Sarah Mac’s Reviews > The Radiant King > Status Update

Ugh…the first 20-ish pages were good, but it’s gotten so dull. There are good ideas here, but the writing is so flat & surface-level—I feel like we’re just mushing around on top of what this could have been.

‘She pulled back from Vance & smiled up at his burlap-sack face. He stared back through the holes, his eyes wide & bloodshot. Tears rolled down from them. They could not close. She had sliced off his eyelids before sewing the burlap about him & filling it w/ feathers. “What do you think?” she asked, & kissed his mouth. The bags & feathers crinkled inward, & she felt the curve of lips & hardness of teeth.’

So this immortal dude wakes up after being burned alive to forget his most recent sorrows (hey, it was his decision! 🫣), eats a meal, & then befriends a lonely coyote, gives her his leftovers, & names her Iris. A guy after my own heart, lolol.

This could go either way. 😶 I rarely vibe with modern epic fantasy (it’s either too dark, too goofy, too romance’y, or too long-winded), but occasionally I find one that works. Anyhoo. It’s a huge trade pb (one of those hardbacks in disguise…why, Orbit?! Trades should be larger than mass market but smaller than hb 🙄) that fits awkwardly on my shelf, so let’s see if it’s worth the space.