BulbasaurusThe7th
Surprise surprise, I will be controversial again. This book is bad. I'm about 2/3 in and it's just not worth this time I wasted on it already.
Here we have our people who get magical powers from a goddess if they complete puzzles in a tower. Corin's brother went in, never came out, so... yeah. Corin wants to go in and find him. He goes in, gets entry level power, goes to magic uni to level up to go back in to find him.
This thing is fucking LONG, man. Not even justified long, because it can be that way without feeling like a bogged down crawl though molasses. Here it just looks like no editor was ever found, which sucks, one could have probably broken out the red pen of doom and carved out huge chunks of unneeded stuff. Now what are these unneded things?
Corin is a magical version of some sort of an engineer, okay? He makes magical items. He also narrates the book, so it means we have to read him thinking about shit. Not interesting stuff. Like how to make basic level items that he doesn't really know how to, so it means endless brainstorms of shit that he will probably not make.
What is worse, every time he finds a goal... it just gets disovered he will need to do 75 other shit before he gets to it. Not kidding. To get to his brother he needs to get to the tower, get little power, get to uni, build items, build items for his buddies, but for that he needs mana, but he has very little, he needs crystals, but those cost cash, so he needs to learn to make crystals to make times, to sell, to get cash, to get more supplies, to make the better items for team, to get to exams, to get points, to get into elite dorm, to get better supplies, to get more points, to get to elite military, to get to tower, to get to brother... (spoiler, he is only been to school in less than aa semester, we are nowhere near)
Why the fuck am I doing this to myself, people? Kill me. Just take me out and kill me.
The nonsensical story structure and world building doesn't end here. The power levels have like aa gaillion rating systems. Like depending on what class he is, where on his body his mark is, then mana levels, then rated in gemstone names, all gemstone levels also rated by letters. Fucking why? Oh, also, classes can kinda do the same things with different technique, so more mumdo-jumbo.
By now you probably get why this is slow. So much useless information you have to exactly learn or you won't get shit. By the way, people can work above their level, as I said classes kinda merge in some ways, so it all means. Thanks.
I sound salty becuse I am.
And now let me talk about Corin, this cardboard idiot. Imagine a character who is probably a shitty robot, masquerading as a person, but is failing. That's right. It's him.
His personality is awkward. I am convinced the author is trying to write a protagonist with autism (engineer type with autism, so original), but this was just uncomfortable. Corin is absolutely oblivious to everything in life. In their society they have nobility and peasants and it took him 17 years to realise it means.... read carefully now, I will go deep... that they are not all treated equal. LE GASP? He also benevolently concedes that it's WRONG. I'm baffled.
Oh, also, Corin, our resident genius is even worse. Beatin C3PO in the robotic department our dude excells. He never cares about dating nobody. Doesn't even really cares. Then a dude asks him out and in the span of 2 seconds he realises he is gay. A dude he didn't even think about or care about at all. He didn't even really properly LOOKED at him. BTW, other dude is also a pseudo-Asian foreigner royalty from an enemy country for maximum angst-possibility points.
Why are you fucking useless, Corin? Why? What comes next?
Other than it being a retarded way of making a character behave, how far can we go from subtlety? Yes, the dad dislikes how Corin is not in the family battlemage business, but he himself likes this. We got the message of being yourself and not worrying about others' expectations. We don't have to literally check all the “different” boxes that exist. I “can't wait” for him confronting his dad about “yes, I am a family disgrace, who is autistic, besties with peasants, gay, literally fucking someone from a country that will inevitably attak us”. No cheese, please. (I am 100% sure his bro is alive btw, wonder what he can be hiding after THIS. He's probably a weed-smoking communist furry, none of which dad would like, prolly. I hope he has nipple piercings and a soul patch.)
Everyone loves this, but to me it was misery. Impractical choices, “how are you even alive?” characters, a worldbuilding that reads like I'm trying to learn the wikia of some RPG by heart, slooooooooow.
I don't recommend it, I won't continue, I probably won't try another series by the author. Just leave me alone now.
Good night and let me leave this tower of terror!
DNF at 35%.
Man, this book is not good. Very, very not good.
The author has an astonishing amount of works there, so when it comes to work ethic, I have to salute her, but it honestly feels like she has huge issues when it comes to some other things. Some authors develop in their skill levels very fast, you can see the huge jumps in quality. Here I'm just disappointed. After so many thousands of pages and so many great ratings the whole thing feels very amateur and very... juvenile, honestly. Sure, there are rookie mistakes that are called that because rookies do them and they are common. But she isn't such a rookie. I am disappointed.
Steampunk is something that's either a hit or a miss with people, it's relatively controversial when it comes to subgenres. I personally love it. One of my biggest discoveries last year was Anthony Ryan's Draconis Memoria, I am a huge fan of the Ketty Jay series by Chris Wooding, it all just appeals to me. So I was over the moon when I found an indie author with a steampunk series with dragons. Cool stuff, right?
Would be if the whole execution wasn't so BAD.
Snappy, humorous dialogue isn't easy, I understand. I'm not great at coming up with stuff like that, truly. I have no idea why everyone feels they can ace that shit, honestly. Here it's an absolute disaster in the most childish, “14-year-old sasses in a Tumblr post” way. Sometimes it feels like a lot of authors hinder themselves with spending so much time online and developing the very same type of dialogue writing as you can see in every clone of a clone “I'm so random” blog or comment section. It's derivative, not that funny and... honestly, it doesn't fit the setting. That has to be considered as well; maybe you quip like a god in a casual way with your friends or something, but not every setting benefits from 201X humour. (It will also really date the writing, by the way.)
The humour is not the only thing smashing my immersion, either. The characters are soldiers, they communicate with their subordinates and bosses and NOBODY is ever even just remotely professional. Zero discipline, zero respect. Commanders don't cutesy-cutesy with their wives in front of subordinates they met 2 minutes ago. The way they talk to each other wouldn't fly in any even just barely professional setting.
Sure, you can say it's fantasy, but that doesn't excuse the seemingly nonexistent knowledge the author has about any wartime protocol. It's horrid.
Now we also have the dreadful characters. They are idiots, plain and simple. Priceless weapons just get handed over to random people. Our heroine with 3 uni degrees has no idea how to fix a wobbly table. Important information gets thrown around casually and without proper thinking.
And of course we have to have our “bestestest smartest female character who is such a little victim of men”. Not stale at all. She also blabbers like crazy about supposedly smart things that are basic and people are amazed. Then she looks at an attacking dragon and magically calculates everything for the soldiers to shoot it, because she is a Big Bang Theory level of “genius”.
I will be honest, this was a dumpster fire. I will not mention it to anyone (except to point out it's baaaaaaad), I will not read the sequels or anything else by the author Epic fail.
Have a nice day and let me storm out now!
4,5 stars I had issues recently with picking up books I ended up not finishing because I didn't enjoy them at all. It's a consequence of A, me trying new authors and B, not having any reservations when it comes to just dropping books if I'm not having fun with them. But now I was getting annoyed, so I went with someone I knew I liked. On the surface this is another book where a bunch of random people team up to save the whole world from total destruction. It has all kinds of Fae, humans of course, those two mixed together, even rooster-people. Yes, gigantic roosters with arms, who can speak and do shit, it's actually pretty awesome if you're asking me. So far it sounds nothing special. But we are talking about Jonathan French, so there is that to be a bit extra. Again, he touches creatures I don't really like that much, in this case it's the Fae. One of our most important characters is a cute girl with wings. But still, I have no idea how, but the guy has such a good sense when it comes to writing a book that is enjoyable. I am convinced it is more than learning the art of putting words together and such. It is something he does as an instinct an I can't help appreciating it. You get attached. Somehow this book genuinely feels like part of something bigger, just a small slice of events that all happen during thousands of years and connect all the different characters and races. When a new element is added it fits. It does feel like the whole world is mapped out, not at all like the author just needed to throw in something and he desperately made it fit. ([b:The Emperor's Blades 17910124 The Emperor's Blades (Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne, #1) Brian Staveley https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1369246817s/17910124.jpg 25095579] , take note.) For a beginner it's especially impressive; what will this guy do later? Of course I have read [b:The Grey Bastards 27838712 The Grey Bastards (The Lot Lands, #1) Jonathan French https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1447657324s/27838712.jpg 47822077] by him, which was also brilliant, so there is that, but really, I feel there are no limits for Mr. French. It all just feels very old, like every single thing has a rich history. We aren't swamped by unnecessary infodumps, though. Delicate balance there, something not even ll the more famous and experienced authors can always manage perfectly. Now that said, I only gave it 4,5 stars. Why? Sometimes the conversations and thought processes weren't as logical and obvious that I would have liked. It felt a tiny bit of a beginner mistake, which is excusable as it is a first novel, it happens rarely and the rest of the book is really damn great. I also needed a bit of time to learn who was who, because I have issues with names, especially if they sound similar. I mean I understand that, though, they should sound like names of a cohesive language and culture. I'm also more willing to overlook minor bumps as I know for a fact that the author realised these, he took care of them and managed to learn how to avoid being confusing and vague. It's great to see that, honestly. It's hard to talk about the plot without giving away too much or sounding kind of deranged, trying to put together so many things. Just trust me on this, it's fun. There is a lot of action, it's not boring and it's creative. Now one of the things I pointed out about [b:The Grey Bastards 27838712 The Grey Bastards (The Lot Lands, #1) Jonathan French https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1447657324s/27838712.jpg 47822077] was how the plot twists were genuinely big, they changed all the things about the world you assumed to know. Here it's not that extreme and it doesn't even matter. The story is able to carry its own weight by just being so well done. I had one worry about this book before starting, namely if Mr. French could show a different face than his other series. That one has crass humour and a lot of it, it's just rough and hilarious like that. This isn't anything similar, not even close and that lets us know he is not some one trick pony. Again, where was this guy hiding? In a day and age when so many authors are super famous just writing the same stale stuff over and over again. We need to have higher standards for ourselves. There are such brilliant authors like this out there, unknown ones that you just have to discover. We don't have to just go with the big names because they are obvious choices. I salute all the new faces, like Jonathan French, Nicholas Eames, Benedict Patrick, etc. I will definitely read the sequel of this and if he ever writes more, that too for sure. I'm going to add Mr. French to the list of my favourite authors as well, because I can. There. Have a nice day and look for the new faces!
My second DNF in a row, about halfway in. I'm not happy about it, but I refuse to waste more time on a book I dislike so much.
The Emperor is killed, though he had three children, two sons (Kaden and Valyn) and a daughter (Adare). The two boys are sent away to study, one with monks, the other with warriors. The daughter is home as a minister.
And they're all bloody boooooring. Lets just start with Adare. She is young, but she becomes someone very important because her dad hands her a position. Of course she is pissed, because every fantasy princess needs to be an entitled shithead. Why didn't she get an even better position? Because she is a woman! That's also the reason why people are sceptical about her, not because she is young and got here because her influential daddy made it so.
Kaden is with the monks of boring. They are trying to achieve the state of emptiness. Because that sounds great. Of course his dad told him nothing about the purpose of it and the monks also tell him nothing at all, so some wonderfully exciting rock carrying and pottery happens. For them reasons, ya'll.
Valyn gets fucked over a lot, someone is constantly trying to murder him. His best friend/crush is another spectacular “I am a victim because I am a woman” with huge emotional breakdowns who acts like a bitch when he is being nice. She is also incredibly sexist. (A murder happens and she automatically says it was a man, because women can't be cruel. Oooookay, gurl.) Oh, this warrior camp is also full of teenagers who are not even proper warriors yet, but just happen to be the best blower-upper, the best sniper, the best gigantic-bird-pilot. Good to know everyone peaks at 16.
The whole thing is just so slow and feels like I'm watching paint dry. We know these three will eventually meet, but fucking when??? While we're wasting time on Valyn being helpless at his girl's latest titfit or following Kaden as he does senseless, repetitive shit while some monk asks him questions he is expected to just figure out.... we're not getting closer to meaningful things.
But we do get some fantasy swearing. Now some people hate it. I generally don't mind, though this... just really crossed the line. The most common thing is “Kent-kissing”, which according to my Kindle is used 77 times. How is that okay? And this is just one of them.
But hey, the info dump is something crazy as well. We hear a lot of names, foreign words, gods, all kinds of things that supposedly serve a bit cultural purpose, but it's never really properly introduced, just thrown around to feel like you're reading an actual fantasy novel. Some authors do this well. They create intricate worlds with many different elements, but there is some art in serving it all up in a way that's palatable for the reader who doesn't have a whole notebook of notes and graphs. We don't know shit about these things. The way new information is thrown in as a “plot twist” where it's just some convenient shit that feels like it was made up on the spot... not very graceful, no.
But back to the female characters for a second. Everyone gushes about strong female characters, how they are a must and how we need to create this big bullshit ideological framework around them. You know what? I think people who blabber about it and what to prove something are usually ending up with shitty female characters, like here.
Women are not morally superior. With pretending that we are it's like every active good choice made by a woman is eradicated. To be a decent human to me is just as much of an effort as it is for a man. I'm not born as an angel without a malicious bone in my body. We also have to learn, to work on ourselves. These ridiculous women are not flattering to me, more like annoying and wasted.
I have a week off now and I am not going to waste it on this. No. I'm uninterested, downright bored, I can't stand the characters. I will definitely not read the next book. It was so disappointing to read the hype about this, then see for myself and just not have a good time at all. It could have been something so much better, but it fell short in every single way I could come up with.
Good night and let me fall on my own blade!
I will say, this book was a slight improvement in some way compared to the first book. In some other ways? Not really.
Toby's liege, Sylvester has a niece who has her own tiny little dominion independent from any other lands where she runs her fae tech company. For some reason she can't be reached for weeks, which makes his uncle worry, so Toby is sent there, where she finds mysterious murders, of course.
I will be honest, Toby is still a bloody idiot. She is the queen of angst, of “but my life is so bad, honestly, I am the unloved stepchild of this whole magical world” where she is basically chased around by people who inexplicably adore her and would do anything for her sorry ass to have it great. She is the type to fuck up her own life, though. To just always make the stupid decision and push people away for whatever teenage emo reason she can invent in that stupid head of hers.
Because man, Toby is duuuuumb. Now of course she is really out of touch with a lot of modern things, as she was a freaking fish in a pond for 14 years. That is cool. But. Imagine the boss of a company. Maybe you are an awesome person who actually has a company, god knows I am not. So this person owns a company. Is it suspicious to you if said person can operate the generators of the building? Because MY boss knows all the machines he has. Toby thinks that's suspicious, though. She also doesn't think phones not working at a tech company should be considered suspicious and a sign of someone messing with them.
The worst is, though... how she is not CHARMING dumb. Some characters just act kind of dumb and you still like them, because they are sweet in some way. (Yes, Harry Dresden. He is an adorable idiot who doesn't take himself too seriously and you feel for the guy.)
At one point there is a potential love interest for Toby in EVERY FUCKING ROOM. Like she is here with Tybalt, but then goes over to Connor, but then Alex pisses her off, so she runs back to Tybalt. Like honestly, she has no respect for others or for herself. Will the next book happen at Camp I-Love-Toby-Daye?
I liked the idea of a magical tech company, but it wasn't really used as much as it could have been.
I will be honest, I am quitting this series. It's cheesy, it's stupid, it's badly written. It has idiotic characters. I even looked at the Wikipedia to figure out if this hot mess of a Mary Sue harem fantasy of a trainwreck was ever going to get better. No. It seems like this will go on being about everyone loving Queen Emo McCheesestein's ass.
So bye, stupid series.
Got the ebook for free from the author, which was mighty nice. Thank you! (He is also absolutely hilarious. Read his Goodreads stuff, it's a joy.)
If you read books, especially nowadays and you are an alien who never saw real life you will assume only young people ever go on adventures. If they take an older person it is just so someone can die so the young hero can magically, quickly become the coolest, most powerful and knowledgeable one left.
Not here. Here we have older men having to find the sheath of Excalibur, which can heal the protagonist's wife, while multiple secret groups try to get there sooner, for various reasons.
The first thing I noticed about this one was the prose being so freaking smooth. It's like butter, I have no idea how it happened, but it's just so readable. Don't scoff, it is a big thing, especially in a book with an old-timey vocabulary and such. Also, it is something that many authors (not even always novices) fail at big time and it can really kill the momentum and the fun of reading. I mean in some way it's a bit sad that this is a big deal, because hey, books are meant to be read, but whatever.
Now I know I took a long time reading this, but it's not at all the book's fault, but freaking real life is getting in the way.
The whole Arthut-myth is not something that's super well-known here. Of course it is part of the universal European culture and all, we know about it, but the details are murky for the borderline Slavs, but that doesn't get in the way. It doesn't necessitate crazy in depth expertise in the stuff, which is how I prefer my books connecting to history. There are merits in the 100% history buff stuff, but it's not for me. So again, a win for this book.
(When I was younger the Sam Neill Merlin series freaked me out low key. They aired it on TV a lot here at some point, I don't even know why. But yeah, that, along with The Labyrinth and Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves probably left a mark on my soul big time. )
As I said before, this is a book of old dudes, which... again, I love. I have no idea what's going on with me and someone would probably tell me I'm crazy in some way, but I relate to old men a lot. I'm neither, but older men are my absolute favourite protagonist stock. These ones are awesome, freaking great and fun. They are not always super wise, not always the Gandalf or Yoda. Nothing wrong with that at all, because people aren't necessarily super wise just because they are older. In this case you could actually see the young people who have grown old, not just old people who were born as old men. You know what I mean.
The story is good in itself, as a one book thing, but it can be more than that, longer and I want it to happen. I find it's different enough, I feel there is a need for this, a market for something like this. I want it to succeed. I want it to go on, because there is a lot of potential for telling us more about the world of it.
I would also recommend it to people around me. I will. It's an incredible pleasant read that just makes you feel good about things at the end of the day.
Have a nice day and read indies!
This must be cool, like the Dresden Files, right? It must be, I swear it is going to be awesome like that.
Spoiler: it really isn't.
October Daye is a private detective and half-fae, she lives with her boyfriend and their young daughter, until she gets caught by the person she was following. She doesn't die, though, but gets turned into a koi fish in a park pond for 14 years, until she turns back. Her family doesn't know about magic, so they think she just left, so they want nothing with her. Then a fae boss lady she knows gets murdered and she needs to solve the crime.
You know, by that description Toby probably sounds tough, right? She sounds like a cool person, someone who can stand her ground and just do her shit. I have bad news, she isn't. Toby Daye is pretty much an idiot who doesn't even seem to have a defined personality. One moment she says she has a hard life and was forced to be super though, the next she makes mistakes that make me think she deserves it all for not learning from anything.
Pert of the story is about her ex-bf, who is basically a scary, evil Peter Pan for the half-breed children. Toby goes on long tangents about how he is totally abusive and their relationship was unhealthy and just wrong. What does she do then? Fucking goes to him and sleeps with him because he was nice for 5 minutes. She is not some victim here, she actively makes her own life miserable through sheer stupidity.
But now that we are talking about the men around October we have to discuss that they were all her lovers or flirt like crazy with her. No, honestly, in this one book she has her baby daddy, her evil ex-bf, her nice ex-bf and then also this cat guy who haaaates her, but he is hot and flirty. Do we really need more “I'm so nothing special” female characters who have a horde of male underwear models fighting for their attention? Do we?
The other thing undefined about Toby is her worth. We are told half-human fae types are considered lowly and crap, basically not really taken in by the fae and not suited for living as humans because of their abilities. On the other hand she is connected to all the freaking people. She has her liege, who is super cool, her ex-bf, the lady who got murdered, she is a knight, she solves supernatural cases, she has other friends and such. Honestly, it doesn't really feel like she is in such a bad position when she has extremely powerful people on her side.
She also looks down on said people. Except for the ones who do her bidding, of course.
It's all written in a weird way as well. So lets just imagine someone who is a mother figure to you gets kidnapped and you can't save her. How would you describe her? I have a feeling that “kind and the most egalitarian person ever” is not the way. Egalitarian is cool, but not the way you describe someone whose loss caused you such sorrow, eh? Or if someone around you gets murdered saying “they breached her privacy and murdered her” sounds stupid. Those two things ain't the same kind of heavy. Again, I don't understand why the author made the specific choices when she was writing the book in first person, this is not how a normal human being thinks.
Then again, she seems to have a lot of faux-poetic, melodramatic thoughts. Now of course this is a first novel, which explains a lot, but where Harry Dresden is kind of charmingly goofy in his own first few, kinda clunky books... Toby is more teenage fanfiction.
I'm not saying this can't be okay later on. Maybe it is, I've seen weirder things before, but this first book is not particularly convincing. I don't like the protagonist, the lore is about fae which aren't my favourite fantasy characters, the prose is not at all brilliant, the supporting characters act like Toby is some heavenly perfect creature.
I will most likely read more of it, though. Maybe I'm just not ready to accept that this series is so uninspired and sucky. I would like to like it, to have another fairly light series of fun action and urban fantasy. So I will give it another chance, maybe a few more. For now I'm not sold. But for that Toby needs to grow a freaking spine and stop being such a plain ass nobody who is treated like solid gold.
Good night and let me take a Daye off!
Gave up at 50%.
I had a feeling I wasn't going to love this. Teen girls is the group I like LEAST as my protagonists and even if you call me names and judge my character based on that... meh. Such is life. I was a teenage girl once, I didn't like it, so I'm not really interested.
Now a huge part of me attempting to read this was actually Blood Song by Anthony Ryan, as that book and this sound the same, with the exception of this being about a religious warrior school for GIRLS, that one the same for BOYS. Hey, great time for comparing our stuff.
And I didn't like this. I'm not saying it's a bad book, if I didn't have an exam in mid-May I would probably finish it, but it gives me no joy and takes too much time, so I'm dropping it. My reasons? I don't like Nona, I find the prose to be over the top and not fluid enough to read, the nun's names are objects and I can't keep it all straight, I don't remember who is who and who does what.
Everyone seems to love it, but I just need to get something else or I'm going mad.
(Though I can't help feeling like their education is stupid in this book. Kids go from one step in their education to the next at their own pace. How can you teach anything to your class when kids constantly come and go? Do they repeat the same things over and over? HOW?)
Good night and find me a sister by another mister!
On a certain forum I spend quite a bit of time and a fellow member offered to buy me some books as a present. This was one, by beloved baby [b:The Aeronaut's Windlass 24876258 The Aeronaut's Windlass (The Cinder Spires, #1) Jim Butcher https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1425415066s/24876258.jpg 24239884] the other. So all in all, it was a really nice experience and quite touching. Seriously. Now to me actually talking about the book and not just blabbering about my life. Vaelin is the son of the Battle Lord of the king, which usually means he is that annoying little jerk who thinks he can do whatever. Which doesn't happen, as at age 10 he gets handed over to this religious order, the warrior-making part of it. His role in life will be being a badass. At this point we turn this into a coming of age story of young boys growing up to become brothers in arms, tough as nails through regular lessons and daily beatings if you mess up. Plus some chllenges where you can die. I want more friendship stories. Or ones about siblings, comrades, masters and apprentices, parents and children, cousins, whatever that is not just one more stupid romance novel. I am tired of every meaningful relationship being more or less ignored, but everyone going nuts when it comes to romance. I mean normal human beings have all kinds of meaningful relationships. (Sure, there is some romance in this, but it's not stupid, not too much and not the only defining relationship in here.) From that angle this book was already a win to me. Not everyone is going to love it, I know, some people dislike little kids doing random stuff to grow up to fulfil whatever role the author wants them to have, but this was genuinely cool. The different children are distinct voices, they are not boring and you will care about them. You will learn to love even the one who looks like a little dick at first. Prepare for heartbreak, though. Beloved children with greaaaaat prospects are not sent to be beaten silly every day if they don't run fast enough or fight good enough. They all have their issues, which makes their friendship feel even nicer, especially knowing they are not going to have a safe life even after finishing training. This is a fantasy book, though. You know that much, but it's one of those ones where magic in any kind is rare. It's not beloved by the people, normal life is spent without “pfft, I just magic it better”. Later on magic gets more of a role in the story as Vaelin sees more of the word and realises there are underlying secrets out there, but the characters are not just equipped with some magic stuff and no other real skills. Fantasy is my thing for sure, but it's so easy to make the mistake of all of the plot being centred around it and have not much when it comes to just good old people-doing-people-stuff. It can have its charm, sure, I just like my fantasy to not be solely held up by magic. In some way this makes things feel more serious; you know the characters can't just miracle themselves out of everything. Reading this I realised something, though. Authors, please give up on trying to make the princesses sound like the biggest victims, especially in darker stories. Like once again, we are expected to feel the princess is a victim for having to marry (which she isn't forced to do to someone random, more like “hey, pick from the inner circle”), while the protagonist and his friends are given away to a monastery at age 10, get beaten daily, are expected to sacrifice themselves even if they survive the potentially deathly “exams”, like being left in a forest in a snowstorm for like a week all alone at age 12. The ones who freeze to death, crying after their mother, not even really understanding the ideas behind this provoke a bit more sympathy. All in all, I loved this book. Then again, Mr. Ryan's Draconis Memoria series is a favourite of mine, so I am content. Apparently the rest of the series is less satisfying, so I'll keep that in mind, but I'll most likely give it a go and I'm definitely reading the next Draconis Memoria, coming out this summer. Good night and let me sing you the song of my people!
DNF at about 70%.
This book feels absolutely pointless. The characters we should feel for are annoying, the rest are plain dicks. A bunch of things happen, but nothing feels like it has a meaning. It's quirky for the sake of quirky, nothing leads anywhere, we just have stupid side story after stupid side story. Don't get me wrong, I like stories that have layers, but not when it all just gets tossed in. Spies and Russians and mob and robbing the mob and seeing the future, but also like kids being fucking weird, but internet dating and like saving the wife of a criminal's son who is fucking over his dad but nobody knows shit , TV shows, super powers, but also cons aaand MLM crap.
Everyone is an annoying fuck. Now I know why nobody really talked about the ACTUAL plot, just used big words that mean nothing to describe it. Do not recommend.
There is a story going on here that I would love, but the series seems to consistently miss it. Some parts are really fun. Genuinely. But I also have issues with the series that stop me from being a fan of it.
Again, we have two books in one, about the imperialists and nationalists having fights for the power and our characters being tangled in all of this.
This is where my issue starts; we spend too much time on boring or annoying characters. Royce and Hadrian are still fun, they truly work well together. We also have Esrahaddon, Myron (who isn't even in this book at all), but we get ridiculous doses of Arista, the special snowflake princess and Modina, who used to be nice before, but is boring as shit now. Hell, we get brand new people who either die or don't even shop up despite being someone extremely important.
My bigger problem is Arista. Nothing is ever good enough for her, she is literally a princess revolutionary who is the strongest witch ever and she is still never happy about anything and we have to feel for her. I bet she will become Empress or some shit at one point, where we”ll be told she is still saaaaaad. I can't stand her. She makes bad decisions all the time, still manages to fall upwards every time and never understands her luck. It's impossible to please her.
Another thing I don't like is sailing in fantasy books. Don't get me wrong, there is nothing with the whole sea aesthetic, but I don't know shit about sailing. I don't know what the words mean, I don't know anything about the technicalities. When the only enjoyable point of view turns into a ship extravaganza.... I'm not having a good time.
I genuinely think I will like the prequel series more. No Princess Snowflake at least.
Yes, I will finish this series, even though this one was too long, but I don't believe it will be too satisfying to me. It's just fine.
Weird books for younger readers are cool. Today I've head some radio show at work, it had people call in to complain about kids nowadays for some reason, I don't even know why. One was this very disgruntled lady who for some reason complained about kids caring about creepy spooky, weird stories and she sounded like that was the worst thing ever.
Me, though... I think it's something we definitely need. What a lot of people don't seem to understand is that kids aren't idiots and that they just think in a different way. Now everyone seems to be just so sensitive and so many people can't deal with things, but children normally don't look round and see the world as this endless sea of offensive and horrible things they should panic about and while I am no expert, I would assume them hearing about the morbid is important.
This is why I love for example Darren Shan; he does weird, scary and genuinely dark things in a way that is accessible for younger readers. Now many of you will probably say his writing is not good and all, but I love how he has the guts to tell children about dark stuff in a way that is not condescending, because they can handle it.
In that sense this reminds me of his writing; one of the protagonists, Stephanie is 12. To enter the world of magic she needs to accept that it means she will have to live in a world much darker and scarier, but she is not surprised in this naive way, where we are supposed to believe 12-year-olds don't know violence and death exist.
The other protagonist is... a walking, talking, magic using human skeleton. With style. Seriously, Skulduggery is hilarious and sarcastic, so much fun. He doesn't baby Stephanie, which is exactly how normal, real children want adults to be around them.
The story itself isn't anything too special so far, old enemies showing up and Stephanie happens to get caught up in a war that started long ago. A bunch of characters and concepts introduced to us, but that's fine when the series is a collection of so many shorter, easy to read novels. Perfect to get the attention of the reader, to get us into it. It's obvious things will get more complex later on and I can't wait for it.
I would definitely recommend this one, it's an easy and extremely fun read. I'm already halfway in the second book, which is a big deal when I normally don't read books of a series right after each other.
Good night and look in the closet for the skeleton!
Did not finish.
The book is so weirdly written that I had a hard time concentrating on anything. Verbose, like it swallowed a thesaurus, it just really killed the momentum. I mean many of you would probably like it, but I didn't feel like I was having fun when I had no idea where we were and where we were going. It also all sounded the same. Different characters' inner monologue sounded like the author, not like separate people.
Absolutely not for me.
4,5 stars The thing about this series was that when I was reading it I had a blast, but a few months later I always kind of... forgot why. I'm not saying it's for the lack of value, not at all, but the whole thing is written in a way that works so well together that it's kind of hard to point out that one or two or three elements that are the reason why the series is worth a read. It's so effortlessly easy for me at least to read that I have a hard time saying the best features of it. In general, the book is just very fluid. Sometimes I sat down to read for a bit, I looked up and I was 60 pages in. The prose and the story itself are created in a way that doesn't feel like it takes much of an effort for you to get into it. It's dark, genuinely, but something I enjoy about it is the fact that it's not shock horror kind of edgy dark. Those things can become too much very fast and then I have a hard time taking any of the work seriously. The characters are also still great. In the not good people way, of course, by now everyone should have realised that this book is a big pile of total fucking jerks. I mean hello, one of our protagonists is an inquisitor. A very witty one with dark humour that made me chuckle more than once, but Sand dan Glokta is one fucked up individual. Logen is actually really nice. When he doesn't snap and go into a superhuman rage to just murder whoever is closest to him. At least he tried. Bayaz... is a profoundly shitty person, who basically treats the Union as his plaything against his old enemy in the worst feud of history, because he can. Ferro just want to murder. Then there is Jezal. My sweet, sweet boy Jezal, who used to be the single most stupid, selfish, ridiculous idiot on the planet. And fuck me, I actually managed to genuinely care about him, because he became such a vulnerable man who just can't handle not trying to help. He can't really make a difference when everything is going to shit, but he tries so hard. I have no idea how Mr. Abercrombie managed to make me like Jezal so much, but the dude needs someone to protect him. (Ardee can go to hell, though, they deserved each other when Jezal was a dickbag, but now that he became such a genuinely caring person that alcoholic psycho woman of profound “nobody gets me” doesn't deserve him) In the end he is like Quentin Clearwater from the much less loved series of [b:The Magicians 6101718 The Magicians (The Magicians #1) Lev Grossman https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1313772941s/6101718.jpg 6278977]And then there is West, who I love. I don't care, I just... love him. And now for the reason why I took away half a star from a series I loved. What the fuck was that ending? WHAT? I am not going to lie, I was a bit disappointed in how nothing really got resolved, other than the war. Sure, some good things happened, but everyone is being fucked by Bayaz, Logen being fucked over, Ferro going to FINALLY actually take her revenge... I just don't feel like anything got resolved for anyone. Now you can say that this gave the series a unique flavour or whatever, but I don't think all of the things happening paid off and that bothers me. We had so many story lines and characters and conflicts and then we end up with "ehhh, whatever"? So at this point I would definitely recommend this series to many, many people, as it's truly great. I know there are short stories or such still left that add some things to the main body of the thing, but the issue is, I am not a lover of that format, so for now I consider myself to be done with this series. It was definitely one of the highlights of my reading of 2017 and I feel content with starting out the year with finishing this one. Good night and... what now? Are we done? Is this the end of it?
This one is typical for the type of books that have good ideas, start out great, then the problems kick in and you become a lot less enthusiastic about them. It's also... a first book. I wouldn't say the author used up her awesome ideas when she should have waited, but this would have been better if it was refined. In Corma religion and science got united, so the commonly held belief is that God is a scientist who looks upon the world as an experiment and people are just the rats running around in the labyrinth. The Nine refers to the nine most important people God is interested in observing, the nine who have to justify the necessity of the whole existence of the world. The catch? Nobody knows who they are. They could be the hobo down the street or the mayor. They also don't know what kind of an outcome is expected by God, what he wants to see or find out. Scientist priests decided they could approach God the most through hard work in scientific fields, but nobody knows anything for sure. The city of Corma is kind of shitty, though, full of crime and such. Rowena is one of the many, many street urchins who managed to find work as a delivery girl for a semi-legal businessman. Through her work she gets involved with some big things that endanger her. She has to team up with they mysterious Alchemist and a man dealing in some criminal matters to see the end of it. I remember reading [b:A Madness of Angels 6186355 A Madness of Angels (Matthew Swift, #1) Kate Griffin https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1305861910l/6186355.SY75.jpg 6366640] a few years back and thinking Kate Griffin was the most annoyingly verbose author ever. She killed her vibrant world's energy with overwriting EVERYTHING so goddamn much I felt like I wasn't even making any progress with reading. All the sentences had way too many adjectives that made it uncomfortable to read any of it and I quit three books in (which I should have done earlier, but I used to be an idiot with too much time) This one wasn't quite so bad at that. Really, some scenes flowed quite nicely. Still, it wasn't tight enough, some sentences made me think of teenagers trying to just... lengthen their works with these cryptic, emo sentences that they think are clever and poetic foreshadowing, but in fact for the reader they are just unnecessary fluff. My favourite example: “I could write about that scent pressing into my cheek a thousand times over and still not find the words to say how much it mattered.” Tone it down. Stop with the flowery crap, don't thesaurus us to death. Just do your fun ideas and different characters and such. This is not needed. Rowena was my other problem. She isn't too bad, she wasn't an annoying little snowflake who is too special and perfect for this world, which is how many teenage girl characters are written nowadays. But... she wasn't that great. It's especially weird because she is supposedly someone important. The side characters were much more fun, though. The Alchemist and Anselm were both kind of fun and interesting. I also really liked the scientist Chalmers. Luckily this book works with all of them, not just Rowena, so that works. I wouldn't say any of the lot twists were that big. You can see them coming, I think the most clever part about this book was the world building and the basic idea. On the other hand we didn't get into the big, overarching story too much, so I have no idea how long this series is meant to be. If it's a trilogy then I have no idea how we'll have any story that opens up the world, but if it's longer everything should be fine. Of course maybe I will be surprised. We'll see. I'm definitely going to read the next book, not because this was that much of a favourite of mine, but because I think with some guidance and learning the author can do much, much better. A side note; I love the colours and the artwork of the cover, I just wish the human forms would have been bigger, because they look good, just small. I am iffy about human faces being on the cover, because it can be a kind of... uncomfortable to stare right at someone when you look at your book. This one is pretty good, though. I like smaller authors putting effort into their covers, because that stuff does work. Have a nice day and pray hard this experiment works!
DNF at about a third of the way.
Some books just really kill my resolve to actually push through and this was that way. I wouldn't necessarily say it was a really bad book or that I feel nobody could like it, but honestly, it just hit so many of the things that kill a book for me.
First of all, the blurb ruins it all from the get go. We get told right away that Revik is wrong. Not just that, but when I started reading it was obvious that he was wrong. Hell, all people on his side are obviously written to be total assholes.
While at the same time everyone of the plainspeople are written as these wonderfully exotic, wise, deep, super mega warriors whose shit smells like roses.
I kind of dislike that, the way people living a simpler life are often portrayed as these wonderful people just by virtue of being “exotic”. Isn't it a bit... I don't know, weird to just assume that if someone lives in a hut instead of a house and walks instead of using a horse they are magically morally superior and somehow better as people? (Also, if it would be so, why don't people who believe it move to a hut? Sounds super easy to me.)
I really dislike when a book pushes the idea that the richer and/or more developed people and societies are somehow just bad, while the poor and/or less developed are just full of wisdom because of reasons. We are all people. We all have the potential for both in us.
The other thing is how damn slow this was. The flow of it feels like cement, with way too much talk about random, unimportant things. The weird writing style in the parts dealing with the tribe people didn't help as well. This goes back to my previous point. Why, oh why are they written like a bunch of deep wisdom spewing weirdass monks without a proper human personality? They all sound full of pathos and just really stiff. Not dynamic at all, like they are made out of wood.
Revik's story is weird for a different reason. He gets saved and raised by man, not remembering anything from his childhood and family and all. He doesn't ask, though. He just accepts almost no information at all and then does whatever he is told. A kid would want to know things, not just do the things, then accept everything randomly told him when it was convenient to convince him about something.
All in all, I really didn't like this one. It's lifeless and slow, doesn't really feel like the characters are actual people and the sides are ridiculously perfect for their role in this good and bad fight.
Nowadays my reading has real ups and downs. I DNF some, I absolutely adore others, which probably means I tried a bunch of things and took the risks. Or I don't know what's going on, but this one was absolutely fantastic in my opinion.
We had everything. Alternate history '30s, people with superpowers, crazy weapons that could destroy the whole world, steampunk, zombies, a secret society of people who try to save the world no matter what. I swear it had everything.
The two protagonists are a teleporting young girl who grew up on a farm and is every bit a country soul and a hardened veteran who can manipulate gravity. Very different, both cool characters that are a pleasure to read, which is not always the case with multiple POV characters. These ones worked.
I still love stories about gangs of misfits when it's done like it was here. You have to consider that when there are a lot of characters working together they have to be sufficiently different and unique to not make the reader just skim. Of course the easiest way for it is just different functions in the group (which also justifies them being on the team), but that is not nearly enough to make things readable. Take that, Sic of Crows by Leigh Bardugo, where everyone was the same kind of YA shit.
Here we got it. It can be done.
Another thing that could have failed spectacularly (like in Samantha Shannon's The Bone Season) was the fact that as the powers were part of this underground, kind of illegal and troublesome system, they all got their little slang name. Shannon managed to make it a jumbled mess, without rhyme or reason, which made her writing a pain in the ass to read.
Mr. Correia, on the other hand... just made them make sense. Travellers teleport, Cracklers use electricity, Menders heal. You know, in a way that is logical to the normal human brain. It should be common sense to write fantasy concepts in a way that would make sense to people if it was real.
Because of all the elements mixed together I found it hard to guess what was coming. I don't personally need plot twists and crazy stuff to enjoy a book, but this was one of the more surprising reads. Some elements of history connected into our one, but others were changed with the involvements of magic. Hell, chapters started with quotes from famous historical figures, like Einstein or Gandhi, all slightly changed to add in the difference of history and it was so lovely.
Important to point out that you don't need in-depth historical knowledge, though. Sometimes history-based literature assumes you know all the minor battles and political figures of the time period, which can mess you up real good, but here that wasn't an issue, with a high school WW1 education you will be fine.
It was very visual as well. You could see it all, the fight scenes, the powers, it could work very well on film or in any other visual medium. It's probably not going to happen, because who am I kidding, but this is one book where they would have no problem in translating it onto a screen.
Why not? Because the book is realistic. It is not compatible with today. I wouldn't say it is particularly offensive, but we know how things work, so using certain words to describe certain people, even if said in a way that the author obviously doesn't think are right are considered sacrilege and unacceptable.
I am definitely reading the rest of the series, probably even right now, which is something I very rarely do. I would definitely recommend it to many people and I will do it.
Good night and if magic is hard, be harder!
I give up. This series is deteriorating very fast and I can't be arsed to go on. This is a year when I just don't have the energy and time to go on with things like this, so I have quite a few DNF books and I think it's fine.
My issue with the series is the protagonist. As much as she was fine in the first book, she is becoming more and more of a person I can't stand.
Isabella is spoilt. Of course now people will say nope, she isn't, she goes out to the jungles and oceans and mountains to study dragons, without any luxuries. But what I am talking about is responsibilities. She keeps talking about how hard life is for a woman. How she is limited in everything, how it's such a sad life, but we see nothing of that. What, as a kid she was told to not do certain things? She still did them and nothing happened. As an adult she is even worse, she just has no regard for anyone other than herself and what is the most convenient for her obsession.
Which is fine. But Isabella is portrayed as this wonderful woman who is such a heroine and all. Nope. She is a womanchild who cries about things not being how she wants them when they are.
The son character... I have no idea why he is there, other than for Isabella to be spiteful about someone she produced not being like her and annoying her with being a boy who supposedly could do whaaaatever he wanted, so he does that, does whatever he likes and not what his mother does. Jacob is more of a mildly annoying roommate than her child.
I don't care about fantasy place names and tribe names being repeated over and over again while we get nowhere. It's ridiculous. I want to hear more about dragons, to elaborate more on the damn creatures on the cover of the books, not tribal issues and every man being interested in Isabella, while she is just doing whatever.
I'm quitting this series. Bye.
Orm is a viking, doing his viking things. He gets captured by slavers, goes to battles, finds treasures, founds a village, goes to viking meetings... I know it sounds extremely simple like that and I find that's the beauty of this book; being an old-fashioned, fun adventure that gives you good feelings. Sure, now some of you will go “but... viking were violent and horrible, what the heck are you talking about???”. To which I say yes... and no.
There is violence in this, sure. But also there is a lot of friendship and Orm being a witty person who tries to solve his issues in the smartest way possible. Of course 2017 is all about being offended and triggered, but if you are still able to just let go and read a book that is like a fun old tale about heroes doing their thing, I think you will like this one.
What really surprised me about this was the humour. While vikings went around with axes and plundering ships, they still got on each other's asses with rude little poems and sharp little comments and I kept having good laughs at that. Something felt really free about it, like these people were just having a good time and and even when some of them died they were still fulfilled and went thought everything with the best possible outlook on life. That is mostly what I mean when I say this book made me happy.
I especially loved vikings and their relationships with Christianity. Many of them (Orm too) became Christians through the influence of priests going to the Nordic region, but as with everything they had their own ideas about Christianity, namely how God definitely wants to heal you so you could drink and sleep with hot women. Or that it could potentially be a good idea to get people drunk and then turn them Christian when they are unconscious. You tried.
I've read this in English, so I can't really talk about the original Swedish version, but I have to point out that the prose was old-timey. Not everyone is going to love it, for sure, it was a risk on the part f the author to just go with it, but it was executed great. Somehow the characters, the prose, the story structure, the relationships, the jokes, everything felt cohesive and that is something many new authors now could learn from.
I absolutely understand why this is a Swedish classic and even people outside Sweden should really give it a go, because it's truly an experience of its own.
Some books (even ones rightly held as important works from the point of view of art history) don't age well and lose their connection to people as time passes, making them into a pain in the ass to read. This ISN'T so. It managed to hold its charm and the excitement it gives to the reader.
Honestly, I wholeheartedly recommend this to everyone, because it is one of my new favourites.
Have a nice day and get this shipped to you if you can't find it locally! (Yes, I went there.)
So Kellen is an outlaw now. Him, Ferius and Reichis are basically wandering the lawless deserts between the countries, being chased around by bounty hunters sent by Kellen's people, when they end up in a university city bringing together the young and rich to build their minds and their relationships. Now with some extra shadowblack infection! Something needs to be done.
I don't really like this series that much. It is what it is, I find it nothing even remotely close to what I loved about (at least the first three books of) The Greatcoats. I have no idea what is going on, but this one lacks the charm and the laugh out loud humour, mixed with such fucked up, absolutely horrible things. Now let me elaborate.
What was absolutely brilliant about the The Greatcoats was the fact that the protagonists were good people, but they weren't sweet and perfect. They were horribly messed up and their flaws were quite obvious in an endearing way. Here we have a kind of whiny kid who is super special, a woman who sounds seriously like some granola chick who thinks a “spiritual” trip to India will set her right while feeling incredibly badass and... a talking cat who is actually really funny. A little fluffy edgelord who likes to talk about eating people's eyeballs. Reichis is obviously the best. Other than him I really don't like the characters.
Not even the new ones. They all felt kind of useless vehicles of bringing up the big bad power in he background, but I don't even know why we had to learn their names. They were nothing. The book ended with the three mains leaving, basically going “okay, forget about them, they don't matter”. Not even the insta love interest. (Who was engaged, but then her dude turned out to be dead AND gay, because fuck you so Kellen could charm her with his irresistible fuckup powers and then leave her to shit to be a hippy drifter or whatever. Because fuck you. That is why. This whole lovey-dovey storyline was the most inconsequential, shoehorned, useless thing EVER.)
At one point in the story I thought everything about Kellen's life was going to take a turn. We meet a new character, who seemed kind of legit badass and I was looking forward to it. You know why?
Because I HATE the whole Argosi thing. I can't stand the stupid sayings and the wishy-washy nothing they do. Their whole philosophy is nonsense. You can't just take a kid whose whole like got taken, say nothing concrete to them, then act like a condescending cunt when they are moody and clueless and kind of WTF. As annoying as Kellen can be, I totally understood him in this particular thing.
At one point another Argosi basically claims they don't give a crap about things that don't have big, history changing consequences. So she leaves when kids at an international university are getting ill. At a place that was created to build relations and turn a desert into an actual country. Because a whole new country in the middle of a continent happening or not is not important for history. WTF.
Somehow the whole book feels like the characters are reacting to the events wrong. Like their conclusions are just all messed up.
The world building is still cool. The magic system, the places are rich and interesting. We'll see more of that in the next book, so that is a good thing, but the settings and that talking cat can't save the whole series from being a disappointment. Most people will not agree with me, but this one still feels kind of juvenile and just... watered down. Something edgier is really missing from it and that makes me sad.
I am definitely going to pick up the next book, just because I still hope for it turning into something more. I doubt it will happen, but... you know. I loved the first three Greatcoats. I loved those so much. I probably won't recommend this series to many people. It's just not enough.
(Also, the cover is lovely, but there is no way Kellen's hair grew so much in the few months since the last book. I am nitpicking, yes.)
Have a good night and do not believe cardplayers with stupid philosophical sayings. They suck.
DNF at about one third of the way.
The idea of this is great. Once you get extremely obsessed with something, anything at all, you can basically bend the rules of the universe and do magic in connection with your topic. But it comes with a price; something bad will come to you to smooth out your karma.
The rest of it? Annoyingly quirky characters written in a prose that tries hard to be witty and ends up being kind of forced and nonsensical to me. It made me skim, jump through stuff, somehow it just didn't allow me to properly concentrate on the story. When characters talk about magic it's all just cool-sounding, vague sentences that don't work to me.
I'm not trying to be mean about it, nothing against the author or anything, but I don't feel this is for me.
So I finished this series and I would like to talk about it as a whole for a bit, because I believe it totally deserves more attention than it has gotten. The thing about Jim Butcher is that I find he writes such approachable, human characters. In some circles he is treated like a literary criminal, who is lowly and offensive and just generally not okay whatsoever. At the same time... I love what he does. I love how during his works his characters become more than just paper thin things he moves for fun, because they are fun ans quirky, they have strong personalities, they have interesting connections and stories. Maybe they are not always the flattering specimens who will make you feel like you idealised fantasy self (which I see as a trend nowadays, especially with certain groups, where every character has to be the most idealised, positive example). I kind of love that. So Butcher, once again, wrote a series that felt welcoming and familiar, while still action-packed and fun. Because there is no shame in fun, you do not have to read books that are a struggle to get through, just for some sort of an intellectual bragging right. Unapproachable writing doesn't mean it's good writing. Here we had a story that is a perfect gateway drug for history lovers into fantasy, incorporating the idea of an ancient Roman society getting to a place with all kinds of nature spirits called furies, which they have learnt to work with and ultimately use to extend their own powers. After a few centuries of such life, they are being attacked by the vord, mind controlling, vicious bug monsters of a hivemind, lead by queens with crazy powers. The protagonist, Tavi is a boy who goes from a furiless nobody to become the first lord of their home, Alera and this is the end of his journey through becoming the leader of a country he needs to save as his first move to even have something or someone to lord over. So here is the elephant in the room; this is nothing like Mr. Butcher's Dresden Files. Tavi (or Gaius Octavian, because cool Roman names) is not at all like Harry. He has a completely different kind of strength, one he achieved through constant good decisions, always using his wits to achieve respect and to become an esteemed member of his society. He is not at all like the adorable bonehead with a tendency of powering through as his ass gets kicked in all kinds of ways again. Actually... Tavi kind of feels like the opposite of Harry. Hell, social interactions and human relationships come naturally to Tavi, which... we can't say about the chronic loner Mr. Dresden. It's also written in a completely different way. There is less humour, much less of the quirky crazy time of t-rexes running around and polka music and apprentices with coloured hair at horror conventions. Which is fine, because we are given more political intrigue. More subtle social workings, a completely different way of life, a whole different magic system. Aaaaand it's awesome. I would definitely recommend this to everyone who wants to read fantasy that has a bit of a different flavour, something extra. Of course most will still associate the name of Jim Butcher with the style of Dresden Files, but I find he is much more versatile than that, through this series and his new [b:The Aeronaut's Windlass 24876258 The Aeronaut's Windlass (The Cinder Spires, #1) Jim Butcher https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1425415066s/24876258.jpg 24239884].
2,5 stars.
With these books I'm feeling more and more like dragons are really just the backdrop and it's not good at all.
Isabella finally goes on another expedition after her first, disastrous one. So this time she packs her things, grabs Mr. Wilker, Lord Hilford's granddaughter Natalie and they leave for fantasy Africa, where a local chief of one country sends them into the jungle to bring him dragon eggs, which is not really ideal. But at least they can hang out with the tribes there and do stuff.
Which is exactly what happens. They get to kinda-Africa, different countries have conflicts, it's all told to us, but I personally couldn't be bothered when it was all just “these people hate those and the leader thinks they can beat them, but this caste in society is like this, while this is how they inherit things”. Fantasy words on top of fantasy words. Of course it's a memoir, but that's exactly why it should feel like a personal, approachable story, instead of the cheat sheet you write for a history test based on your 1000 pages long textbook. It made me skim. Not gonna lie. For a story so short the societal context was a bit much and in places overly complicated.
Especially so when the cover has a damn dragon. I want more, I want to see people interact with them, while the story is mostly just the characters hanging out with the jungle tribe and such. We even get introduced to a sinister hunter and... it comes to nothing. Nothing pays off. This is my big complaints about the series; it all feel like nothing. Like nothing matter, like we are being told tiny things (like how in this place Isabella is sent to a menstruation house with other women, where they chat and she meets this suuuuper interesting woman... who doesn't really play any role in the rest of the story). Like seriously, we have a scene where people ritually talk things out.
My other little observation is how the characterisation of Isabella really has its ups and downs. Sometimes she is genuinely empathetic towards Mr. Wilker, a low class man and understands that his status causes him immense hardships in getting ahead in life. Then she goes into “being a woman means constant victimhood” mindset. She claims women are the only ones judged and such.
Which is especially interesting, as she literally does whatever she wants. Some people dislike it, sure, but at the same time nothing ever really happens. Oh, she shouldn't go to a scientist meeting place? She did, everyone liked her. She shouldn't publish a scientific book? She did and it's a success. She is not supposed to go on expeditions? She does, everyone is crazy about her AND she lives off of her work. Oh, some people are starting rumours? Excuse me, she will become LADY TRENT, so not even a reputation will stop her from an immense step up when it goes to status.
So here we have a woman who did a bunch of stuff as a kid without any real repercussions, who married a man she truly loved, who went on expeditions and did scientific work, who could even leave her kid behind as she went to chase what she loved... She would be considered an exceptionally lucky woman and yes, person even today.
It's all sad as... the dragons are really cool! They are all different, with interesting characteristics. It's creative like that, but the ideas are not realised to their full power.
I'm not sure if I want to read the rest of the series, definitely not now. There is just so much stuff that is more rewarding and that utilises its best ideas more.
Good night and show me, don't just tell!
Dropped at 17%, because it was just so goddamn annoying. Seriously, every character in this fucking book is just so unpleasant, everything drags, it's just... not a pleasant read to me. People seem to adore it, which is nice, but there is no way I'm wasting time on a book that makes me not want to read. City of Stairs is not worth me going into yet another slump.
I took the stairs to fuck right off from this city.