Koni gave up her high station to become Conwenna, a blacksmith’s wife and devoted mother. But duty calls at unexpected times. Sorrows await as Conwenna must become Koni again, or let cruel men come to power. Alfswich has become wealthy by committing what others call sins. When a hag’s curse is leveled upon him, he commits murder, theft and betrayal to escape it. But is his solution worse?
-Goodreads
Book Information
- Title: Sins and Sorrows
- Series: Protectors of Pretanni #2
- Author: Mike Mollman
- Page Count: 228
- Genre: Fantasy
- Rating: 4.0/5.0
- Date Read: July 8th, 2024
Opening Thoughts
Sins and Sorrows was my second read by Mike Mollman. I had initially read Becoming a Druid last August from my personal SPFBO-9 TBR list. I wasn’t blown away by that read but I still enjoyed it enough to want to continue reading. I was recently reviewing my open series list and it reminded me to look into the next book which was this one here. This is actually book 1.5 of the series and other than that I wasn’t sure what to expect. I’ll point out a surprise or two below.
Pacing
The pacing with this one was good. Overall the stories seem to flow fairly well as a part one and part two. This certainly still had the same vibe that Mike gave us in book one. What I didn’t know coming into this read was that these were in essence two novellas rolled into a short novel read. The other thing that seemed a bit odd to me was presenting these two stories in reverse order of the title. We start with the sorrows and finish with the sins. I don’t think this took away from the stories at all, it just seemed a little odd to me when came to an epilogue mid-book and then it started Sins for the second half. I don’t know, perhaps I missed something or my brain just doesn’t work like others.
World Building
The world building was solid. If you’ve been following along with my reviews for really any amount of time, you’ll probably noticed I enjoy a deep world of history regardless the setting. My main takeaway from this read was that it intended to give us just that. More depth to this world and characters after the first book.
Character Development
The character development was also good considering the shorter length of connecting stories found with this read. I don’t think the development can be full appreciated until completing this book. If someone wasn’t feeling this and stopped early I’m sure it would feel very fragmented. This also doesn’t spend a lot of time with Grahme but fills in a lot of history and understanding for other characters in this world. This too might put some readers off. I personally enjoy when series give me smaller reads to help fill in the world and characters.
Roundup & Recommendation
In closing I will say that I felt this was along the same lines of enjoyment for me as book one was. This means I do intend to keep the series on my radar and keeping moving forward in due time.
I’d recommend anyone that read and enjoyed book one and was looking to provide even more depth to the world and characters, give this one a read. If however, you were kind of on the fence with book one, this one might not be for you. I felt Mollman’s style is still there but we did get a bit different environment as the character focus was shifted a bit. It just depends perhaps on what did or didn’t work from you in the first book.
Scoring
World Building 4/5
Pacing 3.75/5
Character Development 4/5
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