Reviews

3.5 stars.

This novel is from the League of Legends universe, which if you don't know, is a really popular MOBA computer game. It's a little hard for me to judge the book because I am very familiar with League of Legends -- I used to play it obsessively, then I played Teamfight Tactics which is a kind of spin-off game, then I also played Ruined King, which is an RPG that is related to the very events in this novel. I've also watched the very excellent animation, Arcane on Netflix (which is unrelated to this story, for the most part, as it takes place in a different time, in a different part of the world). What I'm trying to say is, I'm already a bit of a fangirl. So, I know the characters, I know the story already. I know everything that was going to happen, though the novel of course filled in many more details. This book has to do with the Ruination, how the Blessed Isle in the game became the Shadow Isles. So, yeah, nothing in this book really surprised me, but that's not really the book's fault; I'm just already intimately familiar with the lore of this world.

You can definitely read this as a stand-alone fantasy novel without knowing a single thing about League of Legends. I think it stands well on its own. It's just hard for me to judge the plot and characters in an unbiased way because I also know it from the games/other media. The writing is decent and it's plotted and paced all right as well. I did find the middle portion felt like it dragged a bit, but overall, I enjoyed the book.

aaloo's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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