Five Broken Blades by Mai Corland // RANT REVIEW

I read Five Broken Blades and had a bunch of thoughts that I needed to rant about...

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0:00 Introduction
1:42 The plot and storytelling
3:28 The writing
5:49 The characters
9:11 The romance and relationships
12:07 The language
13:25 My rating
14:50 The marketing
16:30 My reading experience

[organickaleslaw]

I've had a real problem with Red Tower books recently. Beautiful edges, beautiful covers, interesting plots, but there's an overall lack of quality in the writing and plot. Very straightforward or lacking. This extends to Fourth Wing as well

[ZephusVargr]

I did notice how awkward the writing is, it feels like a bunch of couples playing D&D kinda threw together a back story and they're awkwardly roleplaying. This book feels like you're reading a movie with how fast paced it is and the fact that every short chapter is a different perspective. I actually like that. The audiobook is interesting too, having a different narrator for each character. For how unique it is, I easily feel justified for purchasing and reading it. I agree with the sentiment of hoping the writing improves as the books release, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

[jo_helaci]

From another Swede: thanks for a great review. It's a pity a lot of new fantasy is so poor when it comes to worldbuilding and language.

[sunwooscloud]

love your review. im a sucker for beautiful covers but im more of a sucker for good writing. i didn't even get past the first chapter of fourth wing cuz of its writing. glad i came across your review before buying the book, I'll now weigh between the sprayed edges and the writing if whichever is more worth it in my limited budget 🤣

[muriellelemaire]

It’s interesting, I read this back in May when it came to Book of the Month, and I wasn’t bothered by a lot of the bad writing because the story drove forward for me. I also think the use of the multiple POVs kept me ‘distracted.’ I did feel things were pretty obvious, but it was entertaining and I liked the political power play aspects (somewhat reminiscent of GoT)

[HungryEyes-slmu]

Thanks for your review, I've seen this book pop up everywhere and was definitely enticed by the pretty sprayed edges, but no one has given it a solid review (and I don't trust BookTok). This sounds like a good airplane read, but not something I need to rush out and buy, when it comes to fantasy strong worldbuilding and dynamic characters are a must, and this feels too Fourth Wing adjacent😬

[MoonStone_Empress]

I really thought it was just the voice actors for the audiobook. I'm about halfway through chapter 7 and this is the chapter that has killed any hope I had for this book.

[gabz]

I made it through 64% of this and quit. So disappointed to see that what could have been an engaging story was just another mish-mash of tropes made to sell something to an unwitting audience. I'm disappointed in how hard it is to find good fantasy these days while wading through this unedited garbage. The first 40% was nothing but the characters being horny for each other, and could have been cut with no impact to the story.

[Korrale]

This book is so thirsty. Lol. It was a quick romp. But it felt very YA. Not adult. And it was also barely fantasy. And a far cry from epic fantasy. If the publishers were marketing it as fantasy that is the issue. This kind of book has a market. It falls in the Hunger Games, Throne of Glass, Twilight market.