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Theft of Swords (The Riyria Revelations, #1-2)

Theft of Swords (The Riyria Revelations, #1-2)

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Theft of Swords by Michael J. Sullivan

My rating: 3.75 of 5 stars

Riyria Revelations is without a doubt one of my favorite Fantasy series and one that I will revisit again and again in the future. I think I can safely say this is the kind of series that gets better with each book. I thought that the first time I read it and I completely agree with my younger self on this point.

Theft of Swords is divided into 2 books: The Crown Conspiracy and Avempartha.

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Toll the Hounds (Malazan Book of the Fallen, #8)

Toll the Hounds (Malazan Book of the Fallen, #8)

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Toll the Hounds (Malazan Book of the Fallen, #8)Toll the Hounds by Steven Erikson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Against all odds, Toll the Hounds blew my mind away and became one of my favorite installment within the series.

Toll the Hounds, just like House of Chains, is one of the installments which I heard plenty of mixed things about; they’re there for valid reasons. However, unlike House of Chains which disappointed me a lot, I actually found Toll the Hounds mesmerizing, a treasure trove for philosophies, and also one of the most rewarding books in the series so far. The story of the novel focused on the characters in Darujhistan and the Tiste Andii race. That’s right, we’re finally back in Darujhistan after seven books and we finally get to see the story focusing almost completely on the Tiste Andii.

Picture: A fanart of Anomander Rake by artsed-d8joaqa

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King of Assassins (The Wounded Kingdom, #3)

King of Assassins (The Wounded Kingdom, #3)

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King of Assassins (The Wounded Kingdom #3)King of Assassins by R.J. Barker
My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

I honestly can’t believe I almost didn’t pick up this trilogy; King of Assassins was a superb finishing touch to The Wounded Kingdom.

Bloody, poignant, intense, heartwarming, tragic, and dark; I finished this entire trilogy within six days, I just didn’t expect it to be this damn good and engaging. The Wounded Kingdom trilogy practically stole my life for an entire week, and the only antidote to my addiction was to finish reading the entirety of the series. …

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Blood of Assassins (The Wounded Kingdom, #2)

Blood of Assassins (The Wounded Kingdom, #2)

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Blood of Assassins (The Wounded Kingdom, #2)Blood of Assassins by R.J. Barker
My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

Blood of Assassins magnificently transitioned The Wounded Kingdom into a much darker series in an awesome way.

Girton and his master have been living as a mercenary for five years since the end of the event in Age of Assassins. The past five years experience has changed or repressed Girton’s personality to something worse. This sequel was a much darker book than its predecessor; at times I feel like it totally belongs in the grimdark genre due to how grey the moral code of Girton was. Barker strengthened his storytelling skill in this installment by making sure the story was unpredictable, full of intense twists and turns, and the entirety of the book to focus heavily on the theme of redemption and prejudices against sorcerer/magic. Plus, the murder mystery aspect in the book also was much more engaging to follow than before. …

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Age of Assassins (The Wounded Kingdom, #1)

Age of Assassins (The Wounded Kingdom, #1)

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Age of Assassins (The Wounded Kingdom, #1)Age of Assassins by R.J. Barker
My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

A highly enjoyable debut; I finished Age of Assassins in less than 24 hours.

I think people need to set their expectations right when they’re going to read this book. If you expect this to be an Assassin’s Creed type of story where the assassin goes on full throttle killing mode or be involved in a battle against another assassin for the majority of the book, you’re most likely going to be disappointed. I came into this expecting it to be something along the line of Robin Hobb’s Assassin’s Apprentice and with that mindset, I had a fantastic time with this addictive debut. …

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Reaper’s Gale (Malazan Book of the Fallen, #7)

Reaper’s Gale (Malazan Book of the Fallen, #7)

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Reaper's Gale (Malazan Book of the Fallen, #7)Reaper’s Gale by Steven Erikson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Reaper used his scythe to chop onions in an attempt to bring tears to my eyes. Unfortunately, he didn’t succeed.

By this point of the series, I think it’s safe to say now that Malazan Book of the Fallen will never break my heart the way it did a lot of readers. People always told me that Erikson was more brutal towards his characters more than George R. R. Martin or all the conclusion of his books will leave my soul crushed; I strongly disagree with these as I found none of the books in the series so far to ever move me to the point of making my soul crushed or on the brink of tears. This series is amazing in many other aspects but for characterizations (which is the most important aspect of any story for me), in my opinion there are several authors who did it better. …

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A Time of Dread (Of Blood and Bone, #1)

A Time of Dread (Of Blood and Bone, #1)

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ARC provided by the publisher—Pan Macmillan—in exchange for an honest review.

A Time of Dread by John Gwynne
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A Time of Dread is a work conceived in the mind of a genius.

Simply amazing and almost impossible to put down, A Time of Dread is truly a masterful start to a trilogy which I envision will be crowned as one of the best series I’ve ever read by its end. John Gwynne has proven himself once again to be the constant harbinger of superlative epic fantasy that only the greatest of authors can achieve. …

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Foundryside (Founders, #1)

Foundryside (Founders, #1)

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Foundryside (Founders, #1)Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett
My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

Foundryside was an incredibly addictive and entertaining read from start to finish.

I’m a recent fan of Robert Jackson Bennett’s books. Three months ago on the last week of May, I binged read his critically acclaimed trilogy, The Divine Cities, and it became one of my favorite trilogies of all time; I forced my friends and everyone I know to pushed the trilogy up their TBR immediately. Since finishing The Divine Cities, Foundryside, the first book in Bennett’s newest trilogy, immediately became one of my most awaited book of the year; I pre-ordered a hardcover (I usually order paperback) of the book because I can’t wait any longer and I want to give my support to the author as best as I could. Foundryside lived up to my high expectation and upon finishing it, I’m happy to say that Bennett has become the seventh author to be included in my ‘favorite author’ list. …

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The Bonehunters (Malazan Book of the Fallen, #6)

The Bonehunters (Malazan Book of the Fallen, #6)

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The Bonehunters (The Malazan Book of the Fallen, #6)The Bonehunters by Steven Erikson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Brilliant is an understatement, The Bonehunters is a leviathan of a masterpiece in convergence.

With this installment, Steven Erikson has cemented himself as an irreplaceable author for the genre of epic and military fantasy. This is the already the sixth book in the series and it’s simply unbelievable how he was able to keep producing such an amazing book. I thought Memories of Ice would end up being the absolute best installment of the series but as it turns out, The Bonehunters ended up being another best of the series so far; it’s truly up to the masterpiece quality of Memories of Ice and I can’t decide which one I loved more between the two. Let’s just say I’m honestly shocked by how incredible this installment was. It took six books of the series but I’m extremely confident about putting Erikson into my list of favorite authors of all time now. …

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Night of Knives (Malazan Empire, #1)

Night of Knives (Malazan Empire, #1)

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Night of Knives (Malazan Empire, #1)Night of Knives by Ian C. Esslemont
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Just like the main series, I was determined to finish the Malazan Empire this year but I may have to rethink that decision after my experience of reading this book.

Night of Knives is the first book in the Malazan Empire series, a spin-off to the main series that’s written by the other creator of the Malazan universe, Ian Esslemont. A lot of people mentioned that Esslemont is not Erikson (these four words must’ve haunted Esslemont for years by now) and usually, I’ll say that it’s really not really fair for everyone to endlessly compare these two; it’s obvious that every author has a different style. But in this special situation, I must say that the comparison is really well deserved because both of them write canon stories in the same universe which they created together. …

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