Summary
Welcome to Hallandren, the city of the gods! This city and kingdom are ruled by none other than the God King himself, who holds more power in him than anyone alive today, and the government in Hallandren never lets anyone forget it. And no one does. Especially not the two princesses of the nation of Idris, whose ancestors lost Hallendren to the God King's predecessors.
Now, to add on to the unfortunate events, one of these sisters must marry the God King in order for their homeland to be safe. It will either be the eldest sister, Vivenna, who has trained her whole life for the task, or it will be the youngest, Siri, who has happily lived her life being unimportant. In fact, she would love to continue her life of not having any responsibilities or expectations thrown upon her. There's one fact of life, however, that Siri will soon learn. That is that in life, we rarely get what want or plan for.
All of a sudden, Siri is whisked off to the treacherous kingdom of Hallandren to marry a man she has never met and has no desire to be with. She has no preparation, no training, and no idea how to deal with the intricacies of a complicated political game that usually takes place in the Hallandren government. Is she slightly panicked? Panicked doesn't even BEGIN to cover what she feels at the moment. Before she even realizes it, Siri is trapped in enemy territory with no one to trust or love.
The Hallandren government is made up of grandiose gods and goddesses who live a lavish life of comfort and wealth. They are divine and have a love for all the people. They are powerful and wise. At least that's what Lightsong, one of the 25 gods in the court, was told they were. He, on the other hand, felt no such divinity, wisdom, or power. In fact, he doesn't even believe in his own religion and has grown increasingly bored with immortality. Now that the new queen is here, however, she seems to be bringing with her mystery and excitement that Lightsong begins to get caught up in. One thing and one thing alone is certain and that is that nothing in the kingdoms and their lives will be the same again.
Opinion
Scale of 1-10:
9
All I gotta say is that this was honestly a pretty great book. While I didn't have a moment where I was like "Oh my gosh. Did that just happen?" I still really enjoyed the story and I actually got pretty attached to some of the characters. There were storylines that I was more invested in than others and I just really had to know what happened next with them! Sometimes the stories were a little slow moving but the information I learned was fascinating. Brandon Sanderson did an excellent job at building this world and its government that I'm kind of wondering whether or not he'll continue to build onto it whether in a sequel or another series. Most of his books are all in the same universe and I saw so many similarities between this book and the book/books he's also written in the same universe. I could do a whole article on this author's Cosmere and I probably will end up doing that!
Other than that, there were some pretty good characters in this and I really enjoyed how they each contributed to the progression of the story and the ending of it all. The three main characters are interesting and engaging and I really like how Sanderson used them to show how people can go their whole life believing that one thing is wrong but then realizing that they've just not experienced enough. He showed that when you walk in someone else's shoes, you see things in a different light, and sometimes your whole world changes.
Siri, the primary main character, had a really cool story. I didn't think I would enjoy her story as much as I did and I thought it was going to be a cliche story about an arranged marriage but it was really interesting and her story had some pretty unexpected twists and turns that made it pretty exciting!
While there was a twist, it wasn't an absolutely crazy one that left me in shock. It was more just an enjoyable one that helped tie up everything in a little bow by the end of it. There were a couple of things that I didn't see coming, obviously, and that made it a lot more fun to read! I think that if you love the Cosmere or are just in the mood for a little adventure in an interesting world, then I definitely recommend this read!
Age Rating
14-15+
Language:
The words "bastard", "hell", and "damn" are said in this book. Definitely not frequent and only happens a maximum of 2-3 times.
Sexual Content:
Honestly, the only reason I gave this book the rating I did wasn't because of the sexual stuff being graphic, but more of how often it was brought up or referenced. There's a lot of mention of it throughout the whole thing. There are also many goddesses that wear very revealing clothing. One goddess uses her body to try and convince people to do what she wants and it happens multiple times in the book. There are also mentions of how a character is unsure of how to even have sex. Ultimately, it's a pretty big part of the book, despite nothing at all being graphically described.
Violence:
There is a moderate amount of violence. People get stabbed often and there are a few fighting scenes. There are descriptions of how people look after they've ben tortured. One character has a weird obsession with hurting living things so that's pretty gut wrenching. There is also a character that gets her throat cut and it describes how her blood looks too.
Here's a link to the book on Goodreads:
Comments