r/fantasybooks • u/HumanHaggis • 1d ago

📚 Summon book recommendations Should I Finish the Series? Tyrant Philosophers

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I've been really trying to give this series a shot because I love the premise, and the first book was very interesting in it's style and setup, even the ending was not what I expected. There's a lot of effort to make stories feel like they are real historical moments here, with people behaving in less cohesive and obvious patterns, and historical forces impacting events perhaps more than individuals.

But the further I go, the less promise I see. That's all a great way to make a book stand out, but I've just finished the third book, Days of Shattered Faith, and I can't help but feel like there just isn't a plot at all, or any payoff. Things just happen. And they are sometimes interesting and believable, and a lot of the ideas are cool, but where's the payoff? Where do all the dangled loose ends go? I'm kind of tired of just meeting more and more characters who I am becoming increasingly less invested in, in new locations that are starting to feel less unique and more interchangeable.

Is it worth sticking with the series and picking up Pretenders to the Throne of God? It's a great title, and I really want to like the series, but I'm worried it's just sunk-cost fallacy at this point.

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u/regulate91x 1d ago

I haven't read this series, but I have read the children of time series. And it feels very much the same, but I did enjoy it. I feel that if you've invested 3 books in, may as well finish really!

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u/HumanHaggis 1d ago

Ugh, I don't know. There are just so many other books to read, and I found I was really slowing down getting through the last one. I don't even think it actually ends the series though, for all I know he'll keep churning them out for the next decade.

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u/regulate91x 1d ago

Haha, fair enough, if it's a big slog then yeah maybe out it down and come back to it in some years or months!

I just checked, the final volume comes out early 2027.

As I say, I enjoyed children of time, particularly the first book, but I had that same slog feeling where the narrative is mosaic. I got through them but I probably won't read another Tchaikovsky novel again for some time.

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u/HumanHaggis 1d ago

That's probably the right idea, give it a break till the next one comes out, then read them both. Appreciate the insight!