Review: An Heir to Thorns and Steel

An Heir to Thorns and Steel by M.C.A. Hogarth
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I gave this up at 65%, because I just wasn't up for the cruelty.

I'll be honest: one reason I bought it was because of a review on Amazon by someone who really disliked how the main character had to deal with his chronic illness day after day after day. Well, that's how chronic illness works. It's hard, every day. And if that had been the only, or even the main, source of suffering in the book, I think I would have enjoyed the story. It's a fresh world; the editing is good (just one homonym error: "dowsing" for "dousing"); I liked the characters. There's not enough representation of disability in fiction, and I cheer on anyone who attempts it.

Unfortunately, there's another enormous source of suffering: the cruelty of the elves. Now, I can cope with books that have cruel antagonists, as long as the author doesn't linger over descriptions of the cruelty. A quick sketch will do to establish that they're cruel and that my sympathies will be against them. I don't need the details.

This author lingers over the cruelty, and so I bailed out. It's a pity, because everything else was working for me.

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