Josh

I liked Into the Labynth, a good story about a magic academy. I read it for my optimistic square of Book Bingo 2020.

I thought the magic system of Attunements was great. i really enjoyed the archive scenes. where origami animals lead them to the books, and every origami was different. Also I did expect him to choose to make a pact with the Archive, but i was rooting for it every since they started "talking" it. did not expect the archive to not be the archive.

Thought it was well paced, but a bit small for me. i would've loved more of this book

I will be covering this on Libromancy on 6/11/23

CAWPILE SCORE
C-9
A-8
W-7
P-5
I-5
L-8
E-3
TOTAL-6.43/10

So this is a book i'm DNFing. I'm not proud about it or necessarily happy about it, but it had to be done. I've been reading this book for 2 weeks, but its less reading and more avoiding reading so i don't have to read this book.

I mostly attribute this to myself and not a fault of Seth Dickinson, but there a couple things i'll talk about as to why it didn't fit with me.

CAWPILECharacters.The characters in this book again are excellent. they truly feel like every character is unique and has their own goals and desires, which we so often see them working towards.AtmosphereYou really get the sense that if you were to pull the world out of the book and into the real world, nothing would change, because the world that Dickinson has created is a fully realized world and everything interacts with and changes everything else.WritingStarting this book with a framing story was very interesting to me, but it removed some of the tension knowing that Baru was going to be ok. not that much tension but some. I again hated the flashback scenes to Oriati Mbo. they were unimportant to the story that i was invested in, but felt like extra information Dickinson thought i needed. I also didn't like the continued and expanding Multiple Viewpoints. bringing in more viewpoints didn't help me connect more with who i need to connect with to continue reading. Dickinson's wordplay and skill with writing is still excellent and perhaps even better than the previous 2 books, but wasn't enough PlotThe plot looks good, but takes way to long to deliver on any of its promises and has so many twists and turns, i'm not sure any direction actually takes me forward in plot movementIntrigueThe intrigue just got to be too much for me to keep track of. there are 5 cryptarchs, no wait there are more than 5 you just don't know of them, and can't know of them, because of how secret they are. plans within plans within plans, and you never know what is going on. I liked the idea of splitting Baru's head in 2 so that some info could be kept secret from the reader, without feeling super unreliable, but it didn't work that well for me. Also there now being a bigger fight over baru between Tain Shir and Iscend just pushed me out of the story.Logicthe Characters act according to their information and personalities and nothing was too unlogical for me.EnjoymentMy enjoyment was little and sparse. I really enjoyed seeing Baru being Baru and manipulating and working and doing things to show her intelligence, but in this book she rarely gets the chance to and it frustrated me.
I will be talking about it on Libromancy 05/23/2021 https://libromancy.podbean.com/

Overall i enjoyed this book but the middle was tough. the first 20% was good and the Last 20% was amazing
CAWPILE SCOREC-6A-8W-7P-7I-7L-5E-7TOTAL-6.14/10CAWPILECharacters.Characters felt inconsistent and times but overall were just fine.AtmosphereThe Atmosphere was good it really drew me into what was happening and whereWritingWriting had a couple issues, mainly just words that didn't fit within the story. They pulled me out of the book everytimePlotThe Plot was great. starting off by talking about resurrection Beasts and the threat they pull and then switching to God is bad guy, and lied to us. i just wish the twist had been a little more than just the last bit of the bookIntrigueI loved the letters that Harrow wrote to herself after performing Memory modification but i wished they had more of an impact on the story, because they change very little about what actually happens. LogicGod or John felt very inconsistent. He refused to tell his Saint of Duty to stop killing Harrow, but stops Harrow from fighting back at every instance. The decisions made sometimes confused me. like why God/John acted afraid of Resurrection Beasts for 10,000 years just to test some loyalties. and the fact that Gideon is the son of a Lyctor and God/John. that really came out of nowhere. the logic of denying resurrection beasts their energy. and most of the actions taken by Harrow and Ianthe are true to their characterEnjoymentOverall i really enjoyed the beginning and the Ending of this book. the middle could've lost about half and been just fine. I probably won't reread it, but I'd recommend it to people.
I will be talking about it on Libromancy 05/02/2021 https://libromancy.podbean.com/

CAWPILE SCORE

C-6

A-8

W-9

P-8

I-9

L-9

E-9

Fun story, always had me guessing as to what was going to happen next. Some characters didn’t get a lot of depth, but it’s a short story so its reasonable. Loved the puppet chapter intros.

A great book, but man was it long!! i loved every bit of it though