The hubs is a big ol nerd and was looking for books that had accurate portrayals of medieval european war tactics and battles, But With Magic just to see how that would fit in. Anyhoo, he got recommended this one series called the Traitor Son Cycle (why’s everything a “cycle” nowadays???). First book is called “The Red Knight,” and we’re reading it together. It’s Wild.
We’re about a 1/4 of the way in, maybe, and here’s my thoughts so far.
MC is a magic boi only we’re not explicitly told that and it’s kind of mysterious at this point, so as a reader you’re left wondering what is going on and itching to find out what his Deal is
Similarly, he is literally always referred to as “the captain,” or “the red knight,” not by any name, and I’m fairly certain he’s an illegitimate royal son? Idk, yet another mystery!
There’s lots of intrigue, and it hops around to different POV characters every so often which leaves you wondering how all the story lines are going to meet up. Basically a very mentally engaging way of writing and presenting both characters and plot.
Interesting take on an alternate medieval europe, complete with Catholic Church but also Magic, so that’s complicated and delightfully fascinating
Absolutely an accurate portrayal of medieval european Stuff, to the point that we’re looking up words and terms every few pages. Drovers, mercers, men-at-arms, lances as a weapon vs lances as a unit, squires vs pages vs valets, surcoats, aventails, gambeson... You gonna learn today, son, ain’t no two ways about it.
The writing is really crisp and vivid, and the author does an outstanding job of characterizing individuals in just a few words, getting across exactly how and who they are without taking paragraphs to describe them. It’s quite delightful, witty, and generally lovely.
Everyone is Way Too Horny all the time, and it makes this raging asexual both deeply confused and deeply uncomfortable. Like bros? Chill. Please. I’m begging you. Stop talking about sex. Stop thinking about sex. Stop. Please please please please please. The only saving grace is that, thus far (fingers crossed for a continuation), the sexy scenes aren’t explicit.
Very vulgar language, ft. outrageous amounts of Shocking Blasphemy. My husband has it in ebook format and has a profanity filter on so that we can read out loud without our tiny toddler hearing naughty words, but holy cow, the filter is really working overtime. Unfortunately it does nothing to censor the insane levels of swearing by rude references to religious figures, so if blasphemy bothers you, yikers.
Pretty sure this is going to be a long-haul series, which I guess could go under both “good” and “bad” here. I do not see the over-arching plot resolving by the end of this book, so if you’re like me and go full Completionist Mode once you get even mildly interested in a story or character, you’re probably going in for all 5 (I think it’s 5?) books. Which could be a good thing, but at this point I’m slapping it under the negatives because that’s a major investment.
Low-key (and sometimes high-key) misogyny from the characters. We see the regrettably few ladies in the story through the slanted lens of our POV/title character, so it’s kind of in-character, but it’s still annoying. We’re led to understand that he’s a flawed and Not Very Nice person, so we can assume that his views on the ladies are part of that and that the author doesn’t really feel that way, but we don’t as yet have evidence of that. Needs more ladies, and I need more time to tell what’s the characters perspective and what’s the author being That Dude.
So yeah. This is wild so far. Also there’s dragon bird men and a semi-sentient bear? And an evil ent? Idk, this is just absolutely bananas and I’m decently Here For It.
