The reading of this book took me much longer in the first half. And the second half became more upbeat.
Time of Iron. Book 2
Rae is a fantasy reader who's been transported to her favourite fictional world of swords and sorcery, castles and monsters. Playing the villainess, she thought she could change the narrative, but this version of the plot is far much more deadly than the one she knew.
I really need to shout it into the VOID before reviewing it because THERE ARE TOO MANY DESCRIPTIONS!!! SIMILES, THEY'RE DISTRACTING!! (I'll explain later what descriptions I mean, of course I don't mean all lol)
So it's my time to pour out my thoughts on this novels. I felt like I was reading through a veil. As if I was standing at a distance and someone tried to shout the contents to me and I asked back "What?". Like Alice who got lost in the Wonderland and had a lengthy conversation with a Temu version of cartepillar who was trying to be witty and say things, but they came out a bit crumbled, sometimes good, sometimes cringe. Like a dig I just had at author for including too many similes, I am so sorry, but it is true.
So where do I even begin?
I suppose there is a need to say something positive about the things I liked.
The Rae's memories were the most impactful to me, even if I knew the circumstances of the author including her own experience in there. maybe this is why it was really hitting hard. She is no heroine so far, but no villainess either. In the end I had a feeling that Rae, despite her convictions, still felt like a small person played by fate.
I didn't get enough of Key, since he became the Emperor, but I still like his character, he is the bringer of chaos, the one unhinged and who actually follows the path of evil, instead of claiming to be a villainess, but doing nothing truly deserving a name... shit, I tried to start with positive, but I started to compare.
I also found myself liking Cobra more (not for his ability to name his horse Google Maps.. like really, that part is cringe af), because he is the one who knows at least something and tries to apply it in their shitty situation. With some degree of success or failure.
And I liked the ending (editing me, who is finished). I hoped I will like it and I did. It made many things reconstructed, it also poured some light along the feeling of me looking back at the content and appreciating it more. Sudden twists is what we love at the very end and some really unexpected thing to happen as the very last line.
The biggest problem of how fun the last 20% were is that, for many this part decides if the book is good or not. But if the ending is really exciting they overlook everything that was not really good before that. And I admit the last 20% were fun to me, but I also couldn't overlook how hard for me the beginning felt. maybe it's a me problem, who knows.
But when it comes to things I want to discuss.
Firs of all, the execution.
A lot of crucial information to me got lost in flowery similes and this is why I wanted to shout and let it all out.
For example, the book too many times describes Key from head to toe almost. Not really, but it actually excruciatingly repeats the same things about his pale skin, his scar on his neck, his black hair, his red glimmer in the eyes and his knife-sharp gauntlets. And this information reiterates at an interval, sometimes from a different angle but the meaning is similar. Why do we need this? I may have not the best memory, but I know all these things.
Do you know what is the most important part of this description to me. Scar, but only when Rae see it or thinks of it as part of her guilt trip. And the fact that she betrayed him. Gauntlets, because they're the deadlist part of him. And the fact that she is not aware she knows the person anymore.
Other parts of his wardrobe like coat and coloring along with the name of his sword and the full name of the jewel on the handle is repeated over and over again. And of course all the associations with darkness, abyss, smoke etc. take a lot of space. I don't mention here all the cringe phrases thrown in. Like that's another story I don't understand. It's inevitable the person who comes from a different world would like to use words from their original world, but deliver them in a forced way is a whole different story.
But when I was reading it I thought to myself - why add so much stuff when the main points are only few. And they don't need such a hardcore reintroduction.
We need to know the gauntlets are enchanted and sharp, but Key doesn't really use them, but this is all Rae feared a lot. So many reiterations how he touched her with them, but no pain comes, of course it's dangerous, but there is a pattern Rae does not wish to see. As in first book she is too stuck in her own vision of things. It also had a negative impacet on me, because this reiteration became somewhat of a 'boy cried wolf' story, repeated too many times before the story showed - this guy himself is unpredictable and dangerous. I don't mention how many characters called him that and did not trust him. Maybe I should have listened to them and they had a point, this becomes clear in the later part. But in Rae's case he almost lulled me to believe he won't do anything and he actually didn't do much. Only became someone she barely recognized.
This is why I say I felt like reading through a veil. It felt as if author went on a tangent before conveying the most important part.
Do I think those parts should have been left out? For part of it I would say yes.
The most parts I'm talking about were mostly about Rae and the palace. When it came to other characters like Cobra / Marius or Emer / Lia, then things were a bit clearer. Although Marius had a lot going on, while Lia and the maid Emer had too little about them, as they rarely even appeared (though they still managed to instill that you can't really trust Lia at all).
Another part for me was the problem of plot not really moving anywhere for a good chunk of the story, while the main points at the beginning were
- King died, but Emperor returned with his undead. Rae becomes his bride.
- "Goddess" tells Rae she is not the final bae. This is why Rae remembers to re-introduce Queen's Trials where Key can choose some heroine-type girl as his future queen, so the story would follow the story.
- A lot of ministers died that night. Ice raiders are at their walls (that's another problem of mine). They mulled over the question of trials too, as if it's not the right time. No one talked anything particularly meaningful. I'll be honest, I have no idea how this world lives, how the people live, what they believe or want or don't want. In the end their ideas were expressed much later, but still I have no idea how this world functions (though does it matter))).
- Marius and Cobra escaped and travelled towards Valerius family home. Gay vibes.
- Emer and Lia escaped through the secret passage and lived in Lia's acquanitance's house. They had little screen time.
Because of never-ending similes (the word 'like' was used several hundred times and the number of similes is.. a lot) I really got distructed when I need to concentrate on important things. And they were something like plot self-fixing, but is not without changes (not a new idea, but a good one to play around with). This meant for Rae that some events are inevitable, but the cast can be changed. Or someone can play someone's role instead. And she may become part of the casted away. As she believed.
The first half of the story really dragged to me, especially those Queen's Trials. Imagine my face when I saw them saying thare are only TWO trials. Yes! I was going crazy at that point. They had been mentioning those trials for so long, but we see only few girls in total (of course described as there was more, they have no presence at all) and the first round passed soon, Rae did nothng but release a beast to become Emperor's steed (trial was not about it) and became a winner. Then they had to drink a potion of truth I'd call it, and it was second and FINAL trial. You got to be kidding me. At least first had some bite to it, after all girls risked their lives above the abyss, but the second did not mention anyone telling Key anything so we could listen except first girl which served solely to demonstrate to readers ho the potion works. And they dragged their feet when all they had to do was just waste two days on them. The discussion went on because Tagar is at their doorstep. But do you think those ice raiders were ever shown? I'll disappoint you. We never see them except some representative characters who appeared once and briefly. And we don't see them again before the end. Otherwiese they always said ice-raiders are behind walls.. so what? We don't see them or their plans or anything. I think they tried to do something once and it all happened in the background.
Only from the 50% of the book things started to move at least somewhere.
I looked back and realized that not much happened in the first half actually and I don't know if it's a good sign.
It would have been such a disappointment if the plot didn't start to get better.
I liked the revelations, because I was muddle-headed at the beginning many came as a surprise to me, because I didn't even think about many things (well, many things weren't discussed as well.. I'm not sure anymore I'll be honest).
Good thing very ast part is pretty exciting, it overshadowed the rest of it for me too. Even a lot of previous parts made more sense.
And you know what happened? Less similes, yeah. Mosre concise description too. How happy I was.
So yeah, waiting for the next book to come. With very telling title "Kill Your Darlings".
RATE: 3,5/5.