Cover Image: None So Blind

None So Blind

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Member Reviews

None so Blind was quite a surprise.It was not what I expected and am pleased to say this was a really good book..

Synopsis:
The year is 499. The place is Gea – a largely ethnic, linguistic and cultural unity, though not a political one. Its history has been one of intermittent warfare between its fifteen independent states and with surrounding countries. However, for the last quarter of a century the inexorable rise of Troia has welded the states, now provinces, into a formidable Empire...

Gea is largely unified under the Troian Empire, but the present Emperor is inept and ineffective. Dissatisfaction and disloyalty taint the political air and an aging swordmaster, Diomedes, finds himself having to unravel a plot against the Emperor, while struggling with his feelings for his friend’s wife, whose life is in peril.

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I found this books premise interesting but the book itself was hard to get into and while I finished it I would not read it again

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Thanks to NetGalley for my ARC! None So Blind was a great and fun read. I the author is engaging and the character relationships, while a bit predictable, worked very well. What didn't work for me was the world setting. It's not quite Ancient Greece but borrows very heavily from it. It's also not quite a new fantasy setting. It distracted me quite a bit, trying to find parallels and remember names and such from my own knowledge, while the book tried to make it all new and distinct. Overall it was a clean and easy read, and I grew to like many characters.

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I wont go into detail about the story as i dont want to spoil the book, i see so many reviews that give 80% of the story away and it spoils it for the reader in my opinion. I loved this book, I enjoyed the story and i felt connected with the characters. One of my favourite books this year in fact. The story was a real page Turner and infact my other half kept needing to tell me to put it down and go to sleep, I was gripped. Pleaseantly surprised and brilliantly written, a must read for sure.

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The book is set in an imaginary place in the ancient world, but based largely on Ancient Greece. Diomedes, who is a sort of Walker Texas Ranger of Antiquity, has to single-handedly battle against those planning to overthrow the Emperor, while at the same struggling to protect the woman he pretends not to be in love with.

Although the book is well-written and has a number of merits, the fact that it is neither historical fiction nor fantasy is rather disconcerting. It is also full of Ancient Greek or quasi-Greek words that are a distraction, while not necessarily adding anything to the atmosphere, although a glossary is provided at the end of the story.

The love interest was pretty predictable, and there isn’t much in the way of character development or psychological interest, especially in relation to the female characters. On the other hand, the author is much better at describing action scenes and these are the parts of the book that work best. The plot is fairly well thought out, exploiting the universal theme of political intrigue and back-stabbing.

I have mixed feelings about the book as a whole. Ultimately, I would have preferred it to have been truly set in Ancient Greece and to have made reference to a real historical context.

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