Scan barcode
A review by elijahs_bookshelf
The Split Second by Brit Stanford
3.0
I loved the first book's social worldbuilding and secondary characters; learning about the world, meeting new characters, and trying to figure out who and what to trust was very engaging! This second book had very little of that. It's probably to be expected, given its nature as a sequel, but I was still a bit disappointed by the fact. And despite not needing to take time to introduce the complex worldbuilding pre-established from the first book, the pacing was also fairly slow. The combination of these two things made the book feel sort of "hollow" in my opinion. I also felt like this was missing the prosaic moments from the first book -- there were several lines that were just *good* lines that made me stop and think in the first one, but there were much fewer of those in this one, which doesn't help its hollowness.
But despite all of these critiques, I'm still rating the book 3 stars, which is a good rating by my book...
[next part of review contains light to medium spoilers for BOOK ONE]
I'll admit I was a bit critical about the splitting of Etherwin at the end of book 1, but I think the author did an excellent job of justifying the in-world logic of the split, as well as continuing to make both characters compelling. Both Ether and Win felt like the character we knew and loved from the first book, so the way they very quickly diverge in viewpoint was very compelling. So if you're here for the character work, this book certainly won't disappoint. The magical worldbuilding has also been expanded in an interesting direction, initiating a main point of curiosity for the third book.
So in summary, I think this book suffered from being the middle in a trilogy, where so much time needed to be dedicated to characters reacting and regrouping from the revelations and climax from book 1 and preparing the narrative for the finale -- but I'm easily forgiving of a weak middle, given that I loved the first book, and I have high hopes again for the third book. Given how various worldbuilding, character work, and plot points are now set on a collision course, I think the author has set themselves up to hit a homerun with the conclusion to this series.
But despite all of these critiques, I'm still rating the book 3 stars, which is a good rating by my book...
[next part of review contains light to medium spoilers for BOOK ONE]
I'll admit I was a bit critical about the splitting of Etherwin at the end of book 1, but I think the author did an excellent job of justifying the in-world logic of the split, as well as continuing to make both characters compelling. Both Ether and Win felt like the character we knew and loved from the first book, so the way they very quickly diverge in viewpoint was very compelling. So if you're here for the character work, this book certainly won't disappoint. The magical worldbuilding has also been expanded in an interesting direction, initiating a main point of curiosity for the third book.
So in summary, I think this book suffered from being the middle in a trilogy, where so much time needed to be dedicated to characters reacting and regrouping from the revelations and climax from book 1 and preparing the narrative for the finale -- but I'm easily forgiving of a weak middle, given that I loved the first book, and I have high hopes again for the third book. Given how various worldbuilding, character work, and plot points are now set on a collision course, I think the author has set themselves up to hit a homerun with the conclusion to this series.