Kaz, a well-known lieutenant for the Dregs (a street
gang) is given the opportunity for the payday of a lifetime. The catch?
He and his crew must break into the Ice Castle, a fortress with a prison
no one has ever broken into (or escaped from) and bring back an important
prisoner… alive. In a world of magic,
rival gangs, and shaky alliances, the greatest heist in the land may turn into
the worst decision ever made.
Kaz is a bad guy doing bad things in a worse world. He walks with a limp, using a cane as both a
mobility aid and a weapon. Kaz cannot
stand to be touched, skin-to-skin. His backstory was interesting and his
character’s actions felt real because of it.
The book is really about an ensemble cast, and the author
gives all characters dimension and diversity.
Outside of Kaz we have Inej, the religious spy who hates killing (I read
her as Native or Latina). And Jesper, the gunslinger with a gambling problem
(he isn’t white, but am unsure what he’d be considered). Wylan, a young man with a privileged past and
an uncertain future accompanies them as well as a Grisha (magic-user) prostitute,
and a man raised to hunt Grisha into extinction.
The settings were nice, but weren’t described into
oblivion. I knew where the characters
were, enough details to imagine the places, and that’s it.
Kaz wasn’t the only one with a backstory, many other
characters had one as well, breaking into the flow of the “current story”. At first, this irritated me because I didn’t want
to be pulled between the present and past.
But, the backstories kept my attention and provided richness to the
characters developing in my mind as I read.
I began looking forward to the times I got another piece of the puzzle
that made up each character. There was a
scene or two where I didn’t realize the time transitioned, but that was rare.
The action was plentiful.
There were explosions, gunfights, and breathless escapes. The pacing seemed right, after adjusting to
the presence of the backstories.
The magic system in this book was pretty solid. There were different classes of magic with
different Grisha able to do different things.
It wasn’t the most unique concept, but it was interesting and served its
purpose well.
This book might not be for everyone. There is violence, the presence of sex
slavery (but no explicit rape). There is
also a drug in this story that makes Grisha (magic-users) almost immediately
addicted and has a large role in the novel.
There is a small aspect of this book, almost easy to
miss, that I don’t know how to feel about.
In this world, there are Grisha who are healers. Kaz has a limp because of a leg that set
wrong after breaking and chooses not to get it fixed. (I find nothing wrong
with not choosing a cure, in fact, it’s refreshing in fiction.) At one point, it mentions Kaz not fixing his
leg because he there is no part of him that hasn’t been broken, or made
stronger from the breaking. As if it
were a badge, I guess.
(I have many thoughts on this, maybe best left for next
week.)
I really liked and recommend this book. There is a sequel (out now) I will definitely
be reading. I hope the next one is as
exciting and rich as this one was.
One small warning,
this book ends on a cliffhanger.
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