I was waiting for this arc to arrive on BookSirens because I loved Reforged and I’m glad that Haddon has another book! He deserves it. It felt like this had more politics and world-building than the first book – even though the first book literally follows a King. Both books are set in the same world but are standalones. If Haddon planned on writing another book in the same universe, I wouldn’t mind one bit. 

I think he really shines in his world-building. It’s his strong suit and something I can tell he enjoys. Not saying that his character and plots aren’t good – they definitely are. To me, creating and maintaining a world is what he’s best at. It’s really difficult not only to create such an immense fantasy world but to ensure that it doesn’t fall through. Or break apart in a later chapter because you didn’t build the right foundation for it. 

The plot did have standard fantasy vibes to it, if I’m being honest. There’s betrayal, there’s plans, there’s plots from both sides. Characters wonder if they can do it; what will it take etc. But I’m not complaining at all 😄. I like seeing it, and seeing it done well. I did feel Reforged’s plot was easier to understand than this one. Maybe that was because I had seen all of his posts about it – whereas I didn’t see much of Reborn’s (so that’s sort of on me). Luckily I was able to understand and follow for the rest of the book.

I liked Oren and Izra’s characters. I like soulmates as a trope and I knew from Haddon’s debut that he’s good at creating a relationship between love interests. No worries here because that certainly happened! I liked that while Izra knew immediately about Oren, Radok was able to get to know Izra first and develop a friendship (which yes, quickly turned to something more). I prefer that romantic relationships first start with friendships as I believe that’s integral to love. 

They respected each other and saw each others’ strengths and stood by each other in times of weakness – and some of that was before they were together. Really, Haddon truly knows how to create believable characters and relationships that’ll make you grin when you read them.