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alobearRiven is the second in the Arinthian Line series by Sever Bronny.
It still walks an odd line between Harry Potter and Game of Thrones - a fair amount of teenage angst and silliness, juxtaposed with torture, trauma and many deaths.
I still liked the main characters - the arc of one of the peripheral girls was well done.
But it's a very long book, which comes in the middle of a much longer over-arching story, so it did feel a bit episodic in places, and also as if not much progression was actually achieved.
There's also a weird occasional use of the present tense where it's not correct, which pulled me out of the narrative now and then.
I did like the limitations set on the new 'deus ex' type spell the youngsters learned - good use of a magic system that could have been massively overpowered.
It still walks an odd line between Harry Potter and Game of Thrones - a fair amount of teenage angst and silliness, juxtaposed with torture, trauma and many deaths.
I still liked the main characters - the arc of one of the peripheral girls was well done.
But it's a very long book, which comes in the middle of a much longer over-arching story, so it did feel a bit episodic in places, and also as if not much progression was actually achieved.
There's also a weird occasional use of the present tense where it's not correct, which pulled me out of the narrative now and then.
I did like the limitations set on the new 'deus ex' type spell the youngsters learned - good use of a magic system that could have been massively overpowered.
