Been meaning to read this one for a while, let's dive in! Spoilers ahead.
On the island of Lidian live various species: Most notably the ferryshaft (deer-like omnivores), creasia (big cats), curbs (thylacine-like maruspials) and telshees (large seal-like snakes). The ferryshaft have for a long time now been raided by the creasia each winter, with the cats killing several of them. But the birth of a ferryshaft known as Storm changes everything: He is the first since the old war ended to have escaped the creasia during a raid and becomes an expert at eluding the cats, causing him to be somewhat of a symbol of hope (but also despair) for the ferryshaft herd, and a thorn in the creasia's side. When the inner politics of the creasia kingdom are also starting to get unstable, things might just turn out bad for not only the ferryshaft, but all intelligent species of Lidian.
A great book all around. It's got a colorful and large cast of characters, fantastic world-building and the unique species which inhabit Lidian are very unique and well-developed. The story is long (my ebook copy being 600+ digital pages), but it never felt like it dragged or was too slow or bloated to me. It was just right, I guess one could say.
Storm is a good lead character, thought a good amount of the book is also written from other character's POVs. Still, Storm is our protagonist and he's a great one. Flawed, but still a good buy and also just realistic. Just imagine being born an outcast because you're a runt with a weird fur color, only to become both loved and loathed because you evade the predators that kill members of your herd each winter.
There's several other well-developed characters in the cast, such as Shaw, Roup and especially Arcove, the leader of the big cats. I really expected him to be a one-note villain at first, since after all he is the leader of the ferryshaft-killing felines, but he's actually a very nuanced and honorable character. Maybe not directly a good guy, but a very morally gray character who has both good and bad qualities. He is the one who allows his cats to kill ferryshaft in winter, but he also respects the treaty and has honor to him to an extent. But at the same time he's also not a perfect leader and can be far too stubborn for his own good. Overall he's a great character, though.
My personal favorite had to be Sauny, however, Storm's little sister. She was just from the moment she was born really close and supportive of her semi-outcast brother and eventually grew into a powerful leader and one of the first aside from her brother to dare and defy the creasia. She goes through some major (physical) trauma in the story, but that doesn't stop her from eventually returning to her determined and defiant personality. Loved reading about her.
I really don't have any proper complaints with the book, but if I had to bring up something, it is that after a while I thought the inner creasia politics were getting a bit boring especially when so much chapters/sections are dedicated to it. I was far more interested in Storm's side of the conflict, since he's our main character. I get that we need enough information to get to know our antagonist's faction, especially since they're not all downright villains, but after so many chapters that's just creasia talking about politics and how they're going to attempt to get Storm/the ferryshaft herd next it starts to feel repetitive and honestly a bit boring.
Especially because the "true" creasia villain, Treace, is one of the most boring and poorly-developed characters out of the cast if you ask me. When we have really complex antagonists like Arcove and Roup and then we're given this boring guy as another villain? Yeah, not a fan. Hilton clearly can write super-nuanced villains and antagonists, not just Arcove and Roup but also some of the other creasia, some of the telshees and heck even a few not-so-nice ferryshaft. But Treace was not enjoyable to read and he just felt like a downgrade in the aspect of antagonists.
Overall I still think this is a fantastic xenofiction book, however. Long, yes, and a bit too repetitive at times, but still a good first installment. The next few are a whole lot shorter, so I plan on checking them out eventually.
4/5
No comments:
Post a Comment