Reviews tagging 'Violence'

De koperen koning by S.A. Chakraborty

91 reviews

bookswithcuppatea's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

A fascinating sequel to The City of Brass, this book quickly moves forward five years from the events of the previous book. Characters have matured, relationships are more complex, and the city of Daevabad is not always a balanced, safe place to be. 
The plot builds to a tense climax, and sets up new problems to be dealt with (hopefully!) in the next book. Which I look forward to reading!
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lesliehirgelt's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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bobbyeight's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Brb, grabbing book 3 before I spiral into despair šŸ˜­
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raavi's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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stuckinatimeloop's review against another edition

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medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

amazing. it starts off a bit slow especially in the middle, but it sets up perfectly for the main events towards the end.
the character development was great in this one. we got to see a lot more of muntadhir, who's a very interesting character. one moment you hate him and the other you want him to be happy and safe.
alizayd as well, i loved to see him humbled and bring himself back up. he's probably my favourite character.
and nahri is awesome as always.
this is one of the best fantasy series I've read, and the politics is so well written. I usually prefer characters over plot, but the author does the plot so good you get very invested in it. there is no good side or bad side, everyone has done questionable things so you're kind of rooting for both but neither at the same time.
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elizabeth_lepore's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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mariazen's review against another edition

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adventurous tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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singalana's review against another edition

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adventurous reflective tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Even though I listened to it as an audio, I had to SLOG through this book!

It has been about a year since I listened to the first part of the trilogy. It was a huge mistake to wait that long because I spent about the first 20 % of the book wondering who that character was, what that word meant and what happened in the last book.

After I got over that, the book started dragging for a different reason: NOTHING MEANINGFUL HAPPENS! It feels like there are no stakes, and so much time is spent on describing the most meaningless things. As one reviewer pointed out, everything that the characters try to do is thwarted by someone more powerful. 

About 60 % in, I realized that I do not care about any of these characters. Except maybe for Dara, because he is at least a little bit interesting. Thereā€™s no real feeling of danger, and I knew nothing bad would happen to the characters. The main character, Nahri, is insufferably righteous, the same as Ali. As one reviewer put it: 99 % of the characters are magical racists, religious fanatics or war criminals. Not exactly a likeable bunch.

Spoilers!
If I remember correctly, thereā€™s a little bit of romance between Nahri and Dara in the first book, and I started rooting for Dara. In this book, Nahri is forced to marry King Ghassanā€™s son, and we get to see how evil and manipulative Ghassan is. Dara is brought back to life to serve Manizheh, who plans to oust the Qahtanis and restore Nahid rule to Daevabad. HOWEVER, it turns out that Manizheh is the evil one, and when she and her forces attack Daevabad, ALL of the characters forget what kind of  a**hole Ghassan was, and everyone is very sad that heā€™s dead. RIP. Nahri is, of course, a smart and spunky heroine and saves the day, yay!
 

But in all seriousness, I could not give a damn about any of these characters, especially since they are all so infuriatingly dramatic all the time. It sucks out any real impact a really dramatic scene should have when the characters are gasping and staring in shock about half of the book. If the author succeeded in something, it was when in the first book, I started to like Dara, even though he is practically a war criminal. Then, in the second book, Iā€™m supposed to root for the Qahtanis, I guess? 

In addition to that, this book is all over the place about the shafit, the ā€œmixed-bloodsā€, who are part human. The shafit are treated as something to be saved, and when they lash out for being treated like cattle, they are suddenly wild animals.

This book has way too many elements, itā€™s way too slow, and everything is so damn dramatic all the time. Iā€™m so glad this is over. Letā€™s see if I pick up the last part of this series in a year or so after I have forgotten how messy and frustrating this was. 
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embee3's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

5.0

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meg_leigh's review against another edition

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2.0

I so enjoyed this author's Adventures book, and The City of Bronze. But this one was just disappointing.

Every. Single. Character. Is so deeply selfish and unlikeable. And the level of violence against children, the sheer number of children dying, borders on trauma porn.

Half the characters' choices make no sense or have any consistency from page to page. 

I already bought the third book, such was my excitement, so I'll read it and hope this installment was just an unfortunate misstep. 
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