I love multi-POV books. I love brisk pacing. But there can be too much of a good thing, and I think Five Broken Blades is a great example of this. 

I’ve had two types of phenomena happen with all of the books I’ve read that came from Red Tower Books: either they were too much of a good thing crammed into book one without any sense of restraint, or they aspired to be a great thing and just didn’t quite have the maturity in writing style to get there. Either way, it feels like too much or not enough with no equilibrium. The result is average books either way. 

The sad thing is I believe Five Broken Blades could’ve been an outstanding book if it had slowed down just a little, because I felt like I didn’t get to know any of these characters. This book is the definition of plot-forward and that’s not a good thing. I want my plot and characters balanced, because it’s hard to care about the outcome or about the rest of the series when I’m not invested in the people involved. 

Will I read Four Broken Realms? Probably. Will I buy it? Not on preorder and not right away, because I don’t even know if I’ll keep Five Broken Blades if Four Broken Realms lets me down too. I’m invested just enough to see what happens in book two if book two will be available on KU.