The Big Peat
Darth Buddha
- Joined
- Apr 9, 2016
- Messages
- 3,760
The TL
R version of this book is that I’m pretty sure it’s pretty good, but also pretty sure it’s not for me for pretty small reasons, and as such I’m only pretty sure about either of the above statements and I’m sorry for overuse of pretty. Thank you, you may go now.
Ye gods, you really don’t want to write this review, do you? Pretty lame way to try and wriggle out of it.
You know things are bad when I let my shadow voice be part of the review.
Okay. Let’s be upfront about the stupid things that bugged me about the story. The expression Honour-Down sounds like a pillow brand and the characters used Yeah. These are really petty things and I used to boggle at fans who complained of such things, but here I am. It dragged me out of the prose every time. Something else that didn’t help me is that I hadn’t in fact read City of Lies and several aspects of the story didn’t come through loud and clear without that grounding. Maybe the play at the start would have helped but I found it dragged and therefore skim read a little (I know others would definitely welcome it).
This is really fussy stuff, isn’t it?
You said it, chief. Also, since you’re probably not the only person who hasn’t read the first book, maybe a little summary?
Hollow Empire follows a brother and sister, Jovan and Kalina, members of an ancient noble family in the city-state of Silasta. They’re heroes of a siege that was the first book, and the closest allies to the Chancellor of Silasta, Tain. Hollow Empire follows a conspiracy to undermine the city.
Up to speed. Now, let the nice people know the rest of how ridiculously fussy you are.
There’s two other things in the book that personally rarely work for me, particularly at this moment.
The first is a start where the main characters, particularly Jovan, basically can’t do anything right and end up in a dire position through relatively little fault of their own. He makes one reckless mistake, but that’s on the back of everything thinking him paranoid and not really helping. I can give you many reasons why I don’t like these starts but I’m not sure which one’s right; I guess I just rarely like them. Oddly enough, the likely dangers of his position never really caught up with him, and I dunno if that’s good or bad either, but in any case the start had me overthinking things with this book.
The second is I’m increasingly looking for fantasy that wants to step back from the modern world as we/I know it and in many ways, it felt like Hawke wanted to make this book feel very contemporary. It’s not just the speech patterns, it’s the many departments of experts and the linguistic excellence and the shape of the conspiracy (terror attacks) and so on. I feel like this book could have bade made a modern thriller with fairly little retooling. I like modern thrillers but I don’t always like the mix.
The message here folks is that if you’re a weirdo like this reviewer, you mightn’t enjoy it, but if you’re thinking ‘what’s his major malfunction’, you might well like it.
Also, you’re not alone.
Yup. Time to talk about what this does well. I’ve already mentioned the thriller-esque vibe, and most of the book is taken up with scenes of diplomacy and ferreting out secrets. Action scenes occur semi-frequently, but are definitely secondary. Hawke does a great job of showing a government of many factions, surrounded by many factions, giving different motives and personalities to everybody. The main characters and their closest allies are well-drawn, distinctive, and sympathetic. I would love to see what she could do with a book with many, many PoVs.
Somewhere else that gift for making a great many things believable is in the way Silasta is shown as a multi-cultural place, surrounded by other cultures. If I wanted to nitpick I’d say these cultures should be more inter-connected but I only thought of that now. Besides, maybe they are and I missed it. So why do so? I enjoyed reading about them, and can really see the possibilities of expanding this world for Hawke. I’d also add that she did a good job of showing how the magic wielding Dafiri have a culture built around such arts.
Once I got into the book, the plot was well able to carry a twisty conspiracy. The ending felt a little too pat but getting there was fun, and the action scenes are timed well in terms of mixing it up.
So basically you think Sam Hawke did everything right in terms of writing a good book except for catering to your absurd preferences.
Not quite, but close. You see why I didn’t want to write this? Although it’s been easier than I thought. Besides, my preferences *are* objective measures of quality.
Talking to yourself and being like a megalomaniac. I see someone’s bored of getting clicks.
Okay, being serious, the extent to which this is a political thriller and the whole being being thought paranoid/being framed thing are going to run counter to plenty of people’s tastes (judging from reviews, it’s also quite counter to the first book in some ways). Those ones aren’t absurd at least. And I don’t think I’d have loved the ending, come what may. Hawke has a huge cast and bringing it altogether has a few “who, huh” moments. I feel like mysteries should give readers a chance to solve them and I didn’t get that.
But I am fairly sure this is a good book. Just not for me. Which sucks, but that’s life. And who knows? Maybe next time I’m in the mood for some fantasy that cleaves closer to the world just outside my window, I’ll try this again and really like it.
So generally recommended, mainly for people who liked The Traitor Baru Cormorant but wanted something less depressing, or something a bit more conventionally fantasy than The Craft Sequence, or who just like The Divine Cities.
A copy of this book was provided by Netgalley in return for a fair and honest review. I’d like to thank them and Tor Books for the opportunity. Hollow Empire is out now from the usual outlets.
R version of this book is that I’m pretty sure it’s pretty good, but also pretty sure it’s not for me for pretty small reasons, and as such I’m only pretty sure about either of the above statements and I’m sorry for overuse of pretty. Thank you, you may go now.Ye gods, you really don’t want to write this review, do you? Pretty lame way to try and wriggle out of it.
You know things are bad when I let my shadow voice be part of the review.
Okay. Let’s be upfront about the stupid things that bugged me about the story. The expression Honour-Down sounds like a pillow brand and the characters used Yeah. These are really petty things and I used to boggle at fans who complained of such things, but here I am. It dragged me out of the prose every time. Something else that didn’t help me is that I hadn’t in fact read City of Lies and several aspects of the story didn’t come through loud and clear without that grounding. Maybe the play at the start would have helped but I found it dragged and therefore skim read a little (I know others would definitely welcome it).
This is really fussy stuff, isn’t it?
You said it, chief. Also, since you’re probably not the only person who hasn’t read the first book, maybe a little summary?
Hollow Empire follows a brother and sister, Jovan and Kalina, members of an ancient noble family in the city-state of Silasta. They’re heroes of a siege that was the first book, and the closest allies to the Chancellor of Silasta, Tain. Hollow Empire follows a conspiracy to undermine the city.
Up to speed. Now, let the nice people know the rest of how ridiculously fussy you are.
There’s two other things in the book that personally rarely work for me, particularly at this moment.
The first is a start where the main characters, particularly Jovan, basically can’t do anything right and end up in a dire position through relatively little fault of their own. He makes one reckless mistake, but that’s on the back of everything thinking him paranoid and not really helping. I can give you many reasons why I don’t like these starts but I’m not sure which one’s right; I guess I just rarely like them. Oddly enough, the likely dangers of his position never really caught up with him, and I dunno if that’s good or bad either, but in any case the start had me overthinking things with this book.
The second is I’m increasingly looking for fantasy that wants to step back from the modern world as we/I know it and in many ways, it felt like Hawke wanted to make this book feel very contemporary. It’s not just the speech patterns, it’s the many departments of experts and the linguistic excellence and the shape of the conspiracy (terror attacks) and so on. I feel like this book could have bade made a modern thriller with fairly little retooling. I like modern thrillers but I don’t always like the mix.
The message here folks is that if you’re a weirdo like this reviewer, you mightn’t enjoy it, but if you’re thinking ‘what’s his major malfunction’, you might well like it.
Also, you’re not alone.
Yup. Time to talk about what this does well. I’ve already mentioned the thriller-esque vibe, and most of the book is taken up with scenes of diplomacy and ferreting out secrets. Action scenes occur semi-frequently, but are definitely secondary. Hawke does a great job of showing a government of many factions, surrounded by many factions, giving different motives and personalities to everybody. The main characters and their closest allies are well-drawn, distinctive, and sympathetic. I would love to see what she could do with a book with many, many PoVs.
Somewhere else that gift for making a great many things believable is in the way Silasta is shown as a multi-cultural place, surrounded by other cultures. If I wanted to nitpick I’d say these cultures should be more inter-connected but I only thought of that now. Besides, maybe they are and I missed it. So why do so? I enjoyed reading about them, and can really see the possibilities of expanding this world for Hawke. I’d also add that she did a good job of showing how the magic wielding Dafiri have a culture built around such arts.
Once I got into the book, the plot was well able to carry a twisty conspiracy. The ending felt a little too pat but getting there was fun, and the action scenes are timed well in terms of mixing it up.
So basically you think Sam Hawke did everything right in terms of writing a good book except for catering to your absurd preferences.
Not quite, but close. You see why I didn’t want to write this? Although it’s been easier than I thought. Besides, my preferences *are* objective measures of quality.
Talking to yourself and being like a megalomaniac. I see someone’s bored of getting clicks.
Okay, being serious, the extent to which this is a political thriller and the whole being being thought paranoid/being framed thing are going to run counter to plenty of people’s tastes (judging from reviews, it’s also quite counter to the first book in some ways). Those ones aren’t absurd at least. And I don’t think I’d have loved the ending, come what may. Hawke has a huge cast and bringing it altogether has a few “who, huh” moments. I feel like mysteries should give readers a chance to solve them and I didn’t get that.
But I am fairly sure this is a good book. Just not for me. Which sucks, but that’s life. And who knows? Maybe next time I’m in the mood for some fantasy that cleaves closer to the world just outside my window, I’ll try this again and really like it.
So generally recommended, mainly for people who liked The Traitor Baru Cormorant but wanted something less depressing, or something a bit more conventionally fantasy than The Craft Sequence, or who just like The Divine Cities.
A copy of this book was provided by Netgalley in return for a fair and honest review. I’d like to thank them and Tor Books for the opportunity. Hollow Empire is out now from the usual outlets.
