Did not finish. I could not get into this book, so I moved on. The characters were not very interesting to me. I made it about a quarter of the way through the book before giving up.

I received a cop of this book in exchange of an honest review via NetGalley.

Well, this was bad. Even if I really hate DNF-ing books I just couldn’t force myself through it. I just glad that I decided to read the first book before requesting the first one because I wouldn’t read that one too.
Honestly, the first thing that really captured my attention and the reason I requested it was the cover which is quite misleading. The whole story starts out extremely slow and didn’t really speed up. Along with the space and the misleading synopsis which together give quite a bad picture I also kind of hated the writing style. It’s dry and almost amateurish. The first thing they teach u sin high school about writing essays is to refrain from using the same word too many times and in close proximity to each other. So when I encounter a book where the same words are repeated numerous times in one sentence, that’s off putting for me.
This book wasn’t my taste and since I didn’t finish it I can’t really say anything positive about it, maybe only that there were a couple of interesting ideas in it regarding the world building. They are just few and far between without the much needed explanations and details. Sorry.

I got this book from Netgalley because of the discription. It seems like something I would and maybe it is. The world and everything...

But it's just too slow for me, and got bored. I finished it, though. I was hoping for more action. And the writing is little bit off. I felt like I'm reading about characters in a different book and not the ones promised to me by the blurb/description when I requested for this book on Netgalley.

I am currently wondering how exactly I got here. You know when you're excited for something, but it lets you down? That feeling is this book. Foreshadow has a pretty cover and an exciting-sounding blurb, but the story is really something else - and not in a good way.

Before I go into details, I will state that I eventually decided to DNF this book after some careful consideration/by skipping forward into the narrative to see if anything improves.

The main problem I had with this book is the way it was written. Here is one example from the text: "the high poets jumped out of their seats as though they had been tricked into sitting on funny-farting cushions." I mean, 'funny-farting cushions'?!? This is a high fantasy, but the whole idea of 'funny-farting cushions' seems quite a bit more contemporary to me. I wasn't too fond it it - if it had been introduced better, maybe I would have accepted it as an object of the fantasy world, but as it is - no. Just no.

The writing is also extraordinarily choppy, with actions not flowing cleanly but being presented very haphazardly with no sentences between to indicate the movement of characters, scenes or locations. One moment they are in one place, the next somewhere else.

Furthermore, I didn't think the prose flowed well at all. Perhaps due to the short sentences, it felt ill-suited to a sweeping fantasy. For example: "The two men, both royally born, rode out together into the high summer night. The soft, warm air was filled with flowers' fragrance. The sky was filled with stars and a crescent moon." Maybe others will not be as bothered as I am by this, but I also found the descriptions plain and almost juvenile in nature.

The characters were flat with no emotional depth - or even hints at emotional depth - and actually seemed a little silly. Their names ranged between perfect fantasy-style names, plain ones, and downright bizarre ones (I mean, there's a trio of characters called Nappy, Spork and Cutlery and I just . . . I don't even know anymore?)

The worldbuilding had interesting ideas behind it - there are dragons mentioned and then'high poets' who transcribe important events so that they are remembered for all history, which is pretty cool. I know there are gods, but besides that, I have no clue about the actual culture. I assume it's some kind of Western medieval-inspired setting, but I'm not entirely sure and it wasn't made clear enough for me to know for certain.

In short, I thought this book would be really exciting - and it wasn't. Some people will enjoy this book, but for readers who demand intricate worldbuilding, thought-out characters and enjoyable prose, this will probably disappoint.