My Favorite Books

The Walking Drum
Ender's Game
Dune
Jhereg
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The Curse of Chalion
The Name of the Wind
Chronicles of the Black Company
The Faded Sun Trilogy
The Tar-Aiym Krang

Tuesday, October 31, 2023

Review: Sunbringer

Sunbringer Sunbringer by Hannah Kaner
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The second book in the the Fallen Gods series
Previous Review of Godkiller

Sunbringer picks up right after the end of Godkiller with our three (3) MC more or less on separate tracks, which was an immediate disappointment as the dynamic between them was so great in the first book that I missed it. However, where the first book was more or less about Kissen the God killer, this book seemed to put Inara (and her sidekick god Skedi) front and center and it was nice to see the character growth there. And while the big reveal here was more or less predicable, it developed naturally enough to still be entertaining and allowed the reader to explore a bit more about the relationship between Ina and her tiny god (and some background) that begins to explain what is going on there. Ina’s interaction with the lesser gods of Lesscia provided most of the world building here. Unfortunately, Kissen was nearly MIA here, with her own journey that was mildly entertaining as she interacts with some of the old god heavy hitters to provide the reader with some important datapoint needed to carry the plot … such as the redemption Arc of the King after such a brutal betrayal in the previous encounter (and frankly a not very convincing plotline). Elo is still Elo … crashing around like a bull in a china shop leading up to another rather confusing and not quite as satisfying ending (maybe he will get more play in the next installment … and perhaps some redemption for himself as well).

While there was not as much world building in this book, it did extend it with Kissen’s adventures (although this was still pretty shallow IMO) and the storyline centered around Lesscia with Ina, Elo and the dissidents (including Kissen’s family) that did the heavy lifting. However, it was a really slow start and it seemed more like pieces were moving primarily to setup the next book and not toward any satisfactory plot conflict resolution … perhaps this was a factor of the middle book syndrome … or perhaps it was because I so enjoyed the first book, but this was seed to be just a little less … still great, but not quite as awesome as I expected.

I was given this free advance reader copy (ARC) ebook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

#Sunbringer #FallenGods #NetGalley

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My Ratings Explained ...

  • [ ***** ] Amazing Read - Perfect story, exciting, engrossing, well developed complex characters, solid plot with few to no holes, descriptive environments and place settings, great mystery elements, realistic dialogue, believable reactions and behaviors; a favorite that I can re-read many times.
  • [ **** ] Great Read - Highly entertaining and enjoyable, exciting storyline, well developed characters and settings, a few discrepancies but nothing that can’t be overlooked. Some aspect of the story was new/refreshing to me and/or intriguing. Recommended for everyone.
  • [ *** ] Good Read - Solid story with a 'good' ending, or has some other redeeming feature. Limited character development and/or over reliance on tropes. Noticeable discrepancies in world building and/or dialog/behavior that were distracting. I connected enough with the characters/world to read the entire series. Most of the books I read for fun are here. Recommended for fans of the genre.
  • [ ** ] Okay Read - Suitable for a brief, afternoon escape … flat or shallow characters with little to no development. Over the top character dialog and/or behavior. Poor world building with significant issues and/or mistakes indicating poor research. Excessive use of trivial detail, info dumps and/or pontification. Any issues with the story/characters are offset by some other aspect that I enjoyed. Not very memorable. May only appeal to a niche group of readers. Recommended for some (YMMV).
  • [ * ] Bad Read - Awkward and/or confusing writing style. Poor world building and/or unbelievable (or unlikeable) characters. Victimization, gaslighting, blatant abuse, unnecessary violence, child endangerment, or any other highly objectionable behaviors by Main characters. I didn't connect with the story at all; significant aspects of this story irritated me enough that I struggled to finished it. Series was abandoned. Not recommended.