Finnikin of the Rock by Melina Marchetta

from goodreads

3 stars

As a mom I get a lot of things wrong. Just ask my kids. Even when I think I am doing the right thing inevitably it turns out to be the wrong thing, at least in the eyes of my lovely daughters. But this summer I got one thing right, not sure if the kiddos agree, but this thing has saved my sanity.

After Mr. S was born and even now, each day feels like a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants day. I don't have too much planned. That mostly happens because I have no idea how my night will be and how I will feel in the morning. This boy likes to eat! So, while I could have the intentions of doing something epic that doesn't always turn out. I knew this would happen, but I didn't want my kids to be zombies and just sit in front of the screen. So, I made a list of things they had to do before they watched or played something on the screen. That has saved me such a headache of keeping track of screentime or figuring out if they should go on or not. They ask to watch a movie, I ask, "have you done your list?" and bam! the answer is made. Life is blissful. One of the items they have to do is read for 15 minutes. Well, usually they start reading and then they keep going and it isn't until late afternoon that they even think about screen time. Yay for reading and yay for less screen time!!!

Synopsis

The Kingdom of Lumatere has been over run, the royal family is dead and an impostor king is on the throne. When a curse was put upon the land a force kept those who were in the land in and those who were out of the land out. Many years later Finnikin and his mentor Lord Topher travel to find the lost guard and the lost prince so they can undo the curse and get their country back.

My Thoughts

This was an okay fantasy but definitely not my favourite.

I felt like I was just plunked down in the middle of the story that was already going on. There was not a lot of background or set up. You learned of things as you went along, sort of like piecing together a puzzle, but that caused the story to be a bit disjointed. Sometimes it was assumed you knew things and you didn't, or the characters felt some urgency for things, but you didn't get why. Because of this I didn't really engage with the characters until the last third of the book. I didn't know them earlier so it was hard for me to care about their plight.

I found the character Jalin annoying. Sure she had a method to her madness but seriously, communication would be nice and would have alleviated a lot of stress. She wants those around her to trust her but then she keeps doing things that betray their trust. It was quite weird.

I did like the world that they created. It was interesting and I liked the different countries and how you learned the plight of each one. Yet, it seemed to be only a 2-D rendering instead of the fully fleshed out version. Though, what I saw I liked.

This is the first of a series. It looks like the other books in the series have different protagonists so it might help with some of my criticisms. On a whole this was an interesting book, I just wished I had a bit more build up in the beginning instead of just being plunked in the middle of a story.