Imatge de l'autor

Jon Skovron

Autor/a de Misfit

21+ obres 955 Membres 66 Ressenyes

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Obres de Jon Skovron

Misfit (2011) 265 exemplars
Man Made Boy (2013) 162 exemplars
Hope and Red (1916) 150 exemplars
Struts & Frets (2009) 111 exemplars
The Ranger of Marzanna (1994) 77 exemplars
This Broken Wondrous World (2015) 45 exemplars
Bane and Shadow (2017) 39 exemplars
Blood and Tempest (2017) 30 exemplars
The Hacker's Key (2020) 28 exemplars
The Queen of Izmoroz (2021) 22 exemplars
Sobimatu (2012) 7 exemplars
Poder e Vingança (2017) 2 exemplars
Bloed en storm (2018) 1 exemplars
Grim en Schaduw (2017) 1 exemplars
Love is the Last Resort [novelette] — Autor — 1 exemplars
Baby Girl 1 exemplars

Obres associades

Summer Days and Summer Nights: Twelve Love Stories (2016) — Col·laborador — 416 exemplars
Grim (2014) — Col·laborador — 237 exemplars
Defy the Dark (2013) — Col·laborador — 88 exemplars
The First Time (2011) — Col·laborador — 31 exemplars
Crush: 26 Real-lifeTales of First Love (2011) — Col·laborador — 22 exemplars

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One Sentence Summary: Now that Sonya and the Uaine have driven the empire out of Izmoroz, a tapestry of maneuvers and plots are set in motion to change the lives of Sonya, her brother Sebastian, and Sebastian’s former intended Galina.

I really enjoyed the first book in the trilogy, The Ranger of Marzanna, so I was eager to leap back into the world and the lives of two siblings at odds with each other in The Queen of Izmoroz. I love that this series focuses on siblings and that they’re on opposite sides, but, as we see glimmers of it in the first book, they might not be too different from each other. This is turning into a wonderful series not just about a fantasy world and military and political maneuvering, but also of family and siblings. This second installment was a lot of fun to read, and I look forward to seeing how it concludes.

The Plot: The Separate Paths of Siblings

Following the events of The Ranger of Marzanna, a new set of events have been touched off for siblings Sonya and Sebastian and everyone they know.

After her victory alongside the Uaine she recruited, the people have unexpectedly turned from Sonya, forcing her leave with her new friend Jorge. Feeling adrift, especially when the truth of her goddess’s blessings come to light, she willingly goes with him to his home country of Raíz. But the people there, while happy to embrace her, are more interested in what she can do to help liberate them from the empire.

Sebastian has chosen to travel to the Aureumian Empire’s capital alongside his mother, his commander, and a general. But he begins to question his own role and where he belongs. Reassigned by the Queen, he finds himself with a company that’s weary but has no choice but to follow orders in Kante. Meanwhile, his mother has been recruited as something of a spy in the capital while a deadly force is preparing to bear down on them.

Galina has dreams of making Izmoroz greater than it was before. But the men in charge appear to be interested in doing nothing more than yell at each other and take their time rebuilding the country. Frustrated, she takes things into her own hands, especially as she witnesses first hand the desperation of her people.

As with The Ranger of Marzanna, I really enjoyed The Queen of Izmoroz. I love everything about the world and adore the characters. My favorite part is it’s centered around one family, particularly siblings who seem to have nothing in common. It’s not a particularly complex story, but there’s still a ton in it, making it easy to follow and surprisingly easy to read.

The sister-brother dynamic is the whole reason why I wanted to read the first book. I loved it so much that I couldn’t wait to see what would happen to them in the next book. They’re so different, their ideas seemingly oceans apart. But they’re still tied together. The push and pull between sibling love and sibling hate is so present and so well done that I often feel Sonya and Sebastian are the whole reason I’m even reading and loving this series.

Really, the characters make the series for me, but I also really like that there’s so much going on. There’s this empire that’s taken over almost the entire continent and another country that’s so out of the way no one knows much about them, but I get the feeling they’re not too different from the empire. The characters slip and slide all over the place and everyone has different ideas, especially when it comes to how to rule, that I couldn’t help but be sucked into the story. I loved the layers, the intrigue, the switching of sides. I loved the secrets and the distrust that seemed to flower almost everywhere.

The Characters: Full of Personality

As I mentioned, the characters really make the story. They’re all incredible and so unique that I hardly ever mixed any of them up. The Queen of Izmoroz neither has too many nor too few characters. Sometimes I can seem like there are maybe a few too many viewpoints the story is told from, but I could see how every single one of them was necessary and important. Good thing they were easy to tease apart from all the others. But I was most impressed with how all the secondary characters really stood out well. The tertiary ones did blend together a bit, but the more important characters were all incredible.

My favorite characterizations are, of course, Sonya and Sebastian. Not only do they lead very different lives, but they also have different values and ideals. Though The Queen of Izmoroz saw them start to realign. I loved how everything there is to know about them was really couched in the way they spoke and behaved. Sonya feels more like a free spirit and has a very common and casual manner of speech. She’s always ready to leap without thinking and is quite the protector. Sebastian, on the other hand, is more thoughtful and, well, better mannered. He acts the way one would expect a noble’s son to act. He has the tact and decorum his sister lacks. It was fun to see them interact, though they were mostly separated throughout the book. They were, though, never too far from each other’s thoughts, which was really sweet.

I can’t not mention Galina or my favorite character, Jorge. Galina comes off as young and innocent, but underneath is a spine of steel. She’s extremely well-read and very intelligent, and isn’t above using manipulation. She seemed a bit softer, a bit more noble, in the first book, but she quickly shook off that mantle in this one. I loved how her character evolved, and why it had to evolve. She was amazing and I’m really starting to love her. Then there’s Jorge, Sonya’s friend from the colorful and warm country of Raíz, a Spanish-influenced world. In the first book, there are hints at his past, but this book dove him head first back into his roots and family. It was so much fun to see him back at home and see just how different and similar he is to his family. But, through it all, he was still the levelheaded young man I really liked. Of all the characters, he was the least likely to engage in guile and intrigue and just seemed to keep it simple. He’s a nice anchor in a world that seems to be going mad.

The Setting: An Earth-Inspired World

While The Ranger of Marzanna was centered on Izmoroz, The Queen of Izmoroz just bursts the world wide open. Not only do we get to explore the entire continent, but we also get glimmers of the world beyond.

The only disappointment with the world is that each country is a thinly veiled one from our world. Izmoroz is clearly Russian/Eastern European, Uaine is Scottish (definitely not the kind of Scotland I’d like to visit, though), Kante is Germanic, Raíz is Spanish, and then there’s the continent across the ocean that seems to be Middle Eastern inspired, though I could be wrong. There were no pains taken to hide any of it. Indeed, Skovron used words from the respective languages to further cement the parallels.

On the other hand, the thinly disguised countries did make it a lot easier to ease into this world and figure it out. It felt comforting and familiar while also adding a layer of unrest and political intrigue that could really shine. I liked that the world building seemed simple and was easy enough to figure out and remember in order to better focus on the story. I really, really loved that this book cracked the world wide open, and can’t wait to see where we go in the last book.

Overall: Many Excellent Threads

I really enjoyed The Queen of Izmoroz. I enjoyed the first book, but I think I loved this one more. There was so much going on, so many intricacies, and even some traitorous deeds. I felt the whole story was handled with a deft hand and I never felt I could really predict what was going to happen. The sibling story continues to be well done and all of the characters were wonderful and quite human. I loved getting to see the wider world and how it helped to paint a bigger picture of people’s feelings about the empire. I can’t wait to see what the last book has in store for readers.

Thank you to Angela Man at Orbit and NetGalley for a review copy. All opinions expressed are my own.
… (més)
 
Marcat
The_Lily_Cafe | May 29, 2022 |
Joh Skovron's reading of his own book was brilliant. He had different voices for the characters that really fit each character. This is a very clever take on what has become of literary and mythical monsters like Frankenstein, Jekyll and Hyde, and Medusa. Boy, the manmade son of Frankenstein's monster and Bride, is a very likeable young man trying to make his own way in life but having a difficult time when he runs away to the world of humans.
 
Marcat
Dairyqueen84 | Hi ha 10 ressenyes més | Mar 15, 2022 |
Now that was a fun book. I love the beginning of it. It's rare to read a book where you follow the main characters from childhood into adulthood. The way you see Hope and Red early years affect who they become was very well done. That said, the last few chapters don't stick the landing for me. I felt the book had some characters that were archetypes. I was fine with that. Red is the lovable rogue with a heart of cold behind his mischievous grin. Hope is the honorable warrior out for revenge. Thats all fine but near the end one character goes Mad Max; Fury Road on us. Thats when it becomes Star Wars.

The dark side versus the light side of the force ending doesn't work for me. I enjoyed those movies but I didn't want to see parts of them confiscated for this story. There's also the feeling of pandering when one characters changes themselves to get more power. The change happens but I didn't know or care about the character so the significance of the change was minimal. Plus the feeling that this character will now have a relationship with another character who entered the story late felt obvious. I don't know what the big threat is but hopefully it's not a giant space cloud. Otherwise all the evil that the evil doers do in this book will be for nothing. That said I'm really looking forward to read what happens in the next book. Hopefully that ending won't be so over the top as this one was.

I read this book via NetGalley. I thank them for this book. I will also thank Orbit for fulfilling my wish for this book. It was available to UK members but I wished for it and my wish was granted. Thank You for your kindness Orbit.

#NetGalley #OrbitBooks
… (més)
 
Marcat
Kurt.Rocourt | Hi ha 3 ressenyes més | Jun 14, 2021 |
I received a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book was a very fun ride. It dragged here and there, but made up for it with the interesting lore and actioned scenes. I felt like the magic system needed some work as Sebastian's powers were not very defined, especially when compared to Marzanna and her Riders. There was something there that felt very concrete and had me disappointed and wishy-washiness of elemental magic. However, the idea that using magic ages you is interesting though it was glossed over and not used to its fullest potential.

There was also a lack of direction for the first half of the story. It spent no time solidifying why Sonya and Sebastian had their stances, as they practically had them from the beginning and spent more time engraving them into their roles. The siblings started separate and were slightly more separate by then, making it feel like there were little to no emotional stakes in the book and that the siblings were just doing whatever for some arbitrary notion they had and never questioned it.

What Sebastian lacked in motivation, his sister Sonya did manage to make up. While it still felt like she was there "just because", she also had the most interesting growth as she becomes more and more ranger. I wished there'd been more focus on the rangers as they were by far the most interesting thing in the book. It was clear that a lot of time was spent on their lore and impact in the world and I wish there had been as much time spent on the characters and their motivations, as while Sonya makes a nice ranger, I'm left questioning why she is one in the first place as at times she seems to be the last person I'd expect to be one as her personality seems so contrary to a lot of the legends. This could be why she makes such a good ranger though it didn't come across clearly in the text. She did serve as a sympathetic lens to view the interesting culture of the rangers and their cold-hearted goddess fo death.

Sebastian is an interesting case of someone wanting to do good and becoming a monster in the process. He does seem to lack some conviction however and I found myself inclined to think that he was a bigger fan of the books Galina was reading than Galina herself at times. Galina, on the other hand, was a major surprise as she went from being a background character to the character with the most conviction. Unlike the siblings I can tell you where and why she stands on the side of the split that she does without saying "just because she's there". Her motivations and role in the story were well thought out and executed.

My final thoughts are that despite the character flaws, this book is amazing. It has an interesting fantasy world with distinct cultures and traditions as well as interesting histories and war tactics. The final battle was a pure joy to read and I have nothing against the writing. The book feels a bit like a set-up for something bigger and I'm all ears for something bigger, especially if there will be more involvement from Marzanna. It was really easy to get lost in the lore and I had vivid pictures in my mind as I read, mostly on the bus and surrounded by blizzards, which may have helped a bit. But all that being said I would recommend this to fantasy nerds who love strong mythologies or those who are looking for something similar, and maybe a bit more sinister, to being a huntress of Artemis.
… (més)
 
Marcat
afrozenbookparadise | Hi ha 3 ressenyes més | Apr 22, 2021 |

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Obres
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Membres
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Ressenyes
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