That was a wonderful engaging story! It started out very juvenile, like a YA Asian Fantasy novel, but it got really good after the first several chapters, and kept moving forward methodically. There were a few tropes and a few surprises but very human emotional themes and drama. The culmination of the chapter “The Duel” was outstanding!! I wanted, and almost did, cry…twice.
For a debut novel, I did not expect the author to go to some dark places, but she did it with such grace I was blown away. The issues I did have with the story were too many word replacements, sudden turn about with a character and so many plot lines with no finish. The latter has been explained by the author, who for the time being, has stated she will not continue the Theonite series finding difficulty with the magic system. The character issue was somewhat minor but given it happens late in the novel, meh, I can forgive it. The word replacements were a huge distraction though. I get it, it’s a different world and other authors have employed this tactic (like Red Rising and Stormlight Archives) but it was a little bit excessive. It took a dinma for me to wrap my head around it, and even then, I still didn’t like it.
Overall, it’s a wonderful story that I would love to see expanded into a trilogy. It has the plot lines and themes to carry that out. But by the same token, the more personal inner storyline was mostly resolved and I am ok with that. If the author does resolve her issues with continuing the series, I would definitely reread SoK. But until then, I am mostly satisfied. Great read I can recommend without much hesitation. I think I may actually read her other stand alone book based on her writing and story telling skill eventually. Bravo debut novel, accolades well deserved.
The narrator was also pretty good, giving life to the characters. My only reservation was that sometimes the ‘surprise’ in character voices felt a bit cartoonish. At least that is how it felt in my dead. But in the narrators defense, it could have been the writing itself. I don’t really know, but that was my gut feeling.