2.5/5 ROUNDED UP FOR AMBITIONAn overly cumbersome book which is too much work to enjoy (for me right now), let alone complete.Nice maps, but no character glossary. The first 100 pages: stuffed chock full of side characters, three main characters, floating points of view, a dozen cities on two continents, religion, politics, family bloodline, magic systems, history lessons and made up mash up vocabulary, blending Spanish, Indian, Italian, medieval, and middle eastern notes.Not for me. Pretty good, and kind of part adult, part young adult in tone. I will pass. Recommended with reservations to serious fantasy readers only. DNF - July 20142.5/5MH Overall I enjoyed this book. The main viewpoint characters seemed varied and well-established.The world, overall, was well-built. The excerpts that headed each chapter helped to flesh out the world and the concept of the gnosis was one I found interesting, especially the notion of varying levels of blood purity.That being said, aspects of the world, especially the religious ones, appear to be heavily borrowed from existing religions with a few tweaks of terminology. (Satan -> Shaitan for example). The renaming of months seems done just for the sake of a fantasy feel, but when the terms have an obvious route back to the contemporary terms they are adapted from I couldn't help but feel as if these aspects of the world building were a little half-done.Other than that I found the book as a whole was an enjoyable read, I will probably be picking up the second in the series at some point in future.
Do You like book Ein Sturm Zieht Auf (2012)?
On hold.It's not bad and well executed, but not that original.
—JasperTear
So far, mesmerizing. I don't want it to finish!
—skyrunner21
Good effort just did not hit the mark.
—leah
awesome! ,cannot wait for next book.
—hiluhriehope
