I am very conflicted about this. I think SenLinYu is a very talented writer and there are plenty of good things in this book. I particularly liked the worldbuilding and the magic system. I did not understand anything about it lol but I was still completely immersed. It was also completely original and different to other fantasy books. The discourse on war and religion is also very interesting in my opinion. Now it must be said: the only reason I really enjoyed this is because of the atmosphere. And that is because the characters felt really flat. I could not really forgive that for a 1000+ pages book. And I know that the author can write good characters because Enid felt pretty real to me. I think it was just too difficult to make "original" characters that have a background that was not initially part of the story. With fanfiction it is expected that everybody is already familiar with the characters and their backstories. They all have ties to each other from before the start of fanfiction. But now Helena's ties to Luc are inexistent, we are only told they are the very best of friends. Similarly, I think the lack of a backstory between Helena and Kaine made their whole relationship feel flat. I did not believe in any of the "you broke my trust, no you did". I did not see their chemistry. And I must admit I read Manacled and it was more convincing then. So yes, I am pretty annoyed having read a 1000 pages of those two circling around each other. And also!!! I felt that so many things were very convenient by the end of the book.

In conclusion! I guess me feeling so passionately about this is because I see a lot of potential to it and I wish I really had liked it. My main takeout is I think I will think about resonance for a long time. The worldbuilding really left a strong impression.