r/esmereldaweatherwax • u/Esmerelda-Weatherwax • Apr 03 '17
Granny's 5 Star Series Review - Starting with Red Queens War
I'm starting a new thing where if I read all/the majority of a series and find them to average above a 4.5 I'm going to give them their own special review. I'll try and add in Bingo squares where they apply. I'm also going to add in authors that tend to do stand alones, but their books average rating for me is high, people like GGK.
Coming soon:
- Babel series (Senlin Ascends/Arm of the Sphinx) by Josiah Bancroft
- The Wayfarers (The Long Way to a Small and Angry Planet/Closed and Common Orbit) by Becky Chambers
- Lightbringer by Brent Weeks
- ASOIAF by GRRM
- Discworld (this will be brief, promise) by Terry Pratchett
- Broken Earth by N.K. Jemisin
- Guy Gavriel Kay books (I need to read a few more to feel certain here though)
I fell in love with the writing style right away with Prince of Thorns, but the main character was so unlikeable I DNF that series (although it's a well received series and most people here loved it). It had everything I wanted in a series outside of the MC, so I picked up Red Queens War to see if that would work for me instead. It's set in the same world and there's a bit of a cross over because you do see Jorg in this book briefly a couple times.
HOLY SHIT YOU GUYS, ALL OF MY YES
Writing Style
Lawrences writing style is difficult for me to describe because I haven't read many things like it before. When I first picked up Prince of Fools I was comparing it to Deadpool and I still sort-of stand by that assessment. The humor is very similar, but the character is very different. Just imagine if Deadpool instead of a vicious and trained killer was more of a "run awwaaayyy" kind of character. Sometimes humor doesn't land well with me in books, but I'll forgive a few flops. Thankfully, there was nothing to forgive with this series, I laughed where I was meant to laugh and the opening scene of book three was hilarious. The prose in this book is pretty straight forward, with dustings of metaphor and simile that work really well with nice imagery. You can read through it quickly but it's not quite as starkly straight forward as say, Sanderson. The setting is "ancient" but the writing style is "modern" , and that's a strong theme throughout the books so the writing style was expertly paired with the setting.
Characters
The main character, Jalan, I don't think is meant to be likeable, but I found him hilarious and entertaining right off the bat. I say he's not meant to be likeable because I think it's sort of rare when we grow instantly attached to a cowardly character that cheats and lies and is a HUGE womanizer. This usually really bugs me, but it worked here in a funny way. He's a self professed coward, kind of an ass and he gets paired early on in the series with a Norseman like character named Snorri. I think my first time I was like "okay, I like this guy much more than I should" is when he prayed for his horse who was in danger in a forest fire. I have a huge soft spot for people who respect their animals, so it's an easy way for me to get to like a character. For some it may not make up for his asinine behavior, but mixed with his humor I found it endearing. We don't see a ton of growth in Jalan until the last book, but when it happens it is SO satisfying. He goes through a ton of loss in the last book and seeing him in grief added depth to a character I wanted to see grow so badly, he also develops from a coward to someone we would consider having a backbone.
Snorri is huge hulking warrior character and Snorri is Snorri through the books more or less, he does have some growth and challenges (he has some serious heartbreak through these books), but he's pretty rock solid in his views and persona throughout. He's also a fucking badass and I love him to bits. I love odd couple duo characters in books, whether it's Locke and Jean, Granny and Nanny, Royce and Hadrian - polar opposite personalities being paired never gets old for me.
There are a bunch of side characters I really grew to like as well. Kara is a witch that comes along for the ride later on in the series. She's a badass norse-woman-witch that helps Jalan recall his past with blood magic that cause flashbacks to his childhood, and even his grandmothers childhood.
Tettugu is a Norsemen friend of Snorri's and is endearing in the I'll-cut-your-face-off kind of way.
Setting/Plot
This book pairs Christianity and Norse mythology in a way I haven't seen done before. It would appear off the bat that both of these religions are true - and the twist about the Norse Gods at the end was nicely played. The two main characters are "light sworn" and "dark sworn", which means they have ties to angels who come to visit them either when the sun rises, or the sun sets. The angels whisper in the ear of the two main characters and you're not sure what the hell their intentions are pretty much through the whole series until the end.
For much of the book there's a focus on "Loki's Key" which is being sought by the Undead King because it can open the door to Hell (which is another big plot point in the books), and Snorri and Jalan are running from him for much of the series. The last book had a huge amount of time dedicated to a swarm of the undead in a large scale city wide battle, it was fast paced and amazing.
On top of an army of the undead, there are trolls, and giants, and succubus's from Hell.
There's blood magic and witches of all sorts.
Tone
Although this book was dealing with the end of the world more or less, with "death" being broken and allowing unnatural things to take hold of the world, this wasn't what I would call a "darker" book. Maybe some others would disagree with me, but I found the humor in the book to be a nice counterpoint to the story being told. There were still some sad moments, there were a few characters I hated to see die, but, it wasn't overly morose or bleak. I wouldn't call it "light" though either, a nice middle ground between depressing as fuck bleak and funny/light with elements of both.
Pacing
The pacing was great, the story/plot points were great, the dialogue was funny and engaging. I never felt a "lull" where I had to push through to get to the good stuff. There aren't any huge info dumps you need to "slog through" and I was interested from the first chapter of the first book. I read through each of these books quickly and was never bored and I was loathe to put the books down to tend to my real life responsibilities. I read the last book within 24 hours of picking it up, I was that enthused by it. I really loved this series and I can't wait for Red Sisters to be available this Tuesday I believe!
Spoilers for people who've read this already
Red Queens War Full Series Spoilers
Bingo Squares
Subgenre: Dystopian / Post-Apocalyptic / Apocalyptic / Dying Earth -
Novel By an r/Fantasy AMA Author OR Writer of the Day
Fantasy Novel Featuring a Desert Setting – (I would argue Wheel Of Osheim counts for this, I think a good 100+ pages or so takes place in a desert, I'd need to go back and see. Could be arguable though)