Review by NetMassimo -- We are Voulhire: Someone Else's End
Posted: 07 Mar 2021, 10:22
[Following is a volunteer review of "We are Voulhire: Someone Else's End" by Matthew Tysz.]
We are Voulhire: Someone Else's End by Matthew Tysz is the third book of a fantasy saga and follows We are Voulhire: The Fires of Virko. After the events in Virko, Galen and his friend travel to Voulhire's capital city, Soulhire, to obtain an audience with King Wilhelm. However, His Majesty's attention is focused on the problem of refugees coming from the Land of the Princes. The situation gets more complicated when Soulhire comes under attack from multiple enemies.
This saga is a big story divided into a number of books, and you need to start from the first one. It has some typical elements of fantasy stories with a medieval flavor, magic, and creatures of various types. Matthew Tysz adds elements that are a bit different, closer to our world: in this book, it's a refugee crisis with a contrast of opinions within Voulhire between those who think they should help the refugees and those who consider them parasites coming to steal Voulhire's resources.
The refugee crisis is just one of the reasons for unrest. Old and new threats seem ready to strike in a book that expands that fictional world adding new characters who turn out to be significant for the plot. There are also new developments about the protagonists already present in the previous books. A greater use of the first person for Galen's point of view offers new insights about him.
We also discover more about Meldorath's plans. He's the main villain, and Matthew Tysz is slowly developing his character, with his backstory as well. I'm appreciating the choice of revealing all of that slowly because the author is offering some surprises connected to him in each book.
A lot happens in this book, and Matthew Tysz shows again his skills. He makes great use of details to describe the characters' actions, moods, feelings, and emotions. He also uses details to offer information about the various threats to Voulhire and some characters' agendas without resorting to exposition and infodump.
Despite the number of events, this novel is really short, under 200 pages. I understand it's the shortest of the whole series. After reading the first two books, it was easy to get back into its setting, still I felt I barely had the time to meet its characters again that it was over! I tried reading it slowly, like when I eat slowly a dish I like so that I can savor it. In this book's case, the "portion" was small. Matthew Tysz is focusing the books on specific parts of the big story, so I understand why some of them are particularly short but it's something I don't like. It's a very personal opinion, as I prefer longer books. If you share my opinion, my recommendation is to read at least two books of this saga together.
There are a few mild sexual references, while you can find non-borderline profanity throughout the novel, but it's all stuff that an average teenager hears every day. For this reason, I think this saga is suitable for teenagers who want to read a complex story. However, some gruesome moments might upset readers who are sensitive to gore. In We are Voulhire: Someone Else's End, Matthew Tysz continues a great development of this saga. This novel is exceptionally well edited, as I found no errors at all, so I'm happy to rate it 4 out of 4 stars. If you want to read a fantasy saga set in a world full of magic, I recommend this one.
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We are Voulhire: Someone Else's End
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
We are Voulhire: Someone Else's End by Matthew Tysz is the third book of a fantasy saga and follows We are Voulhire: The Fires of Virko. After the events in Virko, Galen and his friend travel to Voulhire's capital city, Soulhire, to obtain an audience with King Wilhelm. However, His Majesty's attention is focused on the problem of refugees coming from the Land of the Princes. The situation gets more complicated when Soulhire comes under attack from multiple enemies.
This saga is a big story divided into a number of books, and you need to start from the first one. It has some typical elements of fantasy stories with a medieval flavor, magic, and creatures of various types. Matthew Tysz adds elements that are a bit different, closer to our world: in this book, it's a refugee crisis with a contrast of opinions within Voulhire between those who think they should help the refugees and those who consider them parasites coming to steal Voulhire's resources.
The refugee crisis is just one of the reasons for unrest. Old and new threats seem ready to strike in a book that expands that fictional world adding new characters who turn out to be significant for the plot. There are also new developments about the protagonists already present in the previous books. A greater use of the first person for Galen's point of view offers new insights about him.
We also discover more about Meldorath's plans. He's the main villain, and Matthew Tysz is slowly developing his character, with his backstory as well. I'm appreciating the choice of revealing all of that slowly because the author is offering some surprises connected to him in each book.
A lot happens in this book, and Matthew Tysz shows again his skills. He makes great use of details to describe the characters' actions, moods, feelings, and emotions. He also uses details to offer information about the various threats to Voulhire and some characters' agendas without resorting to exposition and infodump.
Despite the number of events, this novel is really short, under 200 pages. I understand it's the shortest of the whole series. After reading the first two books, it was easy to get back into its setting, still I felt I barely had the time to meet its characters again that it was over! I tried reading it slowly, like when I eat slowly a dish I like so that I can savor it. In this book's case, the "portion" was small. Matthew Tysz is focusing the books on specific parts of the big story, so I understand why some of them are particularly short but it's something I don't like. It's a very personal opinion, as I prefer longer books. If you share my opinion, my recommendation is to read at least two books of this saga together.
There are a few mild sexual references, while you can find non-borderline profanity throughout the novel, but it's all stuff that an average teenager hears every day. For this reason, I think this saga is suitable for teenagers who want to read a complex story. However, some gruesome moments might upset readers who are sensitive to gore. In We are Voulhire: Someone Else's End, Matthew Tysz continues a great development of this saga. This novel is exceptionally well edited, as I found no errors at all, so I'm happy to rate it 4 out of 4 stars. If you want to read a fantasy saga set in a world full of magic, I recommend this one.
******
We are Voulhire: Someone Else's End
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
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