The Ruthless (Deathless Series, book 2)

By Peter Newman

Blurb: 
THE REBEL.

For years, Vasin Sapphire has been waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike. Now, as other Deathless families come under constant assault from the monsters that roam the Wild, that time has come.

THE RUTHLESS.
In the floating castle of Rochant Sapphire, loyal subjects await the ceremony to return their rule to his rightful place. But the child raised to give up his body to Lord Rochant is no ordinary servant. Strange ad savage, he will stop at nothing to escape his gilded prison.

AND THE RETURNED...
Far below, another child yearns to see the human world. Raised by a creature of the Wild, he knows its secrets better than any other. As he enters into the struggle between the Deathless houses, he may be the key to protecting their power or destroying it completely.

THE WILD HAS BEGUN TO RISE.

Review: 
This is the second book of the Deathless series. A series I thought was a duology but with the way the book ended it must be a trilogy. There is just nothing out there about the third book.

I will start this review by saying I liked this book better but I still feel like the series is being forcefully stretched and if done right, it could have been 2 books. I did find it better though and I’m hoping the final book also gets better. 

The begins with Pari’s rebirth. So a lot of time has moved on, about 17 years or so. This means Sa-at and Satyendra are now 17 years old, so I don’t hate their perspectives anymore. It makes sense for them to have one now. The spit Satyendra means the two are very different. Satyendra is living in the castle preparing to be Rochant’s vessel but he has a secret dark side. Whereas, Sa-at is living in the Wild and is very friendly. I like these characters.

Sticking with positives, I was glad to see more action in this book. Actual fighting took place, from fighting demons to fighting other deathless. 

Now for a negative. I’m not sure if I’ve overlooked stuff in the first book but I barely have any idea of what the characters look like. They rarely get described and I like having a full understanding on what the characters look like so I can visualise the book better. So this really disappoints me. 

Overall, like I said at the beginning I did like this book better than the first. However not by much. I decided this one is worth 3 stars because I just can’t seem to connect with the series and really get into it. There’s definitely scenes I’ve enjoyed which I’ll discuss below but the overall plot has potential to be good but for some reason it isn’t to me.

*SPOILERS*

A storyline I really liked and wished there was more of was Sa-at trying to save Rochant. Sa-at is unaware at the beginning that he is the actual vessel for Rochant, whereas it suggests Rochant knows all along and sort of reveals it at the end. I enjoyed seeing Rochant give Sa-at valuable lessons and telling stories. We didn’t see much of Rochant in the last book, just knew that he did something bad. But now we understand why he did the things he did and it’s made me appreciate his character.

Satyendra is the clear villain in this book. He portrays this smart thinking character who’d only aim is to live as he doesn’t want to die so Rochant can take his body. So you can see why he might be a bit mad. 

Satyendra tries to escape but because of his dark thoughts his urges take over and he attempts to kill Pik (a boy he doesn’t like). He ends up getting caught by his mother and she sends him to the rebirth chamber. However, since they’re unaware that Rochant is still alive the rebirth fails. Satyendra pretends to be Rochant. I enjoyed this part too.

We discover though that Satyendra isn’t as strong as he looks. He cries like a little baby when Vasin gets his hands on him, as he failed to fool all of the deathless. Vasin uses his pretending in order to become High Lord. 

A scene I didn’t enjoy was the joint suicie of Varg and Chandni. Chandni is told by Satyendra (while he is pretending to be Rochant) to sacrifice herself in the wild for her crimes committed. Varg finds out and knows he has no chance of persuading Chandni to not do it, so instead does it with her. To make matters worse, her real son Sa-at was there and saw it unaware of who she was. But he knew inside that he knew her. I think because of Chandni’s character development, it would make more sense for her to runaway with Varg instead. I’m normally a fan of main character deaths but I don’t like this one.

Overall, I’m glad I continued reading as the second book was better but this series is definitely not one of my favourites. I will continue to read it through, when we eventually hear about the third book. I refuse to accept this is a duology is the ending was so incomplete.

Rating: 3 runes out of 5

written by Lauren

The Ruthless (Deathless Series, book 2)

By Peter Newman

Blurb: 
THE REBEL.

For years, Vasin Sapphire has been waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike. Now, as other Deathless families come under constant assault from the monsters that roam the Wild, that time has come.

THE RUTHLESS.
In the floating castle of Rochant Sapphire, loyal subjects await the ceremony to return their rule to his rightful place. But the child raised to give up his body to Lord Rochant is no ordinary servant. Strange ad savage, he will stop at nothing to escape his gilded prison.

AND THE RETURNED...
Far below, another child yearns to see the human world. Raised by a creature of the Wild, he knows its secrets better than any other. As he enters into the struggle between the Deathless houses, he may be the key to protecting their power or destroying it completely.

THE WILD HAS BEGUN TO RISE.

Review: 
This is the second book of the Deathless series. A series I thought was a duology but with the way the book ended it must be a trilogy. There is just nothing out there about the third book.

I will start this review by saying I liked this book better but I still feel like the series is being forcefully stretched and if done right, it could have been 2 books. I did find it better though and I’m hoping the final book also gets better. 

The begins with Pari’s rebirth. So a lot of time has moved on, about 17 years or so. This means Sa-at and Satyendra are now 17 years old, so I don’t hate their perspectives anymore. It makes sense for them to have one now. The spit Satyendra means the two are very different. Satyendra is living in the castle preparing to be Rochant’s vessel but he has a secret dark side. Whereas, Sa-at is living in the Wild and is very friendly. I like these characters.

Sticking with positives, I was glad to see more action in this book. Actual fighting took place, from fighting demons to fighting other deathless. 

Now for a negative. I’m not sure if I’ve overlooked stuff in the first book but I barely have any idea of what the characters look like. They rarely get described and I like having a full understanding on what the characters look like so I can visualise the book better. So this really disappoints me. 

Overall, like I said at the beginning I did like this book better than the first. However not by much. I decided this one is worth 3 stars because I just can’t seem to connect with the series and really get into it. There’s definitely scenes I’ve enjoyed which I’ll discuss below but the overall plot has potential to be good but for some reason it isn’t to me.

*SPOILERS*

A storyline I really liked and wished there was more of was Sa-at trying to save Rochant. Sa-at is unaware at the beginning that he is the actual vessel for Rochant, whereas it suggests Rochant knows all along and sort of reveals it at the end. I enjoyed seeing Rochant give Sa-at valuable lessons and telling stories. We didn’t see much of Rochant in the last book, just knew that he did something bad. But now we understand why he did the things he did and it’s made me appreciate his character.

Satyendra is the clear villain in this book. He portrays this smart thinking character who’d only aim is to live as he doesn’t want to die so Rochant can take his body. So you can see why he might be a bit mad. 

Satyendra tries to escape but because of his dark thoughts his urges take over and he attempts to kill Pik (a boy he doesn’t like). He ends up getting caught by his mother and she sends him to the rebirth chamber. However, since they’re unaware that Rochant is still alive the rebirth fails. Satyendra pretends to be Rochant. I enjoyed this part too.

We discover though that Satyendra isn’t as strong as he looks. He cries like a little baby when Vasin gets his hands on him, as he failed to fool all of the deathless. Vasin uses his pretending in order to become High Lord. 

A scene I didn’t enjoy was the joint suicie of Varg and Chandni. Chandni is told by Satyendra (while he is pretending to be Rochant) to sacrifice herself in the wild for her crimes committed. Varg finds out and knows he has no chance of persuading Chandni to not do it, so instead does it with her. To make matters worse, her real son Sa-at was there and saw it unaware of who she was. But he knew inside that he knew her. I think because of Chandni’s character development, it would make more sense for her to runaway with Varg instead. I’m normally a fan of main character deaths but I don’t like this one.

Overall, I’m glad I continued reading as the second book was better but this series is definitely not one of my favourites. I will continue to read it through, when we eventually hear about the third book. I refuse to accept this is a duology is the ending was so incomplete.

Rating: 3 runes out of 5

written by Lauren

The Deathless (Deathless Series, book 1)

By Peter Newman

Blurb: 
From one of fantasy’s biggest recent breakthrough authors comes an exciting, brand new series.

The demons…

In the endless forests of the Wild, humanity scratches a living by the side of the great Godroads, paths of crystal that provide safe passage and hold back the infernal tide. Creatures lurk within the trees, watching, and plucking those who stray too far from safety.

The Deathless…

In crystal castles held aloft on magical currents, seven timeless royal families reign, protecting humanity from the spread of the Wild and its demons. Born and reborn into flawless bodies, the Deathless are as immortal as the precious stones from which they take their names. For generations a fragile balance has held.

And the damned…

House Sapphire, one of the ancient Deathless families, is riven by suspicion and madness. Whole villages are disappearing as the hunting expeditions holding the Wild at bay begin to fail.

Then, when assassins strike, House Sapphire shatters.

Nothing lasts forever.

The Deathless is the first novel in an astonishing new series from Gemmell award-winning author Peter Newman.

Review: 
This book was probably the hardest book I’ve ever tried to review. Some moments were good and I wanted to rate it 3 or 4 stars and then others were really bad which made me want to rate it 1. When I finished the book, I made the realisation that I wouldn’t want to reread it in the future, so that made me settle with 2.5 stars. It wasn’t the worst book but some scenes I really didn’t enjoy. I’ll now explain what I did and didn’t like about this book.

When I first started reading the book, I was instantly in love with the writing style. I liked how it flowed, it was descriptive but not unnecessary descriptive. The book dove straight into the story so this made it nice and fast paced. I couldn’t fault the way it was written, except for the occasional dialogue was lacking the same niceties.

Something I didn’t like about the book was the chapter sizes. They were so long. I think each chapter basically would show each main characters perspective at least once in it. I think the perspectives should have been separate chapters, they were big enough as they were.

The main characters were Vasin one of the deathless, Pari another deathless, Chandni an honoured mother and Chandni’s baby Satyendra. I enjoyed Chandi’s storyline the most, I liked her character the best. The worst perspective which really changed my appreciation for the book was Satyendra’s. He was a tiny baby that couldn’t even talk yet. It was just not something I wanted in the book, it wouldn’t have been so bad if the author didn’t include what the baby was thinking. Knowing the baby's thoughts is what made it weird. I don’t know, I just didn’t like it and it put me off the book everytime it happened.

The main plot was that Vasin was trying to kill off Rochant’s (another deathless) vessels so he couldn’t come back from the dead, so he could make his mother a deathless again. Chandni’s baby, Satyendra was one of the vessels that was trying to survive. Pari was trying to help Chandni. So the book shows us all of these different aspects of the story. Which I quite liked but sometimes it could be a bit confusing. Satyendra’s storyline was very confusing, he kind of split into two babies, one being chased by demons and the other sticking with Chandni.

Speaking of confusion, the families in this series confused me. There are 5 family houses which takes to 50% of the book to get the full list. Some houses have more power than others. The Sapphire family tree was really confusing and I’m pretty sure each family was interbred.

Something that did annoy me about the writing style was the way animals were addressed. All of the animals had kin on the end of their name for no reason as I could see. Such as dogkin, slugkin etc. Just not necessary. It wasn’t till near the end of the book that I realised the dogs were half human but it wasn’t explained well enough before. Does that mean all animals are half human and that's why they have kin on the end? It was annoying to me.

*SPOILERS*

There was some good twists in the book. One I like was when Fiya, a person who lived in the trees of the wild who helped Chandni then unexpectedly betrayed her and her companions and tried to trap them in a hole. This was made further interesting when Chandni killed Fiya.

A twist I didn’t like was Devdan’s attempt to strangle the baby, it’s a bit brutal to be honest to read about. I know he couldn’t spill blood but to strangle a baby is a bit off putting to read. The baby survived but not the point really.

Another twist I did like was when Pari was about to face Vasin in a fight, but she was so tired she pretty much asked for a time out to catch her breath. However, I did expect the fight to happen later but it didn’t. Vasin just easily gave in and Pari managed to persuade his mother with a new plan to defeat Rochant. Like it was cool seeing Pari turn on him because she found out Vasin’s mother also had an affair with him but it was done in such an anti-climatic way. It was clearly just purely a set up for the next book.

Overall, I think I could have rated this book 3 stars because of the writing style and the overall plot but due to the baby perspective and the terrible ending, I have to settle with 2.5 stars. The next book is rated higher than the first on goodreads, so maybe I’ll enjoy that one better, I will let you’s know.

Rating: 2.5 runes out of 5

written by Lauren

Check out my review of Book 2: The Ruthless

The Deathless (Deathless Series, book 1)

By Peter Newman

Blurb: 
From one of fantasy’s biggest recent breakthrough authors comes an exciting, brand new series.

The demons…

In the endless forests of the Wild, humanity scratches a living by the side of the great Godroads, paths of crystal that provide safe passage and hold back the infernal tide. Creatures lurk within the trees, watching, and plucking those who stray too far from safety.

The Deathless…

In crystal castles held aloft on magical currents, seven timeless royal families reign, protecting humanity from the spread of the Wild and its demons. Born and reborn into flawless bodies, the Deathless are as immortal as the precious stones from which they take their names. For generations a fragile balance has held.

And the damned…

House Sapphire, one of the ancient Deathless families, is riven by suspicion and madness. Whole villages are disappearing as the hunting expeditions holding the Wild at bay begin to fail.

Then, when assassins strike, House Sapphire shatters.

Nothing lasts forever.

The Deathless is the first novel in an astonishing new series from Gemmell award-winning author Peter Newman.

Review: 
This book was probably the hardest book I’ve ever tried to review. Some moments were good and I wanted to rate it 3 or 4 stars and then others were really bad which made me want to rate it 1. When I finished the book, I made the realisation that I wouldn’t want to reread it in the future, so that made me settle with 2.5 stars. It wasn’t the worst book but some scenes I really didn’t enjoy. I’ll now explain what I did and didn’t like about this book.

When I first started reading the book, I was instantly in love with the writing style. I liked how it flowed, it was descriptive but not unnecessary descriptive. The book dove straight into the story so this made it nice and fast paced. I couldn’t fault the way it was written, except for the occasional dialogue was lacking the same niceties.

Something I didn’t like about the book was the chapter sizes. They were so long. I think each chapter basically would show each main characters perspective at least once in it. I think the perspectives should have been separate chapters, they were big enough as they were.

The main characters were Vasin one of the deathless, Pari another deathless, Chandni an honoured mother and Chandni’s baby Satyendra. I enjoyed Chandi’s storyline the most, I liked her character the best. The worst perspective which really changed my appreciation for the book was Satyendra’s. He was a tiny baby that couldn’t even talk yet. It was just not something I wanted in the book, it wouldn’t have been so bad if the author didn’t include what the baby was thinking. Knowing the baby's thoughts is what made it weird. I don’t know, I just didn’t like it and it put me off the book everytime it happened.

The main plot was that Vasin was trying to kill off Rochant’s (another deathless) vessels so he couldn’t come back from the dead, so he could make his mother a deathless again. Chandni’s baby, Satyendra was one of the vessels that was trying to survive. Pari was trying to help Chandni. So the book shows us all of these different aspects of the story. Which I quite liked but sometimes it could be a bit confusing. Satyendra’s storyline was very confusing, he kind of split into two babies, one being chased by demons and the other sticking with Chandni.

Speaking of confusion, the families in this series confused me. There are 5 family houses which takes to 50% of the book to get the full list. Some houses have more power than others. The Sapphire family tree was really confusing and I’m pretty sure each family was interbred.

Something that did annoy me about the writing style was the way animals were addressed. All of the animals had kin on the end of their name for no reason as I could see. Such as dogkin, slugkin etc. Just not necessary. It wasn’t till near the end of the book that I realised the dogs were half human but it wasn’t explained well enough before. Does that mean all animals are half human and that's why they have kin on the end? It was annoying to me.

*SPOILERS*

There was some good twists in the book. One I like was when Fiya, a person who lived in the trees of the wild who helped Chandni then unexpectedly betrayed her and her companions and tried to trap them in a hole. This was made further interesting when Chandni killed Fiya.

A twist I didn’t like was Devdan’s attempt to strangle the baby, it’s a bit brutal to be honest to read about. I know he couldn’t spill blood but to strangle a baby is a bit off putting to read. The baby survived but not the point really.

Another twist I did like was when Pari was about to face Vasin in a fight, but she was so tired she pretty much asked for a time out to catch her breath. However, I did expect the fight to happen later but it didn’t. Vasin just easily gave in and Pari managed to persuade his mother with a new plan to defeat Rochant. Like it was cool seeing Pari turn on him because she found out Vasin’s mother also had an affair with him but it was done in such an anti-climatic way. It was clearly just purely a set up for the next book.

Overall, I think I could have rated this book 3 stars because of the writing style and the overall plot but due to the baby perspective and the terrible ending, I have to settle with 2.5 stars. The next book is rated higher than the first on goodreads, so maybe I’ll enjoy that one better, I will let you’s know.

Rating: 2.5 runes out of 5

written by Lauren

Check out my review of Book 2: The Ruthless