• Plot: 3 stars
• Worldbuilding: 3 stars
• Characters: 3 stars
• Writing: 3 stars
• Reading experience: 3 stars
• Overall: 3 stars

I’m not sure why, but for some reason I heavily disagree with what most reviewers have to say about this. Now that I finished the book I’m left with a serious feeling of ‘meh’ and I find it weird that it feels that way.

Theoretically speaking, this book has everything to be great, it has knights, mages, mercenaries, pirates, combat, green-golden scaly monster things, daddy issues, torture, etc.. And yet it feels like it just all fell short for me.

I find that all 3 of the main characters are rather bland, despite of their sad backstories and personal development, I found all of them to be quite annoying most of the time. There’s Fritz, the overly pompous fadwad of a lord with an ego the size of a Boeing 747, Wydrin who thinks that overly dramatic humor is the best answer to any situation and the brooding Sebastian who’s emotional struggle didn’t do anything for me.

On a sidenote: the foreshadowed, short-lived romance felt incredibly incredulous to me and the execution felt too forced. I think that one drove my opinion over the edge.

It’s never a good sign when you’re reading something and yelling at the characters or hoping that they would just go away and die somewhere (looking at you Fritz, you pompous, moronic ass). The story feels weird and forced at times, where I thought “it can’t be this easy can it?”.

As another reviewer says, maybe I’ve just read to much fantasy and this just doesn’t veel original enough for me. I’m pretty sure that most readers, especially people who are new to fantasy, will get a kick out of this. For me, unfortunately, it all felts just a little boring.