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A review by hyouri
Steel Crow Saga by Paul Krueger
Did not finish book.
DNF @ 44%
The general concept of the shadepacting, having an animal to summon, was very cool.
But….
This book just had too much going on. I am not even sure what the end goal or plot is other than we are all at war, racist, and so close minded/childish that nothing is getting done.
I simply cannot suffer anymore.
The pacing was abysmal. For the complexity of the nations and cultures a general overview or map would have been extremely helpful. An epilogue that stated the rules and state of the world would have been a nice edition as well.
We have the Tomodanese who are a people who metalpact. They consider animal souls to be equal to human souls and therefore are vegetarians. They also consider all shadepacters to be barbarians for forcing an animal into “slavery”. This the country that at the beginning of the novel has conquered the rest of the areas? (Are they countries? Provinces? I don’t know) Apparently okay with mass genocide though.
Then there are the Sanbuna of the Sanbu Islands. They head the revolution that eventually overthrows the Steel empire and begins the steps towards a “peaceful” coexistence. They currently have their soldiers trying to escort and protect the Tomodanese Prince so he can ascend the throne in Tomoda and ally with Sanbu. Tala, the only survivor of this escort, ends up getting the Prince to Tomoda just to be treated like trash for saving herself from an assassin. This is where I dnfed. Sanbu also shadepact and eat meat. Costal area.
Shang empire. They are who rules before the Tomodanese. They have apparently 44 heirs to the White Crane Throne and every single heir is doing their best to impress the King so they can ascend the Shang throne. Long - term, they expect to reconquer everyone now that the Tomodanese are out of power. Xuilan is a princess trying to catch the Iron Prince with the help of a Jeongnese theif in order to become Queen and create peace instead of war. The Shang shade pact as a rite of passage into adulthood. jeongnese are treated as trash, gutter rats, with zero rights. They are not aloud to shade pact.
Dahali is another region that uses magic from the soul in raw form to enhance or disable the body. No shade pacting. Apparently an ally of all three nations and assist the highest bidder.
Ontop of all of this information dump in 200pgs (btw)
We have every possible real world "hot topic" and issue crammed into the story. We have racisms, genocide, war crimes, transexuals, bisexuals, lesbians, gays, straights, bigotry, human trafficking, religious intolerance, and I’m sure more I didn’t even get too.
For such a serious story, with serious topics the characters also acted like complete children. . . All of the different topics just made the writing feel disconnected and incoherent.
The general concept of the shadepacting, having an animal to summon, was very cool.
But….
This book just had too much going on. I am not even sure what the end goal or plot is other than we are all at war, racist, and so close minded/childish that nothing is getting done.
I simply cannot suffer anymore.
The pacing was abysmal. For the complexity of the nations and cultures a general overview or map would have been extremely helpful. An epilogue that stated the rules and state of the world would have been a nice edition as well.
We have the Tomodanese who are a people who metalpact. They consider animal souls to be equal to human souls and therefore are vegetarians. They also consider all shadepacters to be barbarians for forcing an animal into “slavery”. This the country that at the beginning of the novel has conquered the rest of the areas? (Are they countries? Provinces? I don’t know) Apparently okay with mass genocide though.
Then there are the Sanbuna of the Sanbu Islands. They head the revolution that eventually overthrows the Steel empire and begins the steps towards a “peaceful” coexistence. They currently have their soldiers trying to escort and protect the Tomodanese Prince so he can ascend the throne in Tomoda and ally with Sanbu. Tala, the only survivor of this escort, ends up getting the Prince to Tomoda just to be treated like trash for saving herself from an assassin. This is where I dnfed. Sanbu also shadepact and eat meat. Costal area.
Shang empire. They are who rules before the Tomodanese. They have apparently 44 heirs to the White Crane Throne and every single heir is doing their best to impress the King so they can ascend the Shang throne. Long - term, they expect to reconquer everyone now that the Tomodanese are out of power. Xuilan is a princess trying to catch the Iron Prince with the help of a Jeongnese theif in order to become Queen and create peace instead of war. The Shang shade pact as a rite of passage into adulthood. jeongnese are treated as trash, gutter rats, with zero rights. They are not aloud to shade pact.
Dahali is another region that uses magic from the soul in raw form to enhance or disable the body. No shade pacting. Apparently an ally of all three nations and assist the highest bidder.
Ontop of all of this information dump in 200pgs (btw)
We have every possible real world "hot topic" and issue crammed into the story. We have racisms, genocide, war crimes, transexuals, bisexuals, lesbians, gays, straights, bigotry, human trafficking, religious intolerance, and I’m sure more I didn’t even get too.
For such a serious story, with serious topics the characters also acted like complete children. . . All of the different topics just made the writing feel disconnected and incoherent.