Malice by John Gwynne Book Review

Thanks so much to Lezlie over at The Nerdy Narrative for the constant recommendation of this series and most importantly, for the gift of sharing a wonderfully enjoyable story. 🙏

Lezlie's Channel (The Nerdy Narrative)
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Malice Paperback
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[amusicalbookworm]

I also don’t mind fantasy tropes for the most part, it just depends on what the author does with them!

[TheNerdyNarrative]

So glad you enjoyed it! I did have a lot of trouble keeping up with the characters and learning who they are and where they're from in the beginning, but once that was established and Gwynne stopped introducing more, I got it. The story just took off after that. I can confirm the rest of the books aren't like that. Malice puts all the players on the board, Valour starts the game of chess. :)

[brettwaddingham]

Chicken soup for the soul, where your soul is the soup, the chicken is the characters, and John Gwynne holds the spoon :) Loved this book! Great review Mr. Knipp!

[dinocollins]

Totally agree! I have had to listen to the first like 10 chapters like 3 times. I should have started out with the physical book.

[bentheoverlord]

For me it was a solid 3/5 but due to the characters I will gladly continue the series. The tropes didn’t bother me too much I just found the pacing in the middle a bit flat compared to the start and the end felt a bit rushed due to that.

[matmacle]

Went down a book rabbit hole tonight looking my next read as I just finished rage of dragon looked for a review that liked it. And merphy seemed to. Then I Found her stormlight series review which is my favourite and she recommended you. Adding this to a should read list and it’s on the bubble for a pick up next! Thanks

[AmandaPelland]

I'm on my second attempt on reading Malice, the first quarter of the book I experience eyes glossing over and who's who. Also, Malice doesn't have a list of characters unlike the proceeding books in the series have. Going to try to push through and hoping I latch on too!

[onfaerystories]

I just finished that book and, I agree with pretty much everything you said. I knew the first one would be more slow-paced and just a lot of set-up, so I'm giving Valor a chance to see if I really want to go on with the series or not. I didn't fall head over heels for the characters like I did while reading Abercrombie's work (I've read the two first books in The First Law trilogy for now), but so many people told me the second one elevates Gwynne's characters and ideas in a very interesting way, and I'm all for political intrigue and loveable characters for sure! ☺️
So it's been a year and I've not seen other videos on TFATF on this channel, that's unfortunate. :/

[kaylahicks]

My copy of Malice is lurking in the background on literally all of my videos. I like more traditional fantasy, I don't mind putting in some time at the beginning of a book, I just have to be in the mood for this type of book. I think another book in this series comes out later this year. I find that with books that are harder to get into like this, if I read along with the audio I have a better time processing and remembering the information.

[TheCodeXCantina]

How do you personally define derivative vs homage? I got a sense of Game of Thrones at first with your comments on the size of the cast and bad things happen to a lot of them but then you said Chicken Soup for the Soul which made me feel like I’m not really sure what to expect. I’ve watched Lezlie’s videos on it and I feel like everyone has different take a always or at least I did from watching the reviews.

[LiteratureScienceAlliance]

I learned about it first from What Cass Read and then Britteney, and then Tatianna but yea its not a hugely popular series but a booktuber is doing a July bookclub for it. I am curious to see how I take it, I don’t have european based fantasy but I have read a lot of it and usually the rule is that I have to love the characters and writing to love it, so we shall see. Especially while I am re-reading way of kings 😂 but I don’t blanket statement despise tropes, they became tropes cause they worked. Its like how I want my boyfriend to be cheesy and get me those flowers lol is it tired? Probably but I still love it

[ChristyLuisDostoevskyinSpace]

Well shucks. Now I'm not sure if I should jump into this. Would you say the characters and worldbulding are super trope-y? Is there any sort of moral argument? Is the prose pretty or plain? Lol (These are the things I value.)

[kaberroneill]

I had the same problem with the characters. I think it is because they weren't differentiated enough. They were interchangeable. After I got more familiar with them it got easier, but it made things difficult in the beginning.

[ianpfifer]

I just read this last month too. I also have a hard time with tons of names and place names, but like you said- once you're in, you're in.
I thought it had a lot of familiar themes or tropes, but the story was pretty fresh . . . And nobody is safe 😱

[bookishburrow]

I have seen these books around so much, but everytime I hear a summary of them I immediately forget it. And when it comes to tons of characters, I have read books with a fairly small cast where I kept mixing them up. I've also read books with massive casts that I had no problems keeping straight at all. It really depends on how they are done.

[TheBookishMom]

I just picked this book up and am reading it in July with a book club :)

[BisayaReader]

So glad I discovered your channel! I am going to hunt a physical copy of Malice.

[chilliverse]

I heard it first from MikeBookReviews. I was interested at that time. But I didn't started Malice. But now that I heard it from you, I want to read it soon. Since I am reading Wheel Of Time 4(The Shadow Rising) by Robert Jordan, and Agents of Crown 3 ( Duty Bound)by Lindsay Buroker and rereading Stormlight Archive 1(The Way Of Kings) by Brandon Sanderson, I would like to start it once I finish with either Stormlight Archive 1 or Wheel of Time 4. 7 POV's with frequent shifts? Hope the chapters/scenes are at least longer. I usually hate reading Multiple POV switch with short chapters/scenes.

[DannySabraArt]

have you ever talked about how you decide what is a four star vs a five star book?

[Yesica]

I read the first one but I couldn't figure it out for anything. I can't remember anything about it. (I may have been distracted and/or stressed out. Real Life has been kicking my butt for a while now.) But I was glad to hear you say you struggled a bit as well.