2.5 rounded up

Absolutely nothing about this is novel. But it is a straightforward old-school fantasy story updated with some subversions in an otherwise predictable plot.

It is 100% boys 2 men, best friends/friends off/best friends again for the two main characters. However, if you like altruistic, moral absolutist classic fantasy, and you pick up what is being dropped in regards to the two main characters' best friends as boys, then you’ll probably like it quite a bit. For me, all of the other characters were more interesting than that. One or two, in particular, kept me reading. As much as some of the problems are overcome in a way that may defy expectations, the overarching plot is not a subversion, but an attempt to invoke classic fantasy tropes in a slightly different way. But those tropes and story beats are pretty played out for me.

Serviceable prose, good characterization, and development, granular specificity, and worldbuilding, just as you’d expect with fantasy like this. Because I prefer imparting a setting only that’s pertinent to the specific story, the 824 pages felt long and, in parts, overwritten; especially the beginning. Pacing takes a long time to get the ball rolling.

That being said it kept me reading as I found a couple of characters I liked and I was curious enough about the dangling threads to know what happens. Probably don’t care enough to read the next one, but who knows. The idea that a magic sword could unite the country against oppressors when the entire populace is too apathetic to rise up after years and years of rule, feels very Eurocentric and British to me. If the central conceit had been more interesting to me, I’m sure I’d have liked it more.