Trial Run is an entertaining, well-written, and fast-paced
story centred around the main character’s journey to get admitted to an
underground organization. It is the last test before she becomes an official
member.
I enjoyed the reading, but mostly because I had read the first book, I knew some of the characters, I knew the organization, I knew bits and pieces of the world, and I knew the continuation of the story to a certain extent.
However, if I had read this book first, something would have been lacking. I suppose this serves as a reader magnet to the main book as a supplemental story. It doesn’t work that well as a stand-alone because it feels unfinished and incomplete. Readers don’t know much about Power until almost three-quarters of the book, and it comes up quite abruptly. Although it is mentioned that this is a sellsword/thieves’ organization, it is more sympathetic in the following book. Here, although it says that it preys on ‘greedy merchants,’ all I think about is the poor vendor who probably stayed up late until night pressing fruits, stirring the jam so he could have a few bottles for display and a fisherman who worked hard battling the sea. They don’t sound like greedy merchants to me, and although I know it’s not something I should focus on at all, I find it hard to root for the main character if I only read this book. There are several unexplained things, not even a clue about who the main character is, what her past is, and what this magical power is. It tells one thing only: the test and how she obtains it. It’s a cut part of a circle, not a smaller circle within a circle.
The ending was abrupt; it acts more like a piece of a side
tale and, as said, a reader magnet that should probably be part of the main
story instead of a separate book or remain exclusively as a reader magnet. But
this could be a teaser for readers to get glimpses of the world, well-built
characters, and good storytelling.
3.5 rounded up.
