Finnikin of the Rock (Lumatere Chronicles, #1) in SOS: Serious Overload of Series

Nov 16, 2009 Samantha rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: not-for-me, 2010

This was supposed to be a really great book for someone like me…really it was. Unfortunately reality changed that and I ended up being very disappointed. Finnikin is a refugee from his home country which experienced a bloody coup where the entire royal family was killed and most of the citizens where inexplicably cursed and unable to reenter their homeland. They are left to wander from country to country, hoping beyond hope to return home, but settling for what they have in the moment (which isn This was supposed to be a really great book for someone like me…really it was. Unfortunately reality changed that and I ended up being very disappointed. Finnikin is a refugee from his home country which experienced a bloody coup where the entire royal family was killed and most of the citizens where inexplicably cursed and unable to reenter their homeland. They are left to wander from country to country, hoping beyond hope to return home, but settling for what they have in the moment (which isn't much). Finnikin, the son of the imprisoned Captain of the Guard, travels with the beaten country's First Man. They follow a lead to a young novice named Evanjalin whose promises something they'd long given up on. As they make treacherous journeys they with discover the truths they've been waiting a long time to find.

First, I didn't like the characters. Second, I didn't care for the fact that 4/5 of the story is them traveling, but never really discovering much about themselves or anything else for that matter (don't get me wrong, things happen, but that's it, plot points). These characters have been kept from going to their beloved country, have seen every kind of cruelty done to their people, but when they find a child of their country that doesn't remember any of the good things about home or even it's language, they are cruel to him (not that he's not cruel to them, but that's beside the point for a moment. This is just one quote from how they treat him, the boy says at one point:

"Froi liked the priest-king because he treated him like he was as important as everyone else and when he taught him words in Lumatere he didn't laugh at the way he said them. He just showed him the right way."

Something that simple, that subtle, shows you how these people treat each other throughout the whole book. I don't think everyone has to be nice to each other, but given the background of these characters it didn't endear me to their plight.

This is another quote describing another character that doesn't make me root for them:

"And Princess Isaboe? Used to tell everyone that she could mend her cat's broken limbs, which she could, of course. But no one knew she'd break them first."

Overall very disappointing and it could have been so much more. ...more

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Feb 24, 2012 Logan rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: 2014-books-read, young-adult, own-bought-ebook, fantasy, book-club

I didn't really know what to rate this book. On the one hand, I appreciated the journey these characters had to travel. The world was interesting, with its rich history and mysterious curse. There was a lot of action. All good things.

On the other hand, I didn't really care about the characters as much as I cared about what would happen. I actively hated at least two characters - Evanjalin and Froi. Evanjalin (whose identity I guessed early on) was just awful, and treated everyone like little che ...more

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