"Романът беше толкова скучен, че направо не е истина.
Разказваше се за последният комически кораб, който е извел хората от Земята преди да стане необитаема и как в настоящето време хората поддържат цивилизация на него. Бяха представени гледните точки на млади и стари, мъже и жени, с най-разнообразни професии и дори безработни, всички бяха толкова различни и имаха само мимолетен контакт едни с други, докато един от тях не умря и това коренно не промени живота на всички. Не звучи лошо, защото не е лошо, ала проблемът е че този човек умира след като сте прочели към 2/3 от книгата, през което време вие можете да си умрете от скука докато слушате за разположението на стаите и кварталите и супер подробните спорове между майки и деца. Вярно е, че както в предишните книги на Беки Чеймбърс, така и тук има разгледани морални и философски теми като за паричните системи, кръговратът на живота, емиграцията и смятам че ако човек седне да чете тази книга, то вероятно ще е заради подобни теми, но дори и те не успяха да спасят тази нечовешки скучна книга. Пък и как биха могли при положение, че героите не бяха нещо особено и нямаше съществено действие, тъй като героите нищо не правеха с живота си и просто реагираха, ако нещо се случеше. Сякаш цялото им съществуване, всички глупави спорове, ядове и проблеми водеха само до онази дълбокомислена фраза, към края на книгата, която ще окрили живота на читателя. Да, ама не. Всичко това превърна книгата в толкова скучна, че не се понасяше.

ПП: Има най-различни видоре извънземни с люспи, като дребни хуманоидни динозаври, с щипки, като различни видове океански същества, ала нито едно с криле. Пропуск във въображението на авторката или философска гледна точка, че птиците никога не биха могли да еволюират дотолкова че да имат свръх развита космическа колония, но мекотелите да?"

"1.5 stars

��

As a bit of backstory for those who don't know, Empire of Shadows is a rewritten/reimagined version of Benson's first book, The Smoke Hunter.

I loved The Smoke Hunter! I've easily read it a half dozen times. I thought it was smart, adventurous, suspenseful, and romantic. The stakes were high and the descriptions vivid. I've never before and never since wanted to go to the hot, humid depths of a South American forest, but Smoke Hunter had me checking flights.

The characters had depth and meaningful interactions. They each had strengths and weaknesses and grew over the course of the book.
That Ellie was sensible, opinionated, and dedicated. She'd faced unfairness and bitterness, and while she was angry about that she remained a loyal, good, and brave woman.
While Adam was smart and capable, he knew a lot about the places he mapped out and the people he worked with. He knew many languages and could speak, albeit a bit basically, to the rural Myan villagers. He was bold and daring, but kind and understanding.

I'd been eagerly awaiting the sequel to TSH but when none came and instead I was presented with the chance to read Empire of Shadows I snapped up the opportunity, if somewhat apprehensively.
I tried to read this book as it's own thing and not as a rewritten version of TSH, but with so many great, enjoyable scenes and well-rounded characters cut or changed, it was hard not to compare. I wanted to love Empire, and I read the whole book with the hope that issues at the start would get better by the end, but they didn't.

I felt the descriptions in Empire were insubstantial, and the writing, while technically well done—no spelling or grammar mistakes that I can remember—was a bit lacking. One peeve was that almost every piece of dialogue had a dialogue tag, and most of those contained adverbs.

But it was the misandry that ruined it, to be perfectly honest. I don't think I've read a book that had so much blatant sexism and yet it was deemed acceptable because it was directed at men. It was wild. The only ones allowed to be wise or right were the native men, and that felt like it came from a real world fear that you couldn't let any of the locals be construed as being idiots.

Clearly an impressive amount of research and knowledge went into this book!
But the historical details dragged the plot down, and made for too many info dumps. Maybe if I was more passionate about this specific area of history I would have enjoyed it more, but I found it very repetitive and by a certain point, unnecessary.

As for the characters:
I did enjoy this version of Jacobs, for the most part. He was ruthless and cunning, sharp, and oddly charming in his very dangerous way.

But Empire's Ellie was self-important, rude, selfish, irrational, and infuriating. She cared more about history and artifacts than real, living humans—and even her own life at times. She was full of double standards, biases, and harsh stereotypes. She often complained that everyone and everything was sexist and rigged against her (a claim that was stated often but the story never gave us proof of beyond one ignorant comment in the second chapter and a half dozen random little instances to which Ellie took strong personal offence).
Several times—in what felt like the height of irony given how some men actually dismissed women's opinions/emotions in that time period—Ellie would react to a problem or comment by screaming and throwing things. She took no responsibility for her own actions but quickly and easily blamed others for the slightest infraction. She could never be wrong—or if she was 'less right' it was brushed off as being a rare thing that only happened because she wasn't given all the facts earlier.
Her thoughts and conversations were reduced to feminism, oppression, that men are awful, how marriage and children are evil, talking about history, or insulting or arguing with Adam.

Which leads me to Adam. Poor Adam. I don't know how or why he would respect, let alone fall in love with a woman when that's the personality she presents, and when her own respect for him begins and ends at his shirtless chest.
This Adam was a self-described oaf, which was unfortunately accurate. He was reduced to muscular bimbo, and could have been replaced by a lamp for all the help Ellie and the plot let him offer. If this was supposed to be a gender bent Indiana Jones-esque story, at least the women in those stories get to have opinions, they're helpful, they get mad, and they talk back when the hero is being a jerk. Adam didn't get any of that. For all the muscles he was frequently described to have, he felt weak. And too often the depth of his feelings were reduced to "it made him want to break/hit/throw something."

For years I've wanted more of Ellie and Adam, but not like this. I'll be skipping any sequels to this one."

"*** 4.35 ***

Hahaha! I have to say, I did not expect that! I knew it would be funny, but it was more than that. It was a joyous rollicking Fantasy Adventure, which was able to free me from the depressed and bleak mood my current reads of "The Magicians" and "Chaos Walking" had put me into... I think if I had picked up one more book trying to explain to me how empty and hopeless human existence is and how our childhood dreams only set us up for perpetual unhappiness and failure, I was going to give up reading for EVER!!! Well, maybe not ever ever, maybe the ever of a week... Or a day, that could feel like forever, right? No, I couldn't do that, but at least couple of hours I would most probably, for sure, have stayed away from reading... (that does not include audio-books, right?). .. I have a problem, I know, but I have admitted to it in several Bookoholics anonymous meetings already, so I feel good about myself:) But I digress...

"...“Bards don’t believe in goodbyes—we know that the roads we walk are winding, and we generally tend to come back to people and places we’ve known and been before, and often at just the right time.�� I smiled. “We’ll meet again.�� ..."

The Bard, my favorite Fantasy Hero, in this case is a half-Elf lady with very good self-esteem! I wish I could see only the positives in my character, so right there I knew, she is going to be my personal role-model! Heloise wields a mean verse and her stabby friend Stabby with equal flawlessness and authority. Her partner, usually big and intimidating Hill Giant Grimple with even bigger club Banger, has been bespelled by an undead wizard and now all of his minimal brain power resides in the very unattractive and less then intimidating body of a Gnome, while at the same time loosing his Banger in a card game...

"...“Heloise: a clever, beautiful, honey-voiced, silver-tongued bard of exceptional, perhaps unparalleled, skill Grimple: a smarter-than-average hill giant (which isn’t saying much, because he’s still pretty much an idiot)�� ..."

These unfortunate circumstances have led to the team of professional adventurers not being able to take on jobs that actually pay, so they decide to go on a quest to get the spell removed, the Giant Banger back in Grimple's hands and more material for bardley tales.

"...“Interestingly, it’s not because he enjoys the sight of human ladies grinding against shiny metal poles…he actually just admires the poles, and is always trying to talk the owners of such establishments into giving him one to take as a weapon. Grimple is a bit off, even for a hill giant.�� ..."

So, they set off to find a wizard, who in this case may or may not be evil and may or may not have problems with capitalization... Kevil does have interesting taste in fashion though... After deciding that having a powerful weapon with them was imperative, they decide to have one of several side-quests and get the club next.

"...“Men. They stick together like gelatinous cubes in a narrow dungeon hallway. “Oh, Kevil, I’m nothing without my big, giant Banger!�� “Oh, Grimple, you poor, unmanned, hideous excuse for a former hill giant—we must reclaim your manhood posthaste!�� “Oh, thank you, Kevil—grab your oversized staff and let’s go compensate together!�� ..."

Eventually we got dangerous fights with vampires, demons, wishing wells, groping Gnomes, zombies, undead creatures of different varieties, picked up a sexy dwarf and possibly battled a flock of ghosts. Overall, this book did not stop to rest even when some of the readers, hm, heroes, desperately needed a snack. Not only did our valiant protagonists manage to survive the numerous times they threw themselves in or fell into mortal danger, but they did it with sass and flair worthy of a much more popular and critically acclaimed Epic Novel. So, if you find yourselves drowning in Dystopia, Grim-Dark and Post-Apocalyptic Hell, much as I did of late, and just need something smart, cheeky and silly, created purely for laughs and entertainment, and if you have in any way read, watched, listened to, or just been in the vicinity of a Fantasy Novel, this book is for you! It is hilarious and it will make you laugh, I guarantee it!!!

"...“I once knew an elf who liked to eat supper wearing nothing but a codpiece. On his upper arm. He said it aided digestion.�� I shrugged. “Whatever makes you happy makes you happy, my not-so-evil friend. As long as it doesn’t involve turning me into something that looks like Grimple, or any kind of amphibian, I’m fine with.�� ..."

Now I wish you all Happy Reading and many more wonderful books to come!"