Ruin & Rising - Leigh Bardugo // Book Review

 

Ruin & Rising
Leigh Bardugo || Publication Date - 17.06.2014

Battle worn and almost out of hope. The fate of the world rests on the shoulders of their new Saint.

Fiction | Fantasy | Adventure | Young Adult

After their last fight with The Dark One, Alina is now recovering trying to build her strength and fight to find the last of the Amplifiers she requires to beat him.

Her journey to find the Fire Bird is based on a myth, not even guaranteed to find this illustrious creature. However, though the odds are not in her favour, she and a band of her closest allies are on the hunt for their last chance at winning this war.

But like any power, great sacrifice must be made, and Alina is constantly weighing her choices to truly find if she is ready to find out what is on the line.

The Review (may contain spoilers)

I found this last instalment mediocre at best. Apologies for the harsh wording, but the premise and storyline up until this final book was fun and interesting. I had this overarching feeling through the whole series that Alina and Mal's relationship was written purposely for convenience and this final book proved my concerns.

The characters as people never improved and the ones I initially liked upon meeting stayed my favourites. Alina and Mal are quite honestly two of the most uninteresting people on the planet and faltered the story in my opinion. I can appreciate if this was intentional as some people don't like reading about already extraordinary characters gaining Chosen One powers and saving the world. That being said, making them painstakingly dull is also not a win.

My favourite characters do appear in later books within the Grishaverse, and I will definitely be delving into the other duology's by Leigh Bardugo in the future. Her writing style is nice and she explains things in her world very well. Magic systems can get convoluted and I appreciate hers being creative and easily grasped by readers. Ultimately, I feel the ending closed off the saga quite well and I didn't have many unanswered questions or unsavory explanations. 

Overall Thoughts

This trilogy was a good way to introduce the politics, systems, characters and overarching world building required for a multi-novel series. I do however, think this is best seen through the eyes of a prologue to give context to the other books set in the Grishaverse. I have not read the Six of Crows duology so I'm unsure how those books go in terms of explaining intricate details of Ravka, however if they function perfectly well as standalone books (which I will be able to advise and update this passage later) then I would simply recommend to skip this trilogy and read those instead.

That being said, if you are a fantasy fan and want something easy to read and a fascinating world with interesting side characters then this would be a nice and quick series to grab.

Siege & Storm - Leigh Bardugo // Book Review

  

Siege & Storm
Leigh Bardugo || Publication Date - 04.06.2013

The world is changing, revelations have come to light and now Alina and Mal are on the run.

Drama | Literary Fiction | Mystery

Alina and Mal have escaped a harrowing and eye opening ordeal in The Fold, and are now on the run to try and find the remaining Amplifiers to complete Alina's goal - destroy The Dark One.

They find themselves sailing with a brigand of privateers under the watchful and respected eyes of Sturmhund. All while being stalked by The Dark One, who has emerged from The Fold with a new unnaturally strong power and a need to regain his control of the Sun Summoner.

Alina has some choices to make. Grow her power and continue to seek out the Amplifiers. Remain on the run with Mal, constantly being hunted by The Dark One. Or, surrender to The Dark One and allow him to take control of her and her powers for his own twisted plans.

The Review (may contain spoilers)

This book was a step in the right direction considering the first book. More interesting (my favourite actually) characters are introduced into the story and character development runs rampant. However, I believe in the case of Alina and Mal, this character development is just running in circles asking the same questions until the book passes to the 3rd instalment.

I enjoyed the continuation and, explicitly, this section of the plot compared to the first book. It had more action, it was written a lot smoother and had a genuine feel of developing substantial character relationships. The world development however lacked here, and even though it did give a grander scale to Ravka which would be explored in the following book, I felt that it was not nearly enough to give enough of an urgency as the book seemed to require.

Unfortunately I don't seem to have much more to say for this book as I did the first... which is disappointing as I was expecting the 2nd book in the trilogy to really set the stage for the finale novel and give the push forward this story deserves. 

Overall Thoughts

In my opinion this book was a fine continuation of the story. As stated it had a lot more elements to it than the first but I still don't think it bridged the gap as well as it should have when I compare it to the next volume.

If you have read the first book and enjoyed it, I would not be reserved to recommend to read this one as well. However, if you did not enjoy Shadow & Bone, I wouldn't recommend continuing. I feel the other books in the Grishaverse are more worth the time and energy than what is essentially a prologue spread out over 3 books.