DNF @ 12%.

I wasn't able to download this as an ARC but I bought it lately just for the cover (it is gorgeous).

However I'm really disappointed. The whole first part was an info-dump of not just the setting but of people. There's probably 6-7 different people we're introduced to and it challenged my brain quite a bit until I just grew bored of the lack of happenings. It's a shame, the book was really well-written. 3 ⭐s.

2/5 stars

It took my a couple of tries to get into the the book, and by that I mean the writing style scared me. It made me flinch away. It made me startle, and jump. It- fine, I’ll stop.

It wasn’t bad, per se, but it was too long and too descriptive and too unemotional.

You see, I’m not a big fan of excessive description. Paragraphs of how a scene looks? Huge no from me. So you can tell how that immediately makes me not a huge fan of the book. It felt so…blunt? Yet so flowery. Dry, that’s the word! I felt like priority was given to unimportant things and the Actual Important things weren’t mentioned as much as I’d hoped. I want to know what the characters are thinking. I want to know of the internal conflict. I want to see things from their eyes and connect and understand the characters.

I get none of that.

It might’ve been the tone the author was going for, but by god That Tone Wasn’t For Me.

And there was so. Much. Exposition. A fair bit of the characters’ dialogue were just them explaining how the world works, world building, and the likes. I can enjoy an amount of that (and I understand the need) but I can only go through so much exposition before I get bored.

Readers shouldn’t WANT to skim through half the pages.

Now, characterization!

Excuse the bluntness, but they fell flat. There just wasn’t enough personality. And even where there were, they didn’t feel like REAL characters. It was an amalgamation of traits and actions, but it wasn’t a character.

Ok, I’m done ranting now I think. Bye, guys.

This story began a bit slow, but after moving back into the city picked up the pace into something I enjoyed. I liked the plot, the main characters were well thought out, and the city descriptions were detailed. I did find that minor characters were less complete feeling, and that certain things just felt out of place. And the end was just very sudden feeling. Not like a cliffhanger, just as if you had to suddenly stop short.

Overall good read, and I'd read something from this author again.

I loved the Italy setting and this gorgeous cover + the retelling and mythology aspect. It didn't quite work for me but it is a lovely book.

I picked this up based on the cover and description but bounced too hard off the writing style to read more than a few pages.

So many names right away! The writing style is a bit mature for me, heavy on descriptions. Not a huge fan honestly.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an arc in exchange for this honest review.

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that in order for a fantasy book to be lush and vivid, the author must put in a lot of work, tireless research and create both memorable characters, plot lines and entire worlds. Unfortunately, this author did not get the memo.

Now, buckle down if you want to read this entire review, for I warn you, it shall be long, thorough and touch upon all the failings and shortcomings of this, which in itself was a great concept. I humbly suggest that you visit the bathroom or grab a snack before making yourself comfortable.

As this is so long, I’ve decided to split this review into several parts for your convenience.

But before I get on to it, I would like to reiterate my previous comment, or offer a much shorter, yet still comprehensive review for newcomers with less time on their hands: I would not recommend this book to my worst enemies, as it is undoubtedly the worst stringing together of words that mankind has been made to suffer. If I could go back in time and prevent myself from requesting this arc, I absolutely would. I’d dropkick myself if that’s what it would take. I’m against the burning of books, but I would make an exception for this. This book was poorly structured, suffered from dry and poorly written prose, had a cast of the most unlovable characters, very stilted and forced dialogue and on top of being bad?? It was overwhelmingly racist, homophobic and sexist.

Prose, writing and dialogue

As I mentioned, the prose felt dry, stiff even. It was practical in a way, offering mostly insight into what I suppose you could call the material plane. It would spend paragraphs upon paragraphs poorly describing actions and clothing, but offer few metaphors and similes whilst doing so. It is true that I prefer my prose lush and lyrical, but it isn’t always a must. I also recently finished Emily Tesh’s “Some Desperate Glory” where the blunt prose served the story so well, it actually improved it and offered more insight into the mind of the protagonist. The same, however, could not be said for this book.

We get none of Tesh’s bluntness of a soldier, nor any of the lyricism you’d think a high society elite in a Renaissance world would possess. The lack of similes dragged this down and there was no apparent attempt at lyricism.

Another shortcoming of the prose was the almost complete lack of insight into the thoughts and feelings of the characters. Hence why I described the writing as concerning itself mostly with the material plane, as any internal conflict or feeling within the characters was almost nonexistent. There were occasional flashbacks, but that was some of the closest we got to inner feelings, rather than outer action and speech.

In a way, it felt like this was written more with a screenplay in mind. The book cites the show “House of Cards” as one of the comparable titles and whilst I haven’t watched it, it felt abundantly clear that this was a factor affecting the style of prose. It felt as though the author was describing scenes of a poorly written movie, rather than placing us in the heads of the characters, giving us that intimate connection that is vital for a book to work.

Another thing I must touch upon is the dialogue. Stilted and awkward, the characters lacked a distinct voice and flair that makes their speech enjoyable and realistic. In short, it did not feel like people speaking, it did not feel like conversations between friends or foes and added nothing enjoyable to the book. Even when the characters were joking with each other, it felt dry and stiff, easily becoming boring. Many readers often skip until they reach dialogue, but this almost had me wanting to skip the dialogue, only the rest of the prose offered nothing exciting either. Furthermore, the characters don’t feel like they are in a fantasy setting, much less in a Renaissance Italian setting, but as if they stepped off of a set of some cheap television drama with intrigue written by someone with no sense of subtlety.

As I briefly touched upon earlier the voice, both internal and external, expresses character. A simple “I told you so” can tell you so much about a character and help the author establish what kind of person we can expect a character to be. The closest attempt at conveying the characters in this manner is telling us what we must think of them directly, rather than showing us. Now normally, I’m not too big on showing rather than telling, as the strength of these two options depends heavily on the circumstances. But when it comes to conveying characters, showing is not just strong, but vital. Though, in this case, the author was most content to constantly tell us how great our hero is, whilst showing him do and say things that most would consider truly vile. Which is either a testament to Faire’s lack of skill or own character, probably both. This will be touched further upon later, both when discussing characters and problematic elements.

A skilled writer has a firm grip on all of these things at once, but Faire seems to not even be able to pin one of these down. He himself cites that he has no formal training or degree in creative writing, as though either of these are required to make an author and as though this is an excuse for his own failings as one. But I certainly believe him when he says he didn’t know what he was doing and just recklessly spewing words into the page, because like, we can tell. The writing is so shallow we get no attachment to any corners of the world, nor any of the characters who inhabit it.

But as a fellow writer, I would like to point out: everyone spews words into the page recklessly at times. The first draft does not need to be perfect, as the whole point of the editing process is polishing what you’ve got and ironing out any kinks in the form of plot holes and inconsistencies. But this felt like that poor first draft of the first project you abandoned long ago and have hidden in the drawer in shame: as though the draft has become a fearsome Gorgon and one glance at it will prove your doom.

Structure and intrigues

The structure of this book is a mess, as though the author didn’t fully understand how to stagger the events. Because of this, the entire start of the book feels useless. What reason is there for us to read about Augustus’ travels if the story is about the intrigues of his home. Sure, he makes quick work of a political opponent and picks up a wife along the way, but all of this could easily have been mentioned had the story started with him returning home and reminiscing about his voyage. By doing so, it doesn’t needlessly waste pages at the beginning, nor offer the promise of another story entirely than the premise or what the story actually is.

Events occur fast, leaving little room for readers to breathe in between them. Said events also rely heavily upon the idea that the characters are scheming, but their schemes feel lackluster and fairly idiotic, more dumb luck than anything else. Thus, it doesn’t even feel rewarding when the schemes succeed. But the narrative certainly expects us to be impressed, constantly praising Augustus for his wits and guile, though he’s no Machiavellian prince. He feels more like an example of Socrates' allegory of the cave of Machiavelli’s work; a shadow projected on the walls of the cave and presented to us as reality, but in truth not an accurate presentation. It’s but a shadow of something more real, something greater, yet presented to us as if it were all these things.

Characters

Lackluster is a good way to describe the characters. Flat another. Perhaps devices would be the best, for indeed each character is but a device to provide some kind of service to the protagonist, or to make him seem better. His allies exist only to tell us how great he is, or provide him with services and favors. Meanwhile his foes, aside from standing in the way of his goals, must also make him look good. We get none of the gray morality one would expect of a fantasy book targeted at adults, much less of one whose title evokes the mental image of Machiavelli’s “The Prince”.

Now, excuse the unprofessional language, but Machiavelli ate and left no crumbs. “It is much safer to be feared than loved because ...love is preserved by the link of obligation which, owing to the baseness of men, is broken at every opportunity for their advantage; but fear preserves you by a dread of punishment which never fails.” Like,, he fr slayed. But we get none of this mentality either, as we’re constantly told how morally good Augustus is, whilst the recently exiled Machiavelli exposes princes, likely aimed at his political rivals, for being the opposite.

Now, how the author wants you to see Augustus aside, he is a vile character. But not in a compelling Machiavellian way or in a way similar to R.F. Kuang’s protagonist, Rin, in “The Poppy War”. Rather, he’s a racist, sexist and homophobic mess, whose schemes for acquiring power include exposing his homosexual older brother to their abusive father, in order to secure the inheritance for himself. Now, the portrayal of these things will be discussed further in their own points, but it’s quite easy to discern that these views must be ones shared by the author. Several authors have written worlds with these bigoted views and successfully conveyed that these are morally wrong and repulsive deeds, yet here the narrative praises the protagonist for upholding each of these bigoted views, the racism and colonialism having echoes of the white man’s burden.

Worldbuilding, historical influences, Rome and the italian renaissance

Renaissance, rinascimento in Italian meaning rebirth or revival. Thus, one has to assume that something must, at the very least, be considered dead for it to be reborn. Now, in the case of the Italian Renaissance, which this book is pitched as a fantasy version of, this was the revival of classical art and ideals, a revival of Rome. Though, based on when we date the Italian Renaissance, one must point out that by then Rome had only recently fallen to the Ottomans or not yet fallen, at least in the East. But that’s a longer discussion about Roman history that we need not have.

For now, let’s establish the essentials and return to the book: something cannot be revived if it hasn’t died. Thus, we can say that a world inspired by the renaissance, must be a world trying to revive the ideals, arts and glories of its past. The Merchant Prince offers none of this, rather it blends Rome and the Renaissance so much together, one nearly forgets this is based off of the Renaissance and not the rise of Emperor Augustus. But how can there be a Renaissance then, if Rome never fell? There simply can’t, and thus the Renaissance has been stripped of its most vital aspect: the need people felt to revive the past, the constant feeling of the greatness of their past casting a shadow over the present sparking this desire.

The world is flat, as if Faire doesn’t fully have a grasp on how to manage it, nor a proper understanding of the Renaissance itself and thus the world of the book becomes more like a standard medieval England, rather than the merchant republics of Italy as promised.

The culture of the Mediterranean was wildly different from that of England, both due to the echoes of Rome, but also due to its position in the Mediterranean, which has always had a history of being rich on trade and the spread of influences through that. Yet, this book offers none of that. The fashion also clearly lacks what the Mediterranean had to offer. It’s not a joke when people say that the fashion of the Mediterranean was more flashy and colorful than the rest of Europe at the time. Yet, even with long paragraphs of cool thing descriptions, Faire captures none of the vivid details. Rather, it feels more like a “sold One Direction” fanfic on Wattpad, especially with how the book itself starts with a long, pointless description of what Augustus wears.

Like so many other things, the worldbuilding is unimaginative and carried out with little skill.

Racism, slavery and colonialism

Now, this book is violently racist and colonialist right off the bat. Augustus has come to a South America-esqe continent to exploit its people and steal its resources, but he’s a good guy! He doesn’t want to kill them all, he just wants to civilize the “savage” and “primitive” people who live there. Aside from echoing of the white man’s burden and describing natives with adjectives that are both racist and derogatory, but also incorrect.

Faire portrays these people as lacking any real civilization, of being ugly and uneducated and wearing twigs for jewelry, when South America had a city greater than any in Europe at the time, an advanced culture and fashions one can only describe as mesmerizing.

What else does our oh so morally righteous protagonist do? Well, for once he’s actively participating in the slave trade and completely disregarding their humanity, going as far as to say it does not matter what they feel or think about matters concerning them, as they’re just slaves. It makes him seem more a villain, than the kind and good hearted hero we’re constantly told that he is.

Homophobia

As mentioned before, Augustus has a homosexual older brother. Said brother is a pedophile with daddy issues, who when he was younger began a relationship with an older friend of the family, who was also his teacher. Leaving heavily on stereotypes surrounding homosexuals, Faire has our protagonist describe it as a perversion and out his brother to their violent father.

Augustus is the golden child and his brother the scapegoat of an abusive parent, yet we're expected to root for the brother who actively enables and causes the abuse for his own gain, rather than the one whose victim to the both of them and even his teacher, as children cannot consent. Honestly, had Giovanni not been a pedophile too, he would have been so easy to root for and a much more compelling protagonist than Augustusvever could. A victim of abuse and grooming trying to survive a world and family that hates him could have made for much better narrative and themes than that of Augustus.

It is quite telling of the author’s biases when the only homosexual characters are pedophilic villains.

Misogyny

I’ll keep this one brief, as this review is already getting very long. The women are valued for their beauty, which relieves heavily on their weight, despite the fact the ideal Renaissance beauty differs a lot from the modern one, including in weight, the protagonist constantly patronizes his wife and when she complains about it, she’s the one at fault. Furthermore, it makes light of rape and the protagonist forces a victim to tend to a man whose previously shown interest in her.

Ableism

Another point which I’ll keep short, but of course this book had this issue as well. The character in question is more of a plot device than person, and the characters and world have very strong opinions on deformities and disabilities, making the story very ableist as well.

End

Welp, I hope you enjoyed the review, or it was at the very least helpful. Now, I need to go erase the memories of this book, or explode every trace of it with my mind. Reading this was almost unsurvivable and there was almost a breaking point where I stopped reading, which I wish I had. If the world is kind, this author never publishes another book, because this book is part of the reason indie books have a bad reputation of being “the books traditional publishers won’t pick up”, despite indie having some of the strongest fantasy books. This book just wasn’t one of the good ones. It was utterly terrible and I want the time I spent reading it back.

If you know Renaissance Florence history you that this is a fantasy retelling as the name of the houses is different but it's not so far from the real history.
Augustus made me think about Lorenzo De Medici, il Magnifico, but he could be any of the Medici in XV century.
The author is a good storyteller and I enjoyed the story.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine

This book felt long. The general story was interesting but it wasn't as fun to read about. I want to reread this book again at a time where I would have more time to really digest it and make it more of a focus like on a vacation or have a few days off from work.

Enjoyed part of the worldbuilding but overall this was not for me. I really like the idea of a book about Augustus' rise, because it's Augustus! Who wouldn't want to read that. However, it felt more like caricature than an ode to this individual. Not for me.

Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for letting me read an ebook ARC of this!

I don't like DNFing books often, and certainly not below 25% - but I had to put this one down at the 15% mark.

The writing style was good, and I loved the idea of a Renaissance-Italy inspired fantasy world...
.... but I was unable to relate nor like the main character, who is a rich heir who is introduced to us when he is overviewing an expedition to exploit a local tribe for resources, and to 'civilise' them.
Whether or not later on he learns the error of his ways, I was immediately put off by our protagonist and his lack of moral reluctance to partake in such things.
This may improve later in the book, and might be a step in his learning journey - but I just don't know.

Please take this review with a grain of salt, as I did not finish it.

A historical fantasy story of Augustus. He leaves his home at a young age and returns to his home to find out that everything has changed. His father was killed and now he must survive his rise to power. This is an interesting take on the life of Augustus, and it is suitable for young readers who might be interested in historical fiction. The story was unique and creative.
Disclaimer: Thank you NetGalley and BooksGoSocial for this copy and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I admit, I requested this book because the figure on the cover looked like Timothee Chalamet in historic costume and I did not expect much from it, but Faire’s scheming characters surprised me and I really do hope there will be more books in this series, following these characters.

Augustus, representing his noble merchant family and serving as magistrate for his homeland, Venocia, despite his youth, returns his first solo voyage for the family and finds things have been badly mismanaged in his absence and must now be salvaged. Fortunately, Augustus is wise beyond his years in business, though less so in marriage.

Marielle is his new bride as well as a point of view character, somewhat surprisingly. She is an intelligent young woman, though initially overwhelmed by where her marriage has brought her. She is a quick learner, though, and takes to her new role rapidly. When Augustus’s homecoming is marred by setbacks and complicated by familial conniving that is intriguing to the reader, he and Marielle unite to help Augustus recover his usurped position.

The politicking and plotting in this book was thoroughly pleasing to me. I also liked reading about Stixis, their Othello/Chess/Go game. I would be very bad at it, but I like the idea of it. Further, I appreciated the nod to the poor Galapagos tortoise, who (in our world) was too delicious for sailors to resist eating, and so never made it back to Europe despite everyone’s best intentions.

There are occasional typos, like being “weary” instead of “wary” or “here, here” instead of “hear, hear” or “then” instead of “than,” but they don’t detract from a reader’s overall comprehension. More distracting are modern words in their modern usage like “stuff” or “I get it,” but I still don’t consider it a major issue, and as this is a debut novel, I suspect Faire will polish his craft and eradicate such infelicities in the future.

An unfortunate case of the summary was better than the actual book for me. I really liked the setting, and the worldbuilding was intriguing, I wish there have been more time spent on fleshing it out. My biggest issues are with the characters and the writing style. The characters were either bland or weirdly written, Augustus himself was a strange character in how he was presented. The writing style was a bit choppy for me, and I didn't like the prevalent sexism, homophobia, etc that was very unnecessary and added nothing to the setting. This made it hard for me to get through the book, and I often found myself skimming scenes. There were some really solid parts, like how Augustus handled the expedition leader in the very beginning, but they were far outweighed by the negatives for me.

The cover of this book was stunning and the premise sounded intriguing. However, I'm not quite sure how the author came to the conclusion that embracing sexism and homophobia was the right move. I recognize that in the time period that the story is set, these concepts were much more dominant than currently. Successful authors have managed to balance authenticity to the time, and advocating for better acceptance and treatment of all. This author didn't do so. I found it to be extremely offensive and can't in good conscience recommend this book to readers. I hope the author makes better decisions regarding this content in the future.

1/5 stars! The cover of this book was stunning and the premise sounded intriguing. However, I'm not quite sure how the author came to the conclusion that embracing sexism and homophobia was the right move. I recognize that in the time period that the story is set, these concepts were much more dominant than currently. Successful authors have managed to balance authenticity to the time, and advocating for better acceptance and treatment of all. This author didn't do so. I found it to be extremely offensive and can't in good conscience recommend this book to readers. I hope the author makes better decisions regarding this content in the future.

I received an advance review copy for free through NetGalley, and I am leaving this review voluntarily