*I was gifted an advance copy of this book by the publisher in exchange for an honest review*
Rating: 3.5/5
Summary from Amazon:
"A gifted student foretells an apocalypse. Her reward is a sentence of death.
Fleeing into the unknown she is drawn into a team of outcasts:
A broken soldier, who once again takes up the weapons he’s forbidden to wield and carves a trail back home.
A drunken prince, who steps out from his beloved brother's shadow and claims a purpose of his own.
An imprisoned thief, who escapes the crushing dark and discovers a gleaming artifact - one that will ignite a power struggle across the globe.
On the run, hunted by enemies old and new, they must learn to trust each other in order to survive in a world evolved in strange, beautiful, and deadly ways, and uncover ancient secrets that hold the key to their salvation.
But with each passing moment, doom draws closer.
WHO WILL CLAIM THE STARLESS CROWN?"
I would say that I enjoyed this book. It wasn't perfect, but the story had enough unique aspects to it, as well as plenty of action that kept the story chugging along fairly well. It's a good blend of the classic multi-POV fantasy adventure story coupled with some good politics and drama. So it has a little bit of everything for every fantasy reader. It even has some very light, almost sci-fi elements? Maybe more steampunk, but I always associate steampunk as a sort of overlap of fantasy and sci-fi. The focus on alchemy and the way they use it to improve technology just gives me big steampunk vibes. One thing I will definitely say about this book, it had fantastic world building. It's clear that a lot of time and effort went into crafting the world and all of its history in this book. The cultures, the world itself, the creatures, and the history of the world were all thorough and interesting to learn about as you read the book. It doesn't hurt that the end of some of the chapters have sketches of the creatures. I don't know about you guys, but I love when books (especially fantasy books) have pictures of the content. Rollins' writing was very descriptive so as to allow the reader to become immersed in the world and the action happening. But it also wasn't overbearing, the writing itself was very balanced so as not to take away from the plot, but rather to bolster it and keep it moving.
The story was pretty good and it kept my interest, but there were some things that I didn't care for that kind of took me out of the story. First off, I never really cared for Nyx. Just something about the way that she's written did not vibe with me. I wouldn't say that I disliked her, I just didn't care very much for her. The fact that every time she was hit with something new, or would gain a new ability, she always just knew how to do it. There was never development of that ability because she always just seemed to immediately know everything about it and how to master it. There were also a fairly strong reliance on characters tropes which I can give or take, wasn't the end of the world, but it made the characters feel relatively standard. The thief with the heart of gold, the scoundrel prince, the overweight side character who serves to bolster the main characters, etc. On a similar level as tropes, there were a lot of convenient saves. A lot of "we'll never survive this but oh look something happened right at the last moment so there were no real consequences." I'm hoping that these things will all be greatly lessened by the time the next book is released.
Overall, it was a strong start to the series. I'm fairly impressed by the content, especially since James Rollins is known for thrillers, so for him to write such a solid fantasy book on his first go is pretty impressive. Sure, there are things that I didn't care for very much, but the story itself and the characters within have promise. I look forward to seeing how the world grows and the characters develop in the next book! Thank you so much to Tor for allowing me to read an advanced copy. The Starless Crown is currently available everywhere books are sold (seriously, I even saw it at Walmart, I was impressed by that). If you're interested, then I recommend checking it out!