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For myself, I thought the "fractured soul" theme, although clearly inspired by the Horcruxes in the HP series was given a sufficiently creative twist to distinguish itself as being separate in the way that Brimstone is having to find/gather them. The idea that demons of each school of magic (air, earth, water, fire) had been imbued with part of his soul, leaving him unable to master any of them was intriguing to me. I especially got a kick out of the fact that he's having to negotiate a deal with each of them to regain power over that particular element. It did bother me a bit that he was (almost) instantly able to control the element once the demon "joined" him but I was able to appease that by remembering that even though he hadn't been able to master them, he HAD received training in each of the schools of magic during his years at Central so he actually did have a strong foundation in them all. Not only that, he had to relinquish partial control to the demon itself in order to use the ability. However, I still wasn't able to mollify my misgivings that he seemed to become a Master in controlling each element within a matter of days and as far as I could find, the author did not explain this apparent ability.

Thoughts?

Oooh the HP comparison is a good one. Yeah I find the search for parts of his soul to be an interesting twist. I didn't think it was introduced very clearly though. All of a sudden he's being beckoned to by this dark shadow that later reveals itself to be part of him. Almost felt kind of random to me- when and why was he cursed? I'm expecting the second book to go into more detail about it though, so I was able to get past that and enjoy the storyline.

cmabramo wrote: ↑09 Jan 2019, 22:13 Oooh the HP comparison is a good one. Yeah I find the search for parts of his soul to be an interesting twist. I didn't think it was introduced very clearly though. All of a sudden he's being beckoned to by this dark shadow that later reveals itself to be part of him. Almost felt kind of random to me- when and why was he cursed? I'm expecting the second book to go into more detail about it though, so I was able to get past that and enjoy the storyline.

I wondered about the question of why he was cursed as well. It's possible that he is actually Richard and since they didn't want an enlighten on the throne for so many years someone was paid off to cast the curse. But there's another of the characters who has an even stronger possibility of being the prince. I'm hoping that at least some of these mysteries will have some time spent on it in the next book as well! Thanks so much for commenting!

I found the theme interesting but I haven't read HP so I really cannot compare the two.

cmabramo wrote: ↑09 Jan 2019, 22:13 Oooh the HP comparison is a good one. Yeah I find the search for parts of his soul to be an interesting twist. I didn't think it was introduced very clearly though. All of a sudden he's being beckoned to by this dark shadow that later reveals itself to be part of him. Almost felt kind of random to me- when and why was he cursed? I'm expecting the second book to go into more detail about it though, so I was able to get past that and enjoy the storyline.

I share the same sentiments. I do suspect that more will be explained in the next book(s). It did remind me of the Horcruxes in HP, conceptually. But, it also has its differences--not just because it's the protagonist's soul that is split rather than the antagonist--It's about Brimstone mastering each element and fulfilling his destiny.

I enjoyed this twist on that concept.

I would think that both take from some older legends and myths. Liches for example used phylacteries, and while they usually only had one it worked basically the same. Except it also made them undead. DnD has used those since the 70s I think. This use of demons feels like its more of a foreshadowing and metaphor about one's self, where in HP it was just kind of vaguely understood it made you-know-who less human