Ovidiu Joldea

A Dissident´s Plight is an adult fantasy novel written by Ovidiu Joldea. It has magic, aristocracy, enemies, quests, and romance, everything that shapes a great fantasy world, but it also includes a great deal of violence so make sure to read the trigger warnings at the end of this review.

After Arlan is overcome by visions of a deadly plague that will take his mother´s life, he is determined to search for answers and save her, but he will have to face many hardships along the way. The Gavellian Kingdom does not favour mystical half-bloods such as Arlan, regardless of his status as a noble, so his departure is enforced, separating him from his family and his city. He will have to work out a way to survive and save his mother while unearthing ancient secrets and dangerous political plots.

From the very start, it is clear a lot of thought has been put into the world-building, and as the story progresses, the reader is able to effortlessly immerse themselves into the story. This, along with well-rounded characters and their properly developed relationships, provides a pleasant reading experience. You really get to know the characters, and the interactions they share are properly portrayed, proving to be very entertaining thanks to the pinch of humour present in many of them, which allows the scenes to feel even more real.

The story is experienced primarily through the eyes of the main character with a third-person subjective narration allowing the reader to learn alongside Arlan. A few other points of view are also explored, providing insight from secondary characters that contribute to the creation of the intricate setting of the book. Regardless of the narration´s point of view, both action and more heartfelt or introspective scenes are well described and read smoothly. However, I think the story would have benefitted from more alternating points of view instead of Arlan´s being the most prominent, creating more of a balance between the main character and secondary characters, giving the reader more opportunities to properly get to know the latter and experience the story through their eyes.

Although this was a great read, I personally didn´t love Arlan as a main character, preventing me from fully enjoying the book. His growth as a person throughout the story was great though and it did make his character more likeable for me in the end, but his personality just didn´t quite appeal to me. There were many secondary characters whose personalities interested me more, and I would have loved to see them explored further, especially the female characters present in the story deserved a lot more backstory and character analysis in my opinion. The story seemed a bit slow for me as well, which I understand could have been necessary considering all the information Arlan learned and all the experiences that lead to the progression of the story, but it still felt like it could have been rushed a little more without making the plot too chaotic which would have made it a better read for me.

I would rate this story 3,5 out of 5 stars overall, and here is the rating broken down into categories:

- overall enjoyment: 3,5
- writing quality: 4
- characterisation: 3,5
- world-building/setting: 4
- plot development: 3
- ending satisfaction: 3,5

Overall, I can say I enjoyed reading this novel even if I would have liked some aspects of it to be different.

This book can be a great reading choice for fantasy lovers, but for the adult fantasy readers, know that this novel, although it does contain some romance, does not include explicit scenes, and the romance is a secondary part of the story. Even if you enjoy fantasy, if the idea of reading explicitly depicted violence makes you uneasy, this might not be for you. I believe the violence portrayed is not arbitrary and it adds to the story, but there is a fair amount of it, so be aware of that before you start reading.

Age recommendation: Adult Fantasy (18+).

Trigger warnings: Alcohol, Profanity, Anxiety, PTSD, Religion, Snakes, Misogyny, Prostitution, Fire, Gore, Blood, Bones, Kidnapping, Death, Animal Death, Child Death, Violence, Physical Abuse, Assault, Torture, Attempted Murder, Murder, Amputation, Decapitation, and War.

I received an advanced review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.… (meer)

I found this one interesting but was left wanting more, a little more editing, a little more feel for the world, a little more about the character and a little more romance. This is not to say that this story of a man who discovers that he can channel a certain, very controlled magic wasn't interesting it's just that it felt under strain from the ideas being thrown at the world. And that there is going to be better by this author after some more books and I'm interested to see what the author will do with this world and these characters as they learn.… (meer)