Title: Freedom's Gate

Author: KR_Williams

Genre: Fantasy

Quick Summary: For once, a fire fox is useful.

Thoughts:

There's a lot of things I like about this book. The magic system is interesting and way less light and dark [lol] than things first appear to be. I like the concept of Binding. I like how this is [mostly] not about the Chosen One, but rather about someone related to the Chosen One in some sort of way. I like that this book tackles mental abuse - and familial at that - head on and that it actually affects Kit and warps his state of mind.

I also don't like some things. I don't like all the POV switching. Half the time, it felt like a TV episode where they pan to the villain just so we can see how they're undermining the main character's plan. Short scenes of Ifrod [I can't remember his exact name] sending letters and being conniving. I didn't like it. On that token, chapter 24. What happened there? It feels like we switched POVs halfway through a scene and it's very disorienting - and not in a good way. I didn't like that we found out what happened to Kit after the mountain accident... but not from his perspective. All we hear over and over again is about the horse and not much else. 

I also don't like the prologue. It commits one of the big sins of prologues - not that it's history world-dumping, and not that it leads right into chapter one, but that it's basically one of the last scenes in the book, just with some alteration. That's not what a prologue is. That's not what a prologue is supposed to do. Take it out. 

And while I understand the magic's dialogue is stylized for effect, the combination bold/caps/I think italics kinda made my head hurt.

On a more neutral note, the world and the magic that resides in it definitely has depth. The class/race disparity has weight and it's a very obvious problem. A lot of the groups in this world are not cut-and-dry. The Dark Mages aren't all defectors. The Light Mages aren't all good. The... one rebel group. They have good intentions. There's a lot of morality to play with here, and play with it we do. It's fun to see.  And, again, I like how this is about a chosen one but not in the way we tend to think.

On one hand, I'm interested to see how this goes, but on the other I feel kinda eh about this? There's a lot to like, but a lot of technical things dampened my enjoyment and in general I didn't find myself wholeheartedly enthralled with this project like I wanted to be.