Fantasy lovers at late have been almost spoiled with a plethora of well written fantasy with excellent world building and interesting characters. Based on this I jumped into Fatemarked with quite some enthusiasms. Unfortunately while some elements within were interesting, execution was sorely lacking in the book.

The story revolves around four (or five) characters, initially separate but brought closer together toward the end. The plot itself feels like a weird mixture of Song of Ice and Fire, just done to be more suitable for younger/less sophisticated audiences. Each character is unique and has their own plotline, but unfortunately none of them are interesting.

Especially the early parts of the book are very weak, so much so that I was tempted to give up on it. About half way through, I began to suspect that the author had been waiting to write a book for a long time and crammed in every idea he has ever had into the first 100 or so pages. The result is the book reads like a morning cartoon with its rapid fire pacing. While sometimes this can be exciting, here you jump from one large event to another at a pace that makes you not care about any of them. There are way too many weird and annoying contradictions - the 'elf' side character is a good example of first being outright hostile to suddenly opening up about her personal life that contradicts everything that has been said about her earlier. Or one of our main characters being brought to the king as a suspected spy, and next paragraph is invited to take part in the war council planning and is questioning the King in a manner that makes no sense - other than to provide a segue for exposition.

The end of the book is stronger than the beginning, but it does not save the book nor does it really make me want to keep up with the series. Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.

I almost passed up on the opportunity to read Fatemarked. The cover didn't really catch my eye, and it felt like the blurb potentially gave too much away. But in the end, this sounded like exactly the kind of story I was looking for, and I'm so glad I took a chance!

This is a classic epic fantasy story with some many of the elements that make this genre a must read. I don't want to say much about the plot beyond what you can read in the blurb, but this is a layered and dynamic story with fantastic world building and strong characters. The prophecy at the heart of the story is unlike anything else I've ever read, and the writing was strong enough to keep me frantically turning pages.

Highly recommended!