Review by Eade38 -- We are Voulhire: The Fires of Virko
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Eade38
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- Latest Review: We are Voulhire: The Fires of Virko by Matthew Tysz
Review by Eade38 -- We are Voulhire: The Fires of Virko
[Following is a volunteer review of "We are Voulhire: The Fires of Virko" by Matthew Tysz.]
The Fires of Virko is the second book of the We are Voulhire series by Matthew Tysz. We start where we ended, with our main character Galen, who this time, along with his loyal friends, travels to Virko, in a hope to obtain some material for his forge. Virko is fast-progressing industrial city, which is on the verge of breaking out of the feudal system of the kingdom, and entering the capitalism. But our heroes soon find out that this prosperous city hides the unimaginable darkness that could destroy not only the city’s ambitious plans, but also threaten the future of all Voulhire.
We moved from the first book and its small seaport town of Hillport, to Virko, the most advanced city of the kingdom. I am glad that the author fully embraced Virko’s gothic, slightly steam punk atmosphere, as the whole darkness of this city hanged all over this book. Even when we were outside of Virko, you could feel a lurking threat, which made the reading much more interesting.
As in the previous book, we could see the points of view of various characters. We maintained some old ones, like Galen or Meldorath, but at the same time gained a few more. We could see through the eyes of Kayden, one of the few remaining lords of Virko, who is trying to let go of the ghost of the past. Or even Eidodi, the head of the church, who is looking for a new way to look at the religion in this fast-changing world. Matthew Tysz has a great talent to introduce the new character, with interesting and appealing story, that will at the end of the book result in dramatic and heartbreaking end. If you thought that the end of the first book was sad, it is nothing compared to this one.
What was bothering me in this book was the usage of the slang and modern words. The problem wasn’t only with Rowan’s, let’s say, youthful vocabulary like ´Mr Social Butterfly´, but also with words that did not make any sense in the context of medieval kingdom such as Voulhire. For example, in one instance, the word ´fascism´ was used. This kind of word is strongly tied with our world and history and can’t be used in fantasy world. This probably won’t bother many people, but it sure bothered me.
The one thing that worsened in comparison to the previous book was editing. There were many grammatical errors, not only in sentence structure, but also in the meaning of words. Author wanted to use more uncommon words, but, sadly, some of them have different connotation and did not click with the rest of the sentence. Many vulgar words were used and although there were no explicit sexual scenes, the book included a few mentions of rape.
In conclusion, the book fulfilled my enormous expectations that I had. The Fires of Virko was a ride full of action and unexpected twists, and I liked it even more than the first one. If you are a fantasy lover and if you liked the first book, this one won’t disappoint you. Sadly, because of the grammatical errors, I can’t give this book the full rating, so I am giving it 3 out of 4 stars. I can’t wait to read the third one!
******
We are Voulhire: The Fires of Virko
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
The Fires of Virko is the second book of the We are Voulhire series by Matthew Tysz. We start where we ended, with our main character Galen, who this time, along with his loyal friends, travels to Virko, in a hope to obtain some material for his forge. Virko is fast-progressing industrial city, which is on the verge of breaking out of the feudal system of the kingdom, and entering the capitalism. But our heroes soon find out that this prosperous city hides the unimaginable darkness that could destroy not only the city’s ambitious plans, but also threaten the future of all Voulhire.
We moved from the first book and its small seaport town of Hillport, to Virko, the most advanced city of the kingdom. I am glad that the author fully embraced Virko’s gothic, slightly steam punk atmosphere, as the whole darkness of this city hanged all over this book. Even when we were outside of Virko, you could feel a lurking threat, which made the reading much more interesting.
As in the previous book, we could see the points of view of various characters. We maintained some old ones, like Galen or Meldorath, but at the same time gained a few more. We could see through the eyes of Kayden, one of the few remaining lords of Virko, who is trying to let go of the ghost of the past. Or even Eidodi, the head of the church, who is looking for a new way to look at the religion in this fast-changing world. Matthew Tysz has a great talent to introduce the new character, with interesting and appealing story, that will at the end of the book result in dramatic and heartbreaking end. If you thought that the end of the first book was sad, it is nothing compared to this one.
What was bothering me in this book was the usage of the slang and modern words. The problem wasn’t only with Rowan’s, let’s say, youthful vocabulary like ´Mr Social Butterfly´, but also with words that did not make any sense in the context of medieval kingdom such as Voulhire. For example, in one instance, the word ´fascism´ was used. This kind of word is strongly tied with our world and history and can’t be used in fantasy world. This probably won’t bother many people, but it sure bothered me.
The one thing that worsened in comparison to the previous book was editing. There were many grammatical errors, not only in sentence structure, but also in the meaning of words. Author wanted to use more uncommon words, but, sadly, some of them have different connotation and did not click with the rest of the sentence. Many vulgar words were used and although there were no explicit sexual scenes, the book included a few mentions of rape.
In conclusion, the book fulfilled my enormous expectations that I had. The Fires of Virko was a ride full of action and unexpected twists, and I liked it even more than the first one. If you are a fantasy lover and if you liked the first book, this one won’t disappoint you. Sadly, because of the grammatical errors, I can’t give this book the full rating, so I am giving it 3 out of 4 stars. I can’t wait to read the third one!
******
We are Voulhire: The Fires of Virko
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Latest Review: We are Voulhire: The Fires of Virko by Matthew Tysz
