A book with an exciting premise. You’ll truly appreciate the details Evelyn Skye has thrown at us. The tsarist Russia felt alive. This book has its best moments, it wasn’t all that bad and was truly astonishing.
TITLE: The Crown’s Game # 1
AUTHOR: Evelyn Skye
GENRE: Young Adult, Fantasy, Historical Fiction
FORMAT: Hardcover
PUBLISHER: Balzer + Bray
DATE READ: July 11, 2016
GOODREADS:
Vika Andreyeva can summon the snow and turn ash into gold. Nikolai Karimov can see through walls and conjure bridges out of thin air. They are enchanters—the only two in Russia—and with the Ottoman Empire and the Kazakhs threatening, the Tsar needs a powerful enchanter by his side.
And so he initiates the Crown’s Game, an ancient duel of magical skill—the greatest test an enchanter will ever know. The victor becomes the Imperial Enchanter and the Tsar’s most respected adviser. The defeated is sentenced to death.
Raised on tiny Ovchinin Island her whole life, Vika is eager for the chance to show off her talent in the grand capital of Saint Petersburg. But can she kill another enchanter—even when his magic calls to her like nothing else ever has?
For Nikolai, an orphan, the Crown’s Game is the chance of a lifetime. But his deadly opponent is a force to be reckoned with—beautiful, whip smart, imaginative—and he can’t stop thinking about her.
And when Pasha, Nikolai’s best friend and heir to the throne, also starts to fall for the mysterious enchantress, Nikolai must defeat the girl they both love… or be killed himself.
As long-buried secrets emerge, threatening the future of the empire, it becomes dangerously clear… the Crown’s Game is not one to lose.
Love over ambition.
The concept of the game was interesting. I like the setting, an alternate fantasy version of the tsarist Russia. I like the idea of having one enchanter for each country to defend the state. I like the magic Nikolai and Vika possessed. I also appreciate how detailed Evelyn Skye was when she described the setting, it felt rich and magical. This book has its best moments too, it wasn’t all that bad.
The whole progression of the story felt a bit tedious but I’m glad it gets better as I progress.
In this book, we have two enchanters, Vika and Nikolai but each country could only have one enchanter so that all the powers will be concentrated into one individual. If there are two enchanters, the powers will be divided hence they wouldn’t have all the access to the powers out there needed to protect the tsar and the whole Russia now that the Kazakhs are showing signs of threats.
The number of enchanter shall be limited because each country’s wellspring emits a finite amount of magic at any given time. It is not without limits.
Thus, the Crown’s Game was commenced. The two enchanters will battle to win the title. But it wasn’t the physical-stupefy-expelliarmus kind of duel. Each of them will take turns and try to conjure their powers around St. Petersburg and show that he/she is better than the other. It’s up to them what move they’ll do. Each of them has a scar on their chest and once it burns, it means it’s your turn. But at the end of the Game, only one will live and the other will die. There is no escape in the Crown’s Game, because even you won’t kill your opponent, once all the 5 turns has been taken, the game itself will decide, the game itself will kill you. Death by burning
Sounds pretty intense right? The book felt promising and left me wanting for more.
The book is written in third person perspective and we can see all the aspects of the characters envolved; Vika, Nikolai, the Tsar and Pasha the Prince even his sister Yulianna. I have to give credit to Evelyn Skye for the massive historical research she had done to include on this book; The historical event of the seige of Mesologgi from the Ottomans; the Greek Revolution; even the truths behind the tsar Pasha Alexender and his imperial court.
I’m excited as to what this book has to offer.
Continue reading “BOOK REVIEW + DISCUSSIONS: The Crown’s Game by Evelyn Skye”