But honestly, it wasn't too bad. I think the character development and set up early in the book eased this concern. Ettian is clearly traumatized or still haunted by his Empires fall, but he takes a less cliched approach by seeing the logic in it as he tries to move past it because there's nothing he can do. (This doesnt really hold up by the ending and Ill get to that in a spoiler discussion.)
**I however want to say that in my original notes I had it written as "his Empires destruction" because I honestly couldn't tell for most of the book what planets belonged to his old empire and what happened to them.
I think this is the biggest fault of the book. The universe or galaxy or whatever the author created didnt feel cohesive or even very sci-fi. I didn't fully comprehend that he was still living on his home planet it was just ruled by a different empire. And ill get into it after Gal how I feel about these Empires.
Gal is the prince of the Empire that took over Ettians. At the beginning of the book, the story starts with someone revealing his identity causing Ettian and Gal to run for Gal's protection. I liked Gal. I think a major contention of the book is whose side you'll back. Gal is trying to better than his parents, but still wants to be normal while not running away from his responsibility. Besides some odd moments of "blood" being unchangeable and he seems destined to become his warring parents, I think he does a good job trying to balance this.
So thats the majority of the early half of the book. Ettian coming to terms with Gal's true identity, while they both try to protect him to get him to his throne. As I said, it's not cut and dry who is technically in the right and you'll spend alot of time trying to decide who's feelings you validate between the two.
After the 60% mark is when things turn all the more political and you need to start questioning why Umber is even bad? I heard this is supposed to be inspired of Poe and Finn from Start Wars (I dont see it at all, I think I would have enjoyed a fanfiction of them better than this book) so we will use that as an example. You KNOW why the Empire is bad in Star Wars. They are domineering, ruthless, strip planets of resources and leave nothing.
Umber isn't quite like that. Unless the author is leaving things out it makes it quite clear that Umber brought structure to the planets, even if they did ruthlessly take down those opposing them. It has clear hints of how it's kind of supposed to be like the Empire, but I think to still make Gal come of sympathetic, the author didnt go all the way with it. It leaves you contemplating what's really right and what should happen, and not in a good way unlike with the relationship between the boys.
Furthermore with that topic, it gets quite frustrating as you can't tell if retaking the Archon Empire from the Umber is something that should be done? It seems like it's happening just for vengeance or to get even? Its a very conflicting book, and some may enjoy this.
Now for the most part this was a 4 star book for me. I felt the general angst and issues felt real and reasonable. But the world didn't seem very unique and the sci-fi elements, besides flying ships in space, didnt really feel interesting. The ending however, I just couldn't help dropping it to a 3.5, it just rubbed me the wrong way and Ill discuss why next.
Spoilers for the ending:
We get the reveal, in the last 10 pages really, that Ettian is also a Prince. I think on principle I dont like this trope. It seemed really cliched and I didnt like how it immediately felt like all the build up of Ettian being "normal" was thrown out the window.
I felt like this wasn't set up well at all and I honestly have to question if the author planned it from the beginning. You'd think if he was a true prince or heir, he would have shown more loyalty toward his people. That fine line of him being loyal to Gal so he could get him on the throne, while dealing with his own Empire falling, COMPLETELY dissolved. It made my sympathy for Ettian crumble as I back track to find these pieces and realize how badly Ettian betrayed Gal, and it only gets worse. It ends with no communication between the two about working together, and accomplishing his original goal. Its incredibly frustrating and I think left like that to build drama for the sequel.
And Ettian was right, it WAS cruel to make Gal crown him at the end. It just felt so stupid, like do these people not care about making peace. Do they really think Gal will be able to better control his empire when shit like this happens. This ending ruined Ettian for me.
I just think the ending ruined so much and on reread it will be all the more frustrating knowing what we know now but its just DOESNT add up and does not conclude well.
It's still a decent book, but damn did this ending leave a sour taste in my mouth and I HATE that it became one of those "good books with bad endings" SMH so fckn hard.
I hope the sequels can redeem Ettian for me. But he better work DAMN FCKN HARD, and they better not try to put that shit on Gal.
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