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Ruins of Change
The Sword.Kina Ukiel enjoys a life that few would dare to brave. She's found her home amidst crumbling ruins, delving into their mysteries with little more than stories for guidance. Protected by mercenaries and tasked only with finding lost treasures, Kina has begun exploring the truths lost to history.Her latest adventure however turns up a strange sword which has been long lost since the time of Gods and Magic - an event in which the gods themselves waged war upon each other. A sword of such power is no small treasure and Kina finds herself contending with her former allies, an angered duke and the power of the gods themselves.With Kina's world rapidly changing, she's forced to face not only the dangers that she has returned to the world, but perhaps rediscover who she is.
- GenresFantasy
212 pages, Paperback
First published June 17, 2011
10 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 4, 2019
This book was...okay. It certainly wasn’t the best I’ve read, but it wasn’t the worst, either.
I felt like the writing devolved as the story continued. More grammatical errors, less time to explore situations or settings, that sort of thing. The book itself felt rushed and many of the characters felt shallow. Daven, for example, was terrible. Total f-boy. Lyle was the one character I truly enjoyed, although he reacted painfully unrealistically to his brother’s death. Kina’s backstory was interesting but I didn’t enjoy her as a character.
The element of the gods was interesting. Many fantasy stories avoid such a religion-focused perspective so I found this to be unique. I wish the gods had been explored a little more - perhaps establishing major gods on both sides instead of just one, or including more lore. Also, Kina’s understanding of the old gods should have been far more patchy if she picked this sort of taboo info up from random travelers speaking from rumors.
The one thing that bothered me throughout this story was the sword’s spell. Why did it only give her fox ears and a tail? The tail was utterly useless. An argument could be made for the ears since her hearing was enhanced, but when she breaks the enchantment, her ears disappear but the hearing remains. So why the altered features? Not to mention that the way to break the spell was to crack the gem in the sword. The Duke did that presumably by accident - and to be honest, one of my first ideas was to hit it with a rock or something, see what happened. Also, why a fox? The sword was buried with someone presumed to be a great and powerful king. Since people of power in this universe are usually warlords, how could being a fox as opposed to a bear or even elk or something help him? The given qualities are also far too helpful for Kina’s life specifically, not any other sort of lifestyle. After all, she needs to be able to see in the dark in the tombs, and keen hearing helped her hear enemies approaching.
Overall, things felt rushed and some stuff just fell into place too conveniently. At the end of the day, though, this wasn’t terrible to read, and it’s a fast read in any case.
I felt like the writing devolved as the story continued. More grammatical errors, less time to explore situations or settings, that sort of thing. The book itself felt rushed and many of the characters felt shallow. Daven, for example, was terrible. Total f-boy. Lyle was the one character I truly enjoyed, although he reacted painfully unrealistically to his brother’s death. Kina’s backstory was interesting but I didn’t enjoy her as a character.
The element of the gods was interesting. Many fantasy stories avoid such a religion-focused perspective so I found this to be unique. I wish the gods had been explored a little more - perhaps establishing major gods on both sides instead of just one, or including more lore. Also, Kina’s understanding of the old gods should have been far more patchy if she picked this sort of taboo info up from random travelers speaking from rumors.
The one thing that bothered me throughout this story was the sword’s spell. Why did it only give her fox ears and a tail? The tail was utterly useless. An argument could be made for the ears since her hearing was enhanced, but when she breaks the enchantment, her ears disappear but the hearing remains. So why the altered features? Not to mention that the way to break the spell was to crack the gem in the sword. The Duke did that presumably by accident - and to be honest, one of my first ideas was to hit it with a rock or something, see what happened. Also, why a fox? The sword was buried with someone presumed to be a great and powerful king. Since people of power in this universe are usually warlords, how could being a fox as opposed to a bear or even elk or something help him? The given qualities are also far too helpful for Kina’s life specifically, not any other sort of lifestyle. After all, she needs to be able to see in the dark in the tombs, and keen hearing helped her hear enemies approaching.
Overall, things felt rushed and some stuff just fell into place too conveniently. At the end of the day, though, this wasn’t terrible to read, and it’s a fast read in any case.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 24, 2015
Plot - good. Characters - good. World - good. But so much more could've been done. This felt like the bare bones. A first draft. Something needed to be beefed up, explored, explained. Others should've been cut since it made no sense.
So much potential, so poorly done.
I gave it two stars for the potential.
So much potential, so poorly done.
I gave it two stars for the potential.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews