of rolling out nearly every trope I hate.

Still, we forge on.

My biggest issue so far with this book is that the characters, most often the FMC, has knowledge she shouldn't have desite being characterized as someone who is fairly unintelligent. For example, she had never seen a moon until recently, but then here on page 265, she uses the phrase "hung the moon". Why would she know that phrase AND use it correctly? Also, earlier, the MMC used the phrase "cliff notes".

Take a shot every time a character is described as "beautiful" or "handsome".

Take a shot when a character complains about their body and/or feeding their body. Take a bonus shot every time one character tells another character to eat or sleep.

Take a shot every time a villain goes from cardboard standee to manically evil in less than 60 seconds.

So far:
1. Diem ex machina
2. Thank God for plot armor
3. Climb aboard the secrets train!
4. Yes, we get it, get on with it

So. Many. Contrivances.
And despite that, it's still somehow a dumpster fire.

These last 100 pages have picked up. Started to not want to put it down. Introduction of Eland is probably the cause. Romance subplot?

I see now that Sanderson started the book so early in order to have space for "the plan" to come together in a scene with all the various characters already known. But I still can't help but feel like part one was mostly wasted and drawn out. I'm also struggling to feel that Vin is a sympathetic main character. Her distrust is already exhausting.

I'm struggling. Everything feels manufactured, and none of these characters are likable.