Jurjen
The trouble you cause will chase after you forever. Doesn't matter how good you seem, if what you did is evil, that is what you are. If you act like a coward, you are one. If you're on a path of vengeance, you'll be trailing blood, and more blood will be ahead of you. You can’t take back what you did; you can't change who you are… but in rare cases, granted you meet the right people at the right moment, you can.
Whenever people rank all ten First Law books, Red Country usually finds itself near the bottom. I disagreed on my first read of the series, and this reread has solidified that view. Red Country is phenomenal.
I think one of the reasons why people don't like Red Country as much is because its main characters, Temple and Shy, aren't as immediately charismatic or exciting as Glokta, Logen or Orso were. But I think these two have such tremendous heart, and their emotions connected me so well to the book's plot. Temple specifically I am a big fan of, and I feel somewhat of a personal affinity to, as out of all the Abercrombie characters, I find him somewhat relatable in temperance, if not character. Then there is Lamb. Man did this character get a flawless conclusion. Red Country in general probably has a 10/10 ending, I don’t think it could have been done any better. The earlier story climax with the Dragon People was heartbreaking, but the more personal ending for these characters… just wow.
By now it's common knowledge that with the First Law Standalones, Abercrombie set out to write three archetypical cinematic stories. Best Served Cold is a bloody revenge story, The Heroes is a war-epic, and Red Country a classic Western. Although of these three, The Heroes is still my favourite (Red Country second, having grown closer than on my original read), but I think it's Red Country that does its genre best. It feels *so much* like a Western. The slow, morose tone felt perfect for the story Abercrombie wanted to tell. I think the book being pretty slow paced is another reason why people generally rate it pretty low, but I think it was the right decision for this story in this genre.
Spoiler talk
Not everybody can change, but you're better off trying. You are what you were yesterday, but with great effort and a little luck, that's not who you will be tomorrow.
Thematically, the story is about a lot of things, but the main theme that's on my mind is on whether or not people can change. There are four characters in this book whose stories run parallel. Glama, Temple, Shivers, and Logen.
Glama undergoes a big off-screen arc since we saw him last in The Heroes. Humility and regret have replaced blustering ego. Glama feels to me a lot like Logen near the end of The Last Argument of Kings. He knows what he is, and it seems likely that much like Logen did in the original trilogy, he tried being someone else. It did not stick. Glama finds his end against Logen much like how Logen went down in LAOK. Alone.
Temple's arc shows that people can change. All Temple needed was to meet the right people to help him along the way, and finally stand up for himself and do the hard thing. To really try.
Shivers is the main character of the standalone trilogy, and Shivers’ transformation across these three books feels like the thematic thesis or Red Country. It is both possible to try and be better and fail as Logen does–as Shivers does in Best Served Cold. But it is equally possible to try and do better and succeed as Temple does–as Shivers does in letting Logen go at the end of the book. I don't think Abercrombie figured out the formula for when someone fails or succeeds, but he seems to emphasise the importance of trying. After all, isn't there any character worth more pity and scorn than Cosca? Right before be dies we find out that he *wanted* to be something else, yet he never tried. And what did that bring him? Nothing much good at all.
That leaves us with Logen, my favourite character in all of the First Law, and one of the most complex and hard to parse characters in this genre. Is Logen evil? As he said himself, going by what he did, it's hard to argue he's not. But why does the reader find themselves rooting for him despite Logen failing to walk away from violence knowing what it does to him, time and time again. It's because he tries *so damn hard*. Logen leaving the North and helping raise Shy, Pit and Ro was an act of so much good, and yet… And yet Ro wishes Caul Shivers killed Lamb right in front of her eyes, for what he did.
I think for every sequential First Law read, I'll have new thoughts on this character.
All in all, I adore Red Country, and I think it perfectly wraps up the story of its characters, as well as The Great Leveller trilogy as a whole. This book deserves a lot more love.
The trouble you cause will chase after you forever. Doesn't matter how good you seem, if what you did is evil, that is what you are. If you act like a coward, you are one. If you're on a path of vengeance, you'll be trailing blood, and more blood will be ahead of you. You can’t take back what you did; you can't change who you are… but in rare cases, granted you meet the right people at the right moment, you can.
Whenever people rank all ten First Law books, Red Country usually finds itself near the bottom. I disagreed on my first read of the series, and this reread has solidified that view. Red Country is phenomenal.
I think one of the reasons why people don't like Red Country as much is because its main characters, Temple and Shy, aren't as immediately charismatic or exciting as Glokta, Logen or Orso were. But I think these two have such tremendous heart, and their emotions connected me so well to the book's plot. Temple specifically I am a big fan of, and I feel somewhat of a personal affinity to, as out of all the Abercrombie characters, I find him somewhat relatable in temperance, if not character. Then there is Lamb. Man did this character get a flawless conclusion. Red Country in general probably has a 10/10 ending, I don’t think it could have been done any better. The earlier story climax with the Dragon People was heartbreaking, but the more personal ending for these characters… just wow.
By now it's common knowledge that with the First Law Standalones, Abercrombie set out to write three archetypical cinematic stories. Best Served Cold is a bloody revenge story, The Heroes is a war-epic, and Red Country a classic Western. Although of these three, The Heroes is still my favourite (Red Country second, having grown closer than on my original read), but I think it's Red Country that does its genre best. It feels *so much* like a Western. The slow, morose tone felt perfect for the story Abercrombie wanted to tell. I think the book being pretty slow paced is another reason why people generally rate it pretty low, but I think it was the right decision for this story in this genre.
Spoiler talk
Not everybody can change, but you're better off trying. You are what you were yesterday, but with great effort and a little luck, that's not who you will be tomorrow.
Thematically, the story is about a lot of things, but the main theme that's on my mind is on whether or not people can change. There are four characters in this book whose stories run parallel. Glama, Temple, Shivers, and Logen.
Glama undergoes a big off-screen arc since we saw him last in The Heroes. Humility and regret have replaced blustering ego. Glama feels to me a lot like Logen near the end of The Last Argument of Kings. He knows what he is, and it seems likely that much like Logen did in the original trilogy, he tried being someone else. It did not stick. Glama finds his end against Logen much like how Logen went down in LAOK. Alone.
Temple's arc shows that people can change. All Temple needed was to meet the right people to help him along the way, and finally stand up for himself and do the hard thing. To really try.
Shivers is the main character of the standalone trilogy, and Shivers’ transformation across these three books feels like the thematic thesis or Red Country. It is both possible to try and be better and fail as Logen does–as Shivers does in Best Served Cold. But it is equally possible to try and do better and succeed as Temple does–as Shivers does in letting Logen go at the end of the book. I don't think Abercrombie figured out the formula for when someone fails or succeeds, but he seems to emphasise the importance of trying. After all, isn't there any character worth more pity and scorn than Cosca? Right before be dies we find out that he *wanted* to be something else, yet he never tried. And what did that bring him? Nothing much good at all.
That leaves us with Logen, my favourite character in all of the First Law, and one of the most complex and hard to parse characters in this genre. Is Logen evil? As he said himself, going by what he did, it's hard to argue he's not. But why does the reader find themselves rooting for him despite Logen failing to walk away from violence knowing what it does to him, time and time again. It's because he tries *so damn hard*. Logen leaving the North and helping raise Shy, Pit and Ro was an act of so much good, and yet… And yet Ro wishes Caul Shivers killed Lamb right in front of her eyes, for what he did.
I think for every sequential First Law read, I'll have new thoughts on this character.
All in all, I adore Red Country, and I think it perfectly wraps up the story of its characters, as well as The Great Leveller trilogy as a whole. This book deserves a lot more love.
I'm a big fan of the SCP-verse, and getting a full novel as an SCP story did not disappoint. SCP really excels at giving you an awesome scifi-mystery premise, and SCP-3125 was no exception. The concept of anti-memetics, and showing what an anti-memetic war could look like through the perspective of a foundation was really well done. It was definitely confusing at times–I still don't entirely understand the chronology–and I think the second half isn't as good as the first half (asking the questions is usually more fun than finding answers is par for the course with SCP), but I do think the book stuck the landing. It showed quite a lot of heart, especially the last few chapters, which I wasn't expecting.
I'm a big fan of the SCP-verse, and getting a full novel as an SCP story did not disappoint. SCP really excels at giving you an awesome scifi-mystery premise, and SCP-3125 was no exception. The concept of anti-memetics, and showing what an anti-memetic war could look like through the perspective of a foundation was really well done. It was definitely confusing at times–I still don't entirely understand the chronology–and I think the second half isn't as good as the first half (asking the questions is usually more fun than finding answers is par for the course with SCP), but I do think the book stuck the landing. It showed quite a lot of heart, especially the last few chapters, which I wasn't expecting.
Yeah I didn't fuck with Mythos. I feel like it takes up an almost anti-intellectual approach to Greek myths. “No need to think about the sociological reasons behind these myths or the way they were passed down and changed through history, just sit back and enjoy the narrative”. Fine–the book is obviously very much pop-history, but the problem is that the way Fry presented the narrative was just not super fun to read. The quirky millennial humour tone felt quite grating. Unfortunate.
Yeah I didn't fuck with Mythos. I feel like it takes up an almost anti-intellectual approach to Greek myths. “No need to think about the sociological reasons behind these myths or the way they were passed down and changed through history, just sit back and enjoy the narrative”. Fine–the book is obviously very much pop-history, but the problem is that the way Fry presented the narrative was just not super fun to read. The quirky millennial humour tone felt quite grating. Unfortunate.
Added to listOwnedwith 31 books.
Original review: This one was a surprise because it's an incredibly different read to the Expanse. Whereas the Expanse is a thoroughly character driven story with a limited set of POVs in each book, The Mercy of Gods is much more plot driven with a sprawling set of POVs. There's positive and negative aspects to this, but how it lands for you will likely be personal preference as I believe the plot-driven approach to be about as well executed as the character driven approach in the Expanse.
The world and plot captivated me immediately. The story was wonderfully confusing, unique, and strange, which had me turning every page just to see what would happen next. The book asks a great deal of questions, most of which you won't get the answers to, but trying to find the answers together with at least one character, Dafyd, is a very immersive experience.
I appreciated how alien the aliens felt. Not just in what they looked like, but in what they believed, and what grounded those beliefs. It got me thinking that if some sort of alien encounter happened in the real world, I could see these truly fantastical events playing out in this way.
I had 3 minor complaints while reading
1) one character, strangely, has no reaction to another character telling them something bizarre about themselves, and what they're there for; I think the book should have done more with that, which is related to:
2) as I said, the book focuses much less on the characters than what i'm used to from Franck and Abraham (both with the Expanse and Kithamar), resulting in me not feeling as much of an emotional connection than I did to the likes of Holden, Alys, Sammish or Garreth, after reading one book of them.
3) This book felt short. It wasn't necessarily rushed, but I think a lot more could have been done if it had been 200 pages or so longer. I don't think it would have been over-indulgent, nor suffered from pacing issues, if it had.
Loved the book a lot, and I can't wait to read Livesuit in October and the sequel whenever it releases.
Reread review: my thoughts are pretty much the same, great book. I do think that I was kind of wrong on how comparatively little the book spends on its characters vs other SA Corey/Abraham books and instead is more plot driven. It's not thaaaat far off the Expanse.
Original review: This one was a surprise because it's an incredibly different read to the Expanse. Whereas the Expanse is a thoroughly character driven story with a limited set of POVs in each book, The Mercy of Gods is much more plot driven with a sprawling set of POVs. There's positive and negative aspects to this, but how it lands for you will likely be personal preference as I believe the plot-driven approach to be about as well executed as the character driven approach in the Expanse.
The world and plot captivated me immediately. The story was wonderfully confusing, unique, and strange, which had me turning every page just to see what would happen next. The book asks a great deal of questions, most of which you won't get the answers to, but trying to find the answers together with at least one character, Dafyd, is a very immersive experience.
I appreciated how alien the aliens felt. Not just in what they looked like, but in what they believed, and what grounded those beliefs. It got me thinking that if some sort of alien encounter happened in the real world, I could see these truly fantastical events playing out in this way.
I had 3 minor complaints while reading
1) one character, strangely, has no reaction to another character telling them something bizarre about themselves, and what they're there for; I think the book should have done more with that, which is related to:
2) as I said, the book focuses much less on the characters than what i'm used to from Franck and Abraham (both with the Expanse and Kithamar), resulting in me not feeling as much of an emotional connection than I did to the likes of Holden, Alys, Sammish or Garreth, after reading one book of them.
3) This book felt short. It wasn't necessarily rushed, but I think a lot more could have been done if it had been 200 pages or so longer. I don't think it would have been over-indulgent, nor suffered from pacing issues, if it had.
Loved the book a lot, and I can't wait to read Livesuit in October and the sequel whenever it releases.
Reread review: my thoughts are pretty much the same, great book. I do think that I was kind of wrong on how comparatively little the book spends on its characters vs other SA Corey/Abraham books and instead is more plot driven. It's not thaaaat far off the Expanse.
(Read this the week it released but forgot to add my review to the rating)
This one was a surprise because it's an incredibly different read to the Expanse. Whereas the Expanse is a thoroughly character driven story with a limited set of POVs in each book, The Mercy of Gods is much more plot driven with a sprawling set of POVs. There's positive and negative aspects to this, but how it lands for you will likely be personal preference as I believe the plot-driven approach to be about as well executed as the character driven approach in the Expanse.
The world and plot captivated me immediately. The story was wonderfully confusing, unique, and strange, which had me turning every page just to see what would happen next. The book asks a great deal of questions, most of which you won't get the answers to, but trying to find the answers together with at least one character, Dafyd, is a very immersive experience.
I appreciated how alien the aliens felt. Not just in what they looked like, but in what they believed, and what grounded those beliefs. It got me thinking that if some sort of alien encounter happened in the real world, I could see these truly fantastical events playing out in this way.
I had 3 minor complaints while reading
1 one character, strangely, has no reaction to another character telling them something bizarre about themselves, and what they're there for; I think the book should have done more with that, which is related to:
2 as I said, the book focuses much less on the characters than what i'm used to from Franck and Abraham (both with the Expanse and Kithamar), resulting in me not feeling as much of an emotional connection than I did to the likes of Holden, Alys, Sammish or Garreth, after reading one book of them.
3 This book felt short. It wasn't necessarily rushed, but I think a lot more could have been done if it had been 200 pages or so longer. I don't think it would have been over-indulgent, nor suffered from pacing issues, if it had.
Loved the book an incredible amount, and I can't wait to read Livesuit in October and the sequel whenever it releases.
(Read this the week it released but forgot to add my review to the rating)
This one was a surprise because it's an incredibly different read to the Expanse. Whereas the Expanse is a thoroughly character driven story with a limited set of POVs in each book, The Mercy of Gods is much more plot driven with a sprawling set of POVs. There's positive and negative aspects to this, but how it lands for you will likely be personal preference as I believe the plot-driven approach to be about as well executed as the character driven approach in the Expanse.
The world and plot captivated me immediately. The story was wonderfully confusing, unique, and strange, which had me turning every page just to see what would happen next. The book asks a great deal of questions, most of which you won't get the answers to, but trying to find the answers together with at least one character, Dafyd, is a very immersive experience.
I appreciated how alien the aliens felt. Not just in what they looked like, but in what they believed, and what grounded those beliefs. It got me thinking that if some sort of alien encounter happened in the real world, I could see these truly fantastical events playing out in this way.
I had 3 minor complaints while reading
1 one character, strangely, has no reaction to another character telling them something bizarre about themselves, and what they're there for; I think the book should have done more with that, which is related to:
2 as I said, the book focuses much less on the characters than what i'm used to from Franck and Abraham (both with the Expanse and Kithamar), resulting in me not feeling as much of an emotional connection than I did to the likes of Holden, Alys, Sammish or Garreth, after reading one book of them.
3 This book felt short. It wasn't necessarily rushed, but I think a lot more could have been done if it had been 200 pages or so longer. I don't think it would have been over-indulgent, nor suffered from pacing issues, if it had.
Loved the book an incredible amount, and I can't wait to read Livesuit in October and the sequel whenever it releases.
(Read this the week it released but forgot to add my review to the rating)
This one was a surprise because it's an incredibly different read to the Expanse. Whereas the Expanse is a thoroughly character driven story with a limited set of POVs in each book, The Mercy of Gods is much more plot driven with a sprawling set of POVs. There's positive and negative aspects to this, but how it lands for you will likely be personal preference as I believe the plot-driven approach to be about as well executed as the character driven approach in the Expanse.
The world and plot captivated me immediately. The story was wonderfully confusing, unique, and strange, which had me turning every page just to see what would happen next. The book asks a great deal of questions, most of which you won't get the answers to, but trying to find the answers together with at least one character, Dafyd, is a very immersive experience.
I appreciated how alien the aliens felt. Not just in what they looked like, but in what they believed, and what grounded those beliefs. It got me thinking that if some sort of alien encounter happened in the real world, I could see these truly fantastical events playing out in this way.
I had 3 minor complaints while reading
1 one character, strangely, has no reaction to another character telling them something bizarre about themselves, and what they're there for; I think the book should have done more with that, which is related to:
2 as I said, the book focuses much less on the characters than what i'm used to from Franck and Abraham (both with the Expanse and Kithamar), resulting in me not feeling as much of an emotional connection than I did to the likes of Holden, Alys, Sammish or Garreth, after reading one book of them.
3 This book felt short. It wasn't necessarily rushed, but I think a lot more could have been done if it had been 200 pages or so longer. I don't think it would have been over-indulgent, nor suffered from pacing issues, if it had.
Loved the book an incredible amount, and I can't wait to read Livesuit in October and the sequel whenever it releases.
(Read this the week it released but forgot to add my review to the rating)
This one was a surprise because it's an incredibly different read to the Expanse. Whereas the Expanse is a thoroughly character driven story with a limited set of POVs in each book, The Mercy of Gods is much more plot driven with a sprawling set of POVs. There's positive and negative aspects to this, but how it lands for you will likely be personal preference as I believe the plot-driven approach to be about as well executed as the character driven approach in the Expanse.
The world and plot captivated me immediately. The story was wonderfully confusing, unique, and strange, which had me turning every page just to see what would happen next. The book asks a great deal of questions, most of which you won't get the answers to, but trying to find the answers together with at least one character, Dafyd, is a very immersive experience.
I appreciated how alien the aliens felt. Not just in what they looked like, but in what they believed, and what grounded those beliefs. It got me thinking that if some sort of alien encounter happened in the real world, I could see these truly fantastical events playing out in this way.
I had 3 minor complaints while reading
1 one character, strangely, has no reaction to another character telling them something bizarre about themselves, and what they're there for; I think the book should have done more with that, which is related to:
2 as I said, the book focuses much less on the characters than what i'm used to from Franck and Abraham (both with the Expanse and Kithamar), resulting in me not feeling as much of an emotional connection than I did to the likes of Holden, Alys, Sammish or Garreth, after reading one book of them.
3 This book felt short. It wasn't necessarily rushed, but I think a lot more could have been done if it had been 200 pages or so longer. I don't think it would have been over-indulgent, nor suffered from pacing issues, if it had.
Loved the book an incredible amount, and I can't wait to read Livesuit in October and the sequel whenever it releases.
(Read this the week it released but forgot to add my review to the rating)
This one was a surprise because it's an incredibly different read to the Expanse. Whereas the Expanse is a thoroughly character driven story with a limited set of POVs in each book, The Mercy of Gods is much more plot driven with a sprawling set of POVs. There's positive and negative aspects to this, but how it lands for you will likely be personal preference as I believe the plot-driven approach to be about as well executed as the character driven approach in the Expanse.
The world and plot captivated me immediately. The story was wonderfully confusing, unique, and strange, which had me turning every page just to see what would happen next. The book asks a great deal of questions, most of which you won't get the answers to, but trying to find the answers together with at least one character, Dafyd, is a very immersive experience.
I appreciated how alien the aliens felt. Not just in what they looked like, but in what they believed, and what grounded those beliefs. It got me thinking that if some sort of alien encounter happened in the real world, I could see these truly fantastical events playing out in this way.
I had 3 minor complaints while reading
1 one character, strangely, has no reaction to another character telling them something bizarre about themselves, and what they're there for; I think the book should have done more with that, which is related to:
2 as I said, the book focuses much less on the characters than what i'm used to from Franck and Abraham (both with the Expanse and Kithamar), resulting in me not feeling as much of an emotional connection than I did to the likes of Holden, Alys, Sammish or Garreth, after reading one book of them.
3 This book felt short. It wasn't necessarily rushed, but I think a lot more could have been done if it had been 200 pages or so longer. I don't think it would have been over-indulgent, nor suffered from pacing issues, if it had.
Loved the book an incredible amount, and I can't wait to read Livesuit in October and the sequel whenever it releases.
(Read this the week it released but forgot to add my review to the rating)
This one was a surprise because it's an incredibly different read to the Expanse. Whereas the Expanse is a thoroughly character driven story with a limited set of POVs in each book, The Mercy of Gods is much more plot driven with a sprawling set of POVs. There's positive and negative aspects to this, but how it lands for you will likely be personal preference as I believe the plot-driven approach to be about as well executed as the character driven approach in the Expanse.
The world and plot captivated me immediately. The story was wonderfully confusing, unique, and strange, which had me turning every page just to see what would happen next. The book asks a great deal of questions, most of which you won't get the answers to, but trying to find the answers together with at least one character, Dafyd, is a very immersive experience.
I appreciated how alien the aliens felt. Not just in what they looked like, but in what they believed, and what grounded those beliefs. It got me thinking that if some sort of alien encounter happened in the real world, I could see these truly fantastical events playing out in this way.
I had 3 minor complaints while reading
1 one character, strangely, has no reaction to another character telling them something bizarre about themselves, and what they're there for; I think the book should have done more with that, which is related to:
2 as I said, the book focuses much less on the characters than what i'm used to from Franck and Abraham (both with the Expanse and Kithamar), resulting in me not feeling as much of an emotional connection than I did to the likes of Holden, Alys, Sammish or Garreth, after reading one book of them.
3 This book felt short. It wasn't necessarily rushed, but I think a lot more could have been done if it had been 200 pages or so longer. I don't think it would have been over-indulgent, nor suffered from pacing issues, if it had.
Loved the book an incredible amount, and I can't wait to read Livesuit in October and the sequel whenever it releases.
(Read this the week it released but forgot to add my review to the rating)
This one was a surprise because it's an incredibly different read to the Expanse. Whereas the Expanse is a thoroughly character driven story with a limited set of POVs in each book, The Mercy of Gods is much more plot driven with a sprawling set of POVs. There's positive and negative aspects to this, but how it lands for you will likely be personal preference as I believe the plot-driven approach to be about as well executed as the character driven approach in the Expanse.
The world and plot captivated me immediately. The story was wonderfully confusing, unique, and strange, which had me turning every page just to see what would happen next. The book asks a great deal of questions, most of which you won't get the answers to, but trying to find the answers together with at least one character, Dafyd, is a very immersive experience.
I appreciated how alien the aliens felt. Not just in what they looked like, but in what they believed, and what grounded those beliefs. It got me thinking that if some sort of alien encounter happened in the real world, I could see these truly fantastical events playing out in this way.
I had 3 minor complaints while reading
1 one character, strangely, has no reaction to another character telling them something bizarre about themselves, and what they're there for; I think the book should have done more with that, which is related to:
2 as I said, the book focuses much less on the characters than what i'm used to from Franck and Abraham (both with the Expanse and Kithamar), resulting in me not feeling as much of an emotional connection than I did to the likes of Holden, Alys, Sammish or Garreth, after reading one book of them.
3 This book felt short. It wasn't necessarily rushed, but I think a lot more could have been done if it had been 200 pages or so longer. I don't think it would have been over-indulgent, nor suffered from pacing issues, if it had.
Loved the book an incredible amount, and I can't wait to read Livesuit in October and the sequel whenever it releases.
(Read this the week it released but forgot to add my review to the rating)
This one was a surprise because it's an incredibly different read to the Expanse. Whereas the Expanse is a thoroughly character driven story with a limited set of POVs in each book, The Mercy of Gods is much more plot driven with a sprawling set of POVs. There's positive and negative aspects to this, but how it lands for you will likely be personal preference as I believe the plot-driven approach to be about as well executed as the character driven approach in the Expanse.
The world and plot captivated me immediately. The story was wonderfully confusing, unique, and strange, which had me turning every page just to see what would happen next. The book asks a great deal of questions, most of which you won't get the answers to, but trying to find the answers together with at least one character, Dafyd, is a very immersive experience.
I appreciated how alien the aliens felt. Not just in what they looked like, but in what they believed, and what grounded those beliefs. It got me thinking that if some sort of alien encounter happened in the real world, I could see these truly fantastical events playing out in this way.
I had 3 minor complaints while reading
1 one character, strangely, has no reaction to another character telling them something bizarre about themselves, and what they're there for; I think the book should have done more with that, which is related to:
2 as I said, the book focuses much less on the characters than what i'm used to from Franck and Abraham (both with the Expanse and Kithamar), resulting in me not feeling as much of an emotional connection than I did to the likes of Holden, Alys, Sammish or Garreth, after reading one book of them.
3 This book felt short. It wasn't necessarily rushed, but I think a lot more could have been done if it had been 200 pages or so longer. I don't think it would have been over-indulgent, nor suffered from pacing issues, if it had.
Loved the book an incredible amount, and I can't wait to read Livesuit in October and the sequel whenever it releases.
(Read this the week it released but forgot to add my review to the rating)
This one was a surprise because it's an incredibly different read to the Expanse. Whereas the Expanse is a thoroughly character driven story with a limited set of POVs in each book, The Mercy of Gods is much more plot driven with a sprawling set of POVs. There's positive and negative aspects to this, but how it lands for you will likely be personal preference as I believe the plot-driven approach to be about as well executed as the character driven approach in the Expanse.
The world and plot captivated me immediately. The story was wonderfully confusing, unique, and strange, which had me turning every page just to see what would happen next. The book asks a great deal of questions, most of which you won't get the answers to, but trying to find the answers together with at least one character, Dafyd, is a very immersive experience.
I appreciated how alien the aliens felt. Not just in what they looked like, but in what they believed, and what grounded those beliefs. It got me thinking that if some sort of alien encounter happened in the real world, I could see these truly fantastical events playing out in this way.
I had 3 minor complaints while reading
1 one character, strangely, has no reaction to another character telling them something bizarre about themselves, and what they're there for; I think the book should have done more with that, which is related to:
2 as I said, the book focuses much less on the characters than what i'm used to from Franck and Abraham (both with the Expanse and Kithamar), resulting in me not feeling as much of an emotional connection than I did to the likes of Holden, Alys, Sammish or Garreth, after reading one book of them.
3 This book felt short. It wasn't necessarily rushed, but I think a lot more could have been done if it had been 200 pages or so longer. I don't think it would have been over-indulgent, nor suffered from pacing issues, if it had.
Loved the book an incredible amount, and I can't wait to read Livesuit in October and the sequel whenever it releases.
(Read this the week it released but forgot to add my review to the rating)
This one was a surprise because it's an incredibly different read to the Expanse. Whereas the Expanse is a thoroughly character driven story with a limited set of POVs in each book, The Mercy of Gods is much more plot driven with a sprawling set of POVs. There's positive and negative aspects to this, but how it lands for you will likely be personal preference as I believe the plot-driven approach to be about as well executed as the character driven approach in the Expanse.
The world and plot captivated me immediately. The story was wonderfully confusing, unique, and strange, which had me turning every page just to see what would happen next. The book asks a great deal of questions, most of which you won't get the answers to, but trying to find the answers together with at least one character, Dafyd, is a very immersive experience.
I appreciated how alien the aliens felt. Not just in what they looked like, but in what they believed, and what grounded those beliefs. It got me thinking that if some sort of alien encounter happened in the real world, I could see these truly fantastical events playing out in this way.
I had 3 minor complaints while reading
1 one character, strangely, has no reaction to another character telling them something bizarre about themselves, and what they're there for; I think the book should have done more with that, which is related to:
2 as I said, the book focuses much less on the characters than what i'm used to from Franck and Abraham (both with the Expanse and Kithamar), resulting in me not feeling as much of an emotional connection than I did to the likes of Holden, Alys, Sammish or Garreth, after reading one book of them.
3 This book felt short. It wasn't necessarily rushed, but I think a lot more could have been done if it had been 200 pages or so longer. I don't think it would have been over-indulgent, nor suffered from pacing issues, if it had.
Loved the book an incredible amount, and I can't wait to read Livesuit in October and the sequel whenever it releases.
(Read this the week it released but forgot to add my review to the rating)
This one was a surprise because it's an incredibly different read to the Expanse. Whereas the Expanse is a thoroughly character driven story with a limited set of POVs in each book, The Mercy of Gods is much more plot driven with a sprawling set of POVs. There's positive and negative aspects to this, but how it lands for you will likely be personal preference as I believe the plot-driven approach to be about as well executed as the character driven approach in the Expanse.
The world and plot captivated me immediately. The story was wonderfully confusing, unique, and strange, which had me turning every page just to see what would happen next. The book asks a great deal of questions, most of which you won't get the answers to, but trying to find the answers together with at least one character, Dafyd, is a very immersive experience.
I appreciated how alien the aliens felt. Not just in what they looked like, but in what they believed, and what grounded those beliefs. It got me thinking that if some sort of alien encounter happened in the real world, I could see these truly fantastical events playing out in this way.
I had 3 minor complaints while reading
1 one character, strangely, has no reaction to another character telling them something bizarre about themselves, and what they're there for; I think the book should have done more with that, which is related to:
2 as I said, the book focuses much less on the characters than what i'm used to from Franck and Abraham (both with the Expanse and Kithamar), resulting in me not feeling as much of an emotional connection than I did to the likes of Holden, Alys, Sammish or Garreth, after reading one book of them.
3 This book felt short. It wasn't necessarily rushed, but I think a lot more could have been done if it had been 200 pages or so longer. I don't think it would have been over-indulgent, nor suffered from pacing issues, if it had.
Loved the book an incredible amount, and I can't wait to read Livesuit in October and the sequel whenever it releases.
(Read this the week it released but forgot to add my review to the rating)
This one was a surprise because it's an incredibly different read to the Expanse. Whereas the Expanse is a thoroughly character driven story with a limited set of POVs in each book, The Mercy of Gods is much more plot driven with a sprawling set of POVs. There's positive and negative aspects to this, but how it lands for you will likely be personal preference as I believe the plot-driven approach to be about as well executed as the character driven approach in the Expanse.
The world and plot captivated me immediately. The story was wonderfully confusing, unique, and strange, which had me turning every page just to see what would happen next. The book asks a great deal of questions, most of which you won't get the answers to, but trying to find the answers together with at least one character, Dafyd, is a very immersive experience.
I appreciated how alien the aliens felt. Not just in what they looked like, but in what they believed, and what grounded those beliefs. It got me thinking that if some sort of alien encounter happened in the real world, I could see these truly fantastical events playing out in this way.
I had 3 minor complaints while reading
1 one character, strangely, has no reaction to another character telling them something bizarre about themselves, and what they're there for; I think the book should have done more with that, which is related to:
2 as I said, the book focuses much less on the characters than what i'm used to from Franck and Abraham (both with the Expanse and Kithamar), resulting in me not feeling as much of an emotional connection than I did to the likes of Holden, Alys, Sammish or Garreth, after reading one book of them.
3 This book felt short. It wasn't necessarily rushed, but I think a lot more could have been done if it had been 200 pages or so longer. I don't think it would have been over-indulgent, nor suffered from pacing issues, if it had.
Loved the book an incredible amount, and I can't wait to read Livesuit in October and the sequel whenever it releases.
Original review: This novella was very different from what I expected, though quintessential SA Corey. I thought this would have been a somewhat straightforward forward scifi action adventure, but the element of eeriness and mystery is what made the story.
Happy to see this world get expanded upon, and to take a look behind the curtains a little bit. Really curious as to where it's heading.
Reread: man this shits so fucking depressing
Original review: This novella was very different from what I expected, though quintessential SA Corey. I thought this would have been a somewhat straightforward forward scifi action adventure, but the element of eeriness and mystery is what made the story.
Happy to see this world get expanded upon, and to take a look behind the curtains a little bit. Really curious as to where it's heading.
Reread: man this shits so fucking depressing
This novella was very different from what I expected, though quintessential SA Corey. I thought this would have been a somewhat straightforward forward scifi action adventure, but the element of eeriness and mystery is what made the story.
Happy to see this world get expanded upon, and to take a look behind the curtains a little bit. Really curious as to where it's heading.
This novella was very different from what I expected, though quintessential SA Corey. I thought this would have been a somewhat straightforward forward scifi action adventure, but the element of eeriness and mystery is what made the story.
Happy to see this world get expanded upon, and to take a look behind the curtains a little bit. Really curious as to where it's heading.
I suppose my thoughts on Blackflame are much the same as on Cradle 1 and 2, and probably also the rest of the series moving forwards. Pretty fun, the progression is satisfying, but I'm not super hooked on anything in particular. This time I did the audiobook, and Baldree is pretty good. I like his character voices more than his 3rd person limited narration though. This book has a turtle which is a plus.
I suppose my thoughts on Blackflame are much the same as on Cradle 1 and 2, and probably also the rest of the series moving forwards. Pretty fun, the progression is satisfying, but I'm not super hooked on anything in particular. This time I did the audiobook, and Baldree is pretty good. I like his character voices more than his 3rd person limited narration though. This book has a turtle which is a plus.