The novel starts strong and builds a solid foundation... Only to build the story in a completely different area.Interesting premise and writing style. The author focuses on the 2 brother's storline utilizing the different circumstances of each to build the world and write the lore. The contrast is further used to go from micro to macro and from personal to political. Great usage and contrast. The concept is similar to RR Martin's Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones) though this one is a web novel version and isnt as professionally done. Thats it for the good parts of this novel.Where this novel falls short is on focus and continuity. The set up at the start was great and would have been interesting if there was a follow through. The abandonment and trechery with lies should have had more impact on the characters but apart for setting there doesnt seem to be much effect on their personalities and character development. 1 MC was sentenced to death and seems to quickly recover and is too trusting too fast with people, there seems to be little to no trauma considering all that abuse and injustice. Its almost the same with the 2nd MC with everything being resolved by his bilief and hope that his brother survived and the flimsy and simple justification of 'would you have allowed it' reasoning for filicide (parent killing their child). Then theres the setting, sending a child to an academy and underutilizing the theme. The academy setting felt wasted and unnecessary quickly followed by politics meetings to arrange meeting. The forest of death quickly became the forest of looting and levelling up and all the built up tension was lost. In short the author planted too many seeds too early resulting in what feels like forgettable chapters and mini arcs.The beasts are unique from each other but familiar in lore which is the result of good choices from the author. Theres personality with each one but not enough that it fills the novel excessively. The author also doesnt fall into the temptation of making them too overpowered or pulling out world breaking mythical beasts left and right.This novel has great potential and I am invested in reading further in hopes of it getting better. Planning for main and subplots and relating that to character development definitely needs work however the writing style and world building leaves enough room to recover.The strengths definitely make up for the foils.
