I previously reviewed DEATH SWORN in 2014 and was crazzzzzzy about it. ...then I somehow forgot that there was going to be a sequel... until I happened across the sequel. So now here we are! If you don't want anything spoiled about Death Sworn, then I would recommend not reading this review.
An amazon summary, "A young sorceress's entire life has been shaped to destroy the empire controlling her world. She could change history. But everything she thinks she knows is a lie. The sequel to the critically acclaimed Death Sworn will thrill fans of Leigh Bardugo and Robin LaFevers.
At seventeen, Ileni lost her magical power and was exiled to the hidden caves of the assassins. She trained the assassins in magic—and fell in love with one of them. And she discovered her entire life had been built on a lie. After all of this, she wants to see the truth for herself. She infiltrates the Imperial Academy of Sorcery. She will see everything she despises about the corrupt empire—its thirst for power, merciless control, and careless violence. But she also finds something she never expected—friends, and a place to belong. Ileni no longer knows whose side she is on. Leah Cypess spins an intricate and beautiful conclusion to Death Sworn." AMAZON LINK OF JUSTICE
I also didn't reread Death Sworn before jumping into Death Marked. I just kind of assumed my book reading skills would carry me through understanding the book. And they did, but they also didn't.
I will recount everything I remembered about Death Sworn. Main character was a sorceress. She had great power. She was also doomed to lose that power. They test those with magic when they're young to make sure they don't spend their life trying to become a sorcerer/sorceress if they're only going to "burn out" when they get older. Main character went to a cave of assassins to learn about the assassins. To essentially infiltrate them and... figure "something" out about them (this is what I forgot). While she still has some magic, she teaches the assassins basic magics. Super badass assassin in training is like, well a super badass, and has been assigned to kind of look over her. I can't remember if he was supposed to be some sort of mentor or what. He basically makes sure she doesn't accidentally die/get lost while in the labyrinth of caves they live in under a mountain, or like die by another assassin. Story progresses, girl is trying to figure things out but really falling in love with assassin man, assassin man is starting to doubt things about the assassin doctrine. Girl ends up murdering master assassin through like a convoluted, well schemed scenario. Assassin man is shocked, but lets girl run away before the other assassins can find out and murder her. Because love. Oh, also there's this whole thing with the people the girl is from believing the empire is evil, and the assassins also believe the empire is evil. The girl is like yeah, let's go take down the empire. [/End scene]
So that's all I remember. Cool? Cool.
Death Marked starts with an empire sorceress kidnapping the sorceress from the assassin cave (Ileni) and interrogating her. The empire sorceress is super powerful and had been planning on attacking the assassins for years; she needs to be rid of them to save the empire. Ileni is like, "but wait yo, the empire is the actual evil. So I'm going to play this whole thing really close to the chest. I want you to believe I'm on your side, but I'm on the rebellions side. Maybe," and the empire sorceress is like "Skep face". One thing leads to another (I'm glossing over a lot of stuff) and Ileni is training with the other sorcerers, and learning more about the empire. She is able to use magic because of the lode stones...which are created by people dying. She knows they're evil, but she's FINALLY ABLE TO USE MAGIC AGAIN. Now she's got magic back but in the worst way possible (using people's death energies to perform magic) which she knows is bad, but she also really loves being able to use magic. She's trying to figure out how the lode stones are made, and she's also trying to figure if the empire is actually, well evil.
That's enough summary. So much summary this time. Thank you for bearing with me.
I'm going to interview myself because I find it entertaining.
Did you like the sequel? Ehhhh, it may have been better if I had read it immediately after reading Death Sworn, but I kind of doubt it. The language, world building, tone, character dynamics, and all that jazz were there, and they were great. But, Ileni was just so WISHY WASHY. I couldn't root for her one way or the other, and I also couldn't root for the assassins, rebel group of sorcerers, or the empire. Everything seemed to have it's own evil qualities about it. Maybe the book was trying to teach a life lesson of their being no clear answer. If it was, it was kind of flat.
Wait, so you didn't like the sequel? The sequel is sold as a conclusion to the story. The conclusion still felt open ended to me which is kind of annoying since there won't be any more.
But what about Soren and Ileni's romance? [SPOILERS] If you're looking for romance, you get mostly Ileni's side the entire story...and she doesn't really interact with Soren in any great & meaningful ways. [/SPOILERS]
What about the empire, did we finally get to see it? "Yes".
...what the hell, you can't just "yes" and not explain yourself. Explain yourself? "No."
.... for real? Okay fine. We did get to see a chunk of the empire. The implication is that we kind of got to see the capital of the empire, and the rest of the empire exists, is vast, and full of problems.
What about the lode stone mystery? Was the mystery solved? "Yes".
Seriously, stop with the quote answers. Was the mystery solved? ..."yesssssss". BUT, it was solved in the worst Ileni reaction of like, "I'm so shocked this is what the empire does even though everyone I've met that hasn't been part of the empire (and some who are) have told me the empire is evil. STAGED GASP." So yes, but it wasn't a satisfying reveal.
My final thoughts are, I'm glad I read the sequel just to have some sort of resolution to the first book, but I would not go out of my way to recommend this duology to anyone.
Happy reading!
I will recount everything I remembered about Death Sworn. Main character was a sorceress. She had great power. She was also doomed to lose that power. They test those with magic when they're young to make sure they don't spend their life trying to become a sorcerer/sorceress if they're only going to "burn out" when they get older. Main character went to a cave of assassins to learn about the assassins. To essentially infiltrate them and... figure "something" out about them (this is what I forgot). While she still has some magic, she teaches the assassins basic magics. Super badass assassin in training is like, well a super badass, and has been assigned to kind of look over her. I can't remember if he was supposed to be some sort of mentor or what. He basically makes sure she doesn't accidentally die/get lost while in the labyrinth of caves they live in under a mountain, or like die by another assassin. Story progresses, girl is trying to figure things out but really falling in love with assassin man, assassin man is starting to doubt things about the assassin doctrine. Girl ends up murdering master assassin through like a convoluted, well schemed scenario. Assassin man is shocked, but lets girl run away before the other assassins can find out and murder her. Because love. Oh, also there's this whole thing with the people the girl is from believing the empire is evil, and the assassins also believe the empire is evil. The girl is like yeah, let's go take down the empire. [/End scene]
So that's all I remember. Cool? Cool.
Death Marked starts with an empire sorceress kidnapping the sorceress from the assassin cave (Ileni) and interrogating her. The empire sorceress is super powerful and had been planning on attacking the assassins for years; she needs to be rid of them to save the empire. Ileni is like, "but wait yo, the empire is the actual evil. So I'm going to play this whole thing really close to the chest. I want you to believe I'm on your side, but I'm on the rebellions side. Maybe," and the empire sorceress is like "Skep face". One thing leads to another (I'm glossing over a lot of stuff) and Ileni is training with the other sorcerers, and learning more about the empire. She is able to use magic because of the lode stones...which are created by people dying. She knows they're evil, but she's FINALLY ABLE TO USE MAGIC AGAIN. Now she's got magic back but in the worst way possible (using people's death energies to perform magic) which she knows is bad, but she also really loves being able to use magic. She's trying to figure out how the lode stones are made, and she's also trying to figure if the empire is actually, well evil.
That's enough summary. So much summary this time. Thank you for bearing with me.
I'm going to interview myself because I find it entertaining.
Did you like the sequel? Ehhhh, it may have been better if I had read it immediately after reading Death Sworn, but I kind of doubt it. The language, world building, tone, character dynamics, and all that jazz were there, and they were great. But, Ileni was just so WISHY WASHY. I couldn't root for her one way or the other, and I also couldn't root for the assassins, rebel group of sorcerers, or the empire. Everything seemed to have it's own evil qualities about it. Maybe the book was trying to teach a life lesson of their being no clear answer. If it was, it was kind of flat.
Wait, so you didn't like the sequel? The sequel is sold as a conclusion to the story. The conclusion still felt open ended to me which is kind of annoying since there won't be any more.
But what about Soren and Ileni's romance? [SPOILERS] If you're looking for romance, you get mostly Ileni's side the entire story...and she doesn't really interact with Soren in any great & meaningful ways. [/SPOILERS]
What about the empire, did we finally get to see it? "Yes".
...what the hell, you can't just "yes" and not explain yourself. Explain yourself? "No."
.... for real? Okay fine. We did get to see a chunk of the empire. The implication is that we kind of got to see the capital of the empire, and the rest of the empire exists, is vast, and full of problems.
What about the lode stone mystery? Was the mystery solved? "Yes".
Seriously, stop with the quote answers. Was the mystery solved? ..."yesssssss". BUT, it was solved in the worst Ileni reaction of like, "I'm so shocked this is what the empire does even though everyone I've met that hasn't been part of the empire (and some who are) have told me the empire is evil. STAGED GASP." So yes, but it wasn't a satisfying reveal.
My final thoughts are, I'm glad I read the sequel just to have some sort of resolution to the first book, but I would not go out of my way to recommend this duology to anyone.
Happy reading!
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