Ritu Nair
The thing about Runebreaker is that unlike Runebinder, it throws you directly in the plot without any information; it also doesn’t help that we haven’t even heard of Aidan, yet suddenly we are into a scene where he is breaking away from his co-commander/boyfriend Trevor, and we honestly don’t know what to think of the scenario. Details about the characters, the timeline with respect to Runebinder and their landscape trickle in slowly, so it is somewhat confusing in the first half. It is a reversal from Tenn’s story, though, in that Aidan is in a way, a polar opposite to him, and I feel like the story establishes itself in that vein. Aidan, who is aligned with the Sphere of Fire, is tempestuous, impulsive and ambitious – he seeks to destroy the Kin who is occupying Scotland and establish himself as the King. He wants glory and power, two things that Tomas keeps whispering he can give him, and Aidan is quite susceptible to his siren song. He is also a frustrating protagonist to read through, because he KNOWS he can’t trust Tomas, but he is easily lured by dreams of grandeur. Unlike Tomas and Tenn, their romantic arc somewhat works. Meanwhile Aidan is also getting visions from the Dark Lady who is manipulating him and you start to wonder who is on whose side here. Aidan cares for only one person in his life, his best friend and travel companion, Kianna, who is quite like him in nature, but isn’t rash like him. Theirs is an interesting dynamic in that they know if one goes bad, the other will kill them without hesitation, but also they understand each other at the core. The plot feels very short in a way, because a lot circles around Aidan and him being all ‘I want it all’ while letting the world burn, and then suddenly they are caught in a trap, and have to get out, so by the end you are like ‘that’s it?’ and also it feels longer, because it just couldn’t hold my attention, so I had to read it in many installments over the course of days despite its short length (honest – Kindle told me it would take only 3.5 hours for me). The ending brought some respite, but that may be mainly because the actual plot of Hunters vs Kin will finally move forward. Overall, it is a frustrating book to get through, with an unlikable protagonist, and a plot that doesn’t do much, but fill some blanks about the magic of the world. It does, however, make a nice contrasting companion to the first book.
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