Empress

The ending is very intense, kind of hammering home the impression I got from reading the blurb about the sequel that it will be essentially a different story entirely, lol. Ay, the cardinal sin of "Empress" is its length, which feels interminable because of its repetitive appellations for the characters and the religious rhetorical framework they use to fight when they are not using weapons. That said, its scope is impressive. Hekat's rise over the years has all the fury and inevitability of a mythic figure drenched in blood. Her undoing is encountering a love she cannot understand just as much as it is her conflation of her ego with the God's will, I think. I'm certainly curious to learn what comes next.

First, this book sucked me in, which is usually a good sign. The author did a decent job of making me care about the main character, and want to know what would happen. However, as the story progressed, and the character changed in ways I did not like, my enjoyment also went down. I've read other books with great cruelty, but this one didn't appeal to me. It's possible that even though I consider this book well-written, and like parts of it, that I was simply not reading it at the right time and frame of mind. I may keep it on the shelf and re-read it in a couple of years. Sometimes a very heavy book appeals much more that way. I didn't hate it, loved it at first, and was very disappointed in the characters by the end. Not disappointed in the writing; disappointed in the characters as people (which is a good feat by the author).