【 A FOOL’S HOPE 】

book #2 in the Last War series

DNF at 70%

Genre: Fantasy
Audience: Adult
Author: Mike Shackle
Published: December 2020
Publisher: Gollancz
Pages: 594 (paperback)

TLDR: this was so boring it made me angry.

Ehhhh. What a disappointment. Having absolutely adored book one, I was sorely let down by this instalment, which felt like it had none of the good stuff that made book one the epic read that it was.

I think I knew from early on that I wasn’t loving this as much as I had anticipated I would. But I soldiered on until 70%, at which point I found myself looking for excuses to not pick this back up. I did the audiobook version, and I don’t think any of my complaints lie with the audiobook production – it really came down to the storytelling. And with that, I had many issues.

With the number of good and great reviews out there, I’m left feeling like I’ve read a different book to everyone else. This is in no way, shape or form better than book one. Nuh uh. This was a bit of a structural mess and a whiplash hazard for how much, and how instantaneously, our favourite characters have changed.

My ultimate gripe with A Fool’s Hope is that I was mind-numbingly bored. This book, for me, seriously suffered the sequel downfall of filler syndrome. For over half of the book, next to nothing happens. There are a lot of POVs in this, which obviously slows things down, but none of them were very interesting and most of them left me disappointed in the character development (or lack thereof) that had gone on.

Tinnstra is my second biggest gripe. Seriously, what the heck!? I completely fell in love with her character in book one, only to be presented with the angriest, hot-headed idiot in book two. And while I don’t remember having any problems with her motherly stance towards Zorique in the first book, I actually found that really annoying in this one. But come on, Tinnstra turns into one of those classic pig-headed characters who won’t listen to reason and lashes out most people trying to help her. This ain’t the Tinnstra we knew.

Dren was fine-ish. But I’ve seen other people mention how he crawls about half-dead with sickness for a solid portion of the book and yet hulks himself into superhero mode spontaneously when the need arises. Which, I agree, was very implausible. Dren, please take a nap and get better.

I hated Yas in this book. Again, to reference another review, her entire personality is about how much she loves her son and would do anything for him. And UGH. Boring. BORING. Where is her identity? Where is her fire?!

A smaller gripe, but one that really contributed to my DNFing, was the time-travel aspects. Not to do with the lore or anything, but simply down to the time jumps where suddenly many, many years were smooshed together within a span of chapters to help frog-jump us to where we needed to be. And I wouldn’t want this book to be any longer than it already is, but that felt like a cheap option to me. When we’ve invested so much time painfully crawling through the present earlier in the book, to hop, skip and jump through a decade or more was disorientating and disappointing. It felt like a forced plot device – a means to an end – but certianly not one that felt organic.

It left me feeling like we were watching someone tediously push pieces around a chessboard with no clear endgame in sight. I nearly convinced myself to persevere through to the end in case things turned around, but I just couldn’t. This was a devastating blow, given how much I loved book one, and I’ll always be sad to have set this series aside. But life is too short to stick it out with soured characters and an aimlessly meandering plot.

Title: A Fool’s Hope
Series: The Last War
Author: Mike Shackle
Add it on Goodreads

War takes everything.

From Tinnstra, it took her family and thrust her into a conflict she wanted only to avoid. Now her queen’s sole protector, she must give everything she has left to keep Zorique safe.

It has taken just as much from Jia’s revolutionaries. Dren and Jax – battered, tortured, once enemies themselves – now must hold strong against their bruised invaders, the Egril.

For the enemy intends to wipe Jia from the map. They may have lost a battle, but they are coming back. And if Tinnstra and her allies hope to survive, Jia’s heroes will need to be ready when they do.

The sequel to the darkly fantastic WE ARE THE DEAD: with more unflinching action, A FOOL’S HOPE sees Jia’s revolutionaries dig in their heels as they learn that wars aren’t won in a day.