Half a good story
2 stars
I have to admit I got fairly frustrated with half of the book. I mean this in a literal sense. The book follows two protagonists, each with their own story that become intertwined by the end.
Saya's story is the half that I liked. It is straightforward, in a good way. We as the reader get to see her character grow in power and learn more about who she really is. Her story is also the half that gets a fairly satisfying ending.
Indir is the other character, and her story has the possibility to be good. There is a lot of setup about the politics of the city she lives in, and a prophecy about a magical change in the world that the city's inhabitants are worried about. There is also a secret from events past that Indir carries which risks bubbling up to the surface. And there are …
I have to admit I got fairly frustrated with half of the book. I mean this in a literal sense. The book follows two protagonists, each with their own story that become intertwined by the end.
Saya's story is the half that I liked. It is straightforward, in a good way. We as the reader get to see her character grow in power and learn more about who she really is. Her story is also the half that gets a fairly satisfying ending.
Indir is the other character, and her story has the possibility to be good. There is a lot of setup about the politics of the city she lives in, and a prophecy about a magical change in the world that the city's inhabitants are worried about. There is also a secret from events past that Indir carries which risks bubbling up to the surface. And there are some other city related events that the characters are concerned about throughout the book. All of those things sound interesting, but NONE of them get resolved by the end.
It turns out this book is meant to (or is, I'm not sure) be the first in a series. I suppose all of those things will or are resolved in future books, but this first book spends quite a lot of time setting them up just to leave the reader hanging. I can understand needing to leaving some things open for future books, but there are multiple plot points left without any kind of resolution; not even a half-answer to hint at where it is going. In my opinion, that actually discourages people from reading the next book because there is no guarantee that those plot points will be resolved, and that there won't be even more points that go without resolution.
I really wanted to like the book more. The setting, magic system, and the politics involved are all interesting. However, the lack of resolution for half the book's story was too much for me to really enjoy it.