schneefink

These books are frustratingly bad at worldbuilding. Show, don't tell also applies to the world as a whole! For example, it's not enough to say that there are nobles and commoners in the Empire (Illustrians and Plebeians, whatever) and they don't like each other and fight for influence: if you don't actually tell me how the governance works and who actually has and wields influence and how big the class differences are and what they are and look like etc., then it's all just empty words. Most of this story kinda felt like characters acting in front of a canvas screen.

Contributing to that and making it worse was that the books are about the fate of an Empire and multiple countries/people, but the characters mostly ignore this, especially Elias and Laia. Elias is especially bad: he's one of four people competing in Trials to determine the next Emperor, and he hates the evil Empire and wants to be free of it, and not once does it occur to him that if he becomes Emperor he could make things better, and if something unsuitable becomes Emperor they could make things worse. *facepalm* That seems like the most obvious thing, but his perspective is just too self-absorbed to realize that. I should have stopped there instead of reading the next two books, but I was hoping to see more of Helene being competent, and while there was more Helene and she did have good moments there was less character growth than I'd hoped for. By the end of book 3 at least more characters are becoming aware of the scope of the conflict.

Also, another stupid detail: you have peoples that are called "Martials" and those called "Scholars" (etc.), that makes little sense.

I read these books because I saw them at the library and the first two have very pretty covers. The ebook library is so convenient, and they have some good books. There also many books I want to read that they don't have (I asked and several they can't even order) but I need to pay more attention to my book budget, which is annoying.