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, January 23, 2024

Review: Knee-Deep in Cinders

Knee-Deep in Cinders Knee-Deep in Cinders by Ashley Capes

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A quick, dark fantasy where the protagonist with a burning hatred and desire for revenge against his jailers who committed a genocide against his people in attempt to steal their magical power (with some very limited success). As such, despite the tease of a redemption arc, it took a bit before I started to like the main character (and his weird sense of honor that demanded only he could be allowed to extract vengeance on his enemies. The supporting characters were also well done and easier to love, but the story seemed too short to develop them much in this fast moving story. What carried the book here was solid world building, some slight-of-hand with the antagonists, and the slow reveal of the MC backstory that made for an interesting mystery … and a stunner of an ending … all told by an author who is very good at his craft (so keep a eye out for future works by Ashley Capes).

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

#KneeDeepInCinders #LibraryThing

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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.