So incredibly validated that this vague description helped me find The Coldfire Trilogy. I read it years ago and these are the only details I remember! Also I’m still laughing that I didn’t find it until I added “and also a cat lady” to my search 😂
Plot:
⬜️ Plot holes big enough for a herd of elephants
⬜️ I think I’ve read this before. (Unoriginal to the max.)
⬜️ No plot, just vibes
⬜️ Enjoyable but not super memorable.
✅ You have my undivided attention.
⬜️ Mind = Blown
Characters:
⬜️ Mary Sue is in the house!
⬜️ These are cardboard cut-outs.
⬜️ Good main cast, but the rest is forgettable at best.
⬜️ Generally well written.
✅ Complex
⬜️ What do you mean characters? These feel like real people!
Personal Enjoyment:
⬜️ DNF
⬜️ Somebody free me from this hell (but also no, I won’t DNF)
⬜️ WTF did I just read???
⬜️ I don’t like it, but I also don’t hate it.
⬜️ It’s a good book but I just never want to pick it back up.
⬜️ No strong feelings either way.
⬜️ Enjoyable read
✅ What a page turner! This is fun!
⬜️ I think I’m in love
⬜️ (new) all time favourite
World Building:
⬜️ This takes place in our world.
⬜️ Worldbuilding what worldbuilding?
⬜️ This feels like a TV set.
⬜️ Not super deep, but present.
✅ Detailed, believable.
⬜️ You bet every single ant has its own 100 page backstory!
Pacing:
⬜️ drags/is rushed in all the wrong places
⬜️ Inconsistent
⬜️ something undefinable feels off
⬜️ I don’t love it it but it fits the book perfectly.
✅ Good/no complaints
⬜️ Amazing! Could not put this down!
Writing:
⬜️ This is painful
⬜️ I’m cringing
⬜️ Not great, but not bad either.
⬜️ Neutral (Didn’t really notice.)
✅ Elegant but not overly flowery.
⬜️ So beautiful I actually stopped and noticed it.
⬜️ I’m not sure if this is just a bad translation.
⬜️ I’m not confident enough in my language skills for this language to comment on the quality of the writing.
Wow, I can't believe I've finished the series this fast! That alone says a lot about how much I liked it :)
As usual, here's a bunch of rambly thoughts:
For the most part I feel like I did about the other two books - plot is fine but character work and world building take the cake. The plot was still fairly straight-forward, but I will say that it was a bit more complex with the dual plot-lines.
A bit I don't think I've mentioned before that I love: due to the set up we get sorcery and sword type stuff but also tourism, instant soup, insurance companies, etc. (Did I imagine the aspirin?) The mix between modern and old timey things is great!
Unfortunately I also still feel the same about the treatment of women within the series. Sure, the argument could be made that maybe it's just Damien who's a bit misogynistic in his POV, and Gerald is just generally The Most Terrible Person ™ around, but it still doesn't sit right with me. Especially since we start the book with Gerald's lunch committing suicide.
Was that weird bit about Damien's landlady necessary? Was there no other way to explain how Iezu perceive the world other than "Holy shit can you believe that middle aged lady dares to think of herself as attractive, lol what a hag" ??
But hey, Narilka is still alive! I suppose if you exist to redeem the Gerald clone you get to live.
(I can't believe I forgot poor Almea in my last rant. The fridging that started it all! ...is it still fridging if the man murders her himself??)
As for the plot lines, on one hand I really, really enjoyed getting more POVs! ...maybe just not the ones we actually got xD
The patriarch was probably my favourite, even if almost every second I spent inside his head was incredibly frustrating. Some of that may be due to Calesta's influence, but for the most part it's probably just him being the fantasy-pope. There's a reason I left the church xD
That being said, I appreciate that he actually whole-heartedly believes what he is preaching.
The thing that confuses me the most about the church is its stance on working the fae. As I understood it, it was designed to focus the fae, making it a bit less dangrous for the general population. And also providing humanity with the concentrated power of the beliefs and faith of thousands if not millions, which could eventually be used for space travel. (Or something in that vein.)
Anyway, I thought it was very clear that they are still manipulating the fae, just on an enormous scale, and disapproved of private sorcery. But at times it kind of felt like the patriarch sort of forgot that (or deliberately repressed it?). All those "no, this isn't witchcraft, this is a miracle from God!" moments felt so odd because - of course its the same thing? You literally created your God yourselves by those exact same means???
Oh well, church is hypocritical, fork found in kitchen.
Andrys and Narilka I actually liked well enough, as long as they weren't on page together. Or thinking about each other. Actually, scratch that. I liked Narilka when she wasn't being compared to teacups or dolls! But then she had to fall in love with Andrys after talking to him...twice?
Andrys... I mean he was there and relevant to the plot. I do feel bad for him, but there wasn't really that much to him other than (admittedly horrific) trauma and an uncanny resemblance to his great-great ....-great grandpa. And drugs to cope with all of that.
Small pet peeve: the nickname Andri. WHY. You're literally just taking of one letter (and changing the other because....aesthetics??)
On to more enjoyable ramblings!!! The Damien-Gerlad dynamic in this book was just *chef's kiss*
You can't just hit me with the "You changed me" speech that early in the book, I was not prepared xD
The many ways in which we see the depth of their...friendship... were just sweet (especially post-hell), and such a contrast to the first book! (Well, Damien still tells us constantly how hot Gerald is, that hasn't changed at all xD My dude literally described his very platonic bestie as "aesthetic perfection". A few pages after Karril rerminds us of how very straight he is, of course.)
Now maybe at this point my rose coloured shipper glasses are just glued to my face, but that moment when he tried to explain how Almea supposedly feels also slightly came across as him projecting just a bit. (Gerald is right, Almea (or the Almea-thing) has every right to be pissed, honestly she should have shown up with ghostly divorce papers. Or maybe Damien was right and she just wanted to see him jump into a volcano for a good cause, who knows.)
There are some things I would have loved to see more of:
- the mental link between Damien and Gerald was criminally under-used, imo. Did it change Damien physically somehow, since Gerald no longer felt cold to him? Is he now part vampire for ever xD (And dear god that whole bit about taking the Hunter into his body, whyyy xDD)
- honestly I would have loved to see Gerald readjusting to being human (and being incredibly annoyed about it) a bit more. It's been 900+ years, surely there's stuff he's forgotten? I mean he spent the vast majority of his life being the stuff of nightmares!
- Gerald honestly wanting and trying to redeem himself (sure, he was ready to sacrifice himself in the end, but it kind of struck me as a last minute decision. And you can't tell me being the first to kill a Iezu and saving the world didn't also appeal to his ego). But I get that that would take another 10 books, minimum
Damiens break with the church was a long time coming, and handled well, I think. Oddly enough, priest never struck me as a job that you can just quit.
I just remembered about Gerald's apprentice (Amoril?). What an idiot.
I would have loved to know how he came to be the Hunter's apprentice though. Can you apply for scolarships?
Anyway, trashing a library is unforgivable in my book ;)
Oh, and Hell! Hell was surprisingly meh to me, but I did appreciate the insight into how the Iezu operate (which was probable the main point of that scene anyway). Love that Damien could just reason with the literal devil.
(But the concept of the Devil as a non-unified entity was actually cool though).
How did it take Damien so long to understand what the mountain of dead women could possibly be. Neither he nor the reader are stupid enough not to get it. Friedman usually doesn't hold our hand and over explains in the series, why start now?? Shock factor? I doubt anyone cared enough about Sisa? Sasi? for that to work.
OK I promise I'm coming to an end soon but guys. Guys. The epilogue. The freaking epilogue. What a trip that was xDDD
1) The Wedding. Karril POV was... certainly something! We now officially know that not only women find Andrys attractive. (Take that, Damien "idk, he's probably attractive to women but also aesthetic perfection" Vryce.
Did I need to know about potential Iezu sex that only benefits the (currently presenting as) male partner? No, not really. Also WTF was that scene with Andrys' ex lovers. I know we're supposed to see and rejoice in the fact that Andrys is no longer a playboy, but did we really need that "women hating women for the benefit of some hot guy" thing in here? I swear there were bits in the series where I could have sworn it was written by man (derogatory).
At least Narilka remained unbothered. Presumably moisturised. Very happy and in her lane. Focused on her wedding, as she should be. She gets to live on to be compared to countless fragile things made of porcelain, whether she wants it or not.
2) Freaking Riven Forrest. I was cackling throughout that whole bit. Not only does he get to hunt and terrify people just like his father, he also runs a successful (?) fishing rod business on the side. (I know, I know, hunting supplies in general, the rods just kind of stuck out to me). The fact that the intelligent prey he looks forward to hunting the most is once again a woman (even if it is an abusive, horrible woman) tells us exactly what part the Iezu mother chose to take from the OG Hunter, huh. Which is great for Gerald, but a weird choice on her part??
But dear God the last bit. He keeps a portait of Gerald above his fireplace??? I finally completely lost it at "Here's to you, dad" xDDD
3) The "dark haired youth". Of course he survived. I was suspicious as soon as we didn't actually get to see Andrys kill him. As for the new persona - I suspected who he was, but the moment I was really sure was when Damien started describing him in loving detail. For an entire paragraph. That was half a page long.
But the ending. WTF. I could have accepted Gerald's Death, but this? You're telling me after all they went through together, and after he basically just risked his life again by saying hi to Damien in the most cryptic way possible, they just...never talked again?! Nah, in my expert opinion they just met up in the next bathhouse.
Also I wanted to see the guy suffer be annoyed a bit more because he can no longer Work to maintain his image.
(I'd also have loved to know Geralds criteria for his new body, vain as he is. What was his thought process? "Oh no, the wonderful world of magical horse-breeding is now lost to me! Guess I'll just have to make sure that from now on I have the most majestic ponytail out there!"?
Although, come on. He might be willing to risk his life for a horse.)
My last words: I enjoyed this series so much more than I ever thought I would, and these idiots now live rent-free in my brain.
Also how the f- are we supposed to read these books as an entirely platonic relationship? The most I'll agree to is some weird, slightly cursed QPR.
But come on. COME ON. Even if they are both heterosexual (notwithstanding Damiens constant thirsting casual descriptions) they are definitely in love. Or just so deeply obsessed with, and at this point, sort of dependent on each other (Gerlad's words, not mine. sort of) that it makes little to no difference.
I know there's some prequels (?) I think I might check them out sometime.
Nightborn, the prequel to my all-time favorite Coldfire Trilogy by CS Friedman, is out today. It tells the story of the first settlers who arrived on Erna, and their challenges as they slowly start to figure out what exactly is different about the planet they landed on, while all their tech is failing, people are mysteriously disappearing, and nothing is going as expected.
