≡ Download Free The Armored Saint The Sacred Throne Myke Cole 9780765395955 Books

The Armored Saint The Sacred Throne Myke Cole 9780765395955 Books

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The Armored Saint The Sacred Throne Myke Cole 9780765395955 Books

I haven't read Myke Cole's other work, but I understand that this is his first attempt at epic fantasy - and as a first attempt, it's laudable. Cole creates a well-detailed and lived-in world for his characters to scramble around in, as well as an intimidating Disc One villain in Brother Tone. But while the characters and world are incredibly well-realized, the plot itself suffers from a major pacing issue. The book is a great deal shorter than I expected it to be, especially for a story of this size and scope, and it ends up concluding where most stories would normally begin - with its protagonist accepting the Call to Adventure, as it were.

And as much as I like Heloise, she's a frustrating character to root for. She's kind and brave, yes - all the things a heroine should be - but most of the problems that befall the people around her end up being her fault, and nobody really calls her on it. Plus, until the very end of the book, Heloise doesn't really make any big decisions that affect HER personal narrative, which leaves her feeling far weaker as a character than I think she was intended to be.

A fine start, with lots of room for improvement. Still can't wait to see what happens next, though.


Tags : The Armored Saint (The Sacred Throne) [Myke Cole] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. <b> Cole weaves a fantasy world that feels comfortably familiar, then goes to places you’d never expect. You won’t stop turning pages until the stunning finish. ―Peter V. Brett</b> <b></b> Myke Cole,Myke Cole,The Armored Saint (The Sacred Throne),Tor.com,0765395959,Fantasy - Epic,FICTION Fantasy Epic.,FICTION Fantasy Military.,Fantasy fiction,Magic,Magic.,460105 Tor.com Imprint Hardcover,AMERICAN SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY,FICTION Fantasy Epic,FICTION Fantasy Military,Fantasy,Fantasy Military,Fiction,Fiction-War & Military,FictionFantasy - Military,GENERAL,General Adult,Monograph Series, any,United States,epic fantasy; epic fantasy books; epic fantasy adventure; epic fantasy magic; epic fantasy war; epic battle fantasy; high fantasy; fantasy books for adults; fantasy books; books fantasy; best fantasy books; military fantasy; fantasy fiction; science fiction fantasy; best fantasy novels; modern fantasy; fantasy novels; fantasy series

The Armored Saint The Sacred Throne Myke Cole 9780765395955 Books Reviews

I wanted very badly to like this book. Unfortunately, I really, really didn't relate to the main character.

I liked every single other character in the book more than her. I liked her dad (well, sorta). I liked the mayor and the girl she had a crush on and the ranger and the mouse and the *bad* guys more than I liked her. She was the most tiresome, undisciplined, whiney, idiotic thing.

I was a teen girl. I remember it (with deep embarrassment, at times. Teen girls are, sometimes, quite stupid.) This struggle to write a realistic teen girl made me struggle to find some common ground with the character.

Thing is, I've read and related to old guys, old women, tomboys, gay men, irritating bratty kids, gay women, supper feminine women, badass warrior guys, sly lotharios, indeterminate robots, rabbits, horses, dogs - aliens - even insects. I just couldn't relate to this girl.

Maybe this is the beginning of a "making of" story where she turns into something awesome in later books, but she's like a lump of sand in this book. There's a lot of angsting over gender roles.

I applaud him for trying on this one and I bet the story gets better, but I just actively disliked being in her point of view so much. And that was a problem.
I'm not usually the target market for epic fantasy, but having seen my Twitter feed blow up with praise for this novel, I decided to give it a shot. I'm glad I did.

The novel is set in a secondary world in which demons tried to break through from beyond but failed thanks to an epic war. Now, the barrier between the two is maintained by The Order, an organization that makes the Spanish Inquisition look warm and cuddly. Heloise, the daughter of the town's scribe, runs afoul of a particularly nasty representative of that group. She also discovers that the group has a habit of occasionally burning (or "Knitting" as they call it) a town more-or-less for the hell of it.

Finally, she discovers that a good family friend is a wizard, and she's been told that wizardry leads to the devils getting out. Unfortunately, that bit about the devil getting out via wizardry is true, and Heloise discovers that at a particularly bad moment. By the time I got to that point in the book, I was reading it as fast as I could.

I found myself caring deeply for all of the characters in this book. Well, I didn't care at all for those characters affiliated with The Order, but they at least had the virtue of being right about the threat they faced. This was a nice reversal of the usual fantasy event. In short, my Twitter feed was right.
The Armored Saint was everything I didn't want it to be, and I loved it so much more because of that.

The book, and world it is about, has strong echoes of Warhammer/Warhammer 40k, but definitely falls into the Fantasy genre. In it, wizards are outlawed due to the fact magic opens a portal to hell and releases demons into the world, and the world is in the iron grip of a Church that worships a Holy Emperor. Honestly, if the book had the Warhammer logo on the cover I wouldn't have been surprised, but Myke Cole brings enough of his ingeuity and creativity to bear to make the world his own, and somehow darker than Warhammer and 40k have ever managed to be.

I dropped a star in part due to the length which I only feel fair from the claim the book is Epic Fantasy. While the trilogy may make for an Epic Fantasy tale, this book is not of that scope or scale. The entire story sticks around one village and many of the hallmarks of epic fantasy are missed due to the very close to home nature and feeling of the tale. Does it make it a bad read? No, it's just not epic fantasy yet. Instead it feels very much like the first 200 pages of a larger tome that has every possibility of growing into a true Epic Fantasy that folks will be talking about for years to come.
I haven't read Myke Cole's other work, but I understand that this is his first attempt at epic fantasy - and as a first attempt, it's laudable. Cole creates a well-detailed and lived-in world for his characters to scramble around in, as well as an intimidating Disc One villain in Brother Tone. But while the characters and world are incredibly well-realized, the plot itself suffers from a major pacing issue. The book is a great deal shorter than I expected it to be, especially for a story of this size and scope, and it ends up concluding where most stories would normally begin - with its protagonist accepting the Call to Adventure, as it were.

And as much as I like Heloise, she's a frustrating character to root for. She's kind and brave, yes - all the things a heroine should be - but most of the problems that befall the people around her end up being her fault, and nobody really calls her on it. Plus, until the very end of the book, Heloise doesn't really make any big decisions that affect HER personal narrative, which leaves her feeling far weaker as a character than I think she was intended to be.

A fine start, with lots of room for improvement. Still can't wait to see what happens next, though.