REVIEW
An e-arc of the book has been provided by the publisher, Penguin Random House International, in exchange for an honest review.
“Katerina stared at the skeletal body of the Holy Martyr.”
It would be dishonest to say that I was not impressed by a huge chunk of this book. I did not expect it to have such a wide range of diverse culture and characters. Moreover, I was not expecting these characters to have such a variety of motivational drivers that will make the book more exciting.
Gates of Stone is an Indonesian-inspired epic fantasy with cultural inspirations from Chinese, Japanese, and if I am not mistaken, Russian culture as well. I find this combination of ethnic determinants to be quite exciting and fascinating as you do not always get to read books with Asian cultures in them very so often — although, to be fair, they are wonderfully prevalent these days.
“It is one of the few benefits of a long life that one accretes wisdom. You pile it up over the years.”
The very foundation of the book, I believe, is the culture behind each of the characters and their strong beliefs and motivation to achieve their goals. In reality, the book follows three main characters; however, in my opinion, it sort of follows four. And although the fourth character may be considered as a “side-character” to the story, I think he was a detrimental cog that made the story’s wheels turn. Despite not being the very reason for the entire cast’s motive, he had enough screen-time to be considered part of the main cast.
Each of them had different agents of interest when it comes to goals and despite that, I was not able to find someone to connect with, I can’t begin to describe how unfortunate that is considering that there are quite a number of characters in this story. Even, to think, that there are three main characters and not having one connect with me is plain shocking. Although, there was a certain character that did try and reach out to me which was Cyrus Lodi he was another side-character to the story and I really liked him especially just before the story ended.
“The touch of their flanks, the feeling of their mutual heat, te pulse of life, that passed between them like a current, was better than a hundred voices singing together in beautiful harmonies.”
I was genuinely interested with the book especially having Asian setting; however, I was underwhelmed by it. There was a lack of descriptors when it comes to the world and characters. Maybe it’s just me but I reached the end without even having a strong imagery of what the world and the characters looked like. I don’t think I have even come across a passage where the author even mentioned a main character’s mole — or whatever specific feature it was.
In its very heart, this book was intriguing. There was a lot going on and it’s definitely difficult not to root for any of these characters. Despite that, I think the lack of good descriptions made it lackluster and it took away what little connection I would have had with its characters. I wasn’t able to connect well with them, hence, I wasn’t able to enjoy the story to its full potential.
