I really thought this book would be good. Yes, it’s popular with the ‘masses’, which is usually a sure sign I’ll hate a book, but I’ve also seen many people who align with my tastes give it 5 stars, so I had pretty high hopes. Oh boy, was I disappointed. 

This book is not what it’s sold as, not what I think Islington thought he was writing. It isn’t any sort of complex, grand fantasy like Tad Williams or John Gwynne. It’s a (pretty poorly written) YA 2010s dystopian story with underdeveloped fantasy elements thrown into the mix. It’s just recycled tropes repackaged in flimsy Roman inspired packaging. 

The beginning was one of the clunkiest openings I’ve ever read. Loads of worldbuilding was shoved pretty unceremoniously into the first two chapters, but I still didn't understand what was going on. However, the structure of the world did seem pretty complex, so I was willing to give all of this some grace if it improved as the book went on. It didn’t. The magic was never properly explained, even though it was an essential part of the plot, and the info dumps only got slightly less obtrusive. 

The info dumps were certainly not helped by the book being written in first person. Sharing information in first person can be done, but takes a lot more skill than Islington apparently has. The story would be trucking along nicely, then for literally no other reason than to tell the reader something, Vis goes on a detailed inner monologue ramble about the basic concepts of a world he would NEVER have to actually think about. When he was around other people, talking to them, and actually learning new things the problem decreased, but it was pretty horrendous at the beginning. 

The main character being called Vis really fucked me off. Three letter names that are clearly rip-offs of Vin from Mistborn are so prevalent in modern fantasy writing, and for what reason??? Is it really so hard to have an ounce of originality??? The nail in the coffin, as is often the case, being that Mistborn is literally mentioned on the dustjacket as one of Islington’s inspirations… There’s inspiration, then there’s blatant copying. 

Coming on to the writing style – it’s pretty goddamn bad. Some of it is insanely repetitive for no reason. For example, the following are the last sentences from three consecutive chapters: 

Would it kill to have just a teeny bit of variation?? 

It was also just incredibly clunky. Sometimes I can find adjusting to a new writing style takes a bit of time, but 360 pages in I still felt it, so it clearly wasn’t a me problem. For example: 

It’s sentences like this that are a lot of the problem. So many extra words that are completely unnecessary and ruin the flow. 

Then coming to the plot, in which everything was WAY too easy for Vis. He just breezes through everything, and every idea he has works out well for him, which should definitely not be the case in a world that is totally against him on all sides. Even when something does go wrong, it still ends up working to his advantage, and by the half-way point of the book I knew everything was going to turn out fine, so the stakes were non-existent. The one quote from Vis that tipped me over the edge was:

Yeah, LIKE YOU ARE ALL THE TIME, yet he says it completely sincerely, and like nothing ever goes right for him. This all compounded into a lot of depth being missing from the book, as I never felt any tension, even during events Islington was trying to make the reader believe were life or death. 

The plot as a whole was also pretty unbelievable. It was absolutely wild that we were meant to believe that all of this secret ruin stuff had never been leaked. Big fuck off massive buildings on a relatively empty island, full of some of the brightest kids in the country, and no-one apart from Ulciscor has thought to investigate them?? And the only person to successfully get past these crazily heighted security measures was our special, perfect, not like the other boys 17-year-old with two months of training?? Insane. 

As soon as I got to the part about the injured puppy, my eyes audibly rolled into the back of my brain. Without a SHADOW of a doubt, I know it’s going to end up being Vis’ bestest friend in the whole wide world. SUCH an overdone trope at this point. This, combined with the reveal of the labyrinth being training for whatever is in that cavern, was the last straw for me. I’ve got too many good books to read to waste any more time on this poorly written rehashing of every fantasy book ever written. 
 
I’d say I’m baffled by the wall of 5-star reviews this book has received, but unfortunately, in reality I’m not all that surprised. From reviews, as is quite common for popular books, this was a lot of peoples 'first proper fantasy', which explains the worryingly rave reviews. It’s like baby's first fantasy. Even so, reading these 5-star reviews is actually quite concerning - one of the best books you’ve ever read??? Most of them are about the 'amazing ending', and I know from past experience that shock endings can really affect how someone initially rates a book. 

Talking of the ending, I did spoil myself, and my god am I happy I DNF’d. If nothing else makes it obvious that this book belongs in the depths of the 2010s, that sure did. 

Overall, this book has a truly great premise, and one that I was really hoping to love, but a completely lacklustre everything else. I didn’t completely hate what I did read of it. Some of the plot points were really interesting, the twists shocking at times, and if the magic system had actually been fleshed out properly, I think I’d really like it. Unfortunately, it really needed more time to cook, and honestly probably another round of editing. I can excuse one or more of the criticisms I’ve highlighted above if the rest of the book is strong, but this one gave me absolutely nothing.