While not.a bad book by any means, I felt that the writing and characters could have benefit from a little more depth. The story begins with already established relationships between the protagonist and fellow servants plus the family he works for, which started off well, though the writing prevented me from becoming deeply invested in the story due to its lack of complexity.

Railan, banished to the mines after being caught with his master’s son Tyce, flees and discovers a talent for magical music Composing.

So, here’s the thing with this book: I read 100 pages of this book, and as far as I can tell, it doesn’t have a plot. The story at 100 pages consists entirely of Railan stuck in a loop of leaving unhealthy situations to find himself in a different but very similar unhealthy situation. And that I don’t mind in and of itself, but this entire book is just chock full of things that are mediocre at best, and stale at worst. The writing is fine. The worldbuilding is nothing new. The tropes are ones I’m tired of in fantasy. The characters are uninspired. There doesn’t seem to be a plot? And this book is close to 600 pages. I can’t read 600 pages of nothing interesting.

Thanks to NetGalley for a copy of this ebook. I’m sorry I didn’t like it, but I tried. This review is honest and my own.

Thank you for the ARC to NetGalley and the author.

Unfortunately, I DNFed at 20%.

This novel has many positive aspects: For example, the magic system and the political constructs within the book. However, I did not connect with the main character and the dialogue felt repetitive and childish. I believe the book has potential and with developmental and grammatical editing it might just make a good one, but in its current state I do not wish to finish reading it.

Thank you, author, for the advance reading copy.

I would say the characters are realistic and the writing good. However, I felt that the story started just like that. I needed proper character introduction and better character interactions for such a lengthy book.

Maybe the book is not for me.