AnHeC (I'm too fucking busy and vice versa)

In the spirit of... Vodka (I’m Polilsh after all) I should start writing (writhing) well thought out, coherent reviews. I have a second year of a writing class right now, and should use every opportunity to become a proficient language user… Riiiiiiight. Can you imagine me, a haphazard, overly emotional mess, using punctuation correctly? Can you imagine me being serious? And dropping all the profanity? They want me to grow up *sad face* They want me to act responsible, and now I have a writing identity crisis. I firmly believe you all deserved a fair warning.

Word count:  about 106 000

The ending – how can you do it to me? Right in the insane curiosity.  That is how you should end a book in a series! You think you begin to know how things work, and then BAM! You knew and now you don’t. I’m freakishly curious. Where does the truth lie? Time to read the next installment! GIVE IT TO ME! This was a fucking game changer. THAT, my dear sir, is pure win. 

I’m really happy with this book. The story has gained a good momentum, characters really gradually grow on us, and the world becomes familiar. It’s hard to write middle books of a series. It is. You either make them pointless fillers, or everything turns out choppy.  Not here. This is pretty much a perfect addition to a series telling one continuous story.  We are very much interested in what is happening, at the same times a bigger picture unfolds (yes, my pictures unfold, go away), but not really. You see, some pieces we thought that go together? They don’t. It’s so much fun!

Plus the name of the king – Ethelred? Really? I choose to assume it’s no accident.  Fuck yeah for all the history nuts!

Another fun fact – dynamics of relationships between characters change. Hadrian & Royce duo is having a crisis. At least Hadrian is. This guy wants his life to have a meaning and announces he’s done with a whole thieving business. It never tickled his hippy noodle the right way, so he’ll become an awesome jedi middle-aged ninja turtle wielding a huge double handed sword. Wait, a few days ago I found out (was brutally informed)that  in English there’s a correct order of adjectives (IMO you’re all really fucked up). So that would be: an awesome, humongous, middle-aged, Hitindarian, double-handed sword wielding jedi ninja-turtle.  But I digress. He doesn’t really want to be a ninja-turtle (I mean he does, he just doesn’t realize it’s an option, so he’s sad, and decides he needs to find himself. Or crawl into a hole and die.). And then The Last Mission hit’s the fan, and shakes things up a bit (a fucking tectonic collision happens and then Himalayas get erected).

I don’t think I’ll spoil much, since I strongly suspected this since Avempharta, and we are explicitly told…  at some point. Somewhere.  He’s a guardian. BAM! Now he knows. He’s got a purpose (porpoise would be more fun, but admittedly not very useful in those circumstances). What will come out of it? I don't know yet. I have to read the next book ^^ But I have faith, it will be cool enough for school.

So where’s this changing H&R dynamic I’m talking about? Here Royce’s attachment to Hadrian is exposed. Hadrian has some fun realizations (no, they’re not gay) about what he is to Royce (… I can’t believed I uttered this sentence, tonight I’m “vomiting in stanzas”).  Maybe I should stop there. In short – theyir dynamics are explored, exposed, and changing, all in the middle of action.

Lots of character development goes on – that includes Arista too. I don’t really love her, but she’s beautifully written. Yes, she was an unconventional member of royalty, but still quite spoiled. That is realistic. You can’t lead a life of fluffy privilege and stay in touch with reality. She’s amazing for a royal, but not quite there yet. We have a pleasure of witnessing her change.  I can identify with her frustration. She’s intelligent and driven, yet always was diminished by people around her. To me saying “go and do something useful – maybe some needlework” deserves a bitch slap. She reminds me a bit of Eowyn, with her desire to become more, to do more, to achieve something – except Arista with her blossoming magic, and royal descent is in a position to make it.

Empire strikes back! Yes, a newly formed empire is as interesting as a fresh pizza. You want some behind the scenes action? *wiggles eyebrows* Sullivan will give it to you. (ba-dum-tss) There’s a follow up on Thrace. Not much happens on this front, but the subtle set-up of things makes me tingle all over. So much potential was put into that storyline *a truly mad grin*.  It very much matters and is interesting.

I like villains that have reasonable motives. You know what I mean, right? Sometimes it’s all “we’ll take over the world” or “destroy it” because… because heroes need someone to overcome and nothing else. Villains that give long speeches describing their motives. Villains that don’t use opportunities presented to them. Here? I still don’t know what to make of Sully. But one thing is certain – the church isn’t evil per se, just selfishly ambitious, and that makes it all much more interesting and relevant.

Problems:

-          The obvious ‘you need to die’ when a new character would get in the way of author’s masterplan. I liked him. I’d be fine with him never becoming a part of the story, but he got Boba Fetted. And for what? The purpose he served was minuscule. Damn it.

-          "The steel scraped as Emery pulled the blade form the metal sheath"  Say it to my face. Say it. I dare you. I double dare you motherfucker. The next person that does it gets kicked in a shin. I swear.  LOGIC BITCHES! If you haven’t seen my post update, there you go: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzbfuI0PMdA

-          PG 13 killing. On one hand there’s lots of death. On the other Hadrian is still naïve as fuck. Ad his father must have been too since: "My father taught me that a man is only your enemy until he falls."  I have a problem with that because I agree with Patton -  “The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his.” There are practical problems resulting from not killing your enemies. But admittedly

a)      Hadrian isn’t practical and  he’s strong enough for that kind of indulgence

b)      Soldiers for hire often feel a sense of camaraderie and don’t want to kill the other side. That would explain why Hadrian felt like this, but his father? He should be very intent on murdering people that apparently killed a royal family he’s sworn to protect, to execute traitors and get rid of threats to this very important quest that will stop at nothing Just saying.

I probably could come up with more stuff, but since I’ve been putting writing this review off for quite a while and have no memory, this review will have to do.  Nyphron Risisng isn’t a perfect book, but it’s a fair bit of a properly written fun.