Nikola Stefan

I dove into a tale based on Eastern European mythology and fairy tales. There is a lot of stuff here ;) - a girl with a special destiny (unfortunately, she turns into a bland and boring character in no time), a bunch of travelers with various secrets and talents who come together, wild hunts, vampires, werewolves and magic villages. I liked Žarko, the great warrior with giant whiskers and a wolf cloak – he was definitely inspired by Conan, with bits of Hercules and eternal wanderers of many legends thrown in. He has a temper and doesn’t drink water, only wine. It doesn’t seem healthy, but who am I to judge? Žarko was also the only entertaining character of the whole bunch. Here he is, confronting dark, strange and evil things:

“Žarko knew full well the kind of impression he made on people when he scowled; he imagined that those people felt quite similar to how he was feeling at this moment.”

What bothered me was how the writing didn’t quite come together. At times the fairy tale style and typically fairy tale dialogues were done well and made me smile. But overall, the writing felt subpar, like pieces of a puzzle trying to come together and not succeeding. Around 70-75%, something happened to the pacing, things were either happening to fast or too slowly. I lost patience and was bored. It’s a pity, there is potential here, but the execution did not impress.

I won this e-book in a StoryGraph giveaway, I’d like to thank the author and publisher.… (más)