SPOILERS: Although a majority of the story was all build up and foreshadow for what's going to happen in the next book, I actually really liked King of Scars because I enjoyed how the character development was done where the 3 Saints Zoya, Nikolai, and Yuri meet are supposed to represent each of their struggles of trying to find their purpose. • Like Juris is Zoya's potential if she let's go of her fears and embraces her destiny. • As for Grigori's struggle to shift between his bear form and human form reflects Nikolai's fight against the demon as well as him losing control over Ravka. It even reflects how Nikolai struggles to find himself since he uses multiple facades to hide his true self from the world. Also, I liked how Nikolai not killing the demon at the end is him accepting the darkest parts of himself and being okay with the fact that he is broken and can never return to the person he was before the war and before the monster took over his life. As for Elizaveta, her pretending to be innocent and kind was just foreshadowing Yuri's betrayal at the end. Also, Elizaveta and Nikolai being stabbed in the heart or by their own thorn wood purposefully paralleled with Isaak's and Mayu/Princess Ehri's death to foreshadow the death of hope, love, and joy in the world and the birth of despair, death, and destruction. Even the "miracles" that were happening throughout Ravka have a lot more meaning to it: For example, the red roses coming out of Sankta Elizaveta's skull symbolizes a tragic loss and everlasting love which is why the demon in Nikolai was unleashed at the shrine because it's near the place where The Darkling lost everything: Alina, his influence and power, and his life. Also, Elizaveta did say her powers are the strongest at their shrines so she probably had influence over the demon. As for the bone bridge miracle that actually symbolizes the bridge between heaven and earth connecting. In this case, it's the 'making at the heart of the world' and Ravka. And the earthquakes Bardugo said that those are actually parts of the Shadow Fold spreading throughout Ravka which is why Sankt Grigori tells Nikolai that if he fails the ritual, then it will leave a tear upon the world. Also, earthquakes always foreshadow destruction of the old ways and the birth of a new world. Overall, I just really love when authors use a lot of metaphors and symbolism to tell a story since I enjoy analyzing and interpreting the meaning behind them.
*SPOILERS* I felt the same way! I know a lot of people were excited about the Darkling but my reaction was more “ugh we’re doing this again?” I think I may have skipped some Nina chapters bc it was so disconnected from the Nicholai and Zoya storyline and honestly kind of boring. I really wanted to like this so maybe I had my expectations too high but I’m not sure I want to continue the series
I guess it makes sense that The Darkling is back because they always foreshadowed that he would be redeemed in the Grisha trilogy, but he didn't technically do anything redeemable before Alina killed him. Maybe this duology is The Darkling's redemption story?? Maybe Bardugo is putting more meaning to when The Darkling said to Alina "You and I are going to change the world" and that's how he gets redeemed, but Alina doesn't have her powers anymore so I'm not sure how that would work out or if she'll even be in the next book. I don't sound like it, but I am happy The Darkling is back. I'm just worried that his story will be ruined lol.
@@ashleyelisabeth4 honestly, I'm a darkling fan but I didn't think the darkling needed to be brought back. His arc was over, over, over, this is just... Pointless. Like leigh couldn't think of a new villain and just trew him back in the most (in my opinion) ridiculous way. I also don't like how Alina's fate was made completely pointless, the trilogy is my favorite series bc of her and the darkling constant push and pull dynamic and fight against each other and now it just.... What was the point? Of it all? Really
While I really do love the Darkling, I really REALLY think this is an insult to his death and the way it ended in ruin and rising. It’s really ridiculous. Just let the guy fucking rest, and let other villains come in.
Agreed. I also think she just squeezed more money out of his body with the books. The final scene in ruin and rising will never have the same impact, it just pisses me off
Ugh I hated King of Scars. How can this be marketed as Nikolai's book when he really doesn't DO anything? The characters were just paper cutouts of themselves and the whole Nina thing... I don't even know what to say. And the connection between Zoya and Nikolai felt really forced to me. Also what the heck was that extra perspective? And then the ending. There is nothing that I hate more than that trope.
@@bibliophage4217 I didn't mind that he was brought back, but I agree that the fact he took possession of Yuri's body was not how I wanted him to return.
I had pretty much the same criticisms for KoS as you did, Elliot 😂 I was so hopeful because I loved Nina and Nikolai from previous Grisha books, but came out of KoS feeling like Nina's storyline was irrelevant and Nikolai was sidelined in favor of Zoya (Bardugo has even said that Zoya was her favorite character to write for this novel). The 4th POV was boring and added very little to the rest of the story. I also didn't like the magic stuff that happened at the end and don't even remember what the revelations were because I was so upset about them 😅
Lol, me too, it actually makes me sad to say that king of scars felt like a fanfic. i mean, I LOVED the magic system rules and world building around grisha, but now it is just really messy and, as I said, fanfickish(?). Beacause, if this all was possible in the first place, why all the struggle during 5 books? Why make Alina lose her powers?
I really liked this installment, but that’s mostly because of Zoya and Nikolai. I did have a problem with the ending though, and I’m hoping this gets adjusted when the second book comes out. I didn’t mind the Nina parts that much, but I agree that it wasn’t as directly correlated to the main plot as it could have been.
King of Scars took a while for me to get through. I wholeheartedly agree with everything you said about Nina’s POV. Also yeah it did seem like Brdugo was dismantling the structure of her magic system with this one which annoyed me a little bit. I liked that the Grisha’s powers are kinda limited, it’s why the entire thing with jurda parem made so much sense!!! But I can’t say I’m mad about the Darkling coming back...
I liked King of Scars but I 100% agree with your criticisms. SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!! I’m really not looking forward to reading about them defeating the Darkling all over again in the next book. They literally did it for THREE books before!!!
Yes, I agree. I felt bad for Alina because after all the things she did...he'll just be resurrected? And they have to go through this sh!t all over again?! 🙃
I loved how the darkling died in ruin and rising. "Say my name" "Alexander" It was so beautiful. How dare she do this to the darkling 😭 After being on a all time high on shadow and bone trilogy and SOC duology I think I'd rather not ruin the grishaverse universe for myself by reading King of scars. ❤️
I didn't like how this book basically destroyed the grishaverse's magic system at the end. Also should have picked a particular perspective to focus on more heavily and then move around for later books. But overall it was OK.
This review hits everything I was thinking. -Nikolai a side character in his own book. -Second half ruins its own magic system and makes little sense. -Nina irrelevant and actually very annoying. I wanted to skip every time but thought it'd pick up since she was one of my favorites in Six of Crows. It actually just ruined Nina for me.
I tried to read king of scars 3 or 4 times but I just couldn't get into it. I haven't read a Bardugo book in a while, I loved Six of Crows and I liked the Grisha trilogy though as a a Slavic person I have some issues with it. But the writing in King of Scars felt juvenile and I feel no desire to read having learned more about the plot. Especially the Darling part because I think his death was so powerful that I cried during the chapter of funeral chapter.
@@nosferatum791 as another Slavic person, here is a shortlist of the main points that people take issue with, the stars vague indicate my level of frustration with each point (that is not to say I, or they, dislike the series, it simply means that these things are the stuff that comes up while reading the books): ***** Improperly gendered last names. While you could say "Tamar" is Hebrew, other names do not make as much sense. This is, personally, my biggest issue with the book (which is pretty minor but it's an eyesore) is with last names of "Nazyalensky". It should have been "Nezyalenska". "Morozova" should have been "Morozov" since the last names are patronym naming the names of fathers so like Morozov is "Ilya son of Moroz" type thing. It might have been fine if only she was consistent if she wanted to make it based on the mother's side, not father's. The Russian booktubers didn't point it out (like Kopiy Semyon when mentioning Alina I think) so the Russian translation might have fixed that to be consistent. ***the food they eat, the aesthetics- very stereotypical from what other Russian booktubers mentioned (I wasn't paying attention too much to it so I'm sure someone on Goodreads has commented on the finer points). Oh, and I just remembered Books & Waffles made a video on it "Russian Reading Grisha Trilogy" for a video in English discussing Russian history and myth comparison. ** one Russian booktuber (bookspace) pointed out how it was based on the imperial period but the book used "koroleva" (so technically it should have been "tsaritsa"). Pretty minor stuff really but since you asked I thought to point it out. **the "Grisha" thing, it's not too bad but it can be annoying to some. or Ghenya instead of "Zhenya" ? Like I remember watching a video of the author pronouncing it and giving the impression that is trying to mimic Russian convention somewhat, so it's odd that she spelled it wrong. Like, since Genya lived in Ravka, you would think she would spell it according to the Ravkan convention. Idk, Google points me in the direction of Georgia but her last name seems to point to Western Europe... I didn't notice it as much until she tried to pronounce it, take that one as you will. ** kvas being an alcoholic drink (it doesn't have that many degrees. Kids drink it, I remember drinking it as a kid) it just seems odd, it's like a person telling you 'hey, that's soda is now an alcoholic drink in this world' it's like trying to sound edgy for drinking Coca-Cola. They should diversify what they drink, lol. But I guess that's a world-building thing. * the language thing- I overlook this since I can't expect her to know Russian (though the otkazatsya thing frustrated me for a bit, I may have convinced myself that they are named that because "[they] refused [magic]") but since you asked I might as well put that here. On the positive side, the adaptation seemed to have gotten a linguist so there is hope for a fully functional Ravkan language. **also a personal issue with the Grisha books: Aparat and religion, people looked like zombies and the problem is it framed the majority as such. My issue is that it shows how the nobles probably saw people instead of Idk countering by also showing the intellectual and the intelligentsia of Ravka fighting against the king (that just might be me since I'm reading Well of Ascension at the moment, lol.) Like Elliot said in her review of the series, the Grisha series' world-building suffers from being from Alina's POV since we don't really get to see much of the country. This is not to say that the problem is with Russian history shown in a positive light (though it's not if you actually look, the aesthetics seem to try to, but the king and the Aparat are shown in a bad light, same with like the 'peasant's diet' or whatever), it is simply how the author incorporated certain elements and wasn't consistent (like the gendered last names, the rest I don't particularly care that much since it's fantasy). The Russian booktubers still liked that it was based on Russian culture, but they mention things that were kind of odd, 'like Russia but in an exotic light' (I think bookspace said that). It's an interesting world, but when compared, these things come up. The whole 'what about other Slavs' as you accidentally pointed out is another topic but clearly, Ravka probably doesn't have any other Slavic groups so that's beside the point, the focus is the comparison to Russian culture as I've shown above. I'm still looking forward to seeing where the author goes with her books and how she builds up her world. If there will be separatists that split from Ravka, will there be a religious system of pagan gods that once existed (this is a stretch but I'm still wondering if this could happen)? Will, there be a class struggle, or will Marx be right for once and Ketterdam is the one to revolt (sorry, but had to add that since she started added industrialism as a theme)? Will we get more steampunk *starry-eyed*, Will WWI happen? (since it was more than just Franz Ferdinand, around that time they were on always on the brink of starting a war, it was the militarism, the imperialism, the alliances and the nationalism...) Will there be a World Fair? And so on. I'm going to go now, I am definitely overthinking this, lol.
@@Heres_To_Music Thank You for Your reply. Just to let You know - I am Slavic myself, Polish of Rusyn/Ruthenian origin (Kamieniec Podolski), so You didn't need to explain the names endings for me, but It'll be useful for other people. I will read everything tomorrow. Hope that Elliot gives You heart :) Ещё рая большое Тебе спасибо за сообщение и pozdrawiam serdecznie :)
I am reading the book right now, and at the moment am on like ~350th page, not really understanding why people don't like the book. I've heard that they are not getting enough of Nikolai and it felt like they were reading more about Zoya, although I think their parts so far is distributed not badly. I am also enjoying the parts about Isaac and Nina, and love the character arcs that are written out in the book.
I totally agree. The 2nd half of this reminded me of all my least favorite aspects of the S&B trilogy--particularly the feeling that Bardugo is making up her magic and world as she goes along and can just throw anything in with no buildup or relationship to established rules (see everything about Mal in R&R).
Nikolai's and Zoya's character developments have been neatly done in this book. Nina appears to be a returning character in a spin-off whose emotional baggage has yet to be proven significant in the story. I'm toying with the idea that a sequel of this book should be more interesting if it involves a little war waged due to politics and struggle of power over territories. 🤓
I totally accept the part in which you said the first half made you feel like it was gonna be a new favorite in the Grishaverse, but it ended up being not one. I liked the starting of the second half but the progression didn't feel like it was written by Leigh. Also, it felt more like a Zoya book rather than a Nikolai book. I hope Nina's plot line has something bigger and better to do in the next installment because Nikolai is my favorite from the trilogy and Nina is my favorite from the duology and I felt like both of them were messed up in this one.
*spoilers* I can't stress this enough but I HATE that the d*kling is back i liked his character in the trilogy but I dont like resserection trope that much and this got me so disappointed
I just finished the story yesterday, and I loved it. I went into King of Scars having a few spoilers, so my reactions to certain reveals may not be completely authentic, but I am very happy with this book. Yes, it´s quite tropey at times, and the tropes are not the most original ones. However, I appreciate what Leigh Bardugo did with the characters. For me, what they do and how they behave, feels true to their nature and the circumstances, and it feels like a completely logical progression given that they are all a bit older and have been through significant trauma. I was actually surprised that this book felt quite mature to me - the way the characters interact with one another, and especially the way Zoya and Nikolai´s relationship is portrayed. Finally, there is a YA book without tons of angsty insta-lovey romance (though I enjoy that too), but rather a natural slow-burning relationship between two equals. They share a true partnership, which I have not seen in YA novels that often, and I am delighted about that. I am very excited for the next book already :) *SPOILERS AHEAD* As to the Darkling, I am curious to see where this storyline goes. If the author does not mess it up, it can be interesting. But then again, I never understood the hype around him in the original trilogy. I love those books, but personally, I find the Darkling bland and poorly fleshed-out. I love the flashbacks and Baghra´s story, but I find the Darkling to be incredibly flat as a villain, which is a shame because I was really looking forward to his character arc specifically. Now, I get a do-over :)
There is actually a Shadow and Bone prequel called 'The Demon in the Wood' that goes into detail about The Darkling's backstory where you learn why he is so detached and the reasoning behind his motives. It's short, but it definitely adds more layers to his character. On Amazon (Kindle) it's only 0.99¢.
I liked the set up and premise of Nikolai's plot, but honestly for me, Nina's plotline carried the book. I felt so bored by Nikolai and Zoya's plot that it was exciting every time we swapped back to Nina. This was surprising because I really like Nikolai's character, but yeah...It just didn't land for me.
SPOILERS I liked King of Scars, not as much as the Six Of Crows duology though. I'm not sure where it falls in comparison to the Shadow and Bone books, but I did like it quite a lot. And, yes, I was a little underwhelmed by Nina's point of view, but one thing I loved about it was how much we got to learn about Fjerda and its culture and people. We did get a lot from Matthias in the previous books, yes, but I feel like in King of Scars Leigh elaborated much more on how everything works over there. I found it really interesting.
i completely agree with people wanting this one to be called *queen of storms* 😂 scratch nikolai give him his own novel, bring inej and tamar's POVs for a full girl power duology which is basically what we got with this first installment SPOILER ps I would never regret nikolai and zoya being a mother-freaking power couple LOVED them and I personally don't like high HIGH fantasy so the second half wasn't very enjoyable to me still gave it 4 stars tho
I completely get why people didnt like Nina's plot line but tbh I preferred it. I am completely fine that it didnt have much to do with the rest, I dont think it really needed to.
Actually, the Grisha being named after Saint Grigori was mentioned in the original trilogy. I don't recall exactly which book, but it was probably book 3 because of the entanglement with the Apperat and his followers underground. Sure, LB might have written it in response to the criticism, but it was done years ago, not just in King of Scars.
Hard agree with everything you've said. If I didn't love Nikolai & co and their witty banters so much, I probably would've given KoS less than three stars. Very disappointing :( :(
@@katelynn1053 believe it or not...I haven't read it yet. Somehow I'm still as excited as a year ago to read it but I just don't start it for some reason lmao.
@elliotbrooks. This is unrelated to King of Scars but..... How has the writing progress of: Remnants of Dawn (The Dark Shores book 2) been going???? And, I know things are kinda just now getting back to normal in the world, but when it comes to publishing book 2, can you give an idea of when it would be likely to come out????
I completely agree about the plot progression of this book. I still really liked it (gave it 4/5 stars, mainly because of Nikolai and Zoya) but I just thought the whole Saints thing in part 2 was a very strange way to go and I'm still not entirely sure how I feel about it. Also, Nina... I loved Nina in SoC, but I wasn't that into her perspective in this because I feel like the emotional connection was just gone and it slowed the pace down exponentially.
This is irrelevant for the book but you mentioned games and side quests. And I happened to be playing Horizon Zero Dawn again after the sequel was revealed during the ps5 announcement event. Are you excited for the sequel and plan on getting a PS5 for it? Im having so much fun running through HZD again!
I did love the beginning of this... Nina felt like an afterthought and her parts took me out of book as a whole. I do have hope for book 2 but it sucks when the answer is... wait for book 2🙄. Definitely Nikolais and Zoyas book. Nina... deserves better.
SPOILERS I LOVED Nina's storyline, her grief felt so real and you don't often get a book where the author actually takes the time to let their characters grieve
Even though I'd like to, I really don't know if I should read KoS, because, as you said, I should read the Grisha trilogy before that, and as much as I liked the Six of Crows duology, I didn't really enjoy the first book in the Grisha trilogy, and I don't want to go on with it, so this being a "required" read for may make KoS a no-no for me, so what should I do? hahahahah
KoS was such a disappointment. It stings so much cz I had so much expectations from it. The plot line was super predictable and a lot of times dragged. And it's really weird how I liked Zoya's POV and demeanor way more than Nina and even Nikolai¿ And that ending ugh, WHY THE SAME THING AGAIN? WHY 😔
Spoilers: I was so frustrated with this book, how it makes the first trilogy seem pointless. I’m happy I’m not the only one who was like “ugh not this”. It also is not as smooth as the trilogy or six of crows.
I enjoyed KoS overall but the quantity of issues that nag me got larger rather than smaller. Bardugo keeps escalating her magic system and the world in ways that I find disturbing. In less than a decade this world has gone from horse drawn carriages to Tanks, Airplanes, submarines, Bombers, and chemical warfare. If th mere presence of the Grisha could do that, it should have happened long ago. The whole concept of Jurda Parem is also really annoying to me. Grisha power is tied to the making at the center of the world but they are usually weak... but adict them to crack and they become gods that you can string along for their next fix. I find this idiotic. If you turned any fabricator into a god with Parem, they should immediately know how to fabricate the drug for themselves and they wouldn't need their captors. A Healer on the stuff should be able to see how to heal themself, or any other Grisha who was suffering the withdrawal. It isn't mind control. It says they will do anything for more... so why don't they just make more or take it from their captors? Why not kill thier captors and take the stuff off their rotting corpses?
I loved Nikolai and Noya's POVs, in fact I actually loved Noya as a character compared to my resentment for pretty much the whole of the Shadow and Bone trilogy. I found Nina annoying and the whole addition of her side of the story unnecessary. And don't even get me started on the ending. It felt rushed and was, in my mind, quite cliché. I feel like Yuri and the Apparat plus the rest of the Triumvirate's/Ravka's enemies would have been more than enough trouble and brilliant enemies. SPOILER ahead The Darkling did not need to come back. I think that was clumsy writing, like come on, seriously!? Yuri had and would continue to cause them problems, the Apparat was no where to be seen by the end (plenty to be worked with there) never mind the failed-successful assassination attempt. That (the return) massively let the book down, along with an almost futile POV from Nina. Otherwise I vividly enjoyed.
Yeah, Mathias was killed off to make way for Nina to be the LGBT relationship hook. She beautiful tom-boy whom she has the hots for almost immediately and then that girl turn out to be a trans man. Check box, Check Box, Check box.
I suppose that this should go down in your list of shallow reasons to refuse to read a book buuuuut...I really tried to get into the Grishaverse and can't do it because of the coopting of Russian culture. Unless there is a specific reason why everything in your universe has Russian sounding themes, just randomly using Russian or Russian sounding words is incredibly off-putting. I suppose that should be true for any culture but for me the Russian thing is particularly grating. I suppose , this can be attributed to it's overuse in popular media. Sure if Leigh wanted to actually do research on Russia and actually do the work of setting it an alternate version of Russia or WAS Russian and was writing what she knew, it would be completely different. But she is using Russian sounding themes to shortcut worldbuilding. I tried starting with Six of Crows and the Grisha trillogy and no. Just no.
I feel you but sadly, when this is the closest thing the Americans think they know about other cultures, they'll praise it, eat it up and profit out of it. Leigh could have easily done some good and accurate research about about it and I kid you not I could have respected that. Instead, she chose the easy way out of handpicking what she thinks that sounds cool and changing the rest up to suit her plata. Again, if she actually sat down and accepted something are meant to stay as it is or not actually the way it is if translated into English, I would have respected the decision far better than this. And don't get me started on changing other character's skin just to sound yes, Sound cause that's what POC deserve, inclusive. Zoya was drawn to be white for the longest time and she approved them in her tumblr but now she's Suli with brown skin???? No, just no. Not worth it, rather find another who's actually not a c*nt.
SPOILERS:
Although a majority of the story was all build up and foreshadow for what's going to happen in the next book, I actually really liked King of Scars because I enjoyed how the character development was done where the 3 Saints Zoya, Nikolai, and Yuri meet are supposed to represent each of their struggles of trying to find their purpose.
• Like Juris is Zoya's potential if she let's go of her fears and embraces her destiny.
• As for Grigori's struggle to shift between his bear form and human form reflects Nikolai's fight against the demon as well as him losing control over Ravka. It even reflects how Nikolai struggles to find himself since he uses multiple facades to hide his true self from the world.
Also, I liked how Nikolai not killing the demon at the end is him accepting the darkest parts of himself and being okay with the fact that he is broken and can never return to the person he was before the war and before the monster took over his life.
As for Elizaveta, her pretending to be innocent and kind was just foreshadowing Yuri's betrayal at the end.
Also, Elizaveta and Nikolai being stabbed in the heart or by their own thorn wood purposefully paralleled with Isaak's and Mayu/Princess Ehri's death to foreshadow the death of hope, love, and joy in the world and the birth of despair, death, and destruction.
Even the "miracles" that were happening throughout Ravka have a lot more meaning to it:
For example, the red roses coming out of Sankta Elizaveta's skull symbolizes a tragic loss and everlasting love which is why the demon in Nikolai was unleashed at the shrine because it's near the place where The Darkling lost everything: Alina, his influence and power, and his life. Also, Elizaveta did say her powers are the strongest at their shrines so she probably had influence over the demon.
As for the bone bridge miracle that actually symbolizes the bridge between heaven and earth connecting. In this case, it's the 'making at the heart of the world' and Ravka.
And the earthquakes Bardugo said that those are actually parts of the Shadow Fold spreading throughout Ravka which is why Sankt Grigori tells Nikolai that if he fails the ritual, then it will leave a tear upon the world. Also, earthquakes always foreshadow destruction of the old ways and the birth of a new world.
Overall, I just really love when authors use a lot of metaphors and symbolism to tell a story since I enjoy analyzing and interpreting the meaning behind them.
*SPOILERS* I felt the same way! I know a lot of people were excited about the Darkling but my reaction was more “ugh we’re doing this again?” I think I may have skipped some Nina chapters bc it was so disconnected from the Nicholai and Zoya storyline and honestly kind of boring. I really wanted to like this so maybe I had my expectations too high but I’m not sure I want to continue the series
I completaly skiped the Nina's POV
@@heinemal me tooo
I guess it makes sense that The Darkling is back because they always foreshadowed that he would be redeemed in the Grisha trilogy, but he didn't technically do anything redeemable before Alina killed him. Maybe this duology is The Darkling's redemption story??
Maybe Bardugo is putting more meaning to when The Darkling said to Alina "You and I are going to change the world" and that's how he gets redeemed, but Alina doesn't have her powers anymore so I'm not sure how that would work out or if she'll even be in the next book.
I don't sound like it, but I am happy The Darkling is back. I'm just worried that his story will be ruined lol.
exactly my reaction
@@ashleyelisabeth4 honestly, I'm a darkling fan but I didn't think the darkling needed to be brought back. His arc was over, over, over, this is just... Pointless. Like leigh couldn't think of a new villain and just trew him back in the most (in my opinion) ridiculous way. I also don't like how Alina's fate was made completely pointless, the trilogy is my favorite series bc of her and the darkling constant push and pull dynamic and fight against each other and now it just.... What was the point? Of it all? Really
While I really do love the Darkling, I really REALLY think this is an insult to his death and the way it ended in ruin and rising. It’s really ridiculous. Just let the guy fucking rest, and let other villains come in.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🙌
Seems like she took the idea right from Fanfic 😂
Agreed. I also think she just squeezed more money out of his body with the books. The final scene in ruin and rising will never have the same impact, it just pisses me off
@@nataliafigueredo7126exactly! Whenever I reread ruin and rising I’ll be like “welllll he didn’t actually die”
Ugh I hated King of Scars. How can this be marketed as Nikolai's book when he really doesn't DO anything? The characters were just paper cutouts of themselves and the whole Nina thing... I don't even know what to say. And the connection between Zoya and Nikolai felt really forced to me. Also what the heck was that extra perspective? And then the ending. There is nothing that I hate more than that trope.
PREACH
My lady, I could marry you for this comment. To me, "nikolai" series is just like the cursed child, we do not speak its name
King of Scars was such a disappointment to me. The return of a certain thing just made me so mad. Grrrr..
That certain thing is my absolutely facorite character and I still did not enjoy the way it was done.
"It's good to be home"
@@bibliophage4217 I didn't mind that he was brought back, but I agree that the fact he took possession of Yuri's body was not how I wanted him to return.
He shouldn't have died in the first place
@@bibliophage4217 The Darkling is also my fav character
I had pretty much the same criticisms for KoS as you did, Elliot 😂 I was so hopeful because I loved Nina and Nikolai from previous Grisha books, but came out of KoS feeling like Nina's storyline was irrelevant and Nikolai was sidelined in favor of Zoya (Bardugo has even said that Zoya was her favorite character to write for this novel). The 4th POV was boring and added very little to the rest of the story. I also didn't like the magic stuff that happened at the end and don't even remember what the revelations were because I was so upset about them 😅
Lol, me too, it actually makes me sad to say that king of scars felt like a fanfic. i mean, I LOVED the magic system rules and world building around grisha, but now it is just really messy and, as I said, fanfickish(?). Beacause, if this all was possible in the first place, why all the struggle during 5 books? Why make Alina lose her powers?
I really liked this installment, but that’s mostly because of Zoya and Nikolai. I did have a problem with the ending though, and I’m hoping this gets adjusted when the second book comes out. I didn’t mind the Nina parts that much, but I agree that it wasn’t as directly correlated to the main plot as it could have been.
King of Scars took a while for me to get through. I wholeheartedly agree with everything you said about Nina’s POV. Also yeah it did seem like Brdugo was dismantling the structure of her magic system with this one which annoyed me a little bit. I liked that the Grisha’s powers are kinda limited, it’s why the entire thing with jurda parem made so much sense!!!
But
I can’t say I’m mad about the Darkling coming back...
I liked King of Scars but I 100% agree with your criticisms. SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!!
I’m really not looking forward to reading about them defeating the Darkling all over again in the next book. They literally did it for THREE books before!!!
Yes, I agree. I felt bad for Alina because after all the things she did...he'll just be resurrected? And they have to go through this sh!t all over again?! 🙃
EXACTLY
I read six of Crows first and was completely fine
I loved how the darkling died in ruin and rising.
"Say my name"
"Alexander"
It was so beautiful. How dare she do this to the darkling 😭
After being on a all time high on shadow and bone trilogy and SOC duology I think I'd rather not ruin the grishaverse universe for myself by reading King of scars. ❤️
Fanart all over the internet ruined our plan, I guess 💀
I'm happy that someone else is sad with me
I didn't like how this book basically destroyed the grishaverse's magic system at the end. Also should have picked a particular perspective to focus on more heavily and then move around for later books. But overall it was OK.
This review hits everything I was thinking.
-Nikolai a side character in his own book.
-Second half ruins its own magic system and makes little sense.
-Nina irrelevant and actually very annoying. I wanted to skip every time but thought it'd pick up since she was one of my favorites in Six of Crows. It actually just ruined Nina for me.
I tried to read king of scars 3 or 4 times but I just couldn't get into it. I haven't read a Bardugo book in a while, I loved Six of Crows and I liked the Grisha trilogy though as a a Slavic person I have some issues with it. But the writing in King of Scars felt juvenile and I feel no desire to read having learned more about the plot. Especially the Darling part because I think his death was so powerful that I cried during the chapter of funeral chapter.
What are Your issues with the Grisha trilogy? Are they related to the way the Russian Tsardom seems to be portrayed (positively)?
@@nosferatum791 as another Slavic person, here is a shortlist of the main points that people take issue with, the stars vague indicate my level of frustration with each point (that is not to say I, or they, dislike the series, it simply means that these things are the stuff that comes up while reading the books):
***** Improperly gendered last names. While you could say "Tamar" is Hebrew, other names do not make as much sense. This is, personally, my biggest issue with the book (which is pretty minor but it's an eyesore) is with last names of "Nazyalensky". It should have been "Nezyalenska". "Morozova" should have been "Morozov" since the last names are patronym naming the names of fathers so like Morozov is "Ilya son of Moroz" type thing. It might have been fine if only she was consistent if she wanted to make it based on the mother's side, not father's. The Russian booktubers didn't point it out (like Kopiy Semyon when mentioning Alina I think) so the Russian translation might have fixed that to be consistent.
***the food they eat, the aesthetics- very stereotypical from what other Russian booktubers mentioned (I wasn't paying attention too much to it so I'm sure someone on Goodreads has commented on the finer points). Oh, and I just remembered Books & Waffles made a video on it "Russian Reading Grisha Trilogy" for a video in English discussing Russian history and myth comparison.
** one Russian booktuber (bookspace) pointed out how it was based on the imperial period but the book used "koroleva" (so technically it should have been "tsaritsa"). Pretty minor stuff really but since you asked I thought to point it out.
**the "Grisha" thing, it's not too bad but it can be annoying to some. or Ghenya instead of "Zhenya" ? Like I remember watching a video of the author pronouncing it and giving the impression that is trying to mimic Russian convention somewhat, so it's odd that she spelled it wrong. Like, since Genya lived in Ravka, you would think she would spell it according to the Ravkan convention. Idk, Google points me in the direction of Georgia but her last name seems to point to Western Europe... I didn't notice it as much until she tried to pronounce it, take that one as you will.
** kvas being an alcoholic drink (it doesn't have that many degrees. Kids drink it, I remember drinking it as a kid) it just seems odd, it's like a person telling you 'hey, that's soda is now an alcoholic drink in this world' it's like trying to sound edgy for drinking Coca-Cola. They should diversify what they drink, lol. But I guess that's a world-building thing.
* the language thing- I overlook this since I can't expect her to know Russian (though the otkazatsya thing frustrated me for a bit, I may have convinced myself that they are named that because "[they] refused [magic]") but since you asked I might as well put that here. On the positive side, the adaptation seemed to have gotten a linguist so there is hope for a fully functional Ravkan language.
**also a personal issue with the Grisha books: Aparat and religion, people looked like zombies and the problem is it framed the majority as such. My issue is that it shows how the nobles probably saw people instead of Idk countering by also showing the intellectual and the intelligentsia of Ravka fighting against the king (that just might be me since I'm reading Well of Ascension at the moment, lol.) Like Elliot said in her review of the series, the Grisha series' world-building suffers from being from Alina's POV since we don't really get to see much of the country.
This is not to say that the problem is with Russian history shown in a positive light (though it's not if you actually look, the aesthetics seem to try to, but the king and the Aparat are shown in a bad light, same with like the 'peasant's diet' or whatever), it is simply how the author incorporated certain elements and wasn't consistent (like the gendered last names, the rest I don't particularly care that much since it's fantasy). The Russian booktubers still liked that it was based on Russian culture, but they mention things that were kind of odd, 'like Russia but in an exotic light' (I think bookspace said that). It's an interesting world, but when compared, these things come up. The whole 'what about other Slavs' as you accidentally pointed out is another topic but clearly, Ravka probably doesn't have any other Slavic groups so that's beside the point, the focus is the comparison to Russian culture as I've shown above.
I'm still looking forward to seeing where the author goes with her books and how she builds up her world. If there will be separatists that split from Ravka, will there be a religious system of pagan gods that once existed (this is a stretch but I'm still wondering if this could happen)? Will, there be a class struggle, or will Marx be right for once and Ketterdam is the one to revolt (sorry, but had to add that since she started added industrialism as a theme)? Will we get more steampunk *starry-eyed*, Will WWI happen? (since it was more than just Franz Ferdinand, around that time they were on always on the brink of starting a war, it was the militarism, the imperialism, the alliances and the nationalism...) Will there be a World Fair? And so on. I'm going to go now, I am definitely overthinking this, lol.
@@Heres_To_Music Thank You for Your reply. Just to let You know - I am Slavic myself, Polish of Rusyn/Ruthenian origin (Kamieniec Podolski), so You didn't need to explain the names endings for me, but It'll be useful for other people.
I will read everything tomorrow. Hope that Elliot gives You heart :)
Ещё рая большое Тебе спасибо за сообщение и pozdrawiam serdecznie :)
I am reading the book right now, and at the moment am on like ~350th page, not really understanding why people don't like the book. I've heard that they are not getting enough of Nikolai and it felt like they were reading more about Zoya, although I think their parts so far is distributed not badly. I am also enjoying the parts about Isaac and Nina, and love the character arcs that are written out in the book.
Watching all these videos makes my TBR so long....
Been praying for your dad!
Also... the whole Grishaverse is all about 'the gregs' and 'the dregs', apparently.
I totally agree. The 2nd half of this reminded me of all my least favorite aspects of the S&B trilogy--particularly the feeling that Bardugo is making up her magic and world as she goes along and can just throw anything in with no buildup or relationship to established rules (see everything about Mal in R&R).
Nikolai's and Zoya's character developments have been neatly done in this book. Nina appears to be a returning character in a spin-off whose emotional baggage has yet to be proven significant in the story. I'm toying with the idea that a sequel of this book should be more interesting if it involves a little war waged due to politics and struggle of power over territories. 🤓
I totally accept the part in which you said the first half made you feel like it was gonna be a new favorite in the Grishaverse, but it ended up being not one. I liked the starting of the second half but the progression didn't feel like it was written by Leigh. Also, it felt more like a Zoya book rather than a Nikolai book. I hope Nina's plot line has something bigger and better to do in the next installment because Nikolai is my favorite from the trilogy and Nina is my favorite from the duology and I felt like both of them were messed up in this one.
*spoilers*
I can't stress this enough but I HATE that the d*kling is back i liked his character in the trilogy but I dont like resserection trope that much and this got me so disappointed
I just finished the story yesterday, and I loved it. I went into King of Scars having a few spoilers, so my reactions to certain reveals may not be completely authentic, but I am very happy with this book. Yes, it´s quite tropey at times, and the tropes are not the most original ones. However, I appreciate what Leigh Bardugo did with the characters. For me, what they do and how they behave, feels true to their nature and the circumstances, and it feels like a completely logical progression given that they are all a bit older and have been through significant trauma. I was actually surprised that this book felt quite mature to me - the way the characters interact with one another, and especially the way Zoya and Nikolai´s relationship is portrayed. Finally, there is a YA book without tons of angsty insta-lovey romance (though I enjoy that too), but rather a natural slow-burning relationship between two equals. They share a true partnership, which I have not seen in YA novels that often, and I am delighted about that. I am very excited for the next book already :)
*SPOILERS AHEAD*
As to the Darkling, I am curious to see where this storyline goes. If the author does not mess it up, it can be interesting. But then again, I never understood the hype around him in the original trilogy. I love those books, but personally, I find the Darkling bland and poorly fleshed-out. I love the flashbacks and Baghra´s story, but I find the Darkling to be incredibly flat as a villain, which is a shame because I was really looking forward to his character arc specifically. Now, I get a do-over :)
There is actually a Shadow and Bone prequel called 'The Demon in the Wood' that goes into detail about The Darkling's backstory where you learn why he is so detached and the reasoning behind his motives. It's short, but it definitely adds more layers to his character. On Amazon (Kindle) it's only 0.99¢.
I loved King of Scars! Nikolai is one of my very favorite fictional characters. I agree with you about Nina’s POV though.
I liked the set up and premise of Nikolai's plot, but honestly for me, Nina's plotline carried the book. I felt so bored by Nikolai and Zoya's plot that it was exciting every time we swapped back to Nina. This was surprising because I really like Nikolai's character, but yeah...It just didn't land for me.
I am scared when reading Nina's plot. So many things can go wrong and the consequences are extreme
SPOILERS
I liked King of Scars, not as much as the Six Of Crows duology though. I'm not sure where it falls in comparison to the Shadow and Bone books, but I did like it quite a lot. And, yes, I was a little underwhelmed by Nina's point of view, but one thing I loved about it was how much we got to learn about Fjerda and its culture and people. We did get a lot from Matthias in the previous books, yes, but I feel like in King of Scars Leigh elaborated much more on how everything works over there. I found it really interesting.
i completely agree with people wanting this one to be called *queen of storms* 😂 scratch nikolai give him his own novel, bring inej and tamar's POVs for a full girl power duology which is basically what we got with this first installment
SPOILER
ps I would never regret nikolai and zoya being a mother-freaking power couple LOVED them
and I personally don't like high HIGH fantasy so the second half wasn't very enjoyable to me
still gave it 4 stars tho
I completely get why people didnt like Nina's plot line but tbh I preferred it. I am completely fine that it didnt have much to do with the rest, I dont think it really needed to.
Actually, the Grisha being named after Saint Grigori was mentioned in the original trilogy. I don't recall exactly which book, but it was probably book 3 because of the entanglement with the Apperat and his followers underground. Sure, LB might have written it in response to the criticism, but it was done years ago, not just in King of Scars.
Hard agree with everything you've said. If I didn't love Nikolai & co and their witty banters so much, I probably would've given KoS less than three stars. Very disappointing :( :(
Ahhhhh I didn’t know this book existed and I’m so excited now!! (I just finished the Shadow and Bone trilogy today)
hope your dad is feeling better now :)
He died some months ago
Honestly it felt like 2 books stapled together to make one book both would have been great alone but together they drag each other down
I JUST bought the book yesterday!!!
How was it?
@@katelynn1053 believe it or not...I haven't read it yet. Somehow I'm still as excited as a year ago to read it but I just don't start it for some reason lmao.
@elliotbrooks. This is unrelated to King of Scars but..... How has the writing progress of: Remnants of Dawn (The Dark Shores book 2) been going????
And, I know things are kinda just now getting back to normal in the world, but when it comes to publishing book 2, can you give an idea of when it would be likely to come out????
I completely agree about the plot progression of this book. I still really liked it (gave it 4/5 stars, mainly because of Nikolai and Zoya) but I just thought the whole Saints thing in part 2 was a very strange way to go and I'm still not entirely sure how I feel about it. Also, Nina... I loved Nina in SoC, but I wasn't that into her perspective in this because I feel like the emotional connection was just gone and it slowed the pace down exponentially.
I definitely agree with everything you said. I only gave it 3 stars, which made me so sad. I gave 5 stars to all the other grishaverse books :(
This is irrelevant for the book but you mentioned games and side quests. And I happened to be playing Horizon Zero Dawn again after the sequel was revealed during the ps5 announcement event. Are you excited for the sequel and plan on getting a PS5 for it? Im having so much fun running through HZD again!
I did love the beginning of this... Nina felt like an afterthought and her parts took me out of book as a whole. I do have hope for book 2 but it sucks when the answer is... wait for book 2🙄. Definitely Nikolais and Zoyas book. Nina... deserves better.
SPOILERS
I LOVED Nina's storyline, her grief felt so real and you don't often get a book where the author actually takes the time to let their characters grieve
I was suppose to read this for a bookclub I hosted but I somehow got 3 german copies and gave up. 😂😂
Even though I'd like to, I really don't know if I should read KoS, because, as you said, I should read the Grisha trilogy before that, and as much as I liked the Six of Crows duology, I didn't really enjoy the first book in the Grisha trilogy, and I don't want to go on with it, so this being a "required" read for may make KoS a no-no for me, so what should I do? hahahahah
KoS was such a disappointment. It stings so much cz I had so much expectations from it. The plot line was super predictable and a lot of times dragged. And it's really weird how I liked Zoya's POV and demeanor way more than Nina and even Nikolai¿ And that ending ugh, WHY THE SAME THING AGAIN? WHY 😔
read king of scars without the grisha trilogy... and I thought it was okay?
I did the same...but I wish there was more on Zoya & Nikolai because I fell in love with the characters but I felt the Nina chapters were boring
Great video!!
Spoilers:
I was so frustrated with this book, how it makes the first trilogy seem pointless. I’m happy I’m not the only one who was like “ugh not this”.
It also is not as smooth as the trilogy or six of crows.
Haha I felt the same way about Nina in the book...
I enjoyed KoS overall but the quantity of issues that nag me got larger rather than smaller. Bardugo keeps escalating her magic system and the world in ways that I find disturbing. In less than a decade this world has gone from horse drawn carriages to Tanks, Airplanes, submarines, Bombers, and chemical warfare. If th mere presence of the Grisha could do that, it should have happened long ago. The whole concept of Jurda Parem is also really annoying to me. Grisha power is tied to the making at the center of the world but they are usually weak... but adict them to crack and they become gods that you can string along for their next fix. I find this idiotic. If you turned any fabricator into a god with Parem, they should immediately know how to fabricate the drug for themselves and they wouldn't need their captors. A Healer on the stuff should be able to see how to heal themself, or any other Grisha who was suffering the withdrawal. It isn't mind control. It says they will do anything for more... so why don't they just make more or take it from their captors? Why not kill thier captors and take the stuff off their rotting corpses?
I loved Nikolai and Noya's POVs, in fact I actually loved Noya as a character compared to my resentment for pretty much the whole of the Shadow and Bone trilogy.
I found Nina annoying and the whole addition of her side of the story unnecessary.
And don't even get me started on the ending. It felt rushed and was, in my mind, quite cliché. I feel like Yuri and the Apparat plus the rest of the Triumvirate's/Ravka's enemies would have been more than enough trouble and brilliant enemies.
SPOILER ahead
The Darkling did not need to come back. I think that was clumsy writing, like come on, seriously!? Yuri had and would continue to cause them problems, the Apparat was no where to be seen by the end (plenty to be worked with there) never mind the failed-successful assassination attempt. That (the return) massively let the book down, along with an almost futile POV from Nina. Otherwise I vividly enjoyed.
I FELT EXACTLY LIKE THAT
SO DISAPPOINTED!!!
Yeah, Mathias was killed off to make way for Nina to be the LGBT relationship hook. She beautiful tom-boy whom she has the hots for almost immediately and then that girl turn out to be a trans man. Check box, Check Box, Check box.
I suppose that this should go down in your list of shallow reasons to refuse to read a book buuuuut...I really tried to get into the Grishaverse and can't do it because of the coopting of Russian culture. Unless there is a specific reason why everything in your universe has Russian sounding themes, just randomly using Russian or Russian sounding words is incredibly off-putting. I suppose that should be true for any culture but for me the Russian thing is particularly grating. I suppose , this can be attributed to it's overuse in popular media. Sure if Leigh wanted to actually do research on Russia and actually do the work of setting it an alternate version of Russia or WAS Russian and was writing what she knew, it would be completely different. But she is using Russian sounding themes to shortcut worldbuilding. I tried starting with Six of Crows and the Grisha trillogy and no. Just no.
I feel you but sadly, when this is the closest thing the Americans think they know about other cultures, they'll praise it, eat it up and profit out of it. Leigh could have easily done some good and accurate research about about it and I kid you not I could have respected that. Instead, she chose the easy way out of handpicking what she thinks that sounds cool and changing the rest up to suit her plata. Again, if she actually sat down and accepted something are meant to stay as it is or not actually the way it is if translated into English, I would have respected the decision far better than this.
And don't get me started on changing other character's skin just to sound yes, Sound cause that's what POC deserve, inclusive. Zoya was drawn to be white for the longest time and she approved them in her tumblr but now she's Suli with brown skin???? No, just no. Not worth it, rather find another who's actually not a c*nt.
It is a very similar concept as Orientalism. How Middle Eastern cultures were perceived by Western civilisations.
Wow your review is exactly all my thoughts on this book. Such a let down. I am so sad
was sad to hear you had to read the others to get this series. oh well.
Ohh no, i can't agree!!!!!!i hated it, the worst grisha book
Wait...I also said it was my least favorite. So I think we do agree.
@@ebnovels ugh you loved Zoya and Nikolai chemistry, i can't agree!!!!!!!!!! Ugh, just no.
Grishaverse, lol. Sounds so cheezy