Review of We are Voulhire: A New Arrival under Great Skies

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Bronwyn Boydell
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Latest Review: We are Voulhire: A New Arrival under Great Skies by Matthew Tysz

Review of We are Voulhire: A New Arrival under Great Skies

Post by Bronwyn Boydell »

[Following is a volunteer review of "We are Voulhire: A New Arrival under Great Skies" by Matthew Tysz.]
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3 out of 5 stars
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I think that the plot and premise of this book is promising. Admittedly, it wasn’t a book that I couldn’t put down and it took me longer to finish than I normally would. In saying that, I am looking forward to finding out what happens in the second book so there’s enough substance to warrant that intrigue, it may just be that because this is the first book in the series, it’s setting the scene so is taking a bit slower to get to the juicy bits.

What I enjoyed:
- I liked that the story unfolds through multiple characters. You get to experience the different towns of Voulhire through different lenses. There’s a lot going on in Voulhire and it helps being able to get a grasp this way, rather than waiting for the main protagonist to explore each region on his own.
- Voulhire itself. I feel like I’ve already gotten a taste of some of the regions in this first book and I love how each city is unique, with different industries of trade and how they came to be.
- the editing in this book is really superb, I only encountered one typo!
- the story and plot. Of course we’ve only been given glimpses and tidbits in this first book but it’s enough to make me want to find out what else is going to happen and where this will all lead.
- I love it when small things are described that allow you to get a feel for what it would be like to live in that time or region, for example the author talks about a preservation bath that the eggs are kept in before cooking dinner over a fire. It just sets the scene really nicely.

What I struggled with:
- the main thing for me was character development. I struggled to connect to the characters and couldn’t really grasp who they were / what made them tick. For example, Midius Maido comes across as a selfish, egotistical and envious man, who seems to want nothing but to take all of the power for himself. But then there’s a part in the book where Indara states he doesn’t even want his role let alone power, but it doesn’t feel like a moment where we’re being given a glimpse of the character purposely hidden until this point. It comes across as contradictory and slightly confusing. Galen (main character) comes across as really likeable and I feel like the essence of who he is is more defined, so I’m hoping we get to see more of this with the other characters as the sorry develops in the series.

In terms of the writing style, I did enjoy it, but there’s something about it that made me not connect as well, however that could be down to the character development I felt was lacking. It feels like a big world with lots to be revealed, so this could also be why still so much needs to be unravelled.

Overall, I may not have read it as quickly as I normally do but I definitely wanted to know what happened next, and as I am looking forward to reading the second book and uncovering the plot further, I’d give this a solid 3 out of 5 stars.

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We are Voulhire: A New Arrival under Great Skies
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