Title: With a Golden Sword
Author: Rachel Aaron
Series: DFZ Changelings #2
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Rating: 1.5/5 stars
The Overview: Standing up to Victor was only the beginning. Three weeks ago, Lola put her soul on the line to save her sister and stop an abusive blood mage from making himself a god. But while she managed to derail the worst of Victor’s plans, the rest of the world still sees her old master as the hero. To make matters worse, the Nightmare King Alberich has entirely escaped his prison and is now leading the Wild Hunt on a rampage of fear and chaos across the skies of Europe. With Alberich playing the villain, it’s only a matter of time before Victor convinces all of humanity that his abusive magic is their only hope. Lola’s not about to let him get his dirty hands on that kind of power. But while she’s free to fight him, Simon and the Black Rider are still trapped under the blood mage’s boot. Lola will have to break them both out before she can take Victor down, but her former master’s plans are far from finished. He’s playing a game none of them can predict for a prize no one yet understands, and once all of his pieces are in place, the future of the world will hang on the edge of a golden sword. –Goodreads
The Q&A:
Did you really give With a Golden Sword a chance?
According to my Goodreads update, I read 75% of this book before throwing in the towel. No regrets. At that point I started spot-reading to the end and even skimmed through to read the final chapter of the last book! You KNOW I’m totally fed up when I do drastic things like that. I definitely wasn’t planning to revisit this later.
Have you enjoyed other books in the same genre before?
Admittedly, the fae are closely tied with angels as my least favorite supernatural creature in books. So diving in, there were already a few things working against me. And unfortunately I found the fae in here every bit as stereotypical as I’ve come to dread. But what’s surprising is that I HAD read everything by Rachel Aaron/Bach published to date (except for FFO) before reading this series, and many of her books are on my conservative shortlist of all-time favorites! Like these:
So many fun series! Aaron/Bach has been on auto-buy for years. But to be honest, her most recent books have gotten a bit long-winded and loose, especially since it has been some time now since she has worked with a trad publishing house. I think her works benefitted from being parred down a bit by editing teams. Either way, I still love her… but now there’s a bit of a thorn.
Did you have certain expectations before starting it?
Yeah, I was nervous. Even though I had a few nice things to say about the first book, I didn’t love it (2.5/5 stars). I was more or less continuing out of a sense of obligation to close out an open loop rather than because I was genuinely excited to move on (never a good reason). I blame the fae. That said, I still went in hoping for at least a mildly enjoyable experience.
What ultimately made you stop reading?
No joke, 50% of the book was of the characters standing around talking. They may as well have been talking heads in a void for how little bearing the setting had on the scenes. Then, in a burst of activity and excitement, we switched to another location… and proceeded to talk and talk again. I suppose the talk was somewhat compelling in small doses: rehashing what had happened previously, how the characters felt about what had happened previously, discussion of what to do about what’s happening now, how the characters feet about THAT. And so on. I would be really surprised if the author wrote this with clear story beats in mind. Or if she did, then either I missed them in their subtlety or she wasn’t concerned about getting to the next ones with any sense of urgency. Unfortunately for me it felt like mostly a massive waste of time.
Worth mentioning: the author has a book called “2,000 to 10,000: How to Write Faster, Write Better, and Write More of What You Love.” And so the scenes she writes like the ones I’m struggling with do feel like they were written in one long, flowing writing session with continual streams of thought. However, when something is written like that, I think it’s more difficult to go back and edit it down. Any changes would be disrupting 10000 words of flow and I imagine it’s a lot more painful to throw out that kind of word count rather than just 2000. It’s much, much easier if you’re a decent writer to just indulge yourself and keep all of the word vomit so you can continue clipping along tomorrow. If this is really what’s going on, I don’t think her writing technique is doing her any favors these days. The book needed more direction, considerably tighter pacing, and more variety of story beats.
I got so fed up waiting for the book to get to the point that I jumped ship. I was already drowning in speculation and couldn’t take it anymore.
Was there anything you liked about With a Golden Sword?
The character profiles are unconventional, creative, and really cool! I’ve never seen their like, and I especially liked how they interacted with one-another. I also have an affection for the author and her storytelling in general, so it pains me to hold this series in such low regard.
Would you read anything else by this author?
Absolutely, even though I’m a bit wary of this new era of her writing style. I have already purchased her entire Tear Down Heaven series… wish me luck.
So you DNF’d the book – would you still recommend it?
Yes. I am much pickier (crankier ::coughs::) than I used to be and sometimes a bit unfair to certain works. I could se someone else settling right into the comfort of the writing and not even noticing the lack of external workings. Also keep in mind that I am completely sick of reading about the fae (did I mention that?). Additionally, I read for novelty and emotional investment, so a straight-forward, simple, sweet plot like this where I can tell where it’s going and have too many other things lined up to have the patience to sit there and wait while it meanders its way there while I’m already annoyed is just not going to cut it. My review sounds very cynical, so I’m certain the series will work considerably better for most other readers.
Thank you to my Patrons: Dave, Katrin, Frank, Jen, Karen, Sonja, Staci, Kat, Betsy, Eliss, Mike, Elizabeth, Bee, Poochtee, Kinsey, Alysa, Derek, Kelly, Grace, Carmen, Leticia, and Leah! <3
This DNF review format was borrowed with permission from Nikki @ There Were Books Involved (who doesn’t blog anymore, but she still gets all the credit).
