- Genre: High Fantasy
- Publisher: Silver Helm
- Release Date: June 14th 2016
- Pages: 488
- My Rating: 4 stars
This review may contain spoilers for the first book in this series which is Kings of Pawns. I have reviewed it here.
Heroes or Thieves is the second book in a high fantasy series by J.J Sherwood. It is set in the world of Arsedore. This book follows the events from the first book. It shows the journey of Jikun and Navon after King Hairem is killed. Alvena flees the city after witnessing the king’s death Ilsevel and Saeballus have taked over the kingdom.
I absolutely loved the first book so I had really high expectations before starting this. This is the first high fantasy series I have read and enjoyed and i was really excited to read the second book.
I was so glad to see that there was a glossary and a recap in the beginning. It helped me refresh my memory of what all happened in the first book and the glossary helped throughout the book.
In the beginning, the book is a bit confusing and i’m not sure whats going on. However, it finally starts to make sense and picks up around pg 150. In terms of plot, this book is quite different than the first one. There is more necromancy and a little bit of magic as well. The action is significantly less than the first book I found that some scenes were too long. I couldn’t really see where the story was going.
A lot of new characters are introduced in this book. I enjoyed Sellemar is the first book when he is introduced and I liked that this book had even more of him. He was his usual sarcastic and sassy self and remains one of my favorite characters from this series.
I wanted to see more of Jikun who is a typical book hero. He is flirty and arrogant but unbelievingly brave and a little reckless. He is actually very intense but sometimes would say the most funny or inappropriate things. I wished his role would’ve been more in this book. One of the new characters introduced was Jerah. He was very different and I found him quite interesting. I loved Eladius! He was the one who brought some humor in the book. Navon was as always the wonderful. loyal and intelligent friend.
This book drags a lot and I had to really push myself to finish it. There is lack of action and excitement. Despite all this, I enjoyed the progression of the story. I liked the ending. It was very was exciting and does have a cliffhanger.
I think this book was just how one would expect the second book in a series to be like. It felt like a set up for more exciting things to come. I do feel this book could’ve been shorter.
I liked this book but I didn’t absolutely love it like the first one. I’ll admit that one of the reasons for this was that I wasn’t in the right state of mind to read it. I do plan on continuing with the series and I would also recommend others to.
