The Failures by Benjamin Liar weaves an ambitious and highly imaginative science fantasy about a motley crew of unlikely heroes who are trying to stop an apocalyptic entity known as the Giant who has awakened once more and threatens to plunge the world in utter darkness.
This book is sweeping in scope and epic in every sense of the word—complete with a large cast of colorful characters, intricate worldbuilding, and planet-ending stakes. The story comes off as convoluted and confusing at first. However, it’s worth persevering through because once the pieces start clicking into place in the final third, boy, does the story come together beautifully.
By far my favorite aspect of the book though was the world itself. The story is set on a dying planet filled with automatons, monsters, and labyrinthine tunnels. Items generate in bird baths and the whole premise of characters trying to hold the hope of light in a world where it’s fading gave me complete Dark Souls vibes, which I’m an absolute sucker for.
However, as much as I adored this book, it was by no means perfectly executed. My main issue with its writing is that I felt like the descriptions for characters and settings became rambling and redundant at times. For instance, take the following passage:
"The plaza in the center of the city was lined with silver columns, a sort of silver that was more than silver, a kind of silver that gave off delicious light and made one think of immense effort expended to achieve a very subtle effect. Like the Dark, it was unique enough for its own superlative: Silver."
Ultimately, I feel like so many of Liar's long-winded descriptive passages could have been cut down if he had chosen better fitting adjectives or less basic nouns.
Overall, the book is difficult for me to rate because parts of it are so conceptually unique and brilliant. I just feel like it could have benefited from tighter editing.
Thank you, NetGalley and DAW, for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
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