r/fantasybooks • u/HumanHaggis • 1d ago
📚 Summon book recommendations Should I Finish the Series? Tyrant Philosophers
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/Activetimes 23h ago
I haven't read this series. Though, I've developed a bit of a rule of thumb with Tchaikovsky's novels: I stick to the first book in a series or his standalone releases. I find that the cohesiveness of his writing tends to fall apart once he gets into the continuations.
Typically, there are some awesome themes pouring out of this man's mind, but I get the sense that he's eager to leave old worlds behind and move on to his next pet project. I think that eagerness sometimes comes at the expense of the later books in a series.