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A review by zoeelizabethk
Malice by John Gwynne
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
2025 reread: Enjoyed it a lot more now that I wasn't so confused. A lot of my criticisms stand, but I'm bumping it up to 4 stars
I've enjoyed a lot of things about Malice. The setting, the characters, their stupid decisions, the politicking, the mystery and twists and turns. But there are also some things to dislike. The pacing is a bit wacky, Gwynne's prose has some annoying quirks, the action scenes rarely gripped me, and my oh my how complicated this felt. The first 60% of Malice really demanded my attention to sort out the plethora of names, relationships, alliances, and more. And this is coming from someone who loves Wheel of Time and other "complicated" series. But Malice was hard to figure out.
I think this comes down to a bit of a dearth of description from Gwynne. He does describe things, but not in tons of detail and rarely in a way that sticks with you. And for many people this might be a plus. BUT I think it's what makes it so challenging to separate the many characters, because many of them are described fairly similarly, and a lot of them are also doing similar things. This is not to say that the characters feel unrealistic - I do think Gwynne is able to make you care about the characters - but I think it takes a longer investment of time to figure out who they are and why they are the way they are and you can't rely on much description to help you.
Overall though, I did enjoy the story and characters and it's a very fun book to react to character decisions. I'm hopeful that Malice has done the heavy lifting in terms of set up for The Faithful and the Fallen, and that Valor will be a less polarizing reading experience. I personally didn't get quite the emotional impact I was hoping from Malice, but I think going forward this will also be more satisfying.
A little on the audio narration. The audio seemed very slightly echo-y, combined with some odd pacing from the narrator. He leaves plenty of space between clauses and sentences, but manages to rush the words inside a bit, and combined with the very slight echo it made the book a bit more work to understand.
I've enjoyed a lot of things about Malice. The setting, the characters, their stupid decisions, the politicking, the mystery and twists and turns. But there are also some things to dislike. The pacing is a bit wacky, Gwynne's prose has some annoying quirks, the action scenes rarely gripped me, and my oh my how complicated this felt. The first 60% of Malice really demanded my attention to sort out the plethora of names, relationships, alliances, and more. And this is coming from someone who loves Wheel of Time and other "complicated" series. But Malice was hard to figure out.
I think this comes down to a bit of a dearth of description from Gwynne. He does describe things, but not in tons of detail and rarely in a way that sticks with you. And for many people this might be a plus. BUT I think it's what makes it so challenging to separate the many characters, because many of them are described fairly similarly, and a lot of them are also doing similar things. This is not to say that the characters feel unrealistic - I do think Gwynne is able to make you care about the characters - but I think it takes a longer investment of time to figure out who they are and why they are the way they are and you can't rely on much description to help you.
Overall though, I did enjoy the story and characters and it's a very fun book to react to character decisions. I'm hopeful that Malice has done the heavy lifting in terms of set up for The Faithful and the Fallen, and that Valor will be a less polarizing reading experience. I personally didn't get quite the emotional impact I was hoping from Malice, but I think going forward this will also be more satisfying.
A little on the audio narration. The audio seemed very slightly echo-y, combined with some odd pacing from the narrator. He leaves plenty of space between clauses and sentences, but manages to rush the words inside a bit, and combined with the very slight echo it made the book a bit more work to understand.