I really like the cover for this book, and I have to admit it did attract me, and made me want to find out more about the actual content of the book. The book blurb wasn't the most intriguing blurb I have ever read before but it had enough of pull for me to want to try it out.
Regardless of what I was expecting, this book was not at all my kind of book. To begin it started off kind of bizarrely. It started off with what I assume was suppose to be one part humorous and one part background information that would want the reader to want to know more. I'm not sure it accomplished either. The man it starts out with has built an automaton and this, essentially clone, believes he is superior to the man who built him. He is demanding, short, and arrogant. I think his offhand comments are intended to be humorous, and maybe they would have been if the situation itself hadn't been so confusing.
From there it immediately leaves that scene, which is somewhat jarring, and then turns to what appears to be some kind of political power struggle between families who are always vying for power over each other. My first real bone to pick, is the author is constantly introducing new places and people, and they all have completely unpronounced names, which makes it hard to remember who is who. So by the end of the first chapter, I was decently confused as to what was going on and what was the point of it all.
The writing style in general was fairly unimaginative, and did nothing to really draw me into what was going on. I wish I could give specific reasons as to what with the writing style was not appealing, all I know is that about a quarter of the way through the book, I really wanted to stop reading.
I struggled to find any characters I could really pull for or identify with. Jianna is probably the character who came closest to me liking, but fell short. Jianna is pulled from her sheltered life into a bad situation early on in the book, and in other books where a main character is kidnapped or something similar, I almost always feel myself pulling for that character, this was not the case with Jianna. I mean I felt bad for her, but her reactions were not organic, and because I didn't really believe in the character it was hard for me to want to pull for her or have empathy for her.
Perhaps there is an audience for this book, I suppose it leans more towards sci fi than historical fantasy. Honestly it reads more like a political thriller with bizarre magical elements thrown in for kicks. This is not a book for the urban fantasy fan, nor a book for anyone looking for romance.
See, Traitor's Daughter just doesn't look like the kind of novel I would enjoy. I try not to read reviews before I pick-up a novel, it's hard to articulate my thoughts clogged up by other people's, but I wasn't going to read Brandon's novel blind.
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